Now that we’re more than a week into 2019, it struck me that it has now been a decade since I first traveled overseas to Europe.

A decade.

I know it’s hard to believe looking at my author photo, but I’m just 27. When I fully remember events that happened over a decade ago, it still stuns me.

Another aspect of this memory that astounds me, besides this picture below, is the abundant curiosity that my high-school-graduate self showed during her first overseas excursion: I took 256 pictures during a 3 day trip to England alone.

Just two months ago I visited three countries and took 100 fewer pictures in three times the length of time. Maturity, y’all.

I’m writing about this first trip to Europe to demonstrate one of the main goals of my blog: diving deep into cultural differences and similarities. The first country we visited was England. The saying goes that the US and England are two countries divided by a common language. However, the disparity that struck me the most was the weight of history that the English contend with on a daily basis.

In the US, we consider anything over 100 years as quite, quite old. The British would just consider it quite seasoned. (More on those common language divisions here!) While walking around London I was just as likely to see the remains of a bombed-out WW11 church as I was a 16th-century theater—architectural culture shock.

Literature is one of the ways in which people dissect current events through historical and fantastical framing. Even though some of the books I’ll review will be in English, the cultural setting of the story and author necessitate their own form of translation.

Just as my teenage self was open-minded about every single aspect of traveling 4, 837 miles away from home to visit a country that abuses the letter “u”, so will this blog be acceptant of viewpoints and experiences from globally diverse perspectives.

Do you have any stories of your first trip abroad, or first experience of culture shock? Share in the comments below!