Wow

Wow. Three months since coming back from London I still miss it and think about my time there everyday. It really did change who I am and what I want with my academic career. Even though sometimes I might not act like and sometimes I might doubt myself, I really do want to end up in academia. But I never finished my last few days. I'm going do as best as I can with it. I have notes but they're at home.

Tuesday. I watched another one of the presentations and was again underwhelmed. These are supposed to be breakneck students and I still think that I can compete with any of them, and when I mean compete I mean beat them in every aspect. Since I had to do my presentation, I used the evening to study. During the afternoon we visited Westminster and the London Bridge and the Monument and Platform 9 3/4. The Platform 9 3/4 was very, very underwhelming but we still had a good time. I'm glad we went. At Westminster I had a conversation about my dad at with one of the guards. It was really neat. I was eating at the local pub down the corner and I had a British man come up and ask me if I was American. I said, and he and I started to talk about Barak Obama. We were able to have a very good conversation, and said that I was helping to reshape his view of American young adults. He also said he wished that he had been as aware as I was at my age of 21. Finished my powerpoint.

Wednesday: Class. I did my presentation and it went so freaking well. I was really, really happy. The Hizb has actually become a large research topic for myself. Me, Johnny, Melissa, and Kristin all went to the Sherlock Holmes pub. We then went out to a place where I got fish and chips.

Thursday: The very last presentation was Thursday. The middle eastern girl presented and I was SHOCKED as to her outlook on a lot of things. She said she honestly believed 9/11 was staged. Some of the other things that she said also shocked me. It's hard to believe that simply based on geographic locations people can have such radically different ideologies, but that also happens here in America. Someone in New York can have a radically different outlook than me. It's shocking. The party on the boat was awesome. By the end everyone was dancing and everything. It was really a ton of fun. Took a lot of pictures and some video and was thankful for that opportunity.

Friday: Waking up and doing a little bit of last minute shopping. Got some gifts for my mom. We had our last breakfast together at a place that we'd fallen in love with. I had my last english breakfast. I miss them, man. I really do. I went back and started to pack. Took pictures of my dorm, took pictures of the room, bathroom, the freaking grocery store I couldn't find. Walking out of the door and walking down the the hill for the last time. It was tough to realize I'll probably never see that again even though it was part of the best three weeks of my life. My suitcase weighed so much. I found out the next day it weighed 65 pounds. I was going through the tube with my luggage and at I also had my backpack. One of the escalators weren't working in one of the stations so I had to carry it down probably 200 steps. I thought I was going to fall with my luggage and really hurt people. Thankfully nothing happened. It took all of my strength though. By the time I got to Wigram I was absolutely disgusting and sweaty. We then went to the Lion King where I had an absolute blast. We had to stand but it was okay. It was totally worth it. Staying in Wigram. seeing Johnny in the elevator for the last time. Seeing Melissa. Having Beatrice wait on me to get back with Johnny. June and Robyn coming to see me and Kristin for the last time. It was really tough to leave these guys cause they had become huge for me. We joked that it wasn't really that big of a deal since it was only three weeks and that we'd never see each other again, but it was actually really hard.

Waking up at four in the morning. Getting there at the airport only to find out my suitcase weighed to much. Sleeping on the plane. Being back in Atlanta. Jet lagged. Coming back.

Man, I miss it. I miss it a lot. I think that the group that we ended up having was really special. It was such an awesome time and I know that each of us think about the time we had there often. It's something is really special, London is. I know that I'm probably never going to have 3 weeks like that. I got my scores back and scored an A+. I was really happy with my scores. I spent a lot of time on that presentation. God I want to go back. The city was so much better than being here in Emory, Virginia. While Emory is a very, very special place, London was so much more amazing. I still think in my mind as if I'm there. I still see walking down "the hill" everyday. I still see myself walking into my room every day. I still see taking the escalator down to the tube everyday. I still see walking to class... getting to class every day... my classroom. I still remember all those times as if they were yesterday. Man, what a special special time I had there. It's something I'm never going to forget, and I hope that one day I get to go back.

Wow. I miss it. I really, really do.

Ryan