{"id":1411,"date":"2023-10-10T19:12:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T19:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2023-10-10T19:12:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T19:12:17","slug":"finding-luther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/2023\/10\/10\/finding-luther\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Luther"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

The first time I visited central London was just days after I arrived. It was that day that I experienced a very strange phenomenon. I was standing right in the middle of Parliament Square, towered over on all sides by attractions of mass interest– Big Ben, the London Eye, the statue of Churchill, double-decker buses galore. I felt an overwhelming sense of awe and appreciation for the mass doses of culture I was taking in all at once. And yet, something crept in from the back of my head. A twinge of uneasiness. It was odd. I couldn’t understand what my own body was feeling. I am exactly where I want to be, so why should I feel any bit of unrest? Looking back on it later, I realized that what I was feeling was some brand of imposter syndrome. It stung to love a culture so much, but to feel I’d never truly be a part of it because of my heritage; like I would always just be an observer on the outside, a tourist in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later and I haven’t felt that feeling since. It’s come to the point where, at least when I’m on campus, I feel comfortably assimilated. I’ve made my one-person dorm room feel a bit more like home by fancying it up with posters and books and things of my interest. I’ve grown close enough to my flat mates that I (hardly) don’t even notice their British accents anymore. Though, they often remind me of my own background whenever I say phrases like “dude” and y’all.” I think their fascination towards American culture has actually fueled a pride for my country that I didn’t have before. I’ve walked around campus enough times to familiarize myself with its geography, which isn’t to say that I’m used to its beauty yet. Every time I walk to class, I get to take in all sorts of awesome sights. First, is the oldest artifact of campus: The Grove House (pictured left). It used to be a manor, but was repurposed as a classroom hall. Its Victorian-style pillars and statues make it stand apart from the rest of campus, and its centrality makes it a popular hang-out spot for students. Then, I pass from the manmade to the God-made through the lush green nature trail that wraps around a pond (pictured middle). This, on the other hand, is a popular hang-out spot for the local foxes and cranes of the campus.<\/p>\n

Apart from campus (and Five Guys), I’ve found comfort in other places too. Namely, I got a taste of home when I visited Pastor Hartman’s mission church here. The congregation was so welcoming, which brought me hope for the future of the mission. It was also a very unique experience to sing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” in St. George’s (pictured right), the oldest German church in Britain. I honestly didn’t think I hear that song during my trip. It’s during experiences like that that I’ve come to terms with the fact: I can be at the same time proud of where I came from and proud to be where I am. Those things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The first time I visited central London was just days after I arrived. It was that day that I experienced a very strange phenomenon. I was standing right in the middle of Parliament Square, towered over on all sides by attractions of mass interest– Big Ben, the London Eye, the statue of Churchill, double-decker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Lhdr-mL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1435,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}