I studied abroad in England! Through St. Petersburg College, I recently had the opportunity to go on a Study Abroad trip over to London, for theater, which is hopefully soon to be my major. I took my first plane ride (what a first plane ride it was. Over eight hours!), left the country for the first time, and went to the place I’ve dreaming about going since I was very small. And I got to do all of that to go over and study theater. The experience was absolutely amazing.

The city was so regal and historical, but had the kind of feel that you could get used to the areas quickly. Once we got off the plane and set foot in London, we took a scenic tour of the city and saw some of the big things like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. We got a little bit of background of the city while navigating the London traffic in a charter bus. As amazing as the big things were, it was enough for me to just see them in the distance while walking around.

I was incredibly happy that this trip was mainly focused on theater, because that’s what I want to do with my life. A familiar professor that I had worked with before was the head of the trip and had done this before, so the trip was amazing. We got to tour many theaters and see the inner workings and behind-the-scenes areas of the theater, and we got to see four different shows while we were over there. Seeing theater in action and even hearing the backstories of some of the people working in the theater really opened my eyes to my career choice and made me realize that it really is possible.

I absolutely fell in love with the city, as I hoped I would. Although I didn’t know half of the group I was going with, as soon as we all met at the airport to get ready to fly to England we began bonding. I truly felt like we all bonded easily and had a ton of fun together, exploring the city and learning about the theaters there. For anyone interested in pursuing theater, or whoever just thoroughly enjoys going to see shows I really recommend this program. You go with a professor who knows exactly what he’s doing and you really get to experience a lot of theater in many ways.

Click here to see what other Study Abroad opportunities are available at SPC.