Megan Carr is a student at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and an ISA Featured Blogger. She studied abroad with ISA in London, England.
It has only been 10 days since I have arrived in and begun to experience the culture of this amazing city. It feels like I have been here my whole life! I was a little too excited my first night and lost my debit card, so I have become very resourceful. I am so glad all the students on my program have been so understanding and supportive. They will be my friends for life, honestly. I was so nervous that people would be cliquey or not as outgoing as I am, but everybody here is so fun–exactly the sort of people I want to be part of my experience.
The picture above is half of our group on the London Eye. I am the one falling, of course. There are amazing views from the top of the eye and from the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral, as well as The Shard. You need reservations for The Shard if you want to go to the top to have lunch, but I heard it is definitely worth it! Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the Tate Modern are all amazing sites to see when visiting in London. However, my course, Television in London, has led me to some incredible sites unknown to most tourists. Bunhill Fields (cemetery of William Blake/Catherine Sophia), Pollocks Toy Museum, and Barbican Conservatory offers a non-tourist experience of London, which I highly recommend.
The rain, Underground (tube), and food have been the challenging parts thus far. I packed for rainy days, but the weather is just as crazy as it is in Nebraska, where you can have all four seasons in just a matter of minutes. The Underground is the oldest subway system in the world, but there’s always a chance the lines could delayed or suspended. I have had many lost adventures on my way to the Harrow Campus in the tube. But good news–I am now an expert! I would suggest traveling on it by yourself a couple of times to different places before that moment when you’re rushing to class. A lot of the food here is not as sweet and processed as what people often eat in the US, which is helping me a lot to not gain 50 pounds in 3 weeks. I recently visited Paris (will tell all about that later) and tried real French snails, and they were not nearly as good as the escargots here in the UK.
There are so many different cuisines served here in London, which is to be expected given that London is one of the most diverse cities in the world. So all of that being said, come and see for yourself!
The world awaits…discover it.
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