London, and Paris, and Europe, oh my! One of Her Campus Miami’s finest had the amazing opportunity to study abroad over J-term, and we just couldn’t let her keep her European adventures to herself. Studying abroad is certainly not an easy decision to make, especially after becoming so comfortable and safe within our little world of Oxford, Ohio.
It’s so important to step out of your comfort zone, take chances, and create your own adventures, which is exactly why Her Campus Miami’s own Emily Hanhart is this week’s campus celebrity! Once you read about her exciting trip to London, England and Paris, France, don’t forget to book your own study abroad experience for the summer:
“Since my return from London, starting this article has seemed nearly impossible for me to do. How do I sum up such an amazing experience that seemed like it ended all too soon? My body left London a little over a week ago, but my heart decided to stay a little longer. Now that I’ve settled back into Oxford, it’s hard to believe that what I once considered my home to be only one week ago is now just a memory.
Before my jet set to London exactly one month ago today, I was overwhelmed with feelings of excitement as I was about to embark on what I can’t help but call, the trip of a lifetime. Back in October my housemate and I decided that we were going to take advantage of the J-Term in order to escape our sleepy hometowns post the holidays. We didn’t really have any specific thoughts on where we wanted to go, but after surfing the Miami study abroad website we both decided on a trip that would take us to London for three weeks through an outside program called the American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS). We were sold.
Taking London
I arrived in London on January 5th, and after a whirlwind bus tour of the city and a long nap, we finally got settled into our cozy apartment. Since our program was directly through Miami, we were excited and a little nervous to meet all of the people on our trip. It took a few days of getting to know each other and at times, getting lost on the tube together for all of us to really bond. I can honestly say that my favorite part of the entire trip was the amazing people I met from all over the United States. We went to class together, we ate together, and we went to the pubs together. We quickly turned into the annoyingly loud group of Americans because where one went, ten followed.
While most of the friends we made were in our class, the Shakespeare class we ended up in wasn’t the course we originally signed up for. Despite this unexpected twist to our trip, the class turned out to be a very enriching experience. We went to a couple of plays and got the opportunity to visit the Globe Theater, and we even did an acting workshop based off of Hamlet, where we all got a good laugh in.
Again, I find myself speechless when I begin to think about how to describe London. Other than the almost always-untimely rain, I can’t say a single bad thing about the city. At first I was afraid that London wasn’t going to be as much of a unique cultural experience as I wanted, but luckily I was wrong. The history of the monarchy was completely fascinating to me, and I learned so much about the presence of the royal family and the Queen’s traditions just talking to the locals I ran into.
The sites were also breathtaking. The first time I really felt like I was in London was when I saw Big Ben. I also learned quickly that calling it “Big Ben” was a dead give away that you were not from England, as if the accent wasn’t obvious enough. Big Ben is actually the little bell inside the clock tower, and the Brits find it hilarious to correct you when you say you “saw” Big Ben because it’s actually impossible to see Big Ben unless you are inside the clock tower.
In America, we have clubs and hole-in-the-wall bars, but in London it’s all about the pubs. Most of them are restaurants, so we were able to eat and grab a drink after a long day of class. Almost every pub also offered free wi-fi, which was a must considering most of us didn’t have international phone plans!
Welcome to the City of Love
As if the trip wasn’t blowing me away already, we were able to take a weekend trip to Paris. Without a doubt I can say that was the best weekend of my life. We saw the city of love in virtually a day and a half and we managed to hit everything at the most perfect times. After getting on a few wrong trains, we finally mastered the metro system. We made it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe right at sunset to catch an incredible view of the city followed by a visit to the Notre Dame, coincidentally right at the start of Mass. Of course, the service was all in French, but it’s amazing to be able to say that I attended mass at the most notorious cathedral in the world. To top it all off, we climbed the stairs to the middle deck of the Eiffel Tower. I was speechless to know that I was standing on one of the most iconic monuments in the world. I was also feeling pretty good about myself considering we climbed 760 steps to get there!
London: My Second Home
Paris was magical, but I was happy to get back to London. That’s when I finally started to feel at home in London. Paris is amazing, but we all agreed that we felt much safer in London, and the English people were much more eager to help with directions or even to suggest a good place to eat.
I miss it every day, but I was ready to come back to the bubble we call Oxford by the end of the trip. Three weeks was the perfect amount of time to get familiar with a new city and explore all that it has to offer. I would definitely recommend going on a trip with at least one person you know, but getting to know so many different people was also such a refreshing experience.
Going abroad was the best decision I have ever made. There is no doubt in my mind that it has completely enhanced my college experience and added so much to the quality of my life. Traveling the world is a liberating feeling that every one should get to experience and luckily Miami offers a program for every type of student. So if you’re feeling like the every day routine is getting you down, start planning to go abroad. You just might find that it will change your life and enrich your mind.