What a warm welcome back to State College! Here I am, just settling into my apartment after a long and much-needed Thanksgiving break, and I’ve just received an email congratulating me on becoming one of the next bloggers for the upcoming semester! I’m so excited.

So hello, Education Abroad GeoBlog-sphere, my name is Kristen Hopf, I’m a junior here at Penn State studying journalism and English. I’m from Abington, Pennsylvania and in Spring 2012, I’ll be studying in London, United Kingdom at the University of Westminster.  Since junior high, I’ve had my heart set on spending a semester in London, and I can’t believe the time is almost here for me to take the leap and fly on over the England (29 days… but who’s counting?). These next few months will surely be some of the most amazing and influential of my life.

I love to explore and I love to write and I love to take pictures, so this blog for my time abroad will definitely be something that I can use to combine all of these interests of mine. As of right now, I have met four fellow Penn Staters who will be on my program with me, but other than that I’m sort of going into this whole experience by myself. I don’t have any close friends or family members to come along and hold my hand as I move to another country for five months… and I’m strangely okay with it!  One of the things I’m most excited for about next semester is the thrill of the unknown… and meeting lots of interesting people from around the world.  Hopefully I’ll have lots of great experiences and new friendships to blog about in the next coming months 🙂

Location: State College, PA