Thursday, January 3, 2013

Thoughts on Leaving For England


Hello fellow bloggers,


              First of all, I'm Julianna. Let me tell you a little about myself! I'm a sophomore at the University of Akron and I'm majoring in History with a minor in Spanish and American Sign Language. I absolutely love learning and I have a passion for everything European! Oh and I'm obsessed with film AND music!


             One of my great loves is traveling and this semester I'm making one of the best life choices! I'm studying and working in London this spring. This blog will document my thoughts, feelings, hopes,  and all my wonderful experiences while I'm living in England.

I started my section on thoughts, feelings, and my expectations of England a few days ago. Here it is!

Sunday December 30, 2012
                                                       Pre-Departure Thoughts

            Six days until I leave for a journey of a lifetime! I am very excited to immerse myself into English culture and learn all I can about English history and traditions. I am a huge lover of history, language, and culture so this experience is going to be “perfect” for me! But I would be lying to say that my excitement masks all the nervousness that I am feeling right now. Despite all of these feelings, I am most excited about learning. About everything!

            Right now, I have mixed feelings about leaving my family, university, state, and country for one that I know little about.  But as nervous as I am about everything being different I am so thrilled to learn about these differences. While nerves overwhelm me at times I have to remind myself that once I get there I am going to love it so much. It is dealing with the nerves and sudden bouts of extreme nausea that I need to learn to control, but I have been told that these feelings are completely normal.

            While in England I have many goals that I would like to fulfill academically, socially, and personally. Academically, I want to push myself as much as I can to learn and take advantage of the extraordinary professors that have been put at my disposal.  I am also eager to start my internship and learn all that I can from those that I get to work with. I am so lucky that I get to work so closely with the curator at St. George's Pathology Museum. It is going to be an awesome experience! Socially, I am looking forward to making a lot of new friends. It is my goal to push myself this semester and be more outgoing. Personally, I want to become more independent and self-confident. These are my hopes and goals for my time in England.

Although I am familiar with some of the English traditions and ways of life, they have been learned from other Americans, so I am not sure how accurate they are. I am curious to learn if these things are accurate and also how they are not. American culture is very diverse because of our diverse population, so I am interested to see how English culture differs from my own, but also how it differs within the various areas of England and the United Kingdom. I imagine the English as posh, intellectual people that strive for excellence at all times and who value their culture and history. I imagine England being very similar to the United States, but a whole lot better.

Although I wrote this post a few days ago, I am feeling many of the same things that I wrote in this post. Today, I am still extremely nervous, but super excited. I know that I can do this and it is going to be the best time of my life! Until later, cheerio! 
           
            

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