Pleshinger Reflects on Study Abroad in England

By Kellie Pleshinger, Creative Writing and Digital Media Production major

The Parthenon in Athens, with me (right) and my friend, taken by a lovely couple that we met on the Acropolis who were also from Ohio

England was always a big dream of mine. When I was little, I (of course) read Harry Potter and from that instant decided to be obsessed with the country and, in particular, with London. Last fall, I was lucky enough to study abroad in England, specifically in a borough of London called Kingston-Upon-Thames.

The iconic Elizabeth tower and the clock-face Big Ben, all under construction for the first and only time in something like 100 years.

A bustling section of the city, Kingston is about twenty-five minutes from downtown London by train and right on the Thames, filled with shops and restaurants. The adjustments to life in England, luckily, did not include learning a different language, but I did have to learn cultural differences: what you talked about (popular culture), what you didn’t talk about (politics or religion), what you don’t do walking down the street (smile at strangers), what you have to do in restaurants (ask for the check).

A greenhouse at Kew Gardens, a huge garden complex in London.

I took four classes at Kingston, with two English literature classes, one media class, and a British life and culture class. With only one class per week, most of the work turned out to be papers and reading outside of class, but the class environment was very welcoming. All of the classes were in three-hour blocks, with lectures for one or two hours and then discussion or seminars for the latter half. The lengthy, lecture-based classes were certainly an adjustment, particularly for the English classes where I was used to Ashland’s small class sizes and discussion-based format.

During our guided trip to the Netherlands, we visited Amsterdam and then two smaller towns where this photo was taken, Edam and Volendam.

As a small-town girl from Ohio, not only did I have to adjust to another country, but I also had to adjust to city living. Studying at Kingston University, I found myself at a big international school, traversing on the school bus system between campuses in the city. Surprisingly, the adjustment came easy, as most of them did, as I quickly learned which bus to take and how they always left a little early from our dorm building but always arrived late.

Be advised: hiking in Switzerland will lead to all sorts of The Sound of Music moments.

Travel in every form is best learned by doing. I learned the school’s bus route and how to hop on and off, then the red, double-decker buses around Kingston. We rode the bus for an hour and a half to Kew Gardens, where we took way too many pictures of flowers. We learned the trains and the Underground, and how to tell which was going which direction and what apps to use to find the schedule (Citymapper is a lifesaver!). Planning trips after that seemed easy and fun as we planned trips throughout Europe on our own every weekend from October to December.

Taken on an island called Burano off the coast of Venice, this picture showcases the brightly colored houses characteristic of Burano.

Riding the train into the heart of London the first time was one of the best moments of my life. I was with a gaggle of girls, two of whom have become lifelong friends. When the train pulled into Waterloo Station, with the London Eye rising up behind the rail station on the side, we shuffled out of the station, and, one Tube ride later, we were in Trafalgar Square. Wandering about the city and seeing black cabs, Big Ben (under construction, unfortunately), red double-deckers, and everything that defines London made me feel both excited to be in a new place and at home.

Called the gateway to Europe, London provided me the incredible opportunity to travel on weekends to different countries throughout the United Kingdom and the continent. From ancient abbeys in Wales to french fries in Amsterdam to hiking in Switzerland to chilly boat rides in Venice, I experienced life in so many different forms. There were, of course, bad moments, too: waiting at a bus stop in a small town in Switzerland at 3 a.m, arriving at the wrong airport to fly from Rome to Athens, motion sickness on the ferry rides to the Netherlands, uncooperative travel partners in Venice. But, at the cost of cliches, the experiences abroad truly changed how I think about the world and my role in it, and those three months were the best of my life.