Studying abroad is something that every college-aged average Joe and Sue wants to do. 

 

Going to a European country is in itself the greatest scenario for any underage individual that wants to pay for an overpriced cider and not get kicked out of a drinking establishment. But is studying abroad all it’s cracked up to be? 

 

Well, to answer that question, I present to you “Murphy’s Law” — anything that can go wrong will go wrong. 

 

Going to a different country on a flight from the United States to Europe is like being in charge of babysitting the young second cousin in your estranged extended family. You don’t really know him that well, he has an accent for some reason and he makes you strangely uncomfortable. As a positive though, if you put him in front of an iPad, everything suddenly becomes okay. This is essentially how my flight on British Airways was. 

 

From Logan Airport to London Heathrow, I was in a seat too small for my capitalist-American-burger-eating rear and my impressive genetic structure that allows me to be over six feet tall did not allow my legs to stretch out very far. But what made it all worth it was the screen attached to my seat that played movies. For my six hour flight, all I did was watch movies. Now that you, the reader, have more insight into my flight you may be asking yourself, “Gee wiz, Alex, it seems like you’re doing a lot of complaining. You introduced Murphy’s Law and nothing went wrong except for you not working out all summer so you could barely fit in the plane’s seat.” Well reader, I’m going to stop you right there because not everything did go wrong, and, in fact, me introducing the concept of Murphy’s Law in Act 1 of my article was merely a red herring. 

 

I actually had a great curry chicken dinner on the flight and watched “Isle of Dogs” and “Avengers: Infinity War” for the sixty-fourth time in a row. What occurred after we landed became the turning point in which things started to go wrong. The other portion of our group going to London was flying out of JFK and their flight was delayed so we sat for another five hours waiting for the JFK folks to arrive in London…*cough* Murphy’s Law *cough.* Once everyone was situated in our new home of London, England, the darkness of the dreaded “Jet-Lag” fell on our group. Something that I, to the moment I am writing this, am dealing with. While you may think these are all inconveniences and tough situations, I wouldn’t trade my experience so far for anything. 

 

Studying abroad may be something every college kid wants to do, but it’s not just about going out and purchasing material tourist trinkets. For my group and I, it is all about living through these experiences and finding the comedy in all of it.