Jason

September 4, 2007

COL/LBREF Report

Seven Weeks in Europe: A Reflective Report

As my seven-week stint in Europe drew to an unfortunate, yet inevitable, close, I made my way down Buckingham Palace Road to St. James Park to revel in the natural beauty of London one last time. It is amazing that, in the middle of a city of nearly eight million inhabitants, I was able to feel like there was nobody around for miles and miles. As I lay beneath a splintered oak tree, I let my mind reflect on the journey life had taken me on over the past several weeks…

From standing in the clouds at the top of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, Scotland, to roaming through August Rodin’s gardens in Marie d’Issy, France, to punting on the backs at Cambridge, every experience I had over the past seven weeks was instrumental in making my experience abroad as life-changing as it was. I left Arizona in the middle of June, ready to let the next couple of months impact my life, but not fully aware of how much they would change my perspective on life in general.

I was fortunate enough to, thanks to the scholarship, start my European adventures a bit before the program itself started. I spent the first three weeks of my trip backpacking across Western Europe, spending time in Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and France, with a stop in Belgium. These three weeks were incredible, and I was able to fill the void I had in my heart due to the lack of Gothic architecture in Arizona, as well as see, in person, nearly fifty percent of all the artwork I had studied in my last semester’s art history class.

When the time came for me to leave Paris, I was ready only because I knew that four weeks in the city of London awaited me. I had never been to London before this trip, and now I wish I had never left. How one can fall in love with a city where blue skies are rare, terrorist threats are not uncommon, and a cup of coffee costs ten dollars seems to be beyond human comprehension, but London’s charm is undeniable, and after spending a month under its beautiful grey skies, I knew that London is a place I could easily settle down someday.

I am not sure that the Wigram House, which the five of us scholars called home for the month of July 2007, could have been in a better location. It was a ten-minute walk from Parliament, St. Stephen’s Tower (Big Ben), and Westminster Abbey, an even shorter distance from Victoria Station, and conveniently located within walking distance of three of London’s beautiful royal parks. Each of us had our own room, with a desk, closet, bed, and a sink, and our flats were in an extremely upscale district of London (close to where many political leaders reside).

We arrived in London five days before class started, which was great—because we had ample time to orient ourselves to the city that was around us. Class itself was great. I was enrolled in “Jack the Ripper’s London,” a course that took a look at late Victorian London and the Jack the Ripper mystery. The professor, Mark Clapson, was great, and we learned a lot. Class was three hours a day for four weeks, which was not bad at all. It started at ten, so we did not have to wake up too early, and ended at one, just in time for lunch. I usually spent the time just after class at a museum or cathedral, or one of many other breathtaking sites London has to offer, in order to see something before it closed. After this, I would walk to St. James Park and read for class, and do any other work I had before returning to Wigram House to cook up some pasta. At night, I would either go out to one of the local pubs with some of my fellow scholars or other friends I had made in London, or I would go to a show.

Theatre plays a major role in London’s character, and I believe that anyone who spends more than a few days in London, whether a theatre nut or not, should see a show. I watched Billy Elliot, Wicked, and Mary Poppins, and would have loved to see several others. In addition to musical theatre, there are countless dramatic productions that do not involve singing and dancing, and these shows often run with movie and television stars such as Gillian Anderson and Orlando Bloom. I would have loved to see some of these plays, but with only so much time in London I had to pick and choose. Something else that was very exciting from an entertainment standpoint was being in London for the release of the 5^th Harry Potter movie and the final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Waiting outside Waterstone’s Books at Trafalgar Square at midnight, another scholar and I met a local couple that we chatted with the entire two hours we were waiting in line. We had a great time talking to them about America and England, comparing and contrasting the two, and the locals I encountered tended to be very friendly in general.

Another great thing about London, in addition to being an incredible city with a never-ending list of places to see, is its proximity to other landmarks or towns that are must-dos. Every weekend, I went to at least one well-known, yet truly remarkable, place outside of London. Throughout the length of program I visited Stonehenge, Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Cotswolds, Warwick Castle, Leeds Castle, Windsor Castle, Dover, Canterbury Cathedral, afternoon tea in the countryside, and Greenwich. I also took day trips to Brighton (where I saw the Royal Pavilion) and Cardiff, Wales. I would recommend each and every one of these places.

London is an expensive city, buy there are many ways to save money as a student. Having an International Student Identification Card is huge, as just about every famous landmark in London, not to mention nearly all types of entertainment, grant students significant discounts. For example, we were able to purchase sixty pound tickets to Wicked for twenty-five pounds, a saving of roughly seventy dollars. Another way to save money is too limit the number of times you eat out. I would recommend grocery shopping regularly at Tesco or Sainsbury’s, and eating a whole lot of cereal, sandwiches, and pasta.

A month is just enough time to fall completely in love with the city of London. The sights, sounds, and smells of this royal city can be overwhelming at first, but with time come to seem perfectly normal, and upon departure one will realize just how much he took all that London had to offer for granted at times. There is nothing good that cannot be found in the city of London, whether it be a certain type of food, architecture, art, or anything else at all. London is so diverse, and not just from a demographic standpoint. One can be walking through a business district, trying to squeeze his way through the throng of pin-striped suits coming at him one moment, and be sitting on a park bench, listening to birds chirp and staring at the Buckingham Palace through the natural frame that the weeping willows create for it the next moment. To this day, I have yet to find a big city more enchanting than the City of London, and the COL/LBREF provided me with the opportunity to be a part of it for a month of my life, something that I will undoubtedly never forget and be eternally grateful for.