As the halfway mark of my time abroad has came and went, a LOT has gone on. I can't even believe how much has changed from when I first arrived in London and now! I could talk for ages about how incredible this experience has been, but here is an abbreviated list of how things have been going:
Being totally transparent, when I first arrived in London, everything was a little bit of a mess. I had gotten food poisoning on the plane over and found myself sitting with security in the airport for hours after passing out (just a few times!). When I finally made it to my KCL dorm, my bedding was delayed by a day, so I basically was stuck being under the weather with nothing but a mattress! I felt totally at a loss and was nervous this would reflect the rest of my time abroad. But how wrong I was! Thankfully, I had some GW friends who got me some food and a blanket that first day, and the rest was history! Three months later and I feel so at home in London, and I have so many people here I know I can count on for help if ever needed again.
Coming from a city school like GW, and being from New York, I have to say I was blessed with feeling immediately comfortable on public transit. The London Underground (the tube) and the busses really can take you everywhere you want to go. You also save so much money on other ways around like Uber, but I learned pretty quickly how fast the tube can still add up! However, London is such a hub for student deals, like on everything! So being able to get a student Oyster card and a student rail pass has really helped with getting around.
For me, I was lucky to come abroad with one of my best friends from school. It also just so happened I knew so many friends from other colleges coming to study at different schools in London, so again, I was super lucky about this.
As for the new "abroad friends" everyone seems to find, for me they came from other friends suggesting hanging out with someone else they knew, and just sort of letting it flow in that way. My school also hosted one big mixer of abroad students when we got here, which was insanely overwhelming, but a few people I chatted with really stuck around too. One thing that I feel like is so important that I've learned is that going abroad and finding a huge group you're going to do everything with is so unrealistic! I have friends to hang out with in class, different friends to get lunch and dinner with, friends to travel with, and friends to go out at night with. Not everyone will fit into every box, and that is A-okay!
At the KCL program, we have ten weeks of classes, a reading month, and finals in May. However, something unique we have experience over here is that currently, the teachers are engaging in Industrial Actions where they are
basically striking for most of our school days. This means that honestly...we haven't had much school. Obviously, this has its benefits! Days off school means more time to travel, more time to explore London, and more time to get ahead on final papers. However, It definitely comes with a challenge of needing to be self motivated to keep up with course material. In the UK, most courses run with no intermediate assignments, meaning one final paper/exam/project will determine your whole grade. In my humanities modules, I am pretty able to do the readings on my own and get the gist of what I am learning! However, in courses like my computer science class, it has been more difficult to self teach the language, and I really have to spend a lot of time studying by myself to be able to do well in the course. While they are somewhat infrequent, the time I do get to go to class has been so rewarding. Learning in another country is such a wild experience, and it is so fun to chat with British classmates and see their takes on the material. I go to two of King's College's campuses: Strand and Waterloo. Strand is so so beautiful, it wows me every day, and I love my Waterloo classes too because I live so close to them.
Everyone told me I wouldn't be impressed with the London cuisine, but I have been nothing else! The thing about London is that it is such a melting pot of different cultures, which means that so many different cuisines exist in the city and beyond. I have had some of the best meals of my whole life here and feel so lucky that I can find any type of food I'm in the mood for. Also meal deals at the grocery stores are such a savior! You can get like a sandwich, snack, and drink for four pounds. Super great on the go or for class or when you need to ball on a budget.
Speaking of balling on a budget, something I feel like I was unprepared for the budgeting aspect of being abroad. I feel like at home I am so good at it, but here it is really hard to keep a handle on how much I am spending. One thing in particular that I've learned is that just because some of the people around you can go out to lunch and dinner every single day does not mean that I can too. In fact, I for sure can't!! I quickly realized how okay it is to spread out the nice meals to not make my wallet cry. But seriously, there is so much affordable great food in London. My favorite meal I have had is this little falafel stand right next to where my accommodation is where I get this jumbo falafel wrap for 5 pounds! Crazy and so good. There are so many different food markets too in London which I've found such steals at. Soooo many food places have student discounts too, which makes eating well super easy and achievable. This leads to my last note...
Traveling has been the most rewarding, amazing part of my abroad experience. I chose to stay in London for January and really feel at home, but in the following two months I have visited: Bruges- Belgium, Brussels- Belgium, Paris- France (3 whole times!), Luxembourg- Luxembourg, Prague- Czech Republic, Barcelona- Spain, Milan-Italy, Dublin- Ireland, and a ton of places within the UK that I am simply in love with (my favorite being Dover- an absolute must do). I knew coming into abroad that traveling was my goal, and with that means a lot of expenses. There's transportation, accommodations, food, and excursions for every place you go to. For me, I've really had to figure out how to travel on a budget, which really just means not staying at 5 star hotels and eating crazy meals everywhere I go. I have had the most rewarding, amazing experience in each country I have visited by staying in local airbnbs and finding the corner stores with delicious meals that won't break the bank. One tip I have is to make sure the people you are traveling with are all on the same page with budgeting. Some people want those luxury hotel experiences and 5 star dinners, and some want to live it up in a hostel and grab quick bites. Both are amazing and exhilarating, just different ways to do it! I have for sure proved to myself that I can travel to everywhere I want to go and not feel like my life savings is gone forever.
If you want any more insight into what my time abroad has looked like, I created a little Instagram blog account for myself (@alexacrossthepondd) where I give full reviews about my days so I can always look back and see what I did. Blogging every day has made me appreciate the smallest things that happen on the daily, and I love to go back and see what they were. This
semester has already been so mind-blowing, and I cannot wait for what the second half has in store.
Alex Horowitz
GW England - King's College London
Spring 2023
Interaction Design and Computer Science Major
Columbian College of Arts and Sciences