Studying abroad is an amazing experience: getting to see new places and study in different cultures for months at a time, experiencing all another country has to offer. This was the experience of Ms. Brooke Parks, an English II teacher, who studied at the University of London for a semester during her time in college.
Ms. Parks spent h
er childhood dreaming of travelling to Europe, a dream she shared with her grandmother.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamt of travelling in Europe, because I grew up sitting on my grandmother’s lap pouring over picture books of European castles and forests and countrysides, so I developed a dream very early on of wanting to travel the world, and I wanted to start in Europe!” Ms. Parks said.
After taking a year off after high school to go to Europe, Ms. Parks attended University of Texas and studied abroad in the University of London.
“The University of Maryland was advertising their study abroad program in the English Department,” Ms. Parks said. “I went to the University of London through the University of Maryland, and it was really very cool. I took a full load that included contemporary British literature, criminology, and theater – but the theater and criminology classes really stuck with me, because in the theatre class we got to go to a live performance every week, from Broadway, to off-off Broadway, to experimental theater – that was a real treat. And then, with criminology, we did a research project and I actually wound up meeting an ex-criminal and got to interview him for my research paper for that class. It was fascinating!”
Yes, that’s right, Ms. Parks met and interviewed a real-life criminal.
“It was really very fortuitous, as I was doing research on criminals, and at a pub near my flat in Kensington, my flatmates and I all wound up meeting this older gentleman and got to be friends with him. And that older gentleman turned out to be a reformed burglar!” Ms. Parks said. “So I was taking criminology, and once I knew him better, I asked if he would allow me to interview him, and he did! He had even been a burglar of Princess Margaret’s jewels, so that was rather shocking! It was very unexpected and serendipitous that as I was doing research on criminals I actually met a real, live, reformed burglar!”
Ms. Parks had quite the experience in the United Kingdom, having a hard time finding a job and having to travel across the city to get to her classes – but she also had opportunities to travel in the UK, seeing little towns off the beaten path.
“I wound up having all kinds of adventures, trying to get to class without any money, and trying to find a job without a green card, so that was very, I guess I could say Dickens-esque,” Ms. Parks said. “I had lots of adventures, and I got to go down and see Cornwall; it was gorgeous, and we got to stay in a little place on the ocean with a whole bunch of my English friends, which was a lot of fun.”
Ms. Parks noticed many differences between living in London and living in Texas.
“Everything is smaller – the refrigerators are very small, so you go to the market daily, and I really liked that. You tend to be cold – everything is a little more drafty, so you layer-dress, even in the house: I had my fingerless gloves and my hat and my scarf on in the flat!” Ms. Parks recalled. “You walk everywhere and take tubes everywhere; you only drove if you were going to be going out of town. I think that’s true for a lot of people there, driving isn’t an everyday occurrence like it is here – and because of that it lends itself to knowing your neighbors more and having more interactions with strangers, and more adventures in general because you’re out in the world, not just in your insulated car, going from Point A to Point B everyday.”
Ms. Parks also faced some struggles with food while in the United Kingdom.
“As I was struggling to get a job, I ran out of money and developed a fear of going hungry. And, out of my fear, every time food presented itself, I would eat 2-3 times more than I would normally eat, because I didn’t know if I would eat the next day,” Ms. Parks said. “So the great irony of it was, out of my fear of going hungry, I gained forty pounds! Because every day food presented itself, either at school where they would have some type of reception for a guest speaker or the study abroad students, or friends would have parties, or I’d be asked on a date, so everywhere I went there was food.”
Ms. Parks’ fear also caused her to have some pretty hilarious dates.
“One time on a date, I asked for an extra basket of bread. I had a big coat with huge pockets and I took all the rolls – I didn’t even care what my date thought! – and stuffed them in my pockets! This was definitely a Dickens-esque moment,” Ms. Parks told. “And then I couldn’t afford to buy new clothes, so I would have to squeeze into my clothes, and there was, at one point, one date where I couldn’t sit down; I had to stand up the whole date, or kind of lounge with my legs stretched out, because I could not move, my pants were so tight! To get into them I had to lay on the bed and pull them up, or jump into them! When I finally got a little job at a pub in far Northern London, I used my first paycheck to buy a couple of larger pieces of clothing.”
Though she had some tough times, Ms. Parks will never forget her semester in London.
“One of the big lessons I had to learn was to never operate on fear; to always have faith, even in little things, like where your next meal is going to come from – and that was my experience! It was one of the best experiences of my life,” Ms. Parks said. “The only downfall was that I gained forty pounds!”
