Well, people weren’t lying when they told me it rains all the time in London. I was really hoping they were. I’ve been in London for a month now at Boston University’s intern abroad program, and I was forced to buy an extremely overpriced umbrella on one of my first days here.
Follow along for all the ins and outs of my study abroad experience in my new column, “Rae in London” (only because my name isn’t Emily and I’m not in Paris). I’ll start by sharing my life across the pond so far, complete with my top culture shocks, what my schedule looks like, and what’s next for me this semester.
During my freshman fall at Boston University, I documented the key culture shocks that kept me on my toes in a new city after growing up in “Small Beach Town, California” for 18 years. Her Campus, I am blessing you with a second installment in that series.
Introducing: “Culture Shocks: London Edition.”
- Trash (Or Should I say rubbish)
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The sun never sets on the British Empire, but maybe it should on their trash collection system.
On the week that it was my turn for dorm kitchen rota, I had to collect the bags from each bin (blue for garbage and clear for recycling, because that makes sense), tie them up really tight, and carry them down a sketchy metal staircase next to my building. Then, I — and you won’t even believe this — tossed them into a dark room. No sorting going on in there. Just a pile of bags. Probably some rats in there, too. I didn’t want to stick around to find out.
On trash day, all those bags are dumped on the sidewalk and eventually picked up by a truck. Inevitably, before then, though, the bags would be ripped open and trash would be strewn all over the street. What a clean, aromatic, and aesthetically pleasing scene!
- Those dumb cars
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I know this is a stereotypical answer, but man. I am so disoriented that I can’t remember how cars are supposed to work. Apologies to my Boston habits, jaywalking is super dangerous at the moment because I have no idea which direction cars are turning from. In the jet-lagged Uber from the airport, I got really scared for a minute because a lady in what I assumed was the driver’s seat was filing her fingernails on the freeway. It was, in fact, the passenger’s side.
On another bizarre law note, the pedestrians here don’t get the right of way, which really seems to me like a genius idea for a city with countless tourists who probably don’t understand that the cars drive on the left. They call crosswalks “zebra crossings,” and little flashing yellow lights tell the cars that this is actually the only time they have to yield to humans.
- They have a king here
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I genuinely can’t get over this.
One of the first weeks I was in London, Kate Middleton and Prince William were outside my building on a visit to the Natural History Museum. Kate debuted blonde hair, according to the billion news articles that quickly populated our phones. What timely and widely relevant news!
At the same time, I am having so much fun blaming every slight inconvenience on King Charles. It was funny day one, and it’s still funny now. I am a firm believer that silly governments should be treated as such (but if I saw Kate Middleton on the street, I’d probably be as bad as the rest of them).
- my schedule
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Due to my program being internship-oriented, the semester is crammed into two quarter blocks. The internship is attached to a seminar spread over the course of the semester, so the program still delivers a full load of 16 credits — and lots of my classes have HUB units attached, too.
So far, my classes have been four days a week, with my global marketing seminar taking up four hours of my Mondays and Tuesdays, and my British film and TV core class blessing me with four hours of a fashion icon of a professor on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Fridays are reserved for rescheduled classes, but I’ve been lucky enough to avoid those thus far, so I’ve really been enjoying my three-day weekends. I even popped over to Paris for a weekend (as one does) to visit my cousins last week.
My classes are long, but enjoyable. Breaks are built into each day, and so are field trips to interesting places like Harrods, the famous designer department store, and the British Film Institute for a screening and Q&A with the cast of Belfast cop drama Blue Lights.
So what’s next for Rae?
In about a week, this compacted set of classes will end, and I will move on to a second elective, a class on the culture of European film festivals, as well as my internship placement as a video editor for Toy Soldier Films. I will be working in the iconic Brick Lane area of London, which almost makes up for the corporate hours! I am really looking forward to gaining new professional experience in a new and exciting way, and hope I meet some cool British creatives. During my winter break, I will be traveling to visit family and friends across Italy and Germany.
London has been a dream so far, and I can’t wait to see all Europe has in store for me these next few months.
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