Moving across the Atlantic Ocean as a 16-year-old can have its stresses, but it can also lend itself to a new perspective only found through seeing the world.
Jo Lohman, a junior at Iola High School, spent the fall semester studying near London, England as part of a plan that began in eighth grade. In preparation, Jo took some online classes she would be missing at IHS while studying abroad.
Then, as her junior year was starting up in August, Lohman flew to England to stay with her mother’s college friend and study at a local private school. Lohman said her experience was surprisingly different from what she had expected, despite the fact she didn’t have to learn a new language.
“It was kind of scary, but I was also excited,” Lohman said during an interview with The Register. “It was a lot different from here, you’d be surprised. I mean, other than that they speak English.”
Lohman’s temporary home was in Orpington, Kent, a suburb of London. There she lived with Cori Smee, her mother’s friend, and Smee’s husband and baby.
For her studies, she attended a private school in Chiselhurst, where she wore a uniform and went to all of the classes an English student would attend. She said assimilating into the environment wasn’t too different from making friends in the United States, and she began to connect with her fellow students in a few weeks. Her class even took a field trip to a local farm for team building exercises.
“It was nice, we probably wouldn’t do anything like that here,” Lohman said.
While at school, she took P.E. courses, “b-techs and maths,” psychology and chemistry. She filled up her time with her studies, and getting together with a few of her new friends. She said they were particularly intrigued by her American background, as well as her Kansas accent.
“They loved the whole American accent thing,” she said. “They made me say a lot of things.”
LIVING NEAR the metropolis of London, a city of 8 million, also provided excitement.
“I could go anywhere, practically,” Lohman said. “I could take ‘the tube,’ bus or train.”
She said she traveled to London often to visit Big Ben, the parliament and Charles Darwin’s home. She also had the opportunity to visit Germany and Greece during her time abroad.
She said the attitude and pace of the big city was something she wasn’t used to, and it made her appreciate her home’s feel.
“People here are so friendly, you really don’t realize it until you go somewhere big,” she said.
She said she became attached to some of her new British friends; but making those friends was one of the most difficult parts of her journey. A Kansan implanted into Britain has its situational difficulties.
“Toward the beginning I was pretty homesick,” Lohman said. “But toward the end I was sad to leave.”
She returned across the pond in December, with a fresh perspective on her hometown and herself.
“I learned a lot about myself,” she said. “I love to travel, you get to see a lot of things you wouldn’t ever see here. It made me realize how fortunate I am.”
ACROSS THE POND – Lohman finds fresh perspective in England
