I no longer say “I’m from the U.S.” ten times a day.

Instead, I say, “Yeah, I was going to school in London! It was great!”

Instead of meeting people for the first time and asking where they go to school and where they are from, I am asking my best friends about details of their lives from the last two months.

Instead of asking whether it is going to rain during the day, I ask whether it is supposed to be under a hundred degrees or not.

I need to know if there is gas in the car, not what Tube line to take.

I just can’t believe the experiences I have had in London.  I was absolutely amazed as I was in Westminster Abbey, hanging out in pubs, and seeing where Virginia Woolf lived.  Now that I am home, I treasure these memories even more.  Suburban Indiana just isn’t quite the same as Chelsea. 

Not that either place is better or worse. There is just no comparison, even though I keep trying.

My experiences are so valuable because of how I understand them.  The cultural differences between London, the U.K., and England and Indiana, Lawrenceburg, and the United States are what make me appreciate the composition of all of these places even more than before I left.

I don’t feel like my trip is over.  I don’t think you can ever visit a place and feel like you saw everything that contributes to the cultures.

Not to mention, I keep discovering the value of my experiences when I compare them to my typical life. 

People have always been different, places in the world have always been different, but now I feel like I can identify some of the things that make us individuals more easily.

With a well-deserved cup of slow-roasted coffee in hand.

-          It is considered rude to say “Excuse me,” such as when you need to pass by someone; it is far better to say “Sorry” or “Pardon me.”

-          There are rarely salt and pepper shakers on the tables in restaurants.

-          Even though I don’t eat ketchup, I am offered it when ordering a wide range of food.  This is because I am American and they seem to think that Americans put ketchup on everything, including egg sandwiches.

-          Though most of the city is really expensive, there are plenty of things to do for free, like museums, parks, walking tours, shows, and a ton of other activities.

-          Saying “can I get a” is considered rude when ordering.  Instead, say “may I have…?” or, according to my roommate Greer, just end your order in a question (which comes naturally to all American teenagers):  “I’ll have a pint of Guinness?”

-          Which reminds me:  when we first arrived, some people were told that it is considered masculine to order pints in a pub, so girls should order half-pints.  Not true. Or, if it is true, so many girls order pints now that no one can believe it anymore.

-          Strangers don’t make eye contact on the Tube.  This even applies to babies.  (Not that the babies don’t make eye contact, but people don’t coo at other people’s children.) If I’m traveling alone, I have to have my iPod, a book, or the newspaper.  This is probably why the newspaper comes out twice a day.  And the reason it is free is because the whole country supports the activity of ignoring strangers sitting and standing in close proximity.  Just a theory, though.

-          There are no garbage cans to be found 90% of the time.

-          Stand on the right-hand side of the escalator, walk on the left.  Always.

-          Finally, English muffins are just called “muffins” here, naturally.  And they are slightly different than at home.  They are scrumptious.

I hope these don’t sound scary or mean.  They’re just different.  And as unexpected as some of these bits of information were, none of them are that serious.  Usually, the worst thing that can happen if we make a mistake is that someone will scoff at us and make a mental note about Americans.  But it is all a learning experience that definitely has made me evaluate what I consider to be “normal” in my everyday life.

One of the most important things to me when I was looking into international study was how the credit would transfer to my school, what classes I would be taking, and how much time I would be spending working (don’t judge, you know it’s important).

But then I got to London and school became more of a useful way of organizing my day than the kind of consuming force it is while I’m at school in Bloomington.  It’s easy to lose motivation for that mid-term paper when your class is meeting for the day at the National Portrait Gallery or the Benjamin Franklin House.

And my (awesome) attention span can’t even be helped by the fact that my classes are actually interesting.  Sure, they’re a bit long (two-and-a-half hours, holy moly) but we never really run out of things to talk about.  One of my classes usually has a typical group discussion format with a few field trips thrown in.  But the instructor is engaging, we get a break, and I usually enjoy the direction of our discussions.  My other class is about architecture so we spend almost all of every class out about the town looking at examples of the instructor’s topics for the day.  We see parts of London that I probably would not have encountered on my own, such as the business and suburban districts.

But then when class is over, I’m a little more worried about where I’m going sightseeing than that pervasive final paper.  I mean I prepare for class, but not exactly before it is absolutely necessary.

Which makes me feel really guilty!

…Just not quite guilty enough to give up my little adventures.

So I guess I’m just glad that I picked classes that appeal to me and not just ones that fulfill requirements.  I think it would be really unbearable to give up any time at all on this trip to research a paper that means nothing to me.

