My name is Katie, and I am a former student of Normal West and member of the Paw Print staff.

After graduating from Normal West in December of 2024, I left to study abroad in England!

I am currently enrolled in a university in Canterbury, Kent, right between London and Paris.

The education system in the UK is very different from the U.S., so I only have one essay due in the middle of March for each of my classes, making traveling often feasible.

So far, I’ve been to the city centre of London three times and to two neighborhoods of the city: Brixton and Greenwich.

While London is usually a weekend trip, I have taken trips to towns neighboring Canterbury, including Herne Bay and Dover. Herne Bay is a coastal town that provides a great view of the ocean and has many walking paths to spend a day exploring. I’ve been to Dover twice, a town where you can hike up cliffs to see the outline of France across the ocean.

The second time I visited Dover, I brought Will Marvel with me, a current Normal West student. He flew out for a weekend to visit me here and got back home just in time for the start of Senior Assassin.

I have also visited Inverness, (a town in the Scottish highlands) and Paris. Inverness is close to Loch Ness, home to the infamous monster. We took a boat through Loch Ness, which contains more water than every lake in England and Wales combined.

During my university’s ‘independent study week’, my parents flew out, and we spent a few days in London and then took the Eurostar to Paris, which was amazing: terraced apartments, cafés on every corner, bakeries (boulangeries) every ten steps.

Upcoming trips include St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Dublin, another weekend in Paris, a week spent in Wales and Edinburgh, and the following week in Alicante, Spain.

Time here is flying, and I’ve been enjoying every minute of it. I miss everyone back home and am sending my best to the students and staff of Normal West!