I haven't written in awhile because there has been nothing to report. I am still recovering from our Easter Break. In fact, I still have the cough that I was struggling with at the end of it. I have my first final tomorrow, and then one on Monday and the 27th. A few of the study abroad students and I are going to London in a week and staying a few nights. It's really sad, as Jansher pointed out, we went as far as the south of Italy, and yet we've seen very little of London and other things in our close proximity. In fact, I've only been to London twice.

Today a representative from San Jose State came to look at the school and further build San Jose's relationship with Hertfordshire. He also wanted to talk to us about the good and bad of our experience here. Nothing is more honest than students that have actually gone through the school system here. Our report was about 90% bad and 10% average. Although I like to think that no one could ever be like me, it was funny to see how different Jan, Stacy, and I are. I'm unimpressed with the location of our school, and often think, if I wanted to be in an agricultural area with nothing to do, I would have stayed in Idaho. However, Stacy was raised in San Jose, so she thinks that the surroundings are a nice change of pace. I was unimpressed with the two inches of snow we had here, and shocked that it was called one of the worst disasters in British history, but Jansher had never seen snow, so he thought that it was amazing. Stacy is a history major, so she hasn't had any trouble picking classes and transferring them back to San Jose, whereas I'm basically taking classes here that are counting for nothing at San Jose State.

We all agreed that really we have learned nothing. But, clearly it works for the English, they have trained professionals that are equivalent in knowledge to those in the States. This school system just doesn't really work for us. The teachers don't seem to teach a lot. It is very strange. After class we always try to tell each other what we learned, and it seems like nothing. The teachers rely on you to learn on your own, yet don't have a text book for the class, tests or quizzes, sample questions, office hours, or any assigned reading... so I don't know where exactly we are supposed to be pulling this information from. It was just kind of nice to talk to someone asking the right questions to help me reflect over the past semester and form an opinion about my time here.

If I did this over again, I would not have come to England. I picked this school based on the notion that I would be fulfilling my Biology requirements here, however, that was not the case when I got here. If I knew that I would have to be taking a massive credit load all senior year to make up for this glitch in plans, I would have traveled to South America (which was my dream freshman year). But what you plan is not always what happens, clearly.

My advice for anyone studying abroad would be that if you plan travel to other countries, you might want to plan any trips you want to take the first month before you go. I waited because I thought I would want to get adjusted first, but when you have to book things about a month before travel and you spend the first few weeks getting adjusted before you even think about leaving, you realize there are few weekends in between then and when you leave. At the meeting, we all agree that as much of a letdown as the school is, being able to travel all over Europe has been amazing. Our slogan at the end of our meeting was "Study abroad. Just do it! Doesn't matter where you go, just make it happen!" England has ended up being the hub for my Euro-experience.

Many people I know that are studying abroad this semester are packing right now to go home. Even some people from our program are leaving as soon as this week. I'm pleased that I still have five weeks in Europe!

Mom countdown: 19 days!!!! My mom is officially coming in 2.5 weeks and I am so excited.

A lot of people have had their parents, friends, or boyfriends come visit while they were here. I've actively discouraged at least two of my friends from the U.S. from coming to visit. I'd just feel bad if they came here on vacation, because there would be nothing for them to do here.