This spring, I studied in London. It was an incredible experience. But is was an experience that I can't just sum up in a few stories, or blog posts. it was wonderful, and terrifying, and completely maddening sometimes, and awful, and so many things I can't even describe. But there were some things I can tell you simply.
I stayed for four months - 9 January to 30 April.
Our school has a campus there, so I never had to transfer or anything.
I took classes - Drama and the London Theatre, Intro to British Styles of Acting, Stage Combat, and Victorian Art & Society.
We don't have housing there, we had to find our own flat.
I got an internship in Soho at a small digital media/post production company - TC Soho.
I spent a weekend in Dublin, a week in Spain, and another weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon.
I drank.
I fell in love with the language (yes, it's different), the transportation system, the money, and the city.
Mostly I can tell you that I went with two good friends, and came back with four great ones.
Other than that, I can't just list off facts and stories all willy nilly. It wasn't just a vacation I can give you the highlights from. It was four months. And it was our life.
We lived there, all of us. Not just my flat, but others too, the 120 other students who took the same semester we did, but had completely different experiences. And all 120 of us were Londoners.
But if I'm going to start anywhere (and I think I better be starting somewhere, you've read all this way expecting something, and I better hop to it), I might as well start at the beginning:
My brother drove me to the airport. I normally fly out of this airport, and it's one of my favorites in the US (and maybe the world). But it was strange this time. First, it was daytime – I'm never that lucky with flights, I'm always leaving at some ungodly hour, and usually getting in at another ungodly hour, much to my family's dismay. Second, it was the international terminal. With international flights, and international shops, and international security. Overwhelming doesn't even cover it. It's nicer than the rest of the airport, not that it's bad, international is just that, said with a bit of posh and usually represented in stainless steel. Third, I was leaving for London, not just across the country. And that was weird. Strange, and weird, and overwhelming, and something you just have to do and keep doing because if you freak out, you're going to miss your flight, and maybe that's what you want, or think you want, but if you do, you've just wasted an awful lot of money on the plane ticket...
So no matter what I thought, I got on the plane. And 12 hours, 2 terrible plane meals, an awful night's sleep, and one terribly long wait at the gate, I was in London.
Actually that's a pretty interesting tid-bit: we had to wait at the gate for FOREVER (and it wasn't really that long, but after a VERY long plane ride, it seemed to be a very, very long time...) because, for some reason, they didn't have a jet bridge for us, and they needed to find stairs for us to de-board (or is it 'de-plane... whatever. We had to get off the plane) and they brought over at least two sets of stairs that weren't the right height. I had a window on the left side of the plane, so I got to watch all the insanity. It also ended up being the largest set of stairs on wheels I've ever seen. But really.
Thanks for reading <3
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