There hasn't been all that much going on these days short of having to do work and often procrastinating that work. I certainly knew I was getting myself into an academic environment on this program (duh, it's study abroad), but I didn't really think studying is all I'd have time to do. At the same time, I didn't imagine that I'd have a lot of time outside semester breaks to travel extensively, whereas it seems as though others did, so I'm not too terribly let down in that respect (though I do plan to go to Scotland over Halloween with friends, with a few trips to London sprinkled in as well). I just kind of wish I could afford the time to scrape myself out of my room more often, because all the work I've been assigned can be done from anywhere in the world, and I (might) only be in England for a year.

However, I'm working on that last part. I met with my advisor on Wednesday, and I asked her about potentially permanently transferring to UEA. She says she's almost positive it's possible and that more people do it than I might think, which gave me a huge surge of confidence and excitement. I'm going to the International Office on Monday to start asking questions. Perhaps everything could be sorted out sooner than I'd hoped.

I've always counted myself as a pretty down-to-earth sort of person, but I hold more stock in things like gut feelings than I should. My gut feeling since the first few days in London has been that I'm not really going to be living in America again for quite some time, short of winter and summer holidays. I honestly believe that I'm going to finish my degree here (hopefully on schedule, in one more year--if they tell me I have to stay on two years to get a degree, I might reconsider), and then my goal will be finding a job here, which might place me in England for the next five years or so. I see myself shopping in Tesco and Superdrug and Topshop in my mid-twenties rather than Stop & Shop, CVS, and Gap. Short of desperately missing my car and driving, Target, and diners and pizza joints, I can and hopefully will spend the majority of the rest of my life in England, and I think having a degree from a British university (that I like better, that suits my academic needs better, and allows me to live the way I want to) is the gateway to that. We can cross the bridge of "will my future kids go to Wooster?" when we come to it (tee hee).

If I get told that actually, it's quite painless and easy to transfer to UEA permanently, then there's the question of when I actually do it: January 2010 or September 2010? I'm not so bitter towards Dickinson and this program that I feel the need to ditch them the second I get the chance, but since my winter semester at Dickinson isn't paid for yet, I wonder if it would make more sense for me to lose the Dickinson banner sooner rather than later. Then, in place of Dickinson's Humanities 310 course in the spring, I could take up another UEA module that would actually apply to my major and would further me along the course of graduating on my 3.5-year schedule. Academically, it actually makes a lot of sense. I just would be sad to be in any way cut out of the Dickinson group--I would imagine I would still be fully welcome to come to the informal things, like our Thursday pub nights in Norwich, but I'd be sad if I would no longer be invited to the monthly dinners at the Dickinson house and the like. Perhaps that wouldn't be enough to keep me tied to Dickinson for that last semester, but I'd prefer not to have to give up the group dynamic before I might be forced to next year. I'm part of a small group of around 30 people again for the first time since Wooster, and my year so far has been all the better for it. I'm not ready to give that up yet.