But I know I have to make time for the major assignments, so I’m giving up my night out tonight to work on a few papers and read a novel.  Which I am obviously dedicated to completing right this very minute and am not dragging…my feet…at all…

My time in London thus far has proven that I am also not a direct enough person:  I can now honestly say that I am intensely and strictly unlucky.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and complain about my problems because, no matter what, my being in London is a positive that makes the trouble bearable.  But, seriously, to provide a little taste of one of the mishaps, I’ll just say that someone mean stole some nice young girl’s credit card information online, leading to said nice girl being left high and dry.

Yikes! I stayed pretty calm about my situation and I think that was mostly due to my support systems.  My parents knew how to do their part and had enough patience to deal with me through time zones and indirect communication.  My friends in London changed their plans to incorporate free activities.  And telling my other friends about it helps me organize my own thoughts.

But for the most part, I don’t talk about it.  I don’t want to dwell on the obstacles when I know they are surmountable and I am still in London and fully able to enjoy my time here.

I have a prepaid Oyster card and can travel on the Tube and buses.  I’m set.  Museums and some other attractions are completely free.  Not to mention, window shopping is safer than ever!  And IES is very helpful dealing with crises and even can offer me a loan in the meantime.

Bad things happen, but knowing what I need to do to fix them and move on allows me to know I’m making the most of the rest of my time here.

What I can say is this:  do go on trips with comical (often cheesy) tour guides around the area and don’t worry so much about making it out of the UK every weekend.

IES plans a lot of optional field trips on the weekends to places that can easily be considered “tourist traps.”  But if you think about the list of things that people should see while studying here, these visits are a good way of checking off a lot of the items.  And if you get to travel on a bus provided for you by IES, that’s even better.   I have been on a tour of the event that was the Royal Wedding that included a guide of Westminster Abbey (free, thanks to IES).  We have gone on bus tours, including one to Windsor Castle and Eton.  We went to Wimbledon yesterday and were offered a chance to check out Centre Court, even though we had the cheapest tickets possible.

I feel like this program is a good way to put a big ol’ check beside “See the UK” on your bucket list.

And of course we are individually planning trips to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and several other places outside of London. (Anyone will tell you that London is not a fair representation of the UK, so we have to go out and see what these locals mean.)  Skip a few of the field trips and escape to what you can’t wait to see.  Just don’t count on leaving for Paris, Venice, and Amsterdam every weekend before you even get here.  Limit these plans until you get here and you’ll understand.

And for the trips you do want to take while you’re here, don’t worry! They will happen! We have been given the resources to plan our excursions.  Not to mention, you meet people with the same plans as you.  I don’t know how they do it, but the IES staff is great at pairing roommates.  My roommate Greer is a lot like me in really small ways that makes it easy to be with her pretty much all the time, even in our teeny tiny room.

Basically, it is difficult to understand what your life in London will be like until you are actually here.  Or in any other foreign place, I’m sure.  So it’s helpful when there’s someone to guide you through it.  Even when that person has a microphone and too many jokes about defeating Napoleon.

I read the frequent (extremely frequent) emails from IES, STA Travel, and IU.  I did everything on their lists in order to be prepared for my trip to London.

 But this morning, I woke up and started making a pot of coffee and realized (or should I say “realised,” eh, UK?) that I don’t know where I’ll be waking up or getting my coffee in a week’s time.  Ahh!  Sure, I know the address of the IES Residence Hall, but what will I see when I walk out the front door?  Certainly not a scene I’ve encountered anywhere in Indiana.

So I finally started to freak out a little bit about my trip.  Just a little.  And perhaps this slight overreaction to a cup of coffee could have been fueled by me frantically consuming a full pot while I still knew where I could get my hands on the stuff.

Now that I have calmed down, I know that I was and am just worried about how I am going to carry on my normal life while I’m studying abroad with unfamiliar places, people, and morning beverages.  But isn’t not being in my “normal” life exactly what I’m going for while studying in England? (“Yes, Katie, it is,” I regularly need to remind myself.) 

So, basically, I would recommend to all people looking to live somewhere fascinating for awhile to get that boring paperwork out of the way PRONTO.  Know what kind of visa you need, how to get an ISIC card, how much money should be in your account, where you’ll be living, where you need to go from the airport, and the requirements for your first blog assignment.  That way, when it’s go-time and you have your own little freak-out about the reality of your trip, that will be all you have to worry about.  Then you can say to yourself, “Hey, I may not know a single person on that whole continent, but I do know where I need go to meet the people that will help me.”

With the essentials covered, I can figure out the rest for myself, right?  I can be independent and find my own coffee!  Wasn’t that totally the point of the Boston Tea Party? Some guys moved away from their own country and got rid of that crazy tea the British drink in their search for something better.

Who knows?  I might even switch to tea.

Well, I may be going from Indiana to England, but that doesn’t mean I’d go that far.