London has been amazing so far, and I am so happy about all of the amazing memories that I have had during my time here so far! The city has a rich history with many buildings that have stood here for hundreds of years and played an important part in history. On the other head, London is a leading business hub with beautiful modern buildings that are home to the world’s leading companies. As Great Britain is also English-speaking, assimilating into my new culture has been an absolute breeze. London also has five major airports, making nearly any global destination very accessible.

Throughout my time in this program, I have been to five other countries! Each country is unique with a rich history and culture of their own, but has also been a unique challenge in many ways. The first country that I visited was Sweden. As this was the first non-English speaking country I had been to, I had found myself hesitating when I needed to speak to locals or figure out public transport and restaurant etiquette. While Sweden is part of the EU, they do not use the Euro, which makes the currency conversion an additional challenge(1 USD is equal to ~9.47 Swedish Krona!). While navigating the city using Google Maps, some names of places would appear in English on my phone, but Swedish in person. Traveling to a new country brought many new challenges I had never expected, but this made me appreciate all of the smaller details that vary from country to country.

Overall, I am grateful for Sweden being my first travel experience. Although London was an adjustment, there were many aspects I had taken for granted due to the fact that it was an English-speaking country with many similarities to the United States. The culture of a country defines its experience in many different regards, starting from the public transportation coming out of the airport. The way people communicate is also slightly different from country to country, and I’ve learned to watch how locals speak in order to fit in better. When traveling to other countries, my experience in Sweden taught me to become more detail-oriented and perceptive to many things I had not noticed prior. In the end, I believe that it is crucial to travel to understand the people and places that define this globe and I am very thankful that I have gotten to experience these cultures firsthand.