Life as an American Student in London

     It's officially been almost two months since I've been back in London. If you haven't read my last post about what's been going on the past year, you should go check that out. Quick rundown: the queen died a week after I arrived, I’ve been to 3 concerts already (and already planning more), and I've been adjusting to living with roommates.  

 

     If you are unfamiliar with how student halls in the UK work, they are basically student apartments. Each person has their own room and normally their own bathroom, with a shared living and kitchen space. I have 7 other roommates. Yeah you read that right, seven. Two of them are my friends who I chose to live with, and the other 5 are random students from our university. It's always fun moving in and not knowing anything about the 5 other people you are going to be living with. 

 

     A huge adjustment for me has been cleaning my dishes. I am well known in my household for cooking and baking all day, everyday, and leaving my dishes in the sink. I tell my mom that I will do them later but inevitably she ends up doing them because I HATE doing the dishes and they would sit there for days until I get my act together. I am happy to now say, I am great at doing the dishes. My friends have started getting mad at me during dinner because I will get up the minute I am finished eating to start cleaning up. Other than that, life with 7 roommates isn't too bad. Most of us have different class schedules and some work odd hours, so none of us are all around at the same time. 

 

     Not much has happened this month that I haven't already touched on, so I'm going to talk about what it's like being an international student in London and a little bit about my everyday uni life. 

 

     I would like to say that it is always easy and a dream, but that would be a lie. It is hard. It is hard to move over 4,000 miles away from home and everything you know. It is hard to make new friends when you don't know a soul. It is hard to celebrate holidays and birthdays without your family and friends that you have celebrated with your whole life. It is hard to see your friends visiting each other's colleges and nobody visiting you. It is hard thinking that you are missing out on the ‘true college’ experience, when in fact it is just not the American college experience.  It is hard to watch my family carry on without me. It is hard but it gets easier. 

 

     I think back to Thanksgiving last year and being facetimed into the thanksgiving dinner table. My family were all sitting there together eating a home cooked meal. I was sitting on my dorm floor eating takeout by myself because my friends were all in quarantine with Covid. I don’t think I can name another time in my life where I have felt so alone. I also look back to my 19th birthday. My first birthday, ever, where I was not with my mom. It was around this time that I was unsure if being in London was the right choice for me and I was looking into transferring to a school back home. 

 

     Flash forward a few months and London now feels like home. Marietta will always be there and my family will always be my first and most important home, but I have now created my own home. A home in a new city, with new friends who I’d like to call my family. It is hard to adjust, especially being in a different country, but it's an adjustment that I needed. I have never felt more confident, independent, and like myself than I have this past year. I have learned so many new things about myself in the past year that I never knew were a part of me. 

 

     Looking at my school life, it is not too much different from high school. I still procrastinate until the last minute, I still doze off in lectures, and I still pretend to pay attention half of the time. Through all of this though, I have become much more independent in my learning because I do not have teachers holding my hand through everything. My uni is on the UK grading scheme but the US learning system (I think). I could be totally wrong in saying that but from what I have experienced in the past year, that's what it seems like. It has been a pretty easy adjustment from high school, even after almost 2 years of online learning. 

 

     I would love to study a semester in another country, if possible, next year. My mom likes to laugh at me when I say that “I want to study abroad,” and she responds with “you are already abroad.” Totally different. 

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     Last September I posted a TikTok about how I was going to be attending Richmond that fall. Unknowingly, the video sort of blew up. I have had at least a dozen people message me through social media asking me about the university and how I feel about being in London as an American. As far as I know, 4 of those people are now students at Richmond. I have met up with 2 of them so far, and it is amazing hearing that I had an impact on their decision to come to uni here. 

 

     Recently, I was given the opportunity to write a short feature for the Atlanta Daily Journal (thank you Jennifer Brett) where I discussed my thoughts and experiences on the queen's death. I will link that in case you want to read it! https://www.ajc.com/neighborhoods/cobb/metro-atlanta-student-student-studying-in-london-mourns-the-worlds-queen/4JR2YR2EVRBDXDSCCNFQV3ZP3E/?fbclid=IwAR3JnqBqZYGlh1qEFfaOHMiL94ScXm_EllJ0wjs4nORdm8diMbmFZVfzrRs 

 

     Time and time again, I find myself so grateful to be able to learn and live in such an amazing city. I love answering questions people have, so if you have any, shoot them my way. 

 

     Best, 

     Ashton x