I’ve been home in St. John’s for two weeks now, but I want to write a few more entries about the last few weeks I spent in Europe. I worked up to the first week in December and then I spent a week skiing in Austria with my Dad before coming home. I was definitely anxious to come home towards the end of the trip, but it was hard saying goodbye to London since I’m not sure when I’ll be back again.

I met so many wonderful people this semester and had so many incredible experiences; I’m so glad I took the opportunity to go back and spend another semester living in London. I really felt at home in the city and it’s hard to leave a place once you’ve starting creating your own life there. The city is so vibrant and so diverse, there’s always something exciting going on, it’s impossible not to love it!

I spent the last few weeks enjoying Christmas activities. There were several Christmas markets set up around the city and there was a huge winter carnival in Hyde Park. I spent a few afternoons visiting the markets and I went to a Christmas party in Camden with my housemates and to a Christmas party at the Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich with Lisa and Philippa!

I crammed in a bunch of musicals my last few weeks and went to see both Jersey Boys (which was fantastic!) and the new Spice Girls musical, Viva Forever (which was not). On my last weekend, I took the train out to Birmingham to see Mumford and Sons perform. That was definitely my favourite concert this year as I had floor tickets and they were incredible live!

I spent my last week saying goodbye to the wonderful friends I’ve made over the past year. I was so lucky with my housemates; we spent lots of nights talking and cooking and often went out together. We all came from different countries, but could all relate to each other and had lots of wonderful stories to share. I’m so thankful as well for all the students I met at Regent Hall and everyone that I met at Hillsong. Meeting people can be tough in a new city and I’m so glad that I found a church family on Oxford Street. Finally, I learned so much and had such a great time working at LMC. I felt like a part of the company and I gained so much from the experience.

I’m very happy to be home now, especially since I got to come back just in time for Christmas, but I wanted to take the time to reflect on the last part of my experience in London. I can’t believe I spent 8 months of 2012 there and I’m glad that I can look back on the experience positively and be happy at what I accomplished and experienced there. I’m entering into the final semester of my engineering degree and soon moving on to the next chapter of my life. I’m not sure what the future holds for me, but I’m so thankful for all the wonderful people that have helped me grow over the past year.

Thanks for following along, I really enjoyed sharing with you and I’ll probably continue to blog about my experiences, both travel related and otherwise in 2013.

Happy New Year!
Maria