Cambridge

Oh my, where to start! Being able to go to England and study at the University of Cambridge for six weeks was an experience that I will never forget. However, like anything in life, it had its ups and downs. But overall I had a wonderful time and would do it again in a heart beat!

How going on this study abroad came to be is quite the story in itself and one that I actually love! In October or November of 2018 I was looking into going on a study abroad so Ty and I went to the study abroad fair at UVU. We visited all the booths to learn what UVU had to offer and the one that I was most interested in was one through the business school going to Scotland for 3 weeks. We saw the booth for the Cambridge one but I wasn’t super interested in it. So I was looking into doing the Scotland study abroad but ultimately decided not to do it because the dates for it were not lining up with me being able to take classes over the summer as I only had a few classes left of my degree that I wanted to finish over summer. I was bummed that I wasn’t going to go on a study abroad, but was fine with it as I would still be able to finish my classes when I wanted to. I put it out of my mind and moved on in life.

Then in March of 2019 Ty randomly texted me ( him texting me was not random, but what he said was.) He told me that he really felt like I should go on a study abroad and had looked into it and found that the only applications still open was the one for Cambridge. He gave me his reasoning for why he thought I should do it and everything he said were things that I had been struggling with but hadn’t told him about yet. So when I got home that day I started looking into the program.

Long story short, I ultimately decided it was something I wanted to do (obviously). Since it was already towards the end of March I had to get going on the application and everything involved in attending the program right away. It was a stressful few months to get everything figured out, but was definitely worth it in the end.

One of the things that we had to figure out was if we were going to have Ty come visit me or not. We really wanted him to be able to because it would be an awesome experience that we wanted to be able to share together, and because we didn’t want to be apart from each other for so long. At first we decided that we wouldn’t have him come because it was going to add so much more to our already hefty bill. However, we ultimately decide it was a wonderful experience that he may not get again, or at least for a long time, and that we would regret it if we didn’t have him come. And it would give us something to look forward to while being apart.

Ty dropped me off at the airport on July 6, 2019 and that was one of the hardest goodbyes I have ever given! I was trying so hard not to sob in the middle of LAX, but it was really hard! Trying to shove my emotions down I had to just walk away… I took a plane to Detroit where I caught my connecting flight to London. I was so nervous because I had never been on an International flight and never been on a flight longer than three and a half hours. I just didn’t know what to expect.

I was fortunate enough to be sitting by someone that was headed to London for a study abroad as well. (He was doing a different program, but it was still nice to meet someone that I was able to relate to.) Muhsin, my seat mate, and I became friends and he was kind enough to help me navigate the airport once we landed before we went our separate ways. I then had to take a train from Kings cross station, where Muhsin and I split up, to Cambridge. I almost took the wrong train, but luckily did not! I was so tired and just ready to be where I was supposed to so that I didn’t have to stress about getting lost any more. Once I was finally in Cambridge, I had to take a taxi as close as I could get to the College I was staying at ( Pembroke), but due to a festival going on I was dropped off a few blocks away so I had to haul all my luggage down the cobblestone side walk and was seriously about to cry with every step because I was so exhausted and overwhelmed.

When I finally stepped through the huge wood door to the courtyard of Pembroke College I was so relieved! However, I then had to find my room. And although finding it was not hard, getting to it was. My room was up the most narrow, steep stairwell I think I have ever seen! And, I had to haul all my heavy luggage up three flights of stairs while I am so exhausted and emotional!! Getting into my room was such a happy moment! And then I was pleased to find that I had a gorgeous view of the clock tower from my room and I felt so blessed.

That evening and the next day were filled with orientations and getting to know the town and other people on the program. The first week was so fun to explore the town of Cambridge, start my classes, and meet so many people from around the world! After the first week and the newness of being there wore off, things got hard. It was so hard to be away from Ty for so long. Before this trip, the most we had been apart was three days. Before I left I was not expecting it to be so hard because we were long distance while we dated and were engaged. I guess after four years of marriage and spending nearly every day together, it gets harder to be apart. The first week I found myself always turning to say something to Ty about all the new things I was seeing and experiencing, only to realize he wasn’t there, he was 5,000 miles away, and probably asleep because of the time difference.

