Submitted by Kaitlyn McConeghy on the 2018 spring semester program in Rome, Italy…
After eight hours on a plane two weeks ago, I couldn’t imagine myself getting on another flight for quite a while. But here I was, boarding a flight bound for London Stansted. We found some pretty cheap flights on Ryan Air, and somehow got the idea that we could do London in 48 hours. Oh, how wrong we were.
London was a really cool change of pace from Rome, and made me stop and think in ways that I did not expect. While there, I resolved to get the largest iced coffee I could find (the Italians don’t believe in “ventis,” apparently), and to enjoy a weekend of familiarity, English-speaking, and normal portion sizes (hello, large fries). But aside from a shared language, British culture is so distinctly different from American culture, and I learned a lot in my short time in London. Aside from the surface-level differences (fries are chips, chips are crisps), the British have a way of looking at the world unique to them, and distinct from American culture, or Italian culture for that matter. While, in 48 hours in a city, you’ll probably never be more than a guest, I learned a lot from my time in London, and hope to visit again someday.