Eliza Brown ’12 has returned from her fall semester studying abroad in London an “entirely different person.” While there, she discovered that even beyond socialized medicine and the fact that people drive on the other side of the road, “there is really, like, a whole different way of life in Europe that’s just so superior to America.” She frequently abused her ability to legally buy alcohol at age twenty, spending much of her time in “pubs” drinking “pints” and having deep meandering “conversations” with her “mates.” Though by most objective accounts, very few of the things she did while on the other side of the pond were remarkable, Brown ’12 describes herself as “totally worldly” after her incredible globe-trotting semester. Brown also declared herself a “native Londoner” despite having only spent two weekends of her entire semester actually in London, making good use of “Ohmigod, like, Ryan Air.”
As the first American to go to Europe and find herself, Brown ’12 plans on writing a series of essays about her experience based on the Tumblr she maintained while conquering the uncharted land (only places with an internet connection, though). Expected highlights include details on her dalliances with a series of “footballers” she brought back to her flat, a series of Facebook profile pictures of Brown making a kissy face in front of various famous European monuments, as well as the unmitigated joy that can only come from buying a Burberry raincoat in the city of its creation, because “like, you just have to experience a place fully in order to get the most out of it.”
After spending much of her parents’ money on her unprecedented adventure (a problem exacerbated by the unfavorable exchange rates), Brown ’12 plans on finding her first campus job this spring in order to recuperate from being cut off from any further largesse. She also plans to get funding from the Woodrow Wilson school to do “thesis research” in London over intersession, because hey, she can.
– AT ’12 (who is currently abroad)