An American Brit

Before starting college, I never really envisioned myself studying abroad in Europe. When someone would even suggest the idea, I would brush it off as "too extravagant for my lifestyle" or "too expensive for my budget". However, I always felt a twinge of regret after giving one of these feable excuses. So what caused my sudden change of heart that is sending me off to England for fifteen weeks? Quite literally... organic chemistry. No joke! Sophomore year of college was a little rough. Coming down from an amazing freshman year of new places and experiences, I found myself buried under homework, studies, and major exams as a sophomore in biomedical engineering. After studying organic chemistry late one night, I snapped, threw my hands in the air, and exclaimed, "I need a vacation!" The next morning, I scheduled a meeting with my study abroad advisor.

Though not exactly a vacation, I am hoping that this study abroad experience will be as fulfilling for me as they have been for other students. Despite taking a few very challenging classes (i.e. pharmacology, enzymology, and neuroscience), my class load is much lighter than in the States and will hopefully allow for a little bit of travel around Great Britain and other parts of Europe. I have decided to study in the United Kingdom for the most obvious reason -- they speak English. With a busy engineering curriculum, I didn't have time to take language classes and thought that it would be easier to adapt to a culture that is similar to the American way of life. In addition, I will be studying at the University of Surrey, which is an excellent school for engineering and science-related fields. Guildford (city of the university) is located about 40 minutes from London, which is kind of like the "New York City of Europe". From London, I will be in close proximity to many major European cities including Paris, Munich, Dublin, Madrid, Edinburgh, and Geneva.

So here it goes...

After a year and a half of planning, I'm almost ready to leave for the U.K. Hopefully, this blog will be a way to keep in touch with friends and family while I'm gone as well as encouraging other students to travel abroad during their college career. This will certainly be an experience of a lifetime and will change me in more ways than I can possibly imagine!