My past month in London has been full of joyful, exciting, and exhausting memories. I came to London with the Texas A&M MSC LT Jordan Internship and Living Abroad Program (ILAP). There are eleven students, including myself, that attended this program through A&M. Besides about five meetings during the spring semester where I briefly met my fellow students and travelers from A&M, I did not know the other people at all. A week before I was set to go to London, I started second-guessing my decision to attend this trip and program. I barely knew the other A&M students, and was terrified that I would not get along with any of them and that the trip would turn out miserable. I could not have been more wrong.
This trip has been so joyful because I have gotten to know some of my fellow Aggies so well and I have made such amazing friendships on this trip. I live with a host family in London and share a room with one other Aggie from my group. My roommate, Heather is a sophomore chemical engineer and one of the sweetest girls I know. Every night before we go to bed, we talk for about thirty minutes about our days, our group, all the adventures we’ve done together, and about the trip as a whole. Heather and I talk about how if we did not attend this trip, we probably would have never met since she is an engineer and I am a business major. It has been such a blessing attending this trip since I now know yet another great Aggie!
Besides my trip being joyful, I also like to think of this trip as extremely exciting. I have been living in London for a month and have gotten to see so many incredible places and monuments in London – including Big Ben, Hyde Park, and the Natural History Museum! But, I have also been incredibly blessed and have had the chance to see other amazing places outside of London such as the Roman baths, Stonehenge and Warwick castle. Besides a ton of sight-seeing, this trip has also been exciting because the world cup is going on right now and the English are absolutely fanatic about f?tbol. I have had a huge passion for the game since I was very young, so seeing other people that love the sport just as much as me (and probably even more) is so much fun.
Lastly, this past month in London has been exhausting ? but not in a bad way! Although I have been having so much fun sight-seeing and exploring the city, the main reason I attended this reason was to get work experience and complete a six week internship. I have been working eight hours a day at the Strand Palace Hotel in downtown London with the accounting department. Therefore, this trip has been slightly exhausting when trying to balance both work and traveling. Nevertheless, I have really enjoyed my work experience. I have learned a lot and have been able to apply my knowledge at my job from what I have learned in my classes at A&M.
I am excited to see where the rest of this trip takes me! As we say in London ? cheers!
-Megan Ryan