This might be a couple of weeks late, but I guess settling in takes longer than I thought.
People keep on suggesting keeping a blog of my experience abroad, so I decided it might be a good idea to practice my writing skills (since I have to write at least 3 essays for 3 different classes that are worth half of my grade). This might also help future UCF students who would like to study abroad to Guildford, or any other place for that matter... maybe even other college students who are looking into study abroad programs in general. I digress..
I am currently in the University of Surrey and having a great time thus far. I should probably catch you guys all up on the last 2 weeks, since those might have been the most crucial. The last two weeks have been the best, most expensive, most exciting, most confusing and most "homesickening (?)". I was fortunate enough to be able to have my parents come with me to England to help move me in and set me up in my temporary new home. In a way, it was a little depressing, because saying "see you in 4 and a half months" was so much more difficult than if I just said it back in America.
We arrived in Guildford and it was different. It definitely seemed like a quaint little town- although kind of confusing. The first day that we came to Guildford, we went to move in, which was a MESS. It was SO rainy. Welcome to England. I went with my parents to the "town" part of Guildford which seemed confusing and far away. I kept thinking "I will never come back here". Lies. We had to get a new phone, since AT&T so lovingly declined my thousand requests to unlock my baby (my iPhone). So now it's droid life for me.. well until April, when I can unlock my phone.. and when I'm not in a wifi area, since I can use it there. OK, I'm rambling again. We stayed at this sketch hotel that night somewhere in the middle of nowhere... near a cemetery.
The next day was orientation, which was super exciting. I lived in a "Band A" room, which is a shared bedroom. It has a "top room" kinda like a loft, and a "bottom" room. There's no door that separates our part of the room. Luckily, I'm living with one of my sorority sisters from back home. There is another shared room across the hall that shares our bathroom and shower with us. And 6 people have single rooms downstairs. All 10 of us share a kitchen, which is different, but it's always a good time in our kitchen. We have mini dance sessions while we're eating or being bored. Anyway, one of the guys that lives across from my sister and I is also from UCF on the same program with us, which is AWESOME. We all clicked immediately and basically spent the entire orientation not paying attention and talking to each other. Sidenote: I literally just FaceTime'd him to ask him what I need to write on my blog since I'm too lazy to walk over there.
Picking classes here was DIFFICULT. But really. The laundrette cards are done online (yes, I'm that girl that takes her big blue suitcase to collect her clean laundry from the machine halfway across campus), and so is the grocery store shopping (Tesco > Publix). However, the freaking classes are done on paper and stress me out. We signed up for classes and then we could change them during orientation. But once they're submitted to someone then you have to go through Hell and back to change it if necessary. And the change has to be done before a certain date. We should've been better prepared for that...
The first week went by as slow as molasses. Adam (the guy that lives across the hall from us) and I have all our classes together and we only have one each day.. Usually 12-3.. which is FANTASTIC. Woo! Also we don't have classes fridays, so we have a 3 day weekend, every weekend. The exchange students kinda stick together. We walk to town together (it's actually not as far as I originally thought), we go to Tesco together, we go out together and we meet at the local "hot spot"/ bar on campus named Chancellor's. They serve 2 pound pints certain days of the week (the special changes every month.. so this is for Feb) and a mean pancake with dairy ice cream. Our "meetings", lunches, hang out sessions, party nights are usually there. It's multi purpose. However, it's nearly impossible to be there when the kitchen is open, so we have to walk a whole 5 feet to pizza man to get food if we want it.
The first weekend, 3 of my exchange student friends, and myself went into London and did a ton of sight seeing. We saw Big Ben, (attempted to see) the changing of the guard in Buckingham Palace, the Eye of London, King's Cross Station (and Platform 9 3/4!!!), the Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Picadelly Circius, the British Museum and some 90210 type street in London. We also went to Chipotle.. It was much needed but very expensive. We also ate at very expensive pubs.. Don't expect to buy authentic fish and chips in an authentic pub in London without spending an "authentic" price. We went to a nice bar place for Valentine's Day where they played a lot of diverse music that I could booty pop to not just fist pump. On saturday night, we met up with a friend I've known for a couple of years, which helped with my homesickness. Totally fun, but EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE.. and tiring.
The second week of school flew by.. granted our only 9 am class (weds) was cancelled, which was a present God sent us. The other classes seemed to not last as long and I started working on my graduate school application essay, since I finally got past my initial culture shock of being in a new place and had time to sit down and get it done. Our flatmates- whom we adore- through a house party on thursday night to welcome us and our other American exchange student friends, which was super fun. And to the city I went on Friday. I visited family and got to sleep on a nice memory foam mattress.. which was a change from the twin sized bed from bed Hell that I sleep on here at campus. Oh, and my loft is a lot smaller than the main room (still big enough to store all my stuff and have breathing room) but since it's more compact, the radiator makes my entire room feel like a sauna, so yeah. I don't really know where I was going with this, but I'm not trying to complain THAT much. This place is definitely growing on me and it's cool to be living on campus- despite what I thought of it the last 3 and a half years of my college life. I can wake up 15 minutes before I need to leave for class and have plenty of time to get ready.
