by Lucy Knott

It has officially been well over a week since arriving in the United Kingdom and all of its glory…and boy has it been wild!

In a nutshell (there are so many squirrels!) I haven’t yet fallen into the turbines of homesickness, I have never vibrated with so much exhilaration at the thought of leaving New Zealand, and jet lag has never bashed me so completely over my head the way it did when I laid down to “nap” before my first arrival dinner in London. For the first week, 3am wake-ups were stale. A real stone cookie to chew. 

I think I was incredibly lucky actually to have two travel companions; my boyfriend, and my beloved platypus Miss Brontё, both of whom made excellent travel pillows for my unsuccessful attempts to sleep. We had 12 hours in Los Angeles airport and I think at some point I finally got an hour (probably 10mins) of “sleep” on those dreamy airport seats in between an intercom of names of people who were definitely missing their flights, and that general sluggish buzz of energy from people too excited to be there but too tired to fully show it. Honestly, I think George Romero could have pulled off one last film: Transit of the Dead. 

Apparently, the Pacific Ocean is also a territory of The United States of America, and anyone under the age of 21 is not allowed their in-flight beer. Thank goodness they only took Ethan’s half-finished IPA after noticing his “baby-like” features, so I had time to scull my wine before they claimed that as well.

Besides the rough but equally as exciting journey, some of my highlights have been:

Edinburgh! I was incredibly, incredibly, grateful to have been able to stay with and visit one of my mother’s friends who was an exceptional tour guide and lovely host to me for my few days in Scotland before heading into the books and learning! Until someone hacks the equation for time travel, the castle, along with the Old Town and Gothic architecture, will suffice. It was all simply incredible.

Irish dancing night: The University and Study Abroad Team here at Lancaster University have been incredible at putting on events and getting us involved and settled on campus. One of these events that stood out the most in terms of just sheer joy was Irish dancing, and if this was not a successful sweaty hand-holding team bonding exercise, I really couldn’t tell you what is. It was a deