{"id":6867,"date":"2015-01-18T18:18:47","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T23:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/?p=6867"},"modified":"2015-01-18T18:18:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T23:18:47","slug":"where-am-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/?p=6867","title":{"rendered":"Where am I?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"london<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019M IN LONDONNNNNNN!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hey friends, welcome to my blog! For the next 5 months or so, I\u2019ll be documenting my travels, adventures, and random musings of Europe all on this site. This first post might be kind of a doozy, and as much as I\u2019d like to pretend the rest will be shorter, they probably won\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

This is my first time outside the US and I\u2019ve rarely been so terrified in my life. Let\u2019s keep it honest, travel is scary. For the past three months I\u2019ve been waking up to panicked nightmares about studying abroad, and that\u2019s why I did wait a while to pen my first post, to settle myself a bit before exploding onto the internet. I\u2019m about two weeks in right now, and honestly, I\u2019m having the time of my life. I\u2019ve learned more in the past 14 days than I have in the last 6 months, and it\u2019s all thanks to the magic that is travel.<\/p>\n

If you have the means, I highly recommend getting outside your daily routine and seeing someplace new. You don\u2019t have to pick up and move around the world for half a year like I\u2019ve done. Driving to the next town over is plenty. New perspectives are what it\u2019s all about, because nothing beats the thrill of experiencing the undiscovered. New year, new you, right?<\/p>\n

\"london<\/a><\/p>\n

Right! But it took a lot to get me to this point. Financial planning, program applications, course approvals, mental preparedness\u2026 The list goes on. Getting myself to Europe was no small feat, but also one that I refused to pass up. The process was stressful, but I already know it was incredibly worth it. I always had my finger on London. Being an English major with a deep love affair with books of all kinds, where else would I go but the literary capital of the world? Nowhere else felt right. And it only took 24 hours in the city to realize what a perfect choice I made. This is my place<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But even after settling on London, I saw how many choices I had in front of me. Basically, I could choose between directly enrolling in one of London\u2019s many fabulous universities, living and studying on a London campus right alongside local Brits and international students. Or, I could choose IES Study London, which would have me living in private dorms and taking closed classes with only fellow Americans. Both options had their merits, and I really considered playing it safe with the familiar. But where\u2019s my sense of adventure? So, direct enroll it was!<\/p>\n

After a two day orientation with everyone in the IES London program I was carted off with about 20 other students to Queen Mary University of London where my adventures truly began. I found myself dropped into campus housing, living in a flat with eight other students. These include two Americans, one Belgian, one Pakistani, and four Brits. I\u2019ve also met students from Romania, India, and Bangladesh, just to name a few, in a matter of days. I\u2019ve never been surrounded by so many different cultures in my life, and I\u2019m loving every second of it.<\/p>\n

\"london<\/a><\/p>\n

I spent the last few months researching London and being told what to expect by various advisers and friends, but you can only prepare so much. To Americans, London may not seem like the most daring choice for travel. And they\u2019re right, because it\u2019s not. Thankfully, I\u2019m already fluent in the language! But when you\u2019re alone, any task can be daunting. And England is not<\/strong> <\/em>America. Not even close. So I landed at Heathrow Airport on the morning of January 6th with no one to greet me, no one expecting me, and without personally knowing a single person in the entire country. But guess what? I lived! I made it across town with a few fellow IES-ers on my flight, struggling with way too much luggage and serious sleep deprivation. (Note: don\u2019t ever expect to sleep on a plane. Economy just ain\u2019t built for it.)<\/p>\n

The rest of the week was kind of a blur, full of new faces, breathtaking sights, and a ridiculous overload of information. I made a few mistakes, dropped way too much money on my first legal drinks, and probably took a socially unnacceptable amount of pictures while sightseeing. But I wouldn\u2019t change any of it. London is incredible, and I\u2019ve only just scratched the surface. I can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s in store for the next few months, because I know it will be life-changing. I\u2019ll never be 20 years old in Europe ever again, and I don\u2019t plan on wasting a moment of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More to come!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019M IN LONDONNNNNNN!   Hey friends, welcome to my blog! For the next 5 months or so, I\u2019ll be documenting my travels, adventures, and random musings of Europe all on this site. This first post might be kind of a doozy, and as much as I\u2019d like to pretend the rest will be shorter, they … <\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}