Cheers

April 24th, 2009. The day has come on which I have officially booked my flight to go back to New York City. For better or for worse, my visa expires before the program ends, and I must leave London on the ninth of May. While ordinarily, only having two weeks left before rushing home would cause me to want to see and do everything on my ever-expanding list of “things to do in London.” Yet, I actually feel at terms with how much of the city I was able to absorb in the amount of time I’ve been here. While there are a few cities I wish I could have traveled to during my time here, in the end I have no regrets about the extra time spent “at home,” and am confident that I will find a way to return to Europe to see these places in the near future. Studying abroad in general has opened my eyes to many places, people, and ways of life I would otherwise never have experienced. I came into this situation with a desire to get more of an international perspective on the contemporary art scene, which then expanded to witnessing the overall European way of life, and even further to consider the possibility of studying here again for an MA. Now being in the position to look back on the past months, I’d say that I definitely achieved what I set out to learn, and would certainly like to spend time in London again.

Wall art outside Tacheles, BerlinI feel as if every day I spent here taught me something about myself; a new self-awareness that I want to bring back with me to New York. In addition, up until studying here, I never once felt any connection to a sense of history, community, or ancestry. After going to see all of these places and locations around London and in Europe that are really old, and are filled with such a rich past, I have truly come to appreciate history. More specifically, over my spring break, I visited a concentration camp outside Berlin. It was a day so profound and emotional that I now know I will feel a deeper connection or association with being Jewish, even if it’s above all in a cultural sense, rather than religious. Finally, I know I am returning to the States with a greater motivation to see more cities and open my mind to different lifestyles and people. Returning from spring break, I realized I have definitely been bitten by the travel bug, and even though it came to me later than others, I am still so lucky that I have it at all, and have a greater understanding of how important it is to travel and witness how others live. Being a native New Yorker, I’ve been raised under the pretense that The City is the only place you need to be, and everywhere else will never be as great. Yet, now I’ve come to understand that lifestyles other than that of “the city that never sleeps” can be stimulating in unique ways.

Ultimately, living in London and traveling to Greenwich, Bath, Brighton, Paris, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, and Barcelona taught me to be more patient, independent, driven, and open-minded. What’s more, I believe that I’ll be leaving the UK with a greater understanding of and appreciation for just how lucky I am to be able to have come here at all. As silly as it sounds, I know that I will return more of a grown-up and characteristically altered more than I ever could have expected.