Location Adventures: London, England

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Dear Reader,

One of the many fantastic features of being in Ireland is its proximity to the rest of Europe. For this weekend, the Sage Corps cohort and I decided to take a trip to London, England. Since Ireland is the first country I’ve visited in Europe, I was excited to take a glimpse on what London had to offer.

World Famous: The British Museum

The entrance of the famous British Museum

The main reason I desired to travel to London was to visit the ever-famous British Museum. I usually don’t take the time to visit museums since there seems to be so much to do in one day, however; I made an exception for my weekend trip to London.

There is so much that history has to offer, often times I believe that the future can be written just by reading a history book. If one were to be read far back enough, various patterns can be drawn, thus, these patterns could emulate possible future patterns. This is only one of the many aspects to studying history that fascinates me. Although I am a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) major, it’s very easy to see the benefits to studying history.

With all this in mind, visiting the British Museum was a priority of mine and I only had approximately two hours to do so.

The Great Court

The time limit given to me did not seem all that important…until I realized that the British Museum is enormous. Once I took a couple of steps into the main entrance, I was greeted by the Great Court. The architecture of the inside is beautiful and I had to purposely throw myself into an exhibit before I spend all my time staring at the Great Court.

The ancient Egyptian exhibit
Discobolus of Myron, a Greek sculpture

The first exhibit I entered was Ancient Egypt, one of the more famous exhibits. From there, each exhibit intertwine with each other, varying from Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, Africa, and various others. Visiting this museum was a lot of fun and next time I’ll make sure to make a day out of it.

Stonehenge: the most famous rocks I’ve ever seen

Walking towards a couple of very large rocks

Stonehenge, one of the world’s great wonders. Was it aliens that built it or advanced human knowledge? I personally do not have the answer, though I wished I did. The Sage Corps cohort and I decided to take a tour that led us to Stonehenge. Similar to the British Museum, I was on a time crunch. There was a little less than two hours to visit, which seems like a long time, until food is involved.

After eating, there was only an hour left to visit. Since the bus line looked like it stretched for miles, we decided to hike there. Finally, after 30 minutes, we made it…with only ten minutes to enjoy the view before we had to head back to the bus.

 

Stonehenge and all its glory

Although my time there was short, it was still incredible to see Stonehenge and all of its glory. Visiting London was a nice change of pace from Dublin and there might be another location adventure soon…

Until next time,

Kazandra Zelaya

Kazandra Zelaya

<i>Hello in your host country language</i>: Dia dhuit! <i>University</i>: Claremont McKenna College <i>Expected graduation year</i>: 2020 <i>Destination</i>: Dublin, Ireland <i>Program Provider</i>: Sage Corps <i>Major / minor</i>: Science Management with Biotechnology Emphasis <i>Language of Study</i>: English, Irish Gaelic <i>Demographic background</i>: First-generation, LGBTQ+, Hispanic-American <i>Future career aspirations</i>: Receive my Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering, run a large scale corporation that focuses on medical devices and alternate energy <i>Top 3 goals for study abroad</i>: understand the bigger picture of working internationally; make life-long friends during my study abroad; return to the United States with an amplified perspective and smile