Hey guys! I briefly mentioned in my first post that I am living in a homestay, and I've seen that there aren't many posts about living in a homestay abroad, so I figured that I'd fill some of that void by describing my month-and-a-half experience of living abroad.

When my biggest problem is deciding what to do for the day in London, I have to say I am living a good life.

As my time in London is exactly halfway done, I have learned so much about the British and their lovely home. Everyday I realize just how different this city is from my home in New York. Here is a list of things I found interesting living here for two months:

I woke up on the morning of October 5, hoping to be imbued with some sort of divine wisdom of how to Adult™. But sadly, no such epiphany occurred. Instead, all that I realized was that I only had about 50 minutes until my train left the station. So, I dragged myself out of bed and prepared for the two-hour commute to my field placement office.

Today is Thursday, October 27th. If you asked me exactly one year ago where I thought I’d be in life right now, this is what I might have told you. I would’ve just finished a summer working in a research lab or participating in a medical internship, I would be continuing my neuroscience studies abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark with Danish International Studies (DIS) surrounded by my closest friends from home, and I would still be pre-med thinking about taking the MCAT’s when I returned to school for my spring semester.

For the first time since arriving in Japan, I got properly frustrated at my non-existent Japanese ability. It was early Wednesday morning, and I found myself frantically pawing at a Suica (commuter pass) machine, trying to get it to accept my ¥1000 bill. I kept looking over at the clock on the wall, aware that I only had 5 minutes until my train left the station. At this point, the machine had spat my card out five times, telling me earnestly in Japanese that I was doing something wrong.