Crammed into the kitchen with five high-pitched girls from Wisconsin has made microwaving broccoli a dangerous task. Dangerous for my frayed nerves and possibly dangerous for these girls, who are not even cooking, but laughing, leaning on the counter and gulping up what miniscule portion of space there is in this kitchen that could be described more accurately as a kitchenette, or a crawl space.
"Bludgeoning with an IKEA spatula" is not against program rules, per se, but somehow I've managed to think better of it every time the vivid idea has popped into my head - which has been almost every time I've stepped into our kitchen, crunching my feet on bits of dry pasta, soaking my sleeve on the dripping countertop or finding the girls chilling as they watch the grime coagulate on their dishes.
This quaint vignette from life studying abroad in London is not meant to highlight the inadequacies of AU Abroad, though there are many, or the faults of the organization hosting us here. I understand that space is at a premium in the posh Kensington section of London. What makes the difference when sharing such close quarters is the attitudes of the people you live with.
Even as an impressionable third-grader, I wasn't much for those "inspirational" posters teachers stuck up on the cement block walls with green putty. But I've come to appreciate "Attitude is Everything" over the years. It's especially true in a situation like this one, where every minute spent bemoaning the lack of space, the people you live with or the exchange rate-inflicted unfairness of the "Pound Menu" at McDonald's is another minute swept away into the brimming London gutters. I've wasted 200 words of this column to demonstrate a talent that many students here (myself included) have mastered: bitching.
AU Abroad in London is in a unique situation because it has "transitioned" this semester from one locally based host organization to another. This change has made us the first AU students to experience Foundation for International Education's living, academic and internship programs. It also means that this experience has been quite different from what friends who studied here in the past, and the AU Abroad Web site, had promised. Three people share a room and pay the same as a person living alone. Class and internships run Monday through Friday, leaving little time for travel. There are no group trips. Internship placements have fallen through, and some people have been disappointed in their workplaces.
In other words, we are living in the real world. We were not prepared. Yes, AU Abroad misrepresented the reality of this new program in London. The photographs of group trips and student testimony on the Web site are a bit misleading. Yes, AU Abroad's inept layers of bureaucracy have failed us often. But when is life exactly as advertised? What else were we expecting?
This column should not be read as a warning. Don't be afraid to leave D.C. Study abroad in London, or anywhere, but expect glitches and learn to live with them. Know that perfection - of people, experiences or a place - is a myth. Spend more time learning to love the chaos than complaining, and you will be one step closer to that real world we are all convinced exists somewhere beyond the cramped London kitchen that is AU.
