August 20, 2019
I have spent about a week in Lancaster, England and thought I would share my thoughts on the program so far. As part of the study abroad program, we are required to take a class called ‘Understanding Britain’ which I originally thought would not be very interesting. I was surprised to find the class was more focused on the poetry from famous writers who lived in the area. Along with analyzing poetry, we will be taking tours throughout North-west England including; the Lake District, Liverpool, and Manchester.
My class is filled with five other girls, two from Philadelphia, one from California, one from Australia and one from China. This environment gave us all a safety net to be confused with the campus and the culture around us. We were placed in accommodations on campus and given free meals for the time we’d be in the course. The department also gave us free bus passes for the bus that travels locally, a UK sim card, and a student advisor on speed dial in case we ever needed help.
Lancaster University is broken up into eight different colleges, or accommodation buildings. When applying for housing you choose your college and type of accommodation. For individuals who stay all three years, they will remain in the same college the entire time. There is a huge community around the colleges. Each college has its bar (yes bar, there’s about 10 different bars on campus), events, sports teams, and newspaper. Colleges will even have playful rivalries with other colleges. The college I choose is called Furness. We’re one of the smallest colleges on campus and the college seems to be a very relaxed environment.
A bit of advice I would recommend to anyone who will be attending Lancaster Uni through Rollin’s study abroad is to apply for whatever housing you want. Through Rollins, you have to pay Rollins prices no matter what, and even the most expensive accommodations at Lancaster aren’t a fraction of that price. After this course finished there are two weeks until term starts in October. During that time, we are kicked out of our dorms, although I’ve been informed, we can request a dorm to stay in during that time if we’d like. I’m planning to spend this time traveling around the United Kingdom and Ireland.
I’m incredibly excited to see how this course treats me and to see how my other courses are when term starts.
