Sep 10, 2013

Beginning

To my hopefully numerous readers, friends, and family: Welcome to my blog!!!

For those of you who don't already know I have recently moved to Worcester, England to begin my year of studying abroad. My group and I flew out of Minneapolis-St. Paul airport on September eighth, and arrived in London the next day. It has been both a hectic and a wonderful few days! I still can't believe that I am here, living in this beautiful city for the next nine months!

There are many reasons that I chose to go on this trip, chief among them being that there has never been a time in my life that I truly struck out on my own. While it is true that there are at least 19 other people with me who are going through almost the same thing, I find it both terrifying and exhilarating that I don't really know anyone here.

Anytime that I have made a major change in my life, or took a risk, there has been someone with me that I know and love. That is no longer the case. This trip is my opportunity to learn who I am away from the life I have always lived. My chance to experience new things and immerse myself in a new culture in a way that I may never be able to again, and I only hope that I continue to embrace it as I have the last few days.

There is so much that I want to get out of this trip, so many places that I would like to visit and things that I want to see, realizations that I want to make, that I only hope that I can manage to live up to the expectations that I have set for myself.

I do not want to come back from England, the same way that I left, and I do not want to waste a single minute of what little time I have in this beautiful country.

For those of you who are wondering, and for some context, the University of Worcester does not begin classes until the 23rd of September, I believe, so I am still in orientation phase of my journey until then. Therefore, when you note a lack of input about my views on the difference between the school systems until then or read about my excursions to far off places, you can rest assured that I am not cutting class. I simply haven't begun.

There isn't much that I have left to say. At least not in this first post. After all, I have a busy day tomorrow!

I would however like to introduce to you what I hope will be a running theme in my posts, and that is a "What a Learned Today/Since my Last Post" section. The plan is to tack it in at the end of the post, but that is subject to change. Please feel free to add your comments and let me know what you think or share any suggestions you may have for me.

What I Learned Today:
  • England is just as beautiful as the pictures make it seem
  • KitKats do exist in the U.K., but they don't taste the same
  • Always pack a towel when you are traveling for long distances
  • You don't need to go through Customs for wild rice or candy bars (technically I learned this yesterday) 
  • There is a heated towel rack in my bathroom
  • The view from the window of my flat is amazing (photo to come)
  • You can't stream Netflix outside of the U.S. (at least not directly)
  • They have a lot of brands in the U.K. that are similar to or the same as those in the U.S.
  • ASDA is basically the British Walmart
  • In the U.K. the change is called Pence (which I probably should have already known)
  • A lot of the people in my group are actually pretty awesome
  • There is a street artist in Worcester named Tony who makes chalk drawings
  • The drawing he made today was of an owl
  • You and everyone you know lacking a cell phone makes scheduling incredibly more important
  • And about a thousand other things that you probably don't really want to know about :)


Thank you for being a part of this experience! Although you aren't here with me, knowing that you are out there, are interested, and/or care about me, means the world to me!

Keep an eye out for updates. I will post as often as possible.

Love to you all

2 comments:

  1. Jill,
    So wonderful to hear about your trip so far! Especially the Tony/owl thing, so freakin awesome.
    Love you!

    ReplyDelete

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