To “live like a local” while abroad, I am taking several steps to make sure that I am already integrated into the culture of my campus and host culture to the extent that I can. I am fostering campus involvement before I go abroad by being an active participant in conversations on my host university's Summer Study Abroad Facebook page. I am already beginning to cultivate friendships by learning which students will be in my module, which students are interested in visiting certain destinations, and what the hobbies and interests of my fellow students are. Being abroad in the summer, I'm not sure how many campus activities will be occurring, but I know Roehampton offers "social events" throughout the summer term (day trips and guided tours for the summer students) and I'm considering attending at least one or two of those.
To me, living like a local means digging deeper than the tourist traps. I want to eat, explore, and experience intentionally, putting thought into how I spend my time and money while abroad so that I have an all-encompassing experience instead of a surface-level one. I may not have another opportunity to see England, or to live there for as long as three weeks, so it is important to me that I dig as much as possible out of this trip, mainly through travel. To accomplish this, I am making an effort to travel outside the city (whether alone or with friends) to see more of England than just London's city center. I will be traveling across parts of the countryside and hopefully into Wales as well, to get a fuller understanding of different kinds of life in England. Thankfully, being located in a city as big as London means that I have lots of options for traveling safely; groups of students in my cohort are already planning trips to France and Scotland, and tour companies offer ways for a single visitor like me to get out of the city. Even though I plan to do most of my traveling through tour companies that cater to tourists, I am choosing ones that allow for personal exploration time so that I have a chance to see what I want to see and look around each destination on my own.
A typical day of study abroad will consist of me waking up and going to class in the morning, with class ending in the early afternoon. I’m not yet entirely sure how much free time I’ll have to go into the city itself on a weekday, given that I don’t yet know my workload or the exact commute time from Roehampton into London. For that reason, I have chosen to leave most of my weeknights free until I arrive in London; of course, I’ll have to do some housekeeping things to keep my room/laundry in order as well. I actually see these weekday evenings as a good opportunity for me to practice living like a local. With Roehampton being located on the outskirts of London, I will be closer to suburban areas, which I can explore to gain insight about the life of an ordinary Englander. On Fridays and the weekends, I don’t have class, and those are the days I plan to do more in-depth exploring farther away from campus.
I hope to leave with an understanding of more than metropolitan college life in England. I hope my approach results in me gaining a knowledge of what life is like for rural people and people of other demographics, and that I am able to explore not only London as it is today, but London as it was in the past. To ease my adjustment into this new culture, I plan to look to my new friends as a support system whenever possible. Having buddies to travel with, eat with, or even just to talk to is an important part of coping with new changes, and I’m glad that I’ll arrive in London already knowing the names and faces of my peers.
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