study abroad in England

I flew home yesterday, and it was hard to say goodbye. My last few days in England were rough, but I was touched by the kindness of my friends—people I’ve only known for a few months. They went out of their way to help me get off on time, and I realized just how lucky I am to have met such wonderful people.

I loved being there. I enjoyed my classes, living in England, the people I’ve met, everything. If you’re considering studying abroad in England—do it! It was one of the most wonderful expriences of my life. I’ll caryy these memories with me for a long time.

I fly home next week, and I really can’t believe it’s almost over. My friends have returned from backpacking around Europe, and we have one last week together before everyone starts leaving. We’re all too broke to go out and do anything super exciting and fun, and we all have too many essays to write any way (especially me!). We make our own fun though. We made up an interesting song to obscene European hand gestures last night that had us laughing for at least an hour. I missed those girls over the break.

I fly home in two and a half weeks, and I’m really sad about it. Part of me isn’t ready to go home. But, I’ve put my life on hold for the last few months, so it’s getting time to go home and face reality again. I’ve got summer jobs all lined up, an apartment, utilties have all been set up—big thanks to my mom for setting up the apartment and utilities. Another part of me really misses that life. But being in England has been absolutely wonderful. Living in a foreign country is a much different experience than visiting.

I’m here in England. I’ve been sick and jet-lagged for the last two weeks, but I’m finally starting to feel better. Now, at last, I can feel excited about being here. Even though I haven’t been able to see much yet, it’s still like a dream come true. It took me long enough.

I am, by far, the oldest study abroad student here. I live in a dormitory full of 19-21 year olds. They’re all really nice though, and I get along really well with the other study abroad students in my hall. On Sunday, we all took a fun walk to the botanical gardens here at the university, which are on the grounds of the residence halls (take a look at the pics on flickr and tell me what you think).

My first class is this afternoon, The Country House in Literature. I’m super excited about this class because we’re going to visit some nearby country houses (and I’ve already read quite a few of the primary texts).

In short, after some adjustment (and I’m still doing some adjusting), it’s wonderful to be here.

I’m moving all of my stuff into storage right after Christmas. Sigh…I hate moving, but when I’m in England having a fabulous time, it will all be worth it.

Okay, this has been the biggest most stressful hassle ever. I’m excited about going, but issues keep popping up. The big one: The university I’ll be attending in England uses the semester system like we do in the US, but not for postgraduate students—they use a shorter spring and summer terms. This is totally fine, but for some reason this is screwing up the folks at the study abroad office both at my school and the university in England. This one issue has affected my tuition, how long I’ll be staying, when I buy my plane ticket, you name it. All of it culminates in an explanation so long confusing and boring that I’m not going to bore you all with it here. Suffice it say, it’s caused me a lot of stress the last few months.

But everything is almost straightened out. Hopefully, one trip to the financial aid office and I’ll have everything taken care of by Monday. Finally.

All I want to do is go to England in peace. That’s not too much to ask is it?

I had my interview with the Office of Internation Education today. They had to make sure that, before they sent me abroad, I wasn’t a delinquent or troublemaker or anything. The whole thing only took about five minutes (because my application was that good) and they told me on the spot that they were going to accept me into the program. So now it is, without a doubt, a for sure going to happen thing. I’m going to England in January!

After a long, suprisingly nerve wracking application process (all because I got the due date mixed up), the study abroad application is in. I go for my exchange student interview on Wednesday so that the Office of International Education can determine for themselves that I’m not a delinquent. I’m not, I promise!

Now I’ve got to finish that scholarship application, and at this point, I’m kinda tired of filling out applications, but the end result is totally worth all of the trouble.

I just found out today that my spring study abroad trip is a go. I went to a study abroad information session this afternoon where the head of the Office of International Education was present. She apologized for not getting back to me (as she should—I went to talk to them in June). But everything with me and the Office of International Education is fine now, especially after she told me that 20% of study abroad scholarship funds are set aside just for graduate students. Hello, scholarship! Hello Europe! Here I come!

Apparently, the people at the Office of International Education have forgotten about me. I went to see someone at their office at the end of June, and I was told that they would contact the university in England to ask whether or not they’d be willing to have another graduate level exchange student. Well, the days and weeks pass by, and I’ve heard nothing. I emailed them again last night to jog their memory. I haven’t heard back from them yet, but maybe they’re trying to contact the university in England. At any rate, at least I’ve finally done something about it.