{"id":10576,"date":"2015-05-07T12:32:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T17:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=10576"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:33","slug":"coons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=10576","title":{"rendered":"Why Carolina? Because Chapel Hill is a gateway to the world"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Carolyn<\/a>
Carolyn Coons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My heart swells every time I return to Chapel Hill from a break. I can\u2019t help but smile at the Old Well or stop for a moment to take in the beauty of Wilson Library.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come to have the same reaction to the sights of my new campus: King\u2019s College London.<\/p>\n

While walking over Waterloo Bridge, I still get giddy at the sight of Big Ben. I sometimes have to catch my breath as I walk along the Thames \u2014 and not because I\u2019m out of shape (although that probably doesn\u2019t help).<\/p>\n

I chose to study abroad in London because I\u2019ve always wanted to live there. Probably stemming from an early childhood obsession with Harry Potter, my desire to move to the United Kingdom never faded, even as my belief in Hogwarts and Diagon Alley did. Fulfilling my dream, I came to study at King\u2019s in early January of 2015.<\/p>\n

It was undoubtedly one of the best decisions I have made while at Carolina. King\u2019s and UNC could probably cease distributing any and all promotional materials when I return to campus, because anyone who will listen or who is unfortunate enough to sit next to me at the dining hall will hear me gabbing about how much I enjoyed studying abroad. UNC has afforded me the incredible opportunity to study and live alongside regular King\u2019s students.<\/p>\n

I have had my moments of homesickness and fear, but I\u2019m confident I will come to forget those moments of insecurity over the years. My lasting memories will be of exploring London and the countryside with other study abroad students, hanging out in my floor\u2019s disgustingly dirty kitchen with my flat mates, and traveling to visit my UNC family across Europe.<\/p>\n

Study abroad has been eye opening\u2014 anyone will tell you that\u2014 but when I look back the thing I will remember most of all is fun. Having so much fun I can\u2019t adequately express it in a blog post \u2014 it\u2019s one of those \u201cyou had to be there\u201d things.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it feels like studying abroad for one semester didn\u2019t give me enough time, but then I think of UNC again and I\u2019m torn. These two vastly different but equally divine places have become home, and I guess I should just count myself lucky to have studied at both.<\/p>\n

By Carolyn Coons<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Carolyn Coons \u201916 is a history and journalism double major from Charlotte, North Carolina. She was the former editor-in-chief of <\/em>Blue & White and a writer at <\/em>The Daily Tar Heel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolyn Coons \u201916 is a history and journalism double major from Charlotte, N.C., who writes about her time studying abroad at King’s College London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-programs","category-social-sciences","category-undergraduate-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47264,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions\/47264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}