That’s right.
In 8 days, I will be on a plane headed for one of my favorite places in the entire world: London, England.
But before we talk about why, let’s back up to a little over a year ago.
When I was looking at graduate schools, BU was at the top of my (very short) list. After bombing my GREs and writing what I thought were less-than-stellar essays, I sent my applications away and hoped for the best. The day my acceptance letter from BU came, I screamed so loud I almost sent my then-pregnant friend Miriah into early labor… I was just that excited.
When I went to BU’s accepted student’s day, one of the professors told us about an opportunity to study abroad in London covering the 2012 Summer Olympics. After already falling in love with the school, the possibility of spending a summer in one of my favorite cities sealed the deal. In October, I applied for the program, found out I got in and happily sent in my $500 deposit without a second thought.
Fast forward 6 months….
Going through the break-up with Stephen made London a distant nightmare. No, I don’t want to spend 6 weeks in England, I want to stay here and fix my relationship and rebuild my life. I came mere inches from dropping out of the program, only sticking with it due to the fact that giving it up might be the stupidest thing I’d ever do. Reject an opportunity like this to be a miserable wreck all summer long? Take a minute and rethink that decision…
The program, appropriately titled “Covering the London Olympics”, consists of 6 weeks in England – 3 weeks dedicated to a special topics class Monday through Wednesday and then 3 weeks of full-time internships with a local media outlet. I was assigned boston.com and could not be happier. With a group of 3 other girls, we will be producing our own website linked to boston.com and I will provide news packages and video content from on-site in London. Not too bad right?
Why I’m excited… in list form:
– London is one of my favorite cities in the world. I’ve been twice and if I could live in any other country, England soars to the top of the list. Italy is a close second.
– I’m spending the first week there with my family. My dad’s itinerary already includes places like Bath, Stonehenge, Windsor and Oxford. My sister wants to do a pub crawl with my parents. It’s going to be an interesting week.
– Harrod’s. The most amazing department store in the world. I don’t even know if calling it a “department store” is really a fair way to describe it since it takes up an entire city block, including a basement level, and takes an entire day to get through. The wine cellar alone makes me want to move in.
– I plan on traveling to other places while in Europe. The top two locations? Paris and Rome. I’ve been to Paris but the last time I was there, I was 9. I have this not-so-secret ambition to shoot a stand up in the grassy area in front of the Eiffel Tower. I’ve never been to Italy but it’s where my family is from. I plan on tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain and wishing for the one thing I want more than anything else in this world. Sorry… can’t tell!
And in true Marie fashion, there are also reasons why I’m nervous…
– This will be the longest I’ve ever been away from home for an extended period of time. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself but I have a feeling that a bout or two of homesickness will hit me at some point. I’ve always been very much attached to my family and friends so leaving for 7ish weeks will be tough.
– I’m scared I won’t be able to work out. This is probably a stupid reason to be nervous since I’ll probably just suck it up and register for the gym while I’m there and run around the city, but what about dance?! Hope my roommates don’t mind some quality stretching and impromtu dance parties in our room…
– My personal life is still a little on the messy side. It’s not exactly ideal to peace out of the country while I feel this way but maybe the time away really will help…? Let’s just leave it at that.
– $$. London is expensive, I want to travel and my funds are tight. I guess I can sacrifice eating for souvenirs. Hope my aunt doesn’t mind me bringing my laundry to her place… to do one load there costs almost 30 bucks. I kid you not.
I think that’ll do for now.
So while I’m in London, my iPhone will be disabled other than it’s camera function (SAD!!!!) I will have internet and be updating the blog, hopefully more regularly than I have been lately. I promise to take a million pictures and post them while I’m away as well as tweets and links to my work. I love e-mails and Tweets and Facebook posts so don’t hesistate to send me any!
Bye bye USA… Cheers!
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