This past saturday (the one of the second week), I managed to get around the city alone which was great! And met up with the same friend from the week before. Courtney (my sorority sister/ roommate) and Adam both ended up meeting me at my friend's flat and we all went to this pub crawl with 14 other exchange students. We were all celebrating two birthdays the best way we possibly could have. Out of the 18 of us in attendance, 10 of us were exchange students from UCF. We stick together. It was a lot of fun, especially experiencing nightlife in a part of London!
Now it's finally the start of the 3rd week, can you believe we only have a total of 11 weeks of classes here?! And the biggest stressor is grad school apps and planning out Spring Break trips, since you need to book in advance (flights, trains, tours, etc.). We have a month long spring break and my mom is hopefully coming to visit. I'll keep ya updated. Wondering why classwork isn't a huge problem on my mind? We don't have busywork here. I have 4 classes: Travel and Transport, Intercultural Management, Tourism and Society and Destination Management. Intercultural Management is 100% the final exam in May/ June. T&T is 1 group essay (due April 1st) and 1 final exam, Tourism and Society is 1 individual essay (due April 1st) and 1 final exam in May, and Destination Management is 1 individual essay (due April 1st) and 1 group project in May. Yaaaayy. The last two weeks of March are going to be so fun. It's definitely different, but I'm liking it. Two classes will terminate by May 20th ish and then I have 2 finals between then and June 20th to worry about. Woo!
Courtney, Adam, and myself's (along with three other exchange students) first big trip is to Dublin for St. Patty's Day! We're going for two days: one for the festivities and one for sight seeing. Courtney, Adam and myself have also planned a road trip with our flat mates at the end of our spring break to be able to see Scotland! We're so pumped. Travelling and experiencing England is beautiful! We finally understand the backroads (kinda) and how to get things done on campus.
I promise this is the longest post I will write, since I had to write about 2 weeks worth of stuff. Thanks for reading!
P.S. Also expect to have a ton of coins.. They're not worthless actually. 1 pound and 2 pounds are in coins and are worth more than 1 dollar bill. And quid = pound.
People keep on suggesting keeping a blog of my experience abroad, so I decided it might be a good idea to practice my writing skills (since I have to write at least 3 essays for 3 different classes that are worth half of my grade). This might also help future UCF students who would like to study abroad to Guildford, or any other place for that matter... maybe even other college students who are looking into study abroad programs in general. I digress..
I am currently in the University of Surrey and having a great time thus far. I should probably catch you guys all up on the last 2 weeks, since those might have been the most crucial. The last two weeks have been the best, most expensive, most exciting, most confusing and most "homesickening (?)". I was fortunate enough to be able to have my parents come with me to England to help move me in and set me up in my temporary new home. In a way, it was a little depressing, because saying "see you in 4 and a half months" was so much more difficult than if I just said it back in America.
We arrived in Guildford and it was different. It definitely seemed like a quaint little town- although kind of confusing. The first day that we came to Guildford, we went to move in, which was a MESS. It was SO rainy. Welcome to England. I went with my parents to the "town" part of Guildford which seemed confusing and far away. I kept thinking "I will never come back here". Lies. We had to get a new phone, since AT&T so lovingly declined my thousand requests to unlock my baby (my iPhone). So now it's droid life for me.. well until April, when I can unlock my phone.. and when I'm not in a wifi area, since I can use it there. OK, I'm rambling again. We stayed at this sketch hotel that night somewhere in the middle of nowhere... near a cemetery.
The next day was orientation, which was super exciting. I lived in a "Band A" room, which is a shared bedroom. It has a "top room" kinda like a loft, and a "bottom" room. There's no door that separates our part of the room. Luckily, I'm living with one of my sorority sisters from back home. There is another shared room across the hall that shares our bathroom and shower with us. And 6 people have single rooms downstairs. All 10 of us share a kitchen, which is different, but it's always a good time in our kitchen. We have mini dance sessions while we're eating or being bored. Anyway, one of the guys that lives across from my sister and I is also from UCF on the same program with us, which is AWESOME. We all clicked immediately and basically spent the entire orientation not paying attention and talking to each other. Sidenote: I literally just FaceTime'd him to ask him what I need to write on my blog since I'm too lazy to walk over there.
