In the Spring semester of 2017 I had made the choice to go and study abroad in the following semester, Fall 2017. The next major decision was to figure out where in the world I exactly wanted to go. So I sat down with my advisor and proposed my idea to go and study elsewhere, I wanted to make sure I had the time to fit in it into my schedule while still staying on track to graduate on time. After conversing with my advisor I then decided to try and see if a couple of my friends were interested in the opportunity provided by Rollins College to go and study abroad. A good friend of mine told me she was actually considering the notion as well, so from there she and I started looking into the places we could venture to through the study abroad department. After some deliberation and discussion, we were dead set on traveling to England to attend Queen Mary University of London. In all honesty one of the biggest selling points for us was the fact that it is a pretty prime location to travel to other countries from. Along with the fantastic benefit of being able to travel a ton another plus is I do not have to learn an entirely new language. And with that we began to make a tentative itinerary with which countries we for sure want to make it to and which countries are okay if we miss out or run out of time to go see while we are abroad.
So we set our plans in motion and soon enough before we knew it it was summer time and my friend and I were on our separate ways back home. All throughout summer we talked everyday about our lengthened summer, because QMUL begins in September as oppose to August, how excited we both are, and how we were going to fit all of our belongings to make the trek overseas. My friend is from Connecticut and is flying out of Newark, New Jersey, so she has a straight shot across the ocean to fly into Heathrow while I, being from South Florida, have to go all the way up and then over. As a result, I had the idea to go to New Jersey, where I was originally born, the week before I had to travel to Heathrow to see my family before leaving for three months. And with this little detour before heading to school, it enabled me to take the same flight as my friend so we could travel and arrive together in London as oppose to travel all by ourselves. My grandparents were so excited that I was coming to stay with them for a whole week but then Irma came and threw a slight wrench in our plans. I was originally suppose to leave on the 10th of September to go to Jersey and my flight to England was leaving on the 16th of September. With the impending doom of hurricane Irma, JetBlue asked me to change my flight from the 10th to the 12th. Now I know two days is not that big of a deal but the flight change cut into time that I was going to use to go and see my little cousins and to visit my aunts and uncles; I’m Italian I have a lot of family to see. But now I just have to wait a few more days and then it is off to family and then off to what I hope will be the trip of my lifetime.