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H OWA R D PAY N E U N I V E R S I T Y
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOEL JUSTICE
his past spring, I participated in the HPU London Semester study-abroad program and it proved to be the most unique learning experience I have encountered. Initially, I struggled with leaving my friends and family back home. I had not anticipated the difficulty of uprooting myself from the strong, supportive community at Howard Payne, and the first two weeks in London proved very trying. My outlook on the semester slowly began to change when a familiar HPU quality, family atmosphere, took hold. Once I took the time to form meaningful relationships with other students in the program from HPU, HardinSimmons University and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and plug into the unique community, the nature of my semester abroad changed entirely. I discovered the difference between experiencing a city as a tourist and as a resident. Experiences such as early morning conversations over a hot cup of Earl Gray tea in a frigid flat, dodging the
