Harvey Scholar Travels - Rachel in London

Over the summer of 2018, I spent a month in London, England having the time of my life! As a bit of a preface, my time abroad was somewhat untraditional; the program I participated in offered classes that were field trip-based and unrelated to my major. In short, my study abroad was a little more focused on the “abroad” than the “study.”

I went to Kingston University London, located in Kingston Upon Thames on the outskirts of London. I really enjoyed living in Kingston because it was close enough to central London to get there easily and quickly, but far enough away that we were in an area that “real people” live in.

Canal in Kingston

Kingston City Center

I took two classes while I was abroad. The first was British Culture and Society, which focused on the things that make England unique including the monarchy, history, and culture. For this course we went on field trips to places such as Oxford and Stonehenge. A highlight for me was getting to see a production of Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, which really blew me away.

Stonehenge!

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

The more unique of the classes I took was entitled Muggle Madness: Harry Potter and Other British Icons. In this course, we discussed popular culture in Britain over the decades. We learned about Sherlock Holmes, Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter and their influence on British society. As a HUGE Harry Potter fan and a person fascinated with how popular culture interacts with society, this class spoke to me on so many levels.

221B Baker Street

Bond in Motion Exhibit

Harry Potter Studio Tour

The program gave us a couple of long weekends, and I travelled to Scotland during one of them with several other students from my program.  We had the misfortune of travelling on the day of the greatest transportation outage that Britain had seen in decades due to a lightning strike that knocked out communications. However, once we arrived, we had an amazing time! We toured the Doune Castle (where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed) and visited Nessie at Loch Ness!

Doune Castle

 Loch Ness

One of the reasons why I wanted to travel to London was because I actually already had several British friends. It’s a long story, but while I was in London, I was able to hang out with my friends of 5 years and hug them for the very first time, which was truly incredible!

Me, Beth, and Elian

George and I

And, of course, I met new friends while I was there too! There were mostly Americans on my program, but I met a couple of international students as well. We had a great time and went on adventures together to London Pride (my very first Pride parade!), Platform 9 ¾, and many other destinations.

 Pride!

Platform 9 ¾

The crew riding the train into central

My time in London was truly unforgettable, and taught me a lot about my ability to be independent as well as about British culture and life. I knew a semester-long study abroad was not the right choice for me, but spending a month abroad still had the ability to impact my life and view of the world and my future. Don’t feel pressured to spend a whole semester abroad if you don’t feel like you’re ready, a summer is plenty of time to see the world, plus you can take more interesting classes as opposed to time-consuming technical courses.

I am so thankful to the Harveys for my time abroad. I can’t wait to continue travelling far into my future and learning more about the world around me 😊.

 London