A different red, white, and blue

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Molly Pults

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Molly Pults

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hello :) <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> College of Saint Benedict <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2024 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Dublin, Ireland <i>Program provider:</i> FIE: Foundation for International Education <i>Major/minor:</i> Exercise and Health Science / Pre-PT <i>Demographics:</i> Caucasian/White <i>Future career aspirations:</i> After finishing my bachelor's at the College of Saint Benedict, I intend to earn my doctorate in physical therapy at another school (3 years). I'm not entirely sure which one yet, but hopefully one in Minnesota. Then I want to be a practicing physical therapist on a sports team, but if that is not possible, I'm perfectly happy working in a clinic! <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1. Walk and explore the city of Dublin as well as visiting Cork and Galway. 2. Go to a professional soccer game or as most Europeans call it: a football game. 3. Finally, try their coffee and a wide variety of food.

This week, I had a chance to travel east to the great city of London. From the moment we got to our hotel, I was very excited to be there. It was very clear that the hotel we got to stay in used to be an apartment building and that made the atmosphere 10 times better. After arriving at this hotel, we took the night in due to travel and in order to start exploring London early the next day. So, next day. We take a tour bus because we wanted to see all of the classic sights, starting with the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. Honest to God, they just didn’t feel real. After seeing pictures and movies of London, it was just so strange and surreal to see them in person. After travelling all around the city, we went to a lovely Italian restaurant where we shared a bottle of wine along with some ravioli. Then we saw posters for Wicked, and we spontaneously decided to go see it that night. The set was absolutely beautiful. They did amazing work with the tech, lighting, and use of the space. The one thing I completely forgot about was the accents. I had never seen the musical before, so it was a little tough to understand at some points but I was able to retain a lot. Nevertheless, I can now say I have seen Wicked in London which is pretty neat.

The following day, we stopped at a cafe in a London park and had brunch with coffee. We then decided to walk to King’s Cross Station, where we looked at platform 9 3/4’s from Harry Potter. After walking around in one of the busiest railroad centers, we decided to visit the British Museum. Ranging from Greek sculptures to Japanese artwork, the British museum had representation of almost every country. I got to see mummies, jade artwork, and the Rosetta Stone. We spent about 4 hours there, but we probably could have spent the whole day there. Then we headed towards London’s version of Chinatown and had found a bar that housed American football. So, we had some food but also wished we could have spent a couple more hours viewing the area. At this point it was late and we had an early flight in the morning so we had to head back to the hotel. I think that was the one sour part of the trip. With only 2 days there, we were hardly able to discover London. Don’t get me wrong it was fun, but London is at least twice as big as Dublin and I still haven’t discovered everything in Dublin. Although, that makes all the worthwhile to go back so I can discover more. :)