As I write this, I am sitting in the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Airport.  I have checked my 31-pound bag and made it through security and to my gate.  My next stop is Newark Liberty International Airport, and from there – London, England. 

I will be participating in the co-sponsored IU and IES program entitled “London Summer – UK Today”.  I will be taking two classes: Media and UK Politics and International Marketing Management: Europe. 

In all the months of preparation for this program, it never felt like this day would come.  But now that it has, I am filled with excitement and apprehension for my next seven weeks across the pond.  I am excited for my classes, yet nervous for what they will entail. I am beyond excited to explore London and maybe even other parts of Europe, yet am nervous for the tubes, trains, and buses that will take me there.   

Despite my nervousness, I couldn’t be more looking forward more to living and studying in London. I have always been interested in the United Kingdom, especially London, for most of my life.  I visited the country with my family when I was five-years old, and although I do not remember much of it, those hazy memories and photographs of Oxford, London, and the English countryside sustained an ongoing passion to return later. 

As a life-long Harry Potter fan, there is also a certain sentimentality of returning to the country that made up so much of my childhood imagination.  After arriving in London, I’ll take the tube from Heathrow to King’s Cross Station, the very same station Harry takes to get to Hogwarts.  Maybe I’ll even pass by Platform 9 ¾ .