“Stay safe, I love you”. Texts like this poured into my phone from friends and family while sitting at the airport the night of June 3rd awaiting the flight to London. The heartbreaking news of the attacks around the London Bridge area was alarming to say the least. When traveling abroad, safety is the most important thing these days. It has always been stressed to me since being a child to stay in groups, be cautious and aware of your surroundings and try to get a sense of the area as fast as possible to realize what places you probably shouldn’t hang around. But with all that said, you can never prepare for something like what happened in London that night.

Of course it’s been on my mind, along with the professors and peers I am traveling with but we refuse to let it change the way we look at this trip. We are doing everything we can to ensure that this study abroad experience will not only be a safe one, but a great one. This, being my first trip to London, I can definitely say that I am so excited to see what the city has to offer. Just from the minor sightseeing we did today, it is a beautiful place and I am so glad to have this opportunity as a UMass Lowell Graphic Design student.