I\u2019ve been back in Florida for a week and a half now. I\u2019m still adjusting to the glaring hot sun and summer weather in the winter. I miss the friends I made in London the most. Being Venezuelan-American and from South Florida, I was able to maintain these identities abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it was 60\/70 degrees Fahrenheit in London, people were still dressed as if it was 40 degrees. To be fair, it would drop to 50 at night, but I still enjoyed the warm weather during the day. I\u2019d wear shorts and a t-shirt, maybe a sweater. Meanwhile, everyone else was wearing jackets upon jackets. I stood out a little until I noticed other American study abroad students like me. When it got colder, my friend Harvey pointed out that I dress for warm weather and bring a sweater in case I get cold, while British people dress for the cold and take off a layer if they\u2019re warm. My South-Floridian identity really jumped out then. I also noticed my South-Floridian identity when I realized I was much more optimistic than most British people. I think British people are realistic. Meanwhile, coming from a hometown that is residential suburban and close to Disney made me grow up to be someone that thinks life is beautiful. This only becomes a fault when I want things to go perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went to the Latin Society meet and greet where I met other Hispanics. It was coincidentally at an arepera, and arepas are a Venezuelan dish. I found more Venezuelan food at the Brick Lane Sunday Upmarket where a stall sold arepas and cachapas. Talking to other people in Spanish also helped me stay connected to my Venezuelan-American identity. It also helped those I was talking to for the same reason. I talked in Spanish to my Spanish, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and American friends who learned Spanish in their hometown of New York City or Washington D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the biggest things that made me stand out amongst my British friends is how expressive I am while British people are more reserved. I think I helped my British friends be more expressive and fearless because of my identities. Cold weather is a big part of British identity. Now that I\u2019m back in Florida, I\u2019m questioning how much I like hot weather now. It was good to experience the beginning of winter in London. It\u2019ll take some time to go back to laying under the sun like I did before my study abroad, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll visit London again soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve been back in Florida for a week and a half now. I\u2019m still adjusting to the glaring hot sun and summer weather in the winter. I miss the friends I made in London the most. Being Venezuelan-American and from South Florida, I was able to maintain these identities abroad. When it was 60\/70 degrees…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":19643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-19642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-qmul","tag-rollinsabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19644,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19642\/revisions\/19644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}