Local Status

Before coming abroad, I wasn’t exactly sure how classes were going to be set up in terms of our other classmates. There are other students from other schools here at FIE during the same time as us, but some are doing internships, some aren’t staying as long as we are, and so on. Bottom line, you take all of your classes with essentially the same group of Drexel students. This might sound boring, but it’s actually a great bonding experience.

Strangely, it’s a bit like being at summer camp again. Everyone really forms a special kind of relationship and bonds as a group. We are assigned a lot of group projects, but groups are easier to work with than at home because everyone is comfortable with working with each other and its really easy to get together and work on projects since we all live in the same building.

In addition to the schoolwork aspect, everyone is just as open about free time activities and social events. If you don’t have a best friend in your major before going abroad or your friends chose different programs, don’t let this be a reason that you choose not to come to London. Honestly, I’m really surprised at the rate everyone has been forming friendships and bonding with one another. It’s a nice unexpected aspect that I’m sure a lot of us will take back to Drexel.

In other news, I had my first visitors this past weekend. My two friends who were studying in Madrid, Spain for the summer came to London for the weekend and I think my roommate and I did an okay job at being city tour guides. By no means do I feel like a local yet, but I’m starting to feel like I really know my way around. I’ve visited Philadelphia and New York before I went to school and did my co-op there, but it’s a completely different experience actually living in the city for a significant amount of time. The same is true with London. Even if you’ve been here before, the day to day activities and living like a local for three months make it an entirely new experience. Realizing that you are starting to know how to navigate around one of the biggest cities in the world without so much as a fold out map is a pretty cool feeling, I won’t lie.