In March 2016, I boarded a plane with nine other classmates, a professor and his wife and was off to London, England. I was terrified, but also excited. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far in my college career, and here’s why.
1. It’s Another Country
This one is kinda obvious. It’s always super exciting to go to another country. It’s a completely different culture (usually, anyway). Nothing looks like home, even when you go out into the countryside. I’ve grown up in the farmlands of NEPA for my entire life, and I’ve seen a lot of countryside in my travels through our country. But when I went to England…it didn’t look like home. Even the trees were different. London was set up like nothing like any city in the US. It was super cool to experience something that was definitely not like home. Everything was different: the food, the city, the accent, everything. It took me out of my comfort zone and gave me experiences I never would have received if I had stayed home for Spring Break.
2. No Parents
Okay, parents, before you freak out, let me explain. This was SUPER nerve-wracking at first. I live at home for college, and even though I’m fairly independent, I’m still used to coming home to share my day with my mom, or studying law with my dad. I am constantly surrounded by family. It was weird to not come home to my parents. It was also strange to wander around the city without my parents’ supervision. It was up to me and my friend to figure out where we going and how we were going to get there and how to get back to the hotel. It was my decision what to buy, and how much to spend. And yeah, I’m kinda used to that now. I am an adult (most of the time). But to do all of this without Mom constantly looking over my shoulder and keeping me near her…it was weird, but also cool. It really forced me to be independent. Like an actual, fully-functioning adult. Who'da-thunk?
3. Adventures
London is a twisting, turning city full of side streets and tiny shops tucked into corners. If you take one wrong turn, then you’re lost. The city is not set up like ours are—it’s not a grid structure. There are no neat corners, no straight streets. Everything winds back and forth, between leaning buildings and tiny alleyways. There are tiny adventures hiding at every turn, waiting to be found. There are shops that are incredibly modern, like wedding dressing and high end boutiques. There are restaurants from around the world, so you can have something purely American (like McDonald’s, though I would not recommend it), or food from another corner of the world, like chocolate covered Belgian waffles (would definitely recommend, btw). And then there are places that have been standing for centuries. We ate dinner at a restaurant that was established (maybe re-established) in 1667, the year after the Great Fire of London. We found it by mistake, tucked into a dark alleyway off the main street. And it smelled centuries old. It had stories to share, and it was it’s own little adventure that we may not have found by following a map.
4. ALL THE HISTORY
Okay, I’m a history major, so of course this was going to come up. There is something so much older about London, about England, that America just doesn’t have. Some places in the US have an old feeling, like the South, like ghosts from centuries long past still linger in the ground. But England feels much older than that. There are THOUSANDS of years of history there that isn’t present back home. There have been civilizations there since forever ago, and you can feel them as you drive through the rolling the hills, or wander through Westminster Abbey or Windsor Castle. It was an incredible feeling to see where the great kings and queens have been buried—Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, monarchs from the 1300’s in wooden caskets. I walked past all of them, overwhelmed by the fact that so much history was literally under my feet and close enough to touch. When we went to Windsor Castle, there were paintings of royalty going generations back, and it was so cool imagining the people in the paintings strolling through the same hallways I was. We visited so many cathedrals and churches with hundreds of people laid to rest in them. It was so eerie to have their history, their remains, right under my feet. I saw Stonehenge, and to feel the wind and history whipping around me was amazing. It was the most incredible adventure I’ve ever been on, and I was overwhelmed by the history, the stories, that just one place could hold.
5. Hysterical Stories
I brought back so many stories when I came home, and many of them were ridiculously funny. I saw the changing of the guards at Windsor Castle, as pictured above. We visited a cave system just outside of London for a day. The Chistlehurst Caves is a system of caves that dates back to the Druids, and there are about 20 miles of pitch-black hallways snaking under the ground. Our tour-guide really gave us quite a scare, and I don’t think I’ve screamed or laughed that hard in a long time (no spoilers). My roommate and I forgot to turn on the thermostat until 3 days before we left—great adulting, right? We also went to see a show…after going to two wrong restaurants for dinner, the wrong train station, the wrong train in the wrong station, and running all the way up the hill to the theater. I drank mineral water from the springs in the city of Bath--it tasted awful, by the way. My point is, I got a lot of really great stories from going to London. :)
6. I Can Do Anything
Going to London for a week was incredible. A lot of people say it’s a life-changing experience. I think I agree with them. After wandering around and navigating a huge foreign city with no adult supervision, I feel like I can do anything. I’ve never been one to go out at night, but when I was in London, I did. And it was just incredible. We went on a Jack the Ripper tour in the East End of London at nighttime and found our way home safely (no ghosts, don’t worry). We really only got really lost, like, twice. I explored caves, wandered around churches and hiked up thousands of stairs. We climbed up to the very to of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is probably one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen and where this picture was taken. We could see the entire city from the top, and it stretched to every horizon. By the end of that day, we had walked about 30,000 steps and climbed over 60 flights of stairs. My slogan for months after coming home was, “I went to London for a week. I can do this, too. It’ll be fine.” And it was.
If you ever have the opportunity to travel abroad, go. It will teach you so much, and give you a new-found confidence that you really can’t get from any other experience. It’s also loads of fun. It’s an experience unlike any other, and you will never regret it.
