England: Ace Vela (My First Year of College Abroad)

Program: UW Global Launch in London

I’m now a month into the second semester, and I can still confidently say that coming to London for my first year of college is insane. It’s been a while since I sat in front of my computer screen for the interview that would turn the program I found in my email into reality. The idea of flying across the ocean for the first time feels big, but when the day finally comes and you’re living it, you realize it’s even bigger than that. For the first time I would step into an airport, fly on a plane, and leave the country I call home to the one that now feels like a second home. Itis so incredibly insane to me how the streets that once felt unreal to me on the very first days are now ones I understand like the back of my hand.

When I first saw this opportunity, I was interested in exploring the music, art, food, and overall life of a place completely new to me. I wanted to understand London, and because of the experiences my courses have offered to explore what I was most interested in, I feel like I have been able to connect with the city deeper than I thought and that allowed me to connect even more with myself. The girl I am right now as I am writing this feels quite different from the one back in the summer before I left home because the world I knew became a much larger place.

I had such broad ideas of what I wanted to see and do when I got here, and as fun as the
excursions to these popular and bustling places truly is, I also discovered something else. Connecting with London is frequenting the local Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores for
ingredients that would inspire me to learn how to bake. Connecting with London is finding
my favorite spot on the top of the buses that would take me back home after a long night.
Connecting with London is venturing through the tunnels to find easter eggs within the city.