As I write this, I should be working on Calculus 2 problems. However, the plane I am taking to London leaves tomorrow evening. Currently, I am sitting in a hotel room in Tariva, Portugal. My mother is with me, and we have been in Portugal for almost a week now. We are here as a precursor to my studying abroad at the London School of Economics for six weeks this summer, as a small break prior to the intensive work, and an adjustment to the five hour time difference between Europe and the United States. Portugal is absolutely unbelievable.

It was too hard to choose from all the pictures I have taken, but these are a few of my favorite. As you can see, it is far too easy to fall in love with Portugal. However, my time here is coming to an end. My mother and I are taking a boat tour tomorrow to hopefully see dolphins prior to taking off from the Faro, Portugal airport for London, England. 

While I have two suitcases full of personal items for my six weeks living in London, I thought I was prepared, until I received a call yesterday from my bank inquiring about a few purchases. As it turns out, someone hacked into my debit card and tried to make purchases at Family Dollar in Georgia. Calling customer service from Portugal was no easy task, and I had to use the hotel front desk phone to talk to my bank. Fortunately, my bank closed my card account, and they are sending a new debit card to my home address, for my parents to send to my accommodation in London. However, my family and I are both nervous about sending a debit card overseas, so I may have to use my credit card and pay for cash advances if necessary. 

I mentioned I should be working on Calculus 2 problems. I am enrolled in online Calculus 2 through IU East to fulfill graduate school prerequisites in my plan to pursue of a PhD in Economics upon graduating, and this online course finishes a week prior to my second course at the London School of Economics ending. I am taking two courses at the London School of Economics- Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory, for graduate school prerequisites and my Economics minor, and Introduction to Behavioral Economics, a personal topic of interest in Economics. These courses last three weeks each, with a total of 54 hours of contact time with the professor. This amounts to 18 hours a week of class. My online Calculus 2 course is 5 credit hours, and managing two courses at once, both intensive, will be very difficult to manage. Not to mention that I fly back into the United States two days before the fall semester of my senior year starts. 

I heard from a student who attended the London School of Economics last year that his roommate took an intermediate economics course and he had homework every night. I wonder if this will be the same for me, and if I will even have time to explore London and Europe like I so want to. Although I have doubts, anything is better than sitting all day in my apartment alone working Calculus problems. Needless to say, there's something about being across the world that makes life a whole lot more interesting. I, for one, cannot wait to step off the plane into England, and experience a whole other culture and way of living, while maintaining my responsibilities of course. Until then, working Calculus problems and packing await...