London is full of exciting things to do, but finding those can be a bit overwhelming. Through a series of trial and error, I think I found some of London’s hidden gems! 

When you wait as long as I did to study abroad, a part of you feels like every moment of your experience needs to be perfect. Maximized. Anything but wasted. 

Arriving on the ground in London almost two weeks ago reminded me of everything I had done to get here. All of the hours I spent researching study abroad programs. The endless questions I’d asked every university tour guide. The pennies I scraped together to ensure I could support myself in a foreign country. 

Celebrating a birthday abroad is never easy. You are far from family and friends and instead are in a foreign country with students you met 4 weeks ago. In the weeks leading up to my 21st birthday, I remember feeling removed from the program a bit, and thinking a lot more about my life at home. What should have been a very big deal of a birthday in the U.S. suddenly turned so minor in a country where the legal age for everything is 18. Yet, I decided that that didn’t mean that I couldn’t make my 21st birthday special. And you can too.

It’s been almost two weeks since I said goodbye to Granada. Having finished my last final exam the day before, it was time for that oh-so-familiar bus ride to the Málaga airport. I looked out the window at the green and golden hills and the endless olive groves, listening to all my favorite songs I had collected during my time in Granada. Before I knew it, I was home.