London/Dublin 2015 Pre-departure

In about a week I will be boarding a plane and beginning my semester abroad in London and Dublin. I will be in London for about 10 days, and then Dublin for the remainder of my trip. The main reason I decided to partake in a dialogue was because of my major. As a Physical Therapy major, this is really my only summer to travel, due to the highly structured course schedule that the program entails. To add to this, I have traveled to Italy and Honduras during high school, and have a love of and a desire to become a global citizen, being exposed to countless different cultures and individuals. I expect to be influenced by a difference in language, sports, and every-day behaviors. Though both cities are dominated by English, certain words and phrases used there will differ from what they are called here and America, and very certainly expect to pick up on some of these sayings. My goals while abroad are simple: be open and receptive to everything that I am confronted with, and try new things I would not normally be exposed to. I doubt I’ll have much sit down time between class work, scheduled tours, and then my own personal desire to explore and navigate these new environments. I plan to reach these goals by doing things in group, and accepting the fact that I will feel uncomfortable. Being thrown into a new city is terrifying at first, but when you allow yourself to be consumed by the culture, the environment, and the people, it all gets easier. I think my  biggest fear, with this in mind, is that I don’t get to do all the activities I would like to.
With all this in the forefront of my thoughts, I am most excited to create new friendships with people in my program, as well as visit popular historic and modern sites of interest, and to take a ridiculous amount of pictures to keep the memories with me forever. Here’s to the unknown and how it will mold me in the coming weeks.