Why London?

You may be asking me, “Why London, Lolo?”… Well, technically I’m going to be all over the United Kingdom, I just liked the alliteration! This study abroad fell right into my lap. The farthest I’ve been from home as of today (5/13/2025) is Mitchell, Nebraska. And I really didn’t think that I’d ever be going much farther. Much less out of country! I took a chance and accepted a flyer about this study abroad in one of my classes in October and ended out actually taking it all the way home. I thought about it for a few short weeks before deciding to take the dive and give this a shot.

               In all honesty, I didn’t actually think that it would happen. As the months went on, the deadline for this study got pushed farther and farther out with fingers crossed to hit the minimum number of people to go. I watched as the days ticked by, spending the time working and saving. Doing things like applying for my passport and setting up funding assistance.

               Ultimately, this study abroad covers so much towards my graduation requirements. This class was already required for me, plus it’s an honors class— helping me to reach my credit requirement. Additionally, in order to graduate with honors, I need to complete a portfolio or a study abroad! This was just the perfect opportunity towards life experience and graduation completion.

               I think that this experience will help me throughout the years with broadening my understanding of what different people value. Because I’m going into marketing, it is necessary to understand what your customer base is after. And through the company I expect to work with is based in America, it is important to have cultural flexibility nonetheless.

 

 

         To give you as the reader a bit of background, it’s essential to know exactly which areas I’ll be traveling to. In order to understand this in further posts, please know that Great Britian is the general island, and the United Kingdom is a section within the Island. Furthermore, England and other countries make up the UK! (Read more about the history here)

 

               Of course, with new areas come new language styles. While I am lucky enough to not be concerned about encountering language barriers, there are most likely going to be some etiquette barriers. A few of the things that I expect will make me stand out include things like being direct. It has been said that being direct throughout all of Britain is seen as suspicious and almost vulgar. Additionally, British people are known for having their emotions under a strict check, not showing too much affection or distaste towards things. Furthermore, the British diet features lots of protein in almost every meal. While that isn’t far off from what I am used to, it seems to me that every single meal has at least two factors of protein. I expect that the intensity of these variables will differ throughout the Island of course, however I am still worried that I might get caught smiling too much! (Read here for more cultural information)

 

               It is common that tourists, specifically from America, are known worldwide for their intense patriotism. It is said that when studying other cultures, a lot of people do it from “the perspective of our own culture”, comparing things to our own everyday lives. To prevent myself from doing this, I am going to try to focus on learning things with a very open mind. I think the best way to do this will be to adopt a “speak when spoken to” kind of ideology.

If you are familiar with me, you’re likely aware of my extensive record collection. In this collection, there is a storybook record I have called “The Owl That Didn’t Give a Hoot”, in this story there is a character called the Wise Old Owl and there is a short song about this fella that says “The more he saw the less he spoke/ The less he spoke the more he heard/ Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?”. I think that if I can follow the lifestyle of this fictional bird, I will be able to pick up on more things throughout the trip! By sitting quiet and keeping my ears and eyes open, even if I may feel like a kindergartener sometimes, I basically am a newborn in this country.