Number Four: The 10 Things I Have Learned in Europe

Well, I am in the process of writing my final paper for the term! I was on a roll with it, but I seem to have come to some road construction, and now I have to sit and wait until the construction workers flip their sign from "stop" back to "slow" to let me drive around. I thought now would be a good time to give today's addition to the 10 things countdown! Also, I would like to add that I am fairly stoked that in four days I will be home!! To be even more precise, I will be home in four days, 14 and a half hours.

Once this last paper is written, I have my finals to take, a tea party to attend, and then my Friday is wide open. I have to pack, but that shouldn't take too long, so I can spend my last full day in London doing whatever last minute stuff I feel like doing. And Saturday I will try my hardest not to die of boredom as I waste my life away sitting in airports by myself. At least once I arrive in Chicago, I'll have my phone service back!! Oh, AT&T, I have missed you. Orange Mobile is not good by any means.

And now, after that extremely dull update (I apologize for making you sit through that), here is the latest installment to the countdown.

The 10 things I have learned in Europe:

4. In Helene Hanff's novel 84 Charing Cross Road, she writes that in London, you can find any sort of London that you go looking for. This is truer than you can possibly imagine. You can read a Dickens novel or an Austen novel and you will find the exact same London they describe. If you go to Oxford, you will be surrounded by dodo birds, the life story of the real-life Alice, and looking glasses. Or, if you want to find a more modern side of London, you never have to look hard to find the magical world of Harry Potter. It's all there, and you don't have to pay a cent to discover any of it. It's just one way of making an expensive country a bit more enjoyable.

Likewise, if you want to have a good time in most European cities on the cheap, so many art museums are free to visit, and other famous sites frequently have a free day once a month. Quality research on the attractions you want to visit can help you save some money - and trust me, this part of the world is so much more expensive than anywhere in America (and that includes The Big Apple, folks).