Gabelli’s fall London class lands in the U.K.

London , Stories Stories from Abroad | Sep 05, 2012 | Nicole Gesualdo

For most Gabelli School of Business students, school started last week right here at Rose Hill, with lunch in McGinley and afternoons on Eddie’s. But about 30 of them swapped McGinley for Marks & Spencer and the lawn of Eddie’s for the lawns of Hyde Park, taking their places at the Gabelli School’s satellite campus in London. Below is one student’s account of those first few days in one of the most historic, business-significant and culturally intriguing cities in all of Europe.

For more about the London program — which is accepting applications now for spring! — please explore the London drop-down menu above.

by April Sauer (GSB ’14)

Last Thursday, the fall London study abroad group arrived in its new home. We left Heathrow Airport and headed toward a bus, which took us to Conway Hall, which is located in the London neighborhood of Waterloo.

The bus ride gave us our first taste of London and the area of where we would be staying. We had the rest of the day to unpack and to settle ourselves into our new flats.

The following day, we had our orientation at Heythrop College, where the Fordham University London Centre is located. We met most of the school’s staff, whom we will see regularly throughout our semester, and even met with a local policeman. The lovely staff made all of us feel at home and even more excited for the upcoming term.

That evening, Fordham treated us to a nice dinner at Pizza Express. That was a chance to bond with our group and to chat with Professor Graham Bolton, director of the London program, about what is to come.

The rest of the weekend we spent acclimating to the new culture and exploring London. Many different groups walked and took the Tube around London, learning to find their way through the sometimes-confusing city.

Many of us visited iconic sites such as the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace; along this route, we had the added advantage of seeing Olympic sites such as Horse Guards Parade, the home of this summer’s beach-volleyball matches. Navigating through a new city is hard, but the staff and group have stuck together and made the transition as easy as possible.

Photographs of the Pizza Express welcome dinner courtesy of April Sauer.