The Beacon Abroad

By Laura Frazier, Staff Commentary -- frazier13@up.edu

"Are you wearing a purple scarf?"

I would later put it together what that question had been, but thanks to a heavy British accent, in that moment I had no clue what I had just been asked on the phone.

So I spun around, looking for wherever the voice had come from. The London Heathrow airport was huge, and here I was searching for the random person I would be living with for the next three months. Thankfully, my new host mom saw me first.

I couldn't believe her house when we pulled up. Quaint would be the polite way to describe it, but extremely small is more fitting. In a neighborhood of brick houses, 31 Potter Street is identical to the one next to it.

Inside, I struggled to haul my huge suitcase up the very narrow stairway and around the very narrow corners. I soon realized that tight-fitting quarters are to be expected. The AHA London Centre, where I take my classes, is four skinny floors high and sandwiched between two other buildings just like it. I can tell that a rapidly growing population and not enough open space resulted in all buildings going up, as opposed to out.

A month later, accents and small spaces are only some of the million things to which I have adjusted. London is spectacular and completely different from living in Portland. I am amazed with the variety London has to offer. There is every kind of ethnicity and culture. Each one has a presence in the city: Brick Lane is known for its Indian food and community, Chinatown is constantly busy and the Portobello road market is bursting with Scottish crafts and old American high school lettermen jackets. And of course the Londoners, in their pea coats and scarves, are everywhere. In such an international city, I can experience pieces of so many different culture, and I am thankful for the opportunity.

Chaos dominates this city, pushing me past the point of ever slowing down. Between the rush of the morning commute, with people squished into every corner of the tube carriages and the night scene that never dies down, it seems as if people never stop moving.

But I love it. I thrive on how hectic it is. At times Portland can't offer me anything, but London offers me everything.

I am in constant awe of the history that permeates from every wall. Around the corner from AHA is the house Charles Dickens lived in. I can see the Tower of London and Big Ben across the river Thames. Some buildings still host scars from the 1940 bombing of London. In the center of Camden town is an old graveyard that was transformed to a public park when it was threatened by the growing city. I love London for all the stories it can tell me.

It seems impossible to compare UP to school in London, yet in some small ways their features blur together. I am still required to do my homework, though the city is more tempting than probably anything else could be. But the beauty in studying here lies in the chances to live what I am learning about. Never before have I been so immersed. After studying the complex workings of British Parliament, I am off to see the live debate. I can listen to a lecture on Enlightenment era art, then go to the British National Gallery and see all the paintings in the textbook. After reading a Shakespeare play, I am lucky enough to then see it on the stage. Yet still the overall concept is the same. I have great professors to learn from and motivated classmates to work with.

Though I hardly have time to miss anything from home, I do envy the simplicity of Portland. The massive size of London can be overwhelming at times, and I have found myself missing how manageable Portland is. And I miss the view of Mount Hood and the green grass of Cathedral Park down by the river. I miss casually playing intramural sports and hanging out in The Commons.

But all of those things will be there when I get back. For now, I couldn't be happier in any city but London.

Laura Frazier is a sophomore English and history major. She can be contacted at frazier13@up.edu