New Year, New Country

My New Year began by my brother and his wife driving me to the airport and wishing me luck on my new abroad-adventure and my first time out of the country. Although off to a rough beginning, the UK and Reading, in particular, have thoroughly impressed me. The travel from Virginia, USA all the way to Reading, England was less than stellar, but I settled into the University quite quickly.

I also was able to meet a fellow UMW student after only a few hours in a new country. Since arriving nearly two months ago, I have been given amazing opportunities to meet new people and get invested in a different culture. I have travelled to places I never really thought I would go. I’ve seen more castles than I thought possible. The trips that the Reading Erasmus & Study Abroad Office has organized have taught me so much about the country I have been blessed to study in.

My classes and professors are teaching me so many different perspectives of topics that I have been learning my whole life, so much so that it seems like a completely different subject. Even the on-campus traditions, like Union on Wednesday and Saturday nights and trivia and karaoke on Thursday nights have become a vital part of my schedule here at the University of Reading.

Most of all, though, the friends I have made and travelled with over the past two months have impacted my life an incredible amount, which wouldn’t have been possible without the University and its continued efforts to foster a diverse community of study abroad students. I have truly made a home here, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of my journey has in store!