What can I say, I set out for the biggest three month adventure of my life, and I got two months of living in London and a month of sitting in front of a computer screen and paranoia every time I hear someone cough. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t change anything about my experience. While travelling to London, there were a million thoughts all cluttering my head: What will my roommates be like? How am I supposed to survive 40-degree weather as a Floridian? Will I like my internship placement? What will classes be like in London? So many unknowns that I had no way of predicting what the outcomes would be. But then again, if I knew everything, it wouldn’t be an adventure would it?
Once I arrived in London, I felt like my path unfolded before my eyes, and all I had to do was follow it. I won’t lie, it felt like a very slow start to the semester. After the first week, I thought to myself: “Wow I really have to do that 14 more times.” But I found that this wouldn’t be the case for long; After getting acclimated to my new home I started to realize that each week felt shorter and shorter. And as each week flew by, I began to learn more and more about London and more about myself. I found that London’s unique culture felt less foreign to me, and adjusting was slowly but surely getting easier. One thing that helped me adjust living the life of a Londoner was all of the opportunities that CAPA provided to the students: from excursions around England to free West End tickets, there were so many opportunities that CAPA gave us which allowed us to learn about our study abroad site and get to know other students in the program.
My expectations for this program were far surpassed, and I can say without a doubt that I will hold each and every day I spent in London with me for the rest of my life. Even though my time was cut short, I was still able to live in a foreign country for two months, and it taught me to never take anything for granted. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I urge anyone else that goes abroad to live each and every day to the fullest, because you never know when you’ll get another chance to live in a foreign country again.