Picking classes here was DIFFICULT. But really. The laundrette cards are done online (yes, I'm that girl that takes her big blue suitcase to collect her clean laundry from the machine halfway across campus), and so is the grocery store shopping (Tesco > Publix). However, the freaking classes are done on paper and stress me out. We signed up for classes and then we could change them during orientation. But once they're submitted to someone then you have to go through Hell and back to change it if necessary. And the change has to be done before a certain date. We should've been better prepared for that...
The first week went by as slow as molasses. Adam (the guy that lives across the hall from us) and I have all our classes together and we only have one each day.. Usually 12-3.. which is FANTASTIC. Woo! Also we don't have classes fridays, so we have a 3 day weekend, every weekend. The exchange students kinda stick together. We walk to town together (it's actually not as far as I originally thought), we go to Tesco together, we go out together and we meet at the local "hot spot"/ bar on campus named Chancellor's. They serve 2 pound pints certain days of the week (the special changes every month.. so this is for Feb) and a mean pancake with dairy ice cream. Our "meetings", lunches, hang out sessions, party nights are usually there. It's multi purpose. However, it's nearly impossible to be there when the kitchen is open, so we have to walk a whole 5 feet to pizza man to get food if we want it.
The first weekend, 3 of my exchange student friends, and myself went into London and did a ton of sight seeing. We saw Big Ben, (attempted to see) the changing of the guard in Buckingham Palace, the Eye of London, King's Cross Station (and Platform 9 3/4!!!), the Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Picadelly Circius, the British Museum and some 90210 type street in London. We also went to Chipotle.. It was much needed but very expensive. We also ate at very expensive pubs.. Don't expect to buy authentic fish and chips in an authentic pub in London without spending an "authentic" price. We went to a nice bar place for Valentine's Day where they played a lot of diverse music that I could booty pop to not just fist pump. On saturday night, we met up with a friend I've known for a couple of years, which helped with my homesickness. Totally fun, but EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE.. and tiring.
The second week of school flew by.. granted our only 9 am class (weds) was cancelled, which was a present God sent us. The other classes seemed to not last as long and I started working on my graduate school application essay, since I finally got past my initial culture shock of being in a new place and had time to sit down and get it done. Our flatmates- whom we adore- through a house party on thursday night to welcome us and our other American exchange student friends, which was super fun. And to the city I went on Friday. I visited family and got to sleep on a nice memory foam mattress.. which was a change from the twin sized bed from bed Hell that I sleep on here at campus. Oh, and my loft is a lot smaller than the main room (still big enough to store all my stuff and have breathing room) but since it's more compact, the radiator makes my entire room feel like a sauna, so yeah. I don't really know where I was going with this, but I'm not trying to complain THAT much. This place is definitely growing on me and it's cool to be living on campus- despite what I thought of it the last 3 and a half years of my college life. I can wake up 15 minutes before I need to leave for class and have plenty of time to get ready.
This past saturday (the one of the second week), I managed to get around the city alone which was great! And met up with the same friend from the week before. Courtney (my sorority sister/ roommate) and Adam both ended up meeting me at my friend's flat and we all went to this pub crawl with 14 other exchange students. We were all celebrating two birthdays the best way we possibly could have. Out of the 18 of us in attendance, 10 of us were exchange students from UCF. We stick together. It was a lot of fun, especially experiencing nightlife in a part of London!
Now it's finally the start of the 3rd week, can you believe we only have a total of 11 weeks of classes here?! And the biggest stressor is grad school apps and planning out Spring Break trips, since you need to book in advance (flights, trains, tours, etc.). We have a month long spring break and my mom is hopefully coming to visit. I'll keep ya updated. Wondering why classwork isn't a huge problem on my mind? We don't have busywork here. I have 4 classes: Travel and Transport, Intercultural Management, Tourism and Society and Destination Management. Intercultural Management is 100% the final exam in May/ June. T&T is 1 group essay (due April 1st) and 1 final exam, Tourism and Society is 1 individual essay (due April 1st) and 1 final exam in May, and Destination Management is 1 individual essay (due April 1st) and 1 group project in May. Yaaaayy. The last two weeks of March are going to be so fun. It's definitely different, but I'm liking it. Two classes will terminate by May 20th ish and then I have 2 finals between then and June 20th to worry about. Woo!
Courtney, Adam, and myself's (along with three other exchange students) first big trip is to Dublin for St. Patty's Day! We're going for two days: one for the festivities and one for sight seeing. Courtney, Adam and myself have also planned a road trip with our flat mates at the end of our spring break to be able to see Scotland! We're so pumped. Travelling and experiencing England is beautiful! We finally understand the backroads (kinda) and how to get things done on campus.
I promise this is the longest post I will write, since I had to write about 2 weeks worth of stuff. Thanks for reading!
P.S. Also expect to have a ton of coins.. They're not worthless actually. 1 pound and 2 pounds are in coins and are worth more than 1 dollar bill. And quid = pound.
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