Week three and four I spent a lot of time just on Pembroke campus writing papers. Those were the hardest weeks because it had been so long since I had seen Ty and writing papers makes me really stressed. I felt so alone at times. Luckily, by the end of week four I was starting to get excited because it was getting close to Ty coming!

The weekends leading up to Ty getting there I usually would go somewhere with people I had met. I went to London, Bath, Ely, and Granchester. Bath was such a cute charming town, I loved it! Ely had a very cool Cathedral, but not much else. Granchester was walking distance from Cambridge and I went there for tea-time one Saturday, it was fun to see more of the town and the beauty of the country. I was also able to go down to the London Temple and do a session with a group of members that were in the program as well. This may have been one of my favorite parts of my whole trip!

The day Ty got in, he flew into London so I took the train early in the morning to meet him at the airport. It was so fun to have Ty there with me! After he got off the plane, we headed to Windsor to check out the castle and got there literally as they were closing the gate for the day, we felt so blessed to be able to make it just in the nick of time. That was a very neat experience as neither of us had seen a real castle before. That weekend, we stayed in London in an airbnb and tried to squeeze as many touristy things into those two days as we could!

Saturday we started the day by going to the Tower of London. This was such a cool place and it had so much history to it. The Crown Jewels are also held there. Seeing the Crown Jewels was probably my favorite thing to see. There was a moving sidewalk in front of them to help prevent crowding and I made Ty go on them three times with me because I just want to stair at them for hours. Although we only spent a few hours at the Tower, we could have spent all day there if we had the time.

We then went to St. Paul’s Cathedral and were only able to be there for a very short amount of time, but it was so cool!

We then went to Westminster Abbey and got there right before they closed as well. It was incredible to see just how many people are berried there. I enjoyed seeing Steven Hawking’s plaque indicating where he lays to rest.

After lunch we went to Churchill’s war rooms and that place was so cool! It started as a museum with different artifacts of his and information about what was going on at the time. I was exhausted at this point so I found a place to rest while Ty did some exploring. The museum then turns into rooms that are set up to look like what they would have been like at the time. Seeing how small the space was and how many people were living down there at the time makes us grateful for the space we have in our apartment even though it is small, at least we don’t have to share it with anyone else. By the time we were getting to the end we did have to rush a little as it was getting close to closing.

After the war rooms, we ended the day at the Shard where we were able to get a beautiful view from above the city.

Sunday we were able to attend a ward in Kensington that had the most unique chapel Ty and I have seen. It was a very neat experience and something we are grateful we did! We then spent the day trying to hit as many museums as we could. We were able to go to the National Gallery, the British Museum, and the Natural History Museum. We had to make speed tours through each of them so we could make it to all of them, but it was so fun and worth seeing all of them. We just wish we had more time to see everything.

Sunday evening we took the train back to Cambridge were we spent the rest of the week. It was so fun to have Ty there with me and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to show him everything I had been doing for the past 5 weeks. It was a pretty relaxing week so it was nice to feel like we had a little vacation together even though I still had classes and papers to write. We went to some museums and a botanical garden in Cambridge that week and mostly made sure we ate a lot of gelato!

Ty flew home on Friday August 16. I had my last paper to turn in that day and a final formal dinner that night. Although I wish he could have been there with me I still had a good time spending the last night with friends I had made throughout the program. After the dinner a big group of us went out dancing and I ended up not getting home until around 3 am. It was weird, but fun, to feel like a partying college student my very last night of my college career.

Saturday morning I just took it easy and got all packed up. I then traveled into London near the airport where two friends and I rented an Airbnb for the night. Sunday morning I woke up early and headed to the airport for my long flight home.

When I finally made it back to Utah everything felt so weird and I could not figure out what my reality was for a few days. But I will always be grateful for the time I was able to be in England, it was a dream come true to visit Europe and to live abroad!