Story Location: England
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Study Abroad: Snapshots in Time
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January Two weeks into my semester in Oxford, I’m attending my first hall dinner. Candles light the room-length dining tables, and the three-course menu is printed on what seems to be parchment. The waiters are all in tuxedos. I’ve never attended such a formal event before. Everyone suddenly stands, and I scramble to my feet…
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Studying Abroad…With a Stammer
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When I’m excited, my tongue trembles. When I’m nervous, it shakes. When I’m meeting new people, it disappears completely, leaving me with soundless lips and syllables that just won’t come, a magician with a vanishing act gone wrong, a ventriloquist with a broken puppet. My doctor says I breathe wrong. Exhalations come in spurts and…
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Student Life at Oxford: Clubs and Societies
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At my US college, people struck up conversations in hallways, in classrooms, in the dining hall, even in line for coffee. I realized this five minutes into my college career: freshman year I was moving into my dorm room when a boy in my hall, fresh from the shower, and a complete stranger, stopped to…
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Alumni Advice: Don’t Let “Likes” Dominate Your Abroad Experience
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Technology dominates our life. There’s no way to avoid it, but there is a way to manage it. Technology can make studying abroad a lot easier. It allows you to easily connect with people at home and it makes navigating around a foreign city a lot easier. But technology, specifically social media, should not dictate…
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On London Time: Adjusting to Life Abroad in London & Beyond
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Anya Schulman took over our Instagram account in February to share her experiences studying with us in London. See how she adjusted to life in Europe’s most dynamic city. Hey everyone! I’m Anya, and I’m a junior at Kenyon College. I spent last semester studying abroad at University College London. I’m an IFSA-Butler global ambassador,…
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5 Steps to Getting the Most Out of London
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1) Have An Open Mind While this might seem obvious, actually practicing this anywhere can be extremely difficult. My initial experiences in London testify to this: during my first few weeks of adjustment, I found myself carrying around some culturally presumptuous luggage. I incorrectly assumed that various individuals I met would share the common predispositions about life that…
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Budgeting and Reckless Spending Abroad
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I’m used to international currency exchange rates, US dollars to the Nepali Rupee, 1$= Rs106. In England, I expected more of the same: £1= 1.44$ = Rs153. At the airport I withdrew 200 pounds, or 288 dollars, or 30,700 rupees, confident that I wouldn’t need to make another cash withdrawal for a long time. 30,700 rupees in…
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IFSA Adventure Weekend: Adrenaline in the Mountains
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Let me preface this article by saying that I’m not the adventurous type. I’m not even athletic. I reserve the deepest loathing for PE classes and gym shorts, and the most intense game I’ve played recently has been chess. That being said, two weeks ago, I strapped myself to a steel cable and scaled a…
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National Identity Abroad: Us vs. Them-The Americans and the English
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My ‘About Me’ sections go like this: 22, college student, cat person, Hufflepuff. Nepali. The last one is hesitant, a fluttering around the periphery of my identity, almost a question. Nepali? I was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, and I lived there for nineteen years before leaving the country to attend college in America. Both my parents, both sets of…
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How London Taught Me About Diversity
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It’s been nearly five months since I arrived home from London, and I still vividly remember my last morning. I left my flat around 6:15am, the wheels of my two gigantic suitcases rolling loudly on the pavement as I walked a few blocks to Paddington Station to catch the Heathrow Express train. The morning was…
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