I’m almost 3 months in, and I can already tell that I will miss my semester abroad terribly. My experiences so far have been brilliant, and as well as the academic differences, I’m enjoying the subtle differences. So far, these have included language, a more causal culture, the independence and undoubtedly travel. Studying abroad has definitely enhanced my confidence and personal development, and I like knowing that I’m able to move to a different country on my own without too much trouble.
The initial acclimatisation was a little more hard than I realised, I thought it would be a smooth transition from London to Georgetown, but it took me a good few weeks to get settled. I find it funny how one of the things that made me feel most settled was having a kettle. It’s the small things that clearly make a difference and that really made me feel settled, just the simple ability to have a cup of tea!
The academic differences are significant too. While I don’t find the work necessarily harder abroad, there is a lot more of it to do, meaning that I have to structure my week in accordance with my work. This means I am more productive, because I know I need to be more parsimonious with my time, and wasting a lot of time is simply not an option. The productivity instilled will be great for the rest of my academic career I am hoping!
For my career progression I am aware now of the differences between the job search in the USA and the UK, providing me with the necessary development when I begin my career search in my final year. There have been times during orientation when we had to engage with an alternative formatting for CVs (resume in the US!), forcing us to reexamine the way we present ourselves. This academic and professional development in another country accompanies my personal development, as already outlined above. I am more confident, and a radical move from normality provides me with the security to know I can adapt to new environments easily.
In reflection, so far during this experience I have made so many good friends from all over the world and had so many great times so far, I’m not ready for it to end! I have 5-6 weeks left on campus, enduring the Georgetown workload, and eating as many cupcakes from Baked & Wired as I can. I then have three weeks of traveling, hopefully a roadtrip in the desert – which sounds pretty great.
My Life In Pixels 