Spencer FYA London

  Avoiding Monotony To view other blog entries, click the back arrow next to "Spencer FYA London", at the top of the screen. I'm scared of falling into too much of a rigid routine because I believe it will hamper my ability to take in all the experiences that studying abroad has to offer. Regardless I must still devote a large chunk of my time to my schooling to ensure that I get in-state tuition for next fall. This week I had a lot of fun exploring London, trying and seeing new things and farthing my expertise in becoming an independent student. I hope you enjoy reading. September 16- I got up for class today around 7:30. This was a long day, both classes felt much longer than three hours each, but I survived. Directly after class I went on a pretty large grocery run that would feed me for most of the week. I got yogurt and granola for breakfast, sandwich ingredients for lunch and bags of chips, for dinner I got some burgers and rice. Around 5:45 pm, I went to the Y to p...

  Getting Settled + Lakes To view other blog entries, click the back arrow next to "Spencer FYA London", at the top of the screen.     This week was a typical week at the study center, classes haven't really been that challenging yet but I expect the difficulty to ramp-up now that everyone should be a little more accustomed to the college life. The weather is starting to get colder and I need to either be wearing a sweater or pants if I'm going outside. The study center took a trip up to the lakes district from Friday to Sunday which was a lot of fun, and involved multiple hikes, cheap pints, and some rain. As I'm writing this bit we are on the charter bus back to London and I am worn out. I thought the hikes we were going on would be no problem being that three months ago I was summiting some of the mountains in the rockies, but I was humbled quickly. One of the hikes in lakes was over twice the increase in elevation than the highest one I did in Montana. We stay...

  Twelve Days into College, August 28- September 8 To view other blog entries, click the back arrow next to "Spencer FYA London", at the top of the screen. I have been in college for 12 days now and I learn every day something new about being an adult in a large city. Prior to me moving here my Mom made most of my meals and that's not to say I didn't know how to cook I just never had to. Our apartment (flat in British English) has a full kitchen so slowly but surely I'll learn how to do more with the stove than just making eggs and hamburgers. I get to do all my grocery shopping now which has allowed me to appreciate on a greater level the effort it takes to plan out a square meal. I have a lot of new responsibilities and generally being a little stressed (in a heathy manner) has caused me to run a little behind on when I would like to publish these blogs, which would preferably be a weekly recap posted on Sunday or Saturday, but we'll see how long I stick to ...

  Ireland, August 21-27 To view other blog entries, click the back arrow next to "Spencer FYA London", at the top of the screen.     Despite this not being technically apart of my FYA program, it would not have happened had I decided to go to college somewhere else so it is making an appearance in the blog.     For any unaware, FSU football's season opener game took place in Dublin against Georgia Tech in the NCAA's effort to spread the game around the world. Being that I would not be able to attend any games in Tallahassee this was a fantastic coincidence that the game would be played to close to London and conveniently the Saturday before my program was set to start.      Early August- I had already done everything necessary to make the move abroad except for two important things. I still needed to apply for my absentee ballot for the general election and I had nothing packed for London. The applying for an absentee ballot was kind of confusing ...

  Orientation, June 13-18 To view other blog entries, click the back arrow next to "Spencer FYA London", at the top of the screen.     On June 13th, my family and I loaded up the car and drove down to Florida for my FYA orientation. Before we made the trip to Tallahassee; we stopped for a miniature vacation at the beautiful Saint George Island. For two days and two nights we enjoyed the beach and all that the island had to offer. June 16     After leaving Saint George Island for Tallahassee in the morning we stopped at Sonny's BBQ for lunch and then shopped for some merch at Garnet & Gold. Finally, the time came when the first thing on the orientation itinerary was to check into the dorms at Wildwood Hall at FSU. Afterwards I walked to the student union with my orientation roommate to meet the rest of the study abroad students. Fortunately, I had already had brief communication with a couple people prior to orientation which made finding and meeting the...

 Introduction To view other blog entries, click the back arrow next to "Spencer FYA London", at the top of the screen. Hi, I am Spencer Thompson and this blog is where I will document my experience as a First Year Abroad (FYA) student for Florida State University in London. This introduction entry serves as a practice post before I actually begin talking about my experiences, so I'm sorry for the poor quality of my writing and I hope it gets better.  I will embark for Europe with my family on August 21, 2024. We will stay in Ireland for a week to watch Florida State play Georgia Tech in Dublin for a week 0 international face-off to begin the college football season. After exploring Ireland, On August 28, my family and I will go back to the airport and I will board a flight for London and my family will fly back to Chicago.  Upon arriving in London, I will for the first time in my life be independent for a prolonged period of time. I will now be responsible for going throu...