Two Weeks

Woah. Two weeks. 

Two weeks from now, I'll be touching down at Heathrow Airport and beginning a completely new adventure: studying abroad.




An introduction: I'm Sam. Sophomore at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 19 years old and turning 20 on May 23. Double majoring in Drama and English. Originally from Reston, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Now lives in Aspen, Colorado. Enjoys writing, performance of all types, reading, more writing, theatre, hiking, stage management, acting, the outdoors, writing, directing, horseback riding, traveling, eating, drinking, breathing, existing, being, and did I mention writing?


A month in London at the end of a semester seems off, no? Well, that isn't the case at my hippie dippy hipster liberal arts college, a school some consider the "Harvard of the Rocky Mountain West," and others have never heard of, believing it to be a community college upon hearing its name. Colorado College is unique in its approach to learning. Instead of the traditional semester or quarter plan, CC utilizes the Block Plan, an intense academic schedule that challenges students by TAKING ONLY ONE COURSE AT A TIME. One class, known as a "block," lasts three and a half weeks. Five days a week for three hours a day (at the very least, for the most part) students are in class. Labs for laboratory-based courses meet in the afternoon. Once the 3.5 weeks have passed, we get a 4 1/2 day break to do whatever we want, known as "Block Break." I like to believe that the masochism of the Block Plan calls for the hedonism of Block Break. I certainly have had some memorable ones: staying in a condo with 17 other people in Breckenridge and going skiing, backpacking in New Mexico, going to Denver, among others. Because we are only taking one class at a time, classes that are taught off-campus and/or internationally are extremely easy to find. I've had friends jet off to Chile, Hollywood, Russia, Chicago, Taiwan, and more, only to return the next month. So, when I found out about this course, a Drama class entitled "Drama Away" in which you do nothing but read, watch, and write about plays, I nearly fainted from excitement. AND IN LONDON. WHAT.


But that's not quite everything, fine folks of the Blogosphere, Facebook, and any and all other social networkers. This fall, after my adventures in London have long been over for an entire summer, I will be setting out on an even bigger trip: Semester at Sea.


Semester at Sea is an academic program, run by the Institute for Shipboard Education and the University of Virginia, in which 500-700 college students enroll in classes of any kind on a ship and circumnavigate the globe. My voyage will take me to Canada, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, and Florida. I'm excited? THAT'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT. 

So, I suppose 2011 will be known for my travels. More importantly than that, though, is what I will learn from these travels. Will I come back and recognize the person I left as? Will I return and feel the same? I'm going to guess the former is true. How could someone possibly feel the same after spending a month in a huge city in a foreign land and then sailing around the entire planet? I feel bad for those who don't juice every experience for everything they can possibly give.


Admittedly, I am thoroughly nervous. Not so much for London, because it's an English-speaking city and I have friends on the trip with me. Semester at Sea is what freaks me out. To say I'm well-traveled is somewhat true. I've been all around the US of A, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. That's more than a lot of people my age, but Semester at Sea really expands upon my already hefty list.




More than anything else, though, I'm realizing one thing in particular: I am SO lucky!