Gate B30

After a very long and hot summer, five days of on-campus orientation, and a three-hour traffic-ridden bus ride through what seemed like was all five boroughs of New York City, I am finally sitting in JFK at the gate of my flight to London. I’m nervous, I’m excited, I’m feeling all the same emotions I did when I was waiting for my flight to Stuttgart two years ago today, but this time I know I only have four months as opposed to twelve. One third of the time means that I have to do everything three times as fast. My amount of hours logged on Netflix will dramatically decrease within the next four months, and while I love to binge-watch West Wing, I know that my quality of life will increase as well by spending more time in the moment, enjoying London and Great Britain for all it is worth. As was mentioned to me many times during Arcadia Fall Orientation, life is not measured by the amount of breaths you take, but by the amount of moments that take your breath away, and I plan to have a lot of those moments this semester. I already have a couple of trips planned with Arcadia, namely trips to Stonehenge and Bath, to see Shakespeare’s Othello at the Globe Theatre, to go to a football match, and to visit Hampton Court, the castle where Henry VIII lived and ruled. I have tickets to go to Iceland for a week with my friend Zoe, who I became very good friends with while in Germany and who I hosted for the year last year. My family is trying to come to visit for Christmas at the end of the semester, so if everything goes right, I have a very exciting four months ahead of me. I also have plans in the works to go visit all of my friends that I made last year from our five European partner schools, and I’m also looking to go to Oktoberfest again. My bank account will suffer, but for this I am prepared and ready. The first five or so days that we are in London are booked chock-full of sightseeing, walking tours, cooking classes, and some very good food as part of our London orientation. Stay tuned for more updates to come as I begin my semester and my love affair with London!