Hi, everyone! I’m Anna, and I’m an International Honors student studying Marketing and Peace & Conflict Studies. Currently, I’m studying abroad at the University of Hull in Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom as a full-year exchange student in the Business, Law, and Politics program. To find Hull on a map, find London and go straight up until you hit that little river. That is where I’m living for the next year. I arrived at Hull in the middle of September and am leaving sometime in June.
When I was looking at countries to study abroad in, I narrowed it down to a few options: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France. I came up with a list of non-negotiables and started researching universities. My research (plus the COVID restrictions) lead me to the United Kingdom. For a while, I was back and forth between Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Hull. But after a deep dive into the culture, the programs, and the campus, University of Hull resonated with me.
One of the main reasons I chose the United Kingdom, quite frankly, was because they primarily speak English here. And although I did finish four levels of French, I’m not confident in my ability to learn well in a French-speaking classroom. Another reason - probably the most important reason - is London being considered the financial capital of the world. I’m not a finance major, but finance heavily plays into marketing. Being around the action was important to me.
I had three main struggles when I arrived in the United Kingdom, some continuing even now.
Missing important events with my family and friends. It sucks having to go to lectures on Thanksgiving knowing that your family is having a delicious meal without you. Missing birthdays, graduations, sporting events, and even little things like getting coffee with your friends is difficult and it starts to add up. As you get more acclimated to your new life and new surroundings, it gets easier. But I don’t know if it ever truly goes away.
Leaving your friends and having to make new ones, knowing you’re going to end up leaving. When I came to the UK, I already had a set group of friends that I frequently hung out with and relied on for advice. Now, my friends and I are on completely different schedules. Not only am I five hours ahead, but our breaks don’t line up, we’ve got different jobs and obligations, and it gets hard to find times to FaceTime. Don’t get me wrong - we’re still friends. But I had to find new people to hang out with. Except there’s a part of you that knows you’re going to end up leaving in a short amount of time and you’ll be facing the same problems all over again. It’s truly a double-edged sword.
Public transportation. I have ridden on maybe two trains and a bus in my life, so having to rely solely on public transportation (especially being alone in a new country in a strange city with a giant suitcase) was very stressful. However, once you get the hang of it and you know the right apps to download, it’s pretty manageable.
But not all of it is bad. There’s a lot of beauty in studying abroad, even in the little things. I’ve done a lot of traveling since moving to the United Kingdom, with plans to do a lot more. I’ve made new friends and joined a society (which is essentially a club), I’ve connected with my professors, and I’ve answered a lot of random questions about the United States. My favorite memories range from touching the water of the Øresund Sea to collecting British candy for my brother to seeing the Scottish Highlands.
My best advice to anybody going abroad is to embrace it and remember that this is what you’ve worked for and where you wanted to be. It’s terrifying, moving abroad and being on your own to discover the world. But I’m currently writing this in a random café I stumbled upon in London and I’m realizing that freshman year Anna would be in absolute awe of me now. My second best piece of advice would be to remember that there’s no such thing as too many pictures, and make sure you’re in some of them. The experience you’ll be having is once in a lifetime, and you’re going to want to freeze it in a memory and hold on to it forever. Ignore the people giving you weird looks - you’re living your absolute best life.
If you are planning to go abroad, good luck and I hope you enjoy it more than you could’ve ever imagined. And remember - you from freshman year would be in awe of who you’re becoming. Safe travels!
