Hi and welcome to my very first blog for studying abroad in London. My Name is Verena and I’m from Hamburg. I study media and communication Management. I decided to spend my Semester abroad, in London at the University of Greenwich.
In the following I would like to bring you a little close to the British culture, the Study life at the University of Greenwich and the Lifestyle in London.
I hope you are as excited as I am, so lets just get right into it.
I pack my suitcase and take with me…
Since London, was my first choice for the Semester abroad, I am very excited to be here. To make your possible Arrival even easier, I am going to start this Blog with Information before even arriving in London. After it was safe to say, Macromedia let me go to the University of Greenwich, we had an online application. Nothing wild and very easy to fill out. Even if you have any questions regarding the Uni, there is always a very nice team helping you out via email. Since the University preparation stuff was all done, we got more information about living in London. We were introduced to 2 accommodations, i.e. student residences, in more detail, because both are particularly close to the university, one is the Daniel Defoe Hall and the other is Cutty Sark Halls, both are very simple and nice Residences to stay in. However, I teamed up with a fellow student from Hamburg and booked an Air bnb accommodation. We were very lucky to find an Air bnb right in Greenwich. Our accommodation is located directly at Maze Hill station, and it takes us just 10 minutes to walk to the university. For us this accommodation is just perfect, because we both have our own bedroom, our own bathroom and share a nice living room, kitchen, and balcony. Thus, we also did not have to buy any decoration or bedding. However, it must be said that we also pay a little more than in a student accommodation.
The Semester at the University of Greenwich started on the 15th of September, but my Roommate and I arrived in London already on the 5th of September. We had given ourselves a buffer of 10 days in case we would have had to go into a possible quarantine, but also to explore the city a bit and find our way around before university starts. In the end, 3-4 days would have been enough, because during the semester you still have enough free time to explore the city step by step. Nevertheless, the first days did us good to get to know people, to visit different neighborhoods in London and get to know our neighborhood inside and out.
The University of Greenwich is an extremely international university with students from all over the world. Our first week at the university was the perfect start. There was a whole schedule set up for us where we did all the important things like a campus tour, library tour, pizza lunch with other study abroad students and much more. This helped us to orientate ourselves on campus, because the campus is big and to get to know some other students too. Also, at the end of the first orientation week we got our fixed schedule. The schedule included 4 lectures for us, each of which lasted 1 to a maximum of 2 hours. This gives us enough time to explore London and finish our homework. The nice thing is that you always have a contact person, and the university is always there for you if something should be.
In summary, the first weeks in London were very impressive and eventful for us. We have already made many new friends, have gotten to know London better and are settling in step by step to student life at the University of Greenwich.
In the next blog I will give you some more impressions of the London life and I can’t wait to tell you about it.
