In January I'll be taking off for the Hansard Scholars Program in London, a city that I’ve always dreamed about living in. I never really thought it would happen, it’s still pretty unreal that in a couple of weeks I’ll have to look in the opposite direction when I cross the street.
I love New York City, and I've heard London is very similar, but with better accents. London has a great music and theatre scene, beautiful architecture and tons of history. I think it will be the perfect study abroad destination. I'm excited to immerse myself in British politics through my two political science class I take at the London School of Economics & Political Science, as well as in my as-yet-undetermined government-related internship.
I assume that studying in London will be less of a culture shock than my five weeks studying in Italy, since I know the language. Still, I plan to learn all I can about British culture and politics, and explore the city as much as I can throughout the semester. I'd like to be really familiar with as much of London as possible by the time I leave. I've been in Boston for four years and there are still sections of the city I haven't explored, so I know it will take effort to fully experience life in London.
I'm eager to travel to other European countries as well. After living in Italy for five short weeks, all I want to do is travel. I plan to take a couple of weekend trips, hopefully to Barcelona, Paris and Prague, as well as travel to some other cities with my mom after my program is over. I traveled to several Italian cities over the summer and experienced a wide breadth of Italian culture between them, so I'm really excited to see other countries and get a taste for each culture.
I’m still trying to figure out how I’ll be able to leave my family and friends for four months, and though I know it won’t be easy, I know I’ll be okay. There’s always e-mail. And skype. And facebook. And aim. And Twitter. I’m sure I’ll be able to reconcile my feelings better once my feet are firmly planted on British soil and I’m living the reality. For now I’m just trying to spend as much time with everyone as I can and hug a lot, though hugs make it both easier and harder to leave everyone.
