London Musings
We start The Catalyst in London because there’s nowhere better to begin. Indeed just to walk across London is to travel broadly through time and space. Because one minute you’re standing next to ancient Roman ruins, and the next, you’re on a street where the music you’ll hear everywhere tomorrow is being created today. Walking side by side with people from virtually every culture on earth, you’ll feel your horizons expanding with every step. As the folks you buy morning coffee from tell you about the lives they led in the Ukraine before coming to live on the Thames River’s South Bank, just a short walk from your new “global village.” What’s missing? Just you–walking under the moonlight and stars to cross “your” river and bridge home from a play you dreamed of seeing since your childhood. And you, taking some reflective time to look at Big Ben’s tower on one of the Thames and St. Paul’s Cathedral just over there, on the other side. While the rush of the salty river is drowned out by a flood of buses and rickshaws all around you, with Russell Square and and your hostel only steps away. Do you turn in for the night or pop around to The Local that’s been adopted by your Catalyst group, in search a game of darts and a Euro Cup football match? That’s London calling. (And that’s you answering.)
Our students love their magical time in this city. Who wouldn’t? Because for a week or so you’re living and learning in London, a city of 8 million people from every corner of the world. To which everyone wants to come and explore like you’re doing now, living and learning with all your heart.
So here it is then. That moment when your world is about to be rocked by a powerful British beat. Just as ideas that started in London have changed the world countless times, the ideas, perspectives and professors you’ll encounter here will change your world as no other academic experience can. London will be your classroom. One day you could be attending a lecture on the grounds of the Imperial War Museum, and the next you’ll be in Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms learning about the strategies he helped to develop that ultimately defeated Nazi Germany.
There are so many places in life that may bore you. London won’t ever be among those.
