All I could say, before I left Guatemala on the 14th of September this year, was: London here I come!…
If I am being very honest I never adapted to the community in QMUL. Although the campus was very large, I never really fit into any group on Campus. Adapting was harder than I thought it would be. I had done it in three different cities prior to this one (as I mentioned in my first blog post) but this time it was different, and the weather did not help!
Loners. This is the perfect word to describe the British, and this had a great impact on my student experience as a whole. Coming from Rollins, I thought college life would be the main aspect of my experience abroad but this could not be further away to what my reality in London was. During the week I would go to classes and leave as soon as they ended just like everybody else. I would eat on schedule and sometimes go on a run. I had a very structured routine and I would sometimes not exchange words (in a friendly manner) with a single person for as long as an entire day. There were hundreds of students in a classroom yet they would not approach you or show any trace of wanting to be approached. Overall they were not friendly. Luckily, my best friend came with me and we decided to expand our horizons and leave Mile End every opportunity we had. I guess that, with my identity as a Guatemalan (being used to the latin culture), this came as a great shock since I am not used to ever being alone and I came to feel a little depressed adapting to this change.
However this same identity gave me an advantage. Seeking for change, I took every opportunity I had to leave campus and explore. This took meant that I was mostly in Central London or outside the United Kingdom. Traveling was the answer. Visiting beautiful landscapes, museums, theaters, and churches gave me an insight to myself and Europe that I could not find in QMUL.
If you asked me if I would go abroad again my answer is always going to be YES! If you asked me if I would choose London all over again I would never think about it twice! If you asked me if I would choose QMUL, well… But overall the experience and the people I got to interact with gave me an insight of the UK and Europe that I will forever be grateful for!