I remember in high school, right before graduation, my friends and I realized how big our town felt to us; Abington was our entire world.  Sure, we had been around the country, we had even traveled to Europe, but Abington was the place that felt comfortable, secure, real. Now that I have a second place to call home in State College, that place, too, seems safe and familiar. We read the newspapers, we see the stories online, we are connected to the entire world through Twitter and other social networks, but it’s hard to comprehend how vast the world actually is without getting out into it and seeing it for yourself.

In the past few weeks I’ve been all over this great city and I’ve met people from all over the world. I’ve made friends with people from Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, Connecticut, and Illinois. On my birthday, a party full of people from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Niger, and Libya sang happy birthday to me at midnight and hugged me like we were close friends. We’ve visited lots of the tourist spots and been to pubs for dinner and drinks. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been here in London for one week, because we’ve seen so much, and these people I’m meeting on my program already feel like close friends. Somehow, getting close to them makes me already feel a little homesick for my friends from Abington and State College.  But then I remember that I’ll see them all soon enough, and once the summer comes around, I’ll be back in the same boat, wishing I were back in London with all of these great new friends.

For now, we’re all focusing on getting to know each other and London, focusing on making London feel like a third home. The world is a big place, after all, so we might as well get out into it.

Location: London, England