Category: England

You will find that Americans will somehow still follow you to every corner of the planet, just when you are trying to get away from the US. Even worse, you will find people you know and it’ll make your eye twitch – because how on Earth did I find this person here? 

I say this because last weekend, I went with my aunt to see the Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty’s Theater. It was my first time seeing a musical in the West End. I’ve never pictured myself as a theater enjoyer, but that’s probably because I’ve never been in a city where theater is all that popular. Really, I picture poorly-produced high school shows that make you cringe. 

I was flipping through the program I got before the show started, and lo and behold: a swing cast member who studied at the Lamont School of Music at DU. Excuse me? How could I possibly have found a DU alum in this particular showing of the Phantom of the Opera, on this day, at this time? I didn’t know that our music school was that good (no offense to any Lamonters reading this). He will never know that I was in the crowd watching his show, but it was weird to think that this guy walked around the same campus that I did, thousands of miles away. 

But West End theater is no joke. Everything from the costumes to the rapid changes on set were something to behold. The giant chandelier that gets hoisted into the air and then comes crashing down onto the stage, the 2+ hours that are required for the Phantom’s makeup alone, the thousands of beads on every dress and suit are really something to see. It’s peak human creativity; refreshing to see in a time when AI can now “sing” a cover of an Elvis Presley song as Michael Jackson and auto-generated images are everywhere. 

I have exactly one month left abroad, and I want to tear out my hair thinking about it. I’m having fun, living in a big city, and frankly, I’ve accommodated very well to living in London. Going back means that I will have to be dragged back into the real world with no public transportation and no more fun accents. So now I feel the pressure to do as much as possible (no matter how financially irresponsible) before I return. Despite the fact that I’ve already been trying to see the city as best I can, it feels like I haven’t even explored a fraction of it.

Maybe that’s something that just comes with living in a place as big as London. Things are always changing. The holiday season makes this especially apparent, as the giant angels floating above Oxford Street just seemed to show up overnight. When did they even find time to hang them up? There’s always traffic, and the old infrastructure isn’t the most friendly to modernized Christmas decorations. Also, Christmas markets have been popping up all over the city. Leicester Square, Southbank, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Old Spitalfields, London Bridge. When am I even supposed to find the time to visit them all? On the bright side (or rather, the dark side), it gets pitch-black at 5pm, so all the decorations light up early. 

Thank you again for reading,

Alexandra

I spent the last week toting my cheap plastic carry-on and backpack around Geneva, Zurich, and Barcelona. The whole trip was planned a little last-minute; I had no idea that my program had a “reading week” where there was no class and just gives you time to complete some midterm projects. Like most other students, I immediately thought that I should take advantage of the cheap flights out of London and head to mainland Europe, so I planned the whole thing with help from my parents sort of last-minute. Originally, I had wanted to go with some other people, but everyone seemed to have plans already, or there was too much coordination that needed to happen, so I just shoved everything in my bags and headed down to Heathrow by myself. 

Originally, I hadn’t thought that I would enjoy travelling solo as much as I would travelling with someone else. But, my overwhelming curiosity about the delicacies of Swiss chocolate and fondue and if Spaniard Spanish is that different from Latin American Spanish got the better of me. Both are beautiful countries, but I’d rather focus on some things I learned from travelling alone instead of just telling you that yes, there are beautiful mountains in Switzerland, and that no, you cannot ever escape clueless American tourists in Barcelona. 

There are two main things I learned from this trip.

One, push yourself to do things that you’re curious about, even if you’re alone. 

I came into study abroad wanting to exercise my free will, and I think I have become significantly better at doing so. You will not always have people to do things with you. Yes, it’s nice to have a plus one to go and do something, but it should never become a crutch. Since I’m an only child, you would think that I am perfectly used to doing everything alone, but this isn’t exactly true. I did things with my parents, my friends, family; certainly not going on an international trip by myself. The main thing is that when you are by yourself, making mistakes that are small seem a lot bigger when you’re alone. For me, if I’m with a friend, I can pretty easily laugh things off, but it can be a lot harder when I’m alone. Something I’ve found that helps me just go out and do things alone is to start with manageable small things, like going on a walk in the park or going to a coffee shop for an overpriced drink. Every time you avoid these little discomforts, you’re only reinforcing the belief that you can’t handle it. Don’t think about it too hard.

Truly, people do not care about you and are not thinking about you as much as you think. A plus one is nice to have, but it shouldn’t become a crutch – there’s nothing stopping you from going and doing something you would normally do with a friend, just by yourself. For me, this mostly applied to the anxiety of eating alone at a restaurant. You don’t have to awkwardly pretend that you’ve just been stood up by a date when you eat alone. Order a drink, read something, or just people-watch. The restaurant is getting your money anyway, so there’s no reason for them to be upset with you for existing. Taking up space is not a crime, so don’t be afraid to do so.

Or, think of solo travel as a matter of convenience – you don’t have to spend any time negotiating your itinerary with anyone. If you see something you’d like to do, you can just do it without someone in your ear saying “I’m hungry”, “let’s go back to the hotel”, “I don’t really want to do that, but okay”.

Two, be a responsible and considerate tourist, no matter where you go. 

In London, it’s actually quite hard to feel like a tourist sometimes, unless you are in a hotspot like Borough Market or Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. The city is just so big and dense that you get lost in the sea of people. Also, as an American, speaking English makes the city easy to navigate. Besides, I live here now! So I’m not exactly a tourist anymore. 

But in Switzerland and Spain, tourism is a lot more obvious. I’m going to take a second to hate on my fellow Americans. I find that social media tourism has become incredibly common nowadays with people my age. It is more typical now to find restaurants and attractions on TikTok, or even worse, use AI to give you an itinerary (note: I actually despise AI. It makes you a secondhand thinker once you start abusing it, not to mention the environmental impact it has). I grew up with my parents using Rick Steves books to get a sense of what to do, and I largely did the same to plan this trip. I went to the library after class the week before I left, and picked up two travel guides for Switzerland and Spain, respectively. In the library, I just sat and took some notes on them. I quite liked the physical act of searching for what to do in these other countries, giving me the sense of being a 1700s explorer (colonizer) planning out a route on some poorly-drawn map. The walking tours and restaurant recommendations I found were delightful. On social media, people are often paid to promote certain spots, and they are usually overpriced because they sit on main streets or pricey areas. What I found, both in the books and just wandering around, were spots that are a little quieter, or busy with locals (meaning: they are the real deal). Why only subject yourself to predesigned spectacles? Travelling, to me, should be seeing the sights, yes, but also seeing how people live in another country. It gives you perspective on how you live your own life in comparison. 

Anyway, English sounds like an alien tongue to me after French in Geneva, German in Zurich, and Spanish in Barcelona. I had gotten so used to speaking Spanish in Spain (my mom is Bolivian, so I am proud to be fluent) that I looked at the poor British Airways flight attendant like she was an alien when she said “Hello, welcome aboard!” 

Thank you again for reading!

Alexandra