There were no Prince William sightings, but somehow Sarah Kaplan still managed to enjoy her eight-week study abroad program in London last summer.

Kaplan, a senior psychology major, received six NIU credits for studying at Goldsmiths University of London and assisting a cognitive psychologist with experiments.

Kaplan wasn’t alone in London – she lived with seven other American college students in a flat located in central London close to all the major tourist attractions.

“There were a lot of other universities represented there, like Boston College and North Carolina, there were also a lot of people from New York there,” Kaplan said. “Only one had heard of NIU and that was because she was from Illinois.”

As for appliances, Kaplan said none of the American variety worked in their flat without an adapter, and even then they still blew fuses occasionally.

Kaplan said the elite eight were briefed on how to act while in London, so they wouldn’t stand out too much.

“They told us how to use everything, including public transportation, so we wouldn’t look like we didn’t know what we were doing,” she said. “They also told us what the British think of Americans: that we are loud and annoying and walk in big groups, so they told us not to do that.”

Kaplan said the advice worked well; they only experienced minor heckling from the British citizens.

“They knew I was from Chicago right away because of my accent,” she said. “Then once they found out where I was from, they would always ask me about Al Capone because that’s all they know about Chicago.”

While at the university, Kaplan assisted in a color experiment, in which they judged people’s different perceptions of color. The study had people choose whether they considered a color blue or green.

Unfortunately, Kaplan was not able to wear a lab coat during the experiment, but she did experience an EKG, which measures brain activity.

“It was almost like a bathing cap that they put on my head with electrodes behind my ears and on my neck to measure my brain activity,” she said. “The experiment had me match things on the computer, and I was a little afraid it would show that my brain activity was abnormal.”

Everything came back normal, although being a psychology major can cause odd responses in people, especially when in comes to Kaplan’s grandmother.

“My grandmother might just be being weird, but she always thinks I am psycho-analyzing her,” she said. “She will always ask what am I thinking and why I am doing something.”