Looking ahead to my departure Tuesday, I’m drawn back to the months that have lead up to my trip. My idea to study abroad this summer actually came from a winter trip back to my parents’ home in Texas. My parents had traveled to Europe over the summer, and I spent a night with my mom just looking over the photos from their trip. Seeing those fragments of a trip I had never really experienced made me crave something more than my past travels. While it’s true I’ve been out of the country many, many times, with one of those trips landing me in a week-long summer camp in Spain, I haven’t been to England, or France, or Scotland, or any of the other countries my parents were able to visit. Looking toward my love of Shakespeare, I determined to study abroad in London, and I spent the next day exploring study abroad options.

Because my inquiries started over Christmas Break, I wasn’t able to apply for the program yet. In fact, I wasn’t able to do much of anything related to study abroad until the Macaulay Access Period started. My experience with that was not only hectic (mostly because of a three-hour wait in the Financial Aid office) but it also happened before I’d fully applied to the program! I received my study abroad check before I was even offered a place in the program, which made for some difficulties when gathering the necessary documentation. Needless to say, I sorted it out, but not without a few pushes from my Macaulay advisor.

By the time I’d received my check from Macaulay and the acceptance letter from Kingston University, finals was upon me, so I had to put my study abroad rush on hold for a full three weeks as I hammered out over 60 pages of final essays. I won’t go too much into the workload, seeing as though I am a Creative Writing major, but it inevitably forced me into a mad dash to get things ready for my six week long trip. In the course of just under four weeks, I had to organize my life into a suitcase, make arrangements for travel and other related plans, read two classes worth of books in advance (totaling about eight books including four Shakespearean plays), set up notifications with several institutions, and pretty much put my summer on hold. It’s now three days to go, and I’m still rushing to get everything in order before I leave.

At the end of the day, or several crazy months, I still think I’m incredibly privileged. Without the financial help of Macaulay and the really understanding support of so many great people, I probably wouldn’t be leaving this Tuesday for the experience of a lifetime. Sure, I’m arriving in the UK the same time I normally go to bed over the summer, but the things I get to do while I’m there are worth a little (extreme) jetlag and bureaucratic finagling associated with travel for long periods of time.

I’ll probably update this blog again either just before I leave or after I arrive, so stay tuned and expect lots of pictures! Once I figure out the easiest way to insert mass quantities of pictures to this website, I’m going to be smothering the server in pixels of England-y goodness. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you on the other side of the pond!