Great Expectations
As an English minor, I find no small irony in the fact that I had "great expectations" of traveling to England even before I got here. Now that I've been here for a month, I find my expectations becoming greater by the day. Academically, England is already a challenge, as everything is done so much more independently than back in the states. This fits perfectly for me, though, as one of my overall goals of this experience is to become more independent- both personally and academically. I know that doing more indpendent study while here will only help me when I return to Allegheny to begin work on my dreaded senior comp. Also on a person level, I just want to try as many new things and have as many new experiences as I can. I'm such a creature of habit at home; I go to the same few places with the same few people all the time. I want to branch out and test my limits while I'm here. I'm already having my boundaries pushed. Since I've been here, I've started learning to how rock climb, I've gone paintballing and I've scaled a couple mountains in the Lake District. I never would have done these things at home! I credit the friends I've made here to these and many other new experiences I've tackled since I arrived. There's no better way to bring out something new in you than to meet new people with different backgrounds and interests. To me, that's what studying abroad is all about. I'm learning through classes, of course. I can't wait to delve into my minor when the term starts in October. But so far anyway, it's in the out-of-the-classroom experiences that I've learned the most about myself. And there's still so much to find out.