My Experience Studying Abroad in London
Three years ago I studied abroad in London and it had a major effect on me. Those three and a half months were the most fun, difficult, rewarding and transformative months of my life up to that point. I learned about myself, who I wanted to be, how the world works, and how I want to live my life moving forward. As the three year anniversary of the end of my trip just passed, I wanted to document and share my experience on my blog.
THE LEAD UP
I studied abroad the second semester of my junior year with a program within my university, James Madison University. JMU has one of the best study abroad departments and a good chunk of the student body studies abroad in some capacity before graduation. The application process opens up during the first few months of the school year. All the applications for programs in the following summer, fall and spring semesters open up, allowing you to hear back by winter break. It’s normal for some programs to not reach capacity during the initial application process, so they keep them for acceptance on a rolling basis.
I’d done a relatively large amount of international travel while in middle and high school, so while studying abroad was something I was interested in it wasn’t high on my priority list. After the application deadline had passed and people were starting to hear back, I thought “Hmmm maybe I should consider studying abroad.” During that winter break, I brought the subject up to my parents and ended up submitting my application shortly after. I was accepted into the program about a month later and started to prepare for my departure!
PREPARING FOR DEPARTURE
The fall semester of my junior year our Program Director, Dietrich and Faculty Member in Residence (FMIR) Katie, held monthly meetings to prepare us for our program. They explained the courses that were available, the housing, and all the important details for the upcoming months. They also shared that there were two paid Program Assistant positions that were available for our time in London who would lead our weekly meetings and get a budget to plan a couple of outings throughout the program. I applied and was hired as one of the Program Assistants and it ended up being a great addition to my time in London.
My program officially started on January 17th and ended on April 23rd. The first 5 days of the program were orientation, where we were able to get an in person introduction to our living space, neighborhood, classroom space and popular London sites and attractions.
HOUSING
My university owned a house in Central London called “Madison House”. It was broken up into 5 flats/apartments and housed around 25-30 people. I lived in Flat A with 5 other girls in the basement. There were three people in a room, two bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. The building also included laundry, printing, and weekly cleaning services.
Now I’ve got to say I LOVED where I lived while in London. I was one block away from the British Museum, less than a 7 minute walk to 3 tube stations and 2 tube lines, and about a 30 minute walk from Big Ben and Parliament. It was the perfect mix of city living and having easy access to literally anything, but still living in a chill and quiet neighborhood.
COURSES AND CLASS STRUCTURE
The program had a super unique class structure where each course meet once a week for 4 hours. The first two hours were in a classroom and the final two hours were spent out in London doing an activity that pertained to the subject matter. I took 5 courses: British Politics, British Theater, Media and Society, Culture by Design and Art History. I was in class Monday-Wednesday and I had Thursday and Friday to myself.
FRIENDS
One of the best things that I got from my time in London is my friends. The friend group I found throughout my program consisted of 4 girls: Lauren, Sara, Zoey and Paige. They all lived in flat C and I truly got to know them on our trip to Stratford upon Avon and Bath. After that trip our friendship continued to blossom until the end of the program when we were inseparable. We’re still really close and get together at least once a year for a reunion.
I also become friends with almost everyone on my program. There were about 25 people on my program and since we all went to the same university and had similar majors, it was easy to get along with pretty much everyone!
TRAVELING TO OTHER COUNTRIES
A very common aspect of studying abroad is traveling to a bunch of other cities and countries. Europe is a very well connected continent so it’s super easy to travel around relatively cheaply. One great thing about my program is that there were 4 trips that were built into the itinerary: Stratford upon Avon/Bath, Oxford, Paris, and Edinburgh. These were included in our tuition and most of the big attractions were included as well. Apart from these trips I also traveled to Brussels, Belgium but I didn’t have the best experience and ended up leaving early (if you want to hear about this weekend, let me know and I’ll make a separate post).
My main goal while studying abroad was spending as much time as possible in London. I’d already visited 4 major European cities in the past (Paris, Rome, Venice and Athens) so traveling outside of London wasn’t high on my priority list. I didn’t want to just spend my weekdays in London but I wanted to spend my weekends there as well. I wanted to truly feel like I lived there and was familiar with all the city had to offer, and I’m happy to say that I did that!
BEST MEMORIES
Renting bikes with Sara, Lauren, and Zoey and riding through Hyde Park. Especially when Sara said “I’m amazing at riding bikes” approximately 3 minutes before crashing her bike into a fence.
Trying (and failing) to create a music video to Bruno Mars “That’s What I Like” in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles with Sara, Paige, Bekah, Zoey and Lauren.
Dancing to Louis Armstrong’s “La Vie En Rose” next to the sparkling Eiffel Tower at night in Paris.
The Saturday spent in Paris with Zoey, Sara, Lauren and Paige. We explored a large part of the city including Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, walk along the Seine, dinner at sunset, and the Champs Elysees. Also that was the day Zoey fell flat on her face while getting out of an Uber (which we all still laugh about til this day).
Our entire program singing “500 Miles” at the top of our lungs at the end of our 12 hour bus tour of the Scottish Highlands.
The night at O’Neill’s with Sara, Paige, Lauren, Hannah and Sarah’s sister Sam.
Traveling to Dover and hiking up the White Cliffs of Dover with Sara, Lauren, Abbey M, and Bekah.
At the end of my trip I created a video to document my time abroad. It lives on my YouTube channel and here it is!
So if this long blog post wasn’t enough evidence, I’ll tell you straight up that I had a great time studying abroad and I gained a group of friends that I’ll keep for life. If you or anyone you know has the chance to study abroad, PLEASE DO IT! I promise it will be an experience you’ll never forget! I plan on creating a London Travel Guide blog post about all my favorite places, restaurants, bars, attractions and general tips for traveling to London.
If you studied abroad in London or are planning to in the future, let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear about your experience or what you’re looking forward to! Thanks for supporting the blog!
