Feeling Comfortable and Weekending in Ibiza

By:

Cerys Ramos Davies

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Cerys Ramos Davies

<i>Home Institution</i>: Loyola Marymount University <i>Expected Graduation Year</i>: 2024 <i>Academic Major / Minor</i>: Journalism <i>Destination</i>: London, UK <i>"Hello" in your host country's language</i>: Hello <i>Program Provider</i>: FIE <i>Demographics</i>: Hispanic/Latinx <i>Future Career Goals</i>: My ultimate career goal is to be a music journalist. I grew up with music fanatics as parents. With such early experiences of live music and pop culture, I have developed a passion for all of the conversations and opinions that surround music and music culture. My end goal is to play a role in these kinds of conversations. <i>Top Three Study Abroad Goals</i>: My first goal is to dive head first into the London music scene. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and continue to attend college in the same city. I have only ever been able to fully experience shows and events in LA and I am ready to broaden my music experience by living in London, another music capital of the world; My second goal is to travel and experience as many cities and cultures as possible. I plan to spend my weekends abroad taking as many planes and trains to as many different places. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I plan to make every second of it memorable; My third goal is to reconnect with my heritage. My father was born and raised in Swansea, Wales. As a young child, we used to spend the summer in Swansea. But as my brother and I grew up and life got busier we stopped making these trips. My father unfortunately passed away from COVID-19 in 2021. I plan to spend my time abroad reconnecting with who he was, working on personal growth, and appreciating my British heritage.

As I have now fully adjusted to my internship and ongoing classes, I really feel at home in London. It becomes less about exploring London and more about continuing to build my familiarity and find new places to try. I have come to the point where I have favorites and where I don’t feel like I need to be trying something new every second of every day. Now I feel like I truly have a handle on London life and I love it so much. It makes me very sad that my time here is closing in on me. When it comes to my internship, I feel like I have really become a valuable part of the team. I have contributed several of my own articles and am always ready to help out in any way that I can. This internship is definitely helping me solidify my love for journalism in the workplace.

My 21st birthday happened this week as well. My friends and I wanted to do something special, so we planned a weekend trip to Ibiza. Even though it was off season and a lot of the restaurants and clubs were closed, the island itself is too beautiful to not have the time of your life no matter the season. This was somewhere I had always wanted to go and I’m happy I got to experience it. I had never seen water so blue and beaches so beautiful. After not seeing the sun in London for so long, this was a great way to spend my birthday weekend. We laid out on the beach all weekend and definitely caught a tan. It was a relaxing way to start off 21 and I loved every second of it.

Just a few days after coming back from Ibiza, my entire family were coming to see me in London. I was really looking forward to seeing them because this is the longest I have been away from home and the longest period of time that I haven’t seen them. I was also excited to show them the life I have built here in London. Once they arrived, we did a ton of catching up and the tourism began. Even though I had my internship on some days I was happy to be able to spend time with them and let them experience the life I have been living for a few months now. Overall, we all had a great time and goodbye wasn’t that hard as I would be home in a few weeks time.