This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Western chapter.
I’ve just moved to England on a five month exchange, and in one week this is what I’ve learned!
1. The statement that it is always raining in England IS NOT A JOKE. It is literally always raining. Bring a good quality umbrella if you don’t enjoy constantly looking like a drowned rat.
2. Look both ways before you cross the road. They drive on the left side of the road. Don’t learn this one the hard way.
3. I have honestly never seen a club so lit as when One Direction comes on in a British club. One moment I will absolutely never forget.
4. The city transit is WAY better than Canada’s. Save Uber for when you’re coming home from the club and use city transit to save money!
5. STUDENT DEALS. ALL THE TIME. EVERYWHERE. They LOVE students here and almost everything has a student discount applied to it.
6. If you only remember three words about living in England, they should be: Poundland, Primark and Sainsbury’s. I live and die by these stores, and shopping here has saved me hundreds of pounds already!
7. Get a currency exchange app on your phone. The pound is almost 1.6x the Canadian dollar, so when buying something you need to take this into consideration to figure out what you’re actually spending.
8. You aren’t supposed to tip at the bar, but you are supposed to in a restaurant.
9. Proper pub etiquette is to go up to the bar, order your food and pay. They don’t serve you. I didn’t know this and spent twenty minutes sitting at a table waiting to be served. “Sorry, I’m Canadian!”
10. You need a railcard. It gets you HUGE deals on train tickets and using the card only a couple of times makes up for your purchase of the card.
11. Fries are called “chips” and chips are called “crisps.”
12. Instead of saying “You’re welcome,” or “No problem,” they say “It’s alright!”