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passe
the highlights of my uk trip! universities/towns we visited southampton, bristol, warwick and leicester. this trip was a real eye-opener because not only did we get to know students studying in the school, we got to tour the campus as well! and that was really important. as much as ancient and well preserved buildings with their beautiful architecture left me in awe, i realised i preferred the modern ones better. warwick had a wonderful self-contained campus and was the most modern looking out of the four universities we visited. we got to interact with the students studying in each school and that was really helpful. the singaporean students at leicester were so friendly, i felt that i was already part of their school and waiting for term to start! they even brought us to primark (more on that place later) and a chinese restaurant to have dinner! yumyumyum! we also got to tour the students' living accomodation. rooms are obviously not as spacious as the ones we have at home, but they provide a conducive environment to study, and i guess that's the most important. (: while visiting the universities, we also had the chance to take a look at the nearby towns. bristol was near this place called bath. an absolutely beautiful place speckled with little shops (like the fudge shop!) and big shops (like marks and spencer). leicester has a good variety of food, including chinese and indian! (: while travelling to the various universities, we also managed to stop by coventry and stratford-on-avon. i was particularly excited when we went to the latter, because that was shakespeare land! haha we stopped at anne hathaway's cottage and managed to take some (sneaky) photos. (: shopping shopping in uk is one of the best in the world. i wished i had more time to tour london, really! i didn't even get to walk the whole of oxford street! :( but the stores i visited were enough to give me a good impression of the fashion capital! harrods, primark, marks and spencer, abercrombie and fitch, topshop were some of those i stepped into. harrods was such an experience! (: especially the toilet. hehehe. perfumes to use, an infra-red sensored flush that will be activated by a wave of your palm and assistants to lead you to empty cubicles! primark is london's version of singapore's this fashion, except the quality is as good as topshop's and their clothes are way trendier. (: so you can imagine the great shopping spree i had! i came back with 8-9 pairs of shoes! hahaha it was crazy i tell you! but so very exciting! (: abercrombie and fitch reminded me of a nightclub but definitely a high class one! the whole place was lit by spotlights here and there and loud club music was playing in the background. the prices were heartbreakingly steep though. topshop was like a dream! 4 storeys full of beautiful clothes, you don't even know where to start! as you can see, if i were to study in london, my wallet (and my parents) will probably die, thanks to the temptations i face. how can you study there and not want to shop all day? sigh. hahaha but shops close at around 6pm in london so i guess the temptation will be stemmed severely. woohoo. (: sight-seeing another good thing about london is that there are so many places you can go to sight-see! one of the attractions was the london eye! it was exciting just to be in london and this ferris wheel allows you to soak up all that excitement! photo taking opportunities galore! hahaha (: we also went to the british museum (lots of multicultural exhibitions), natural history museum (dinosaurs, volcanos, earthquakes, plants, insects etc), the old bailey (criminal courts with "underground" history), lovells (the lovely and prestigious law firm we visited), tower bridge, london bridge, convent garden (flea markets and cute shops along the way, including david and goliath!), trafalgar square (i forgot the name of the man on that famous statute. again.) and warwick castle (beautiful castle; if only i was a princess and lived in a place as pretty as this.) other things we saw included the famous red telephone booths and red post boxes! (: how cute! i love being a tourist sometimes! no one will blame you for acting silly and gushing at things that locals don't even bother to notice. i think singaporeans should try being pseudo-tourists in singapore and perhaps we will notice things in and about singapore that we have never noticed before. hahaha but that was just a random thought. (: oh another famous attraction in london was the london underground, otherwise known as the tube! hahah i kept calling it the subway/mrt when i was there though! hehe. but it was a very good experience! loved the piccadilly line! and we got lost once! i remember being quite scared at that time, but thank God for friends who managed to keep calm! food food in london all contained carbs! and it was so hard to find an affordable chinese restaurant. i only ate chinese food twice during those 10 days! oh how i missed chinese food! (: the first time we ate chinese food was in leicester, the second was in london. it was so expensive okay! although i don't remember the total bill now, i remember that i paid 13 pounds! that is like S$40! man, i can eat crystal jade twice with that! hahaha and the rice was so expensive! 2 large bowls for the 12 of us (me, weiloong, michelle, shiying, caleb, jeriel, deb, sharyl, amanda, wine, geraldine and jasmine) cost 21 pounds (S$63!)! sigh. but despite the price, we were very happy people after eating! (: i tried their fish and chips there and came back with the conclusion that i preferred singapore's fish and chips! london's one has fish bones! so weird! thank God i brought instant noodles to london! hahah they helped me save money on food so i got more for shopping! hehehe. hot chocolate was like water to me! i drank it almost everyday and it kept me warm! starbucks caramel hot chocolate was such a heart-warmer, literally! my fave! so when i wasnt eating instant noodles and drinking hot chocolate, i was eating sandwiches, pies and pasta! i tried their macdonalds there as well! ah we had to pay for chilli sauce but i think it's worth to pay for it because the chilli sauce was goooooood! (: and i managed to get my lovely krispy kremes! the original glazed was delicious! and because i love my dear family, i bought krispy kremes home! 12 donuts and i only managed to eat one! so sad! hahahaha i wished someone would import the krispy kreme franchise over to singapore! please! credits to serena for the photo below! (: 
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