Nick's Reflective Essay

As I sat swinging my legs over the rail on the Millennium Bridge one late night near to the end of the trip, I stared out at the dark Thames and the city lights that shimmered in the slow current. It was cool and breezy, but almost completely silent despite the massive city that embraced the banks on both sides. With three newly found but seemingly longtime friends gathered at my side, I wondered whether I would ever feel so peaceful again. This experience was just one example of a moment where I felt surprisingly at home in land far away from anywhere I had lived before. One can travel all around the world and never begin to experience “life” in any particular place. I was fortunate enough to come to a foreign city, right in the middle of one of London’s most bustling transportation hubs, flanked by world famous monuments, and was able to adapt and grow into this sprawling spider web of people and culture. I cannot imagine a better city to have come to nor better accommodation and hospitality along the way. Simply put, even without the more than five gigabytes of pictures I accumulated during my stay, I will always remember and treasure the time spent while studying on scholarship in London.

Thanks to the unlimited cooperation from the London Bridge Rotary Club, I was able to schedule my nonstop flight to London Heathrow three weeks earlier than the planned date of arrival to accommodate other travel opportunities, mainly in France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and the fateful climax in Berlin for the World Cup Quarter Finals Match between the host team and Argentina. When I arrived back in London, I saw many of the sites and tourist attractions in the first few days but was quickly ready to settle into the true rhythm of my new temporary home.

The space I called my own for the next four weeks was my spacious dormitory style bedroom in the Wigram House, the University’s old and unique high rise building literally right in the middle of downtown Westminster. From my open window on the fifth floor (that’s the sixth floor for Americans) I could see right into the skyline of London, incorporating the glassy New Scotland Yard, Westminster Guildhall, Westminster City Library, and a number of other fashionable buildings in central Victoria. This itself was a new phenomenon for someone like me (who has lived on the ground floor in a suburban neighborhood all my life) and brought with it a slew of strange and interesting changes in living. The room had all I needed to feel right at home: a bed, dresser, sink, desk, and newly painted light green walls. A bathroom and shower were two steps away opposite to my door, right on the other side of the hall. Other bathrooms and showers were to the left and right, as well as three kitchens which all overlooked the inner “courtyard” of the building. All but one other scholarship recipient were in the same hall section and our kitchen soon became the center for all socialization and rendezvous not just between us, but for the large group of friends we soon met over the course of the following weeks. In all, aside from the hilariously slow elevator, this was the best accommodation a student could expect while studying in London.

When school began, we were all relieved to encounter a group of very friendly students and university staff that made the trip truly amazing. The introductory functions put on by the university were essential for forcing us to intermingle with the other students and friendships were sprung instantaneously between the various groups of students and staff. The most memorable of these events was a cruise down the Thames on a private yacht as the sun set behind all of London’s most famous landmarks. When the boat passed underneath the modern London Bridge, we all made a cheerful salute to the construct that originated the series of events which brought us to London in the first place. The coursework itself was gratifying and interesting, and I can’t say how many times I have thought it was so appropriate to learn about the history of London while I was constantly surrounded and submersed in it.

As the first week ended, I really started to feel like London was more of a home than a place of visit. My daily jog through inner city Westminster and past Buckingham Palace, the Horse Guards, Wellington Arch, St. James Park, and Green Park was a particularly fond experience that familiarized me with my surroundings and separated me greatly from the masses of tourists crowded around the Victoria Monument (of course, I had the annoying task of carefully avoiding becoming part of their photo albums). Walking across the street became second nature after the first week and I began to laugh at the awkward and confused travelers newly exiting from Victoria station who never felt so sure of their first step onto the pavement. Our large group of friends became regulars at the nearby coffee shops (there were many), a few of Leicester Square’s hangouts such as O’Neil’s and the Sports Café, the great Porterhouse in Covent Garden, the Crown and Scepter Pub near campus, Brick Lane’s best Indian restaurant called Bengal Cuisine, and of course at the best breakfast joint in all of London: Café Hamlet. We always were sure to meet locals and find out about the Londoner’s things to do. We had picnics in the park, played “football” on Saturdays, experienced the great wealth of theatre in Soho, bought delicious groceries in Chinatown, ate late night Kebabs when all the other shops were closed, and learned the art of walking just about everywhere. The most important lesson I acquired about London was that it is not a city of British culture, as one who has never been may infer; rather, London is a diverse city that draws on the best of many cultures worldwide to give its inhabitants a truly international city filled with new experiences and abound with opportunity. While a very British “Bangers and Mash” finished off with “Sticky Toffee Pudding” was on the menu one night, the next night could be spent eating Japanese sushi at YO! and smoking authentic Middle Eastern hookah on Edgware Road. The Indian cuisine in Spitalfields is said to rival that of Bangalore itself! This surprising diversity was something that I experienced not as a tourist, but as the temporary guest in a city I was becoming more familiar with by the day.

Of course, the program affords plenty of opportunity for side trips and vacations either to mainland Europe (where many of our friends took trips on each of the weekends) or within the United Kingdom and Ireland. A short train ride to Brighton may have been the highlight of our trip with a great sunny day on the beach finished off with a picnic in the sunset. The public transportation, as in the rest of Europe, is amazingly accessible and I found it to be easy to navigate and utilize. Despite this, I found myself using the Tube rather sparingly during my stay in London; this saved me money and afforded me an otherwise unattainable sense of direction in the huge city where many others easily lost their bearing. Of course, this was made possible largely by the extreme weather pattern which was almost entirely devoid of rain for the time we were there. The sweltering heat felt by the Londoners was nothing new to us and overall the weather was brilliant.

Finally, the special gatherings organized for the scholarship recipients in London were extremely insightful and quite unique and made for great additions to the normal encounters of Londoners. Our meeting with the Lord Mayor was friendly, casual, and extremely flattering. We were served fine English delicacies with some of the Guildhall’s elite in the private dining room of the Alderman before a formal introduction to the Lord Mayor himself who was pleased to speak to us and was very personable despite the intense heat under his elaborate, decorative costume. His entourage of attendants were equally hospitable to us and even gave off a sense of charm and wit that was entirely unexpected to me for men of such stature. The council meeting was quite interesting as well, once again lending a unique more authentic taste of London. In addition, the meeting the City of London Rotary Club was equally entertaining. The other rotary members and guests welcomed us with open arms and friendly curiosity about where we were from and how our trip had been thus far. The elegant meal served to us only added to the appeal of this extravagant appointment. These experiences could not have been any better!

As it is obvious, the time I spent studying in London this summer will be treasured forever as one of the greatest experiences of my life; what makes it even more special is that if not for the generosity of the London Bridge Rotary Club in the scholarship awarded, I would not have been able to ever afford this truly unique and wonderful encounter abroad. What I have learned may not be summed up in words, but it is quite apparent to me that I have been changed for the rest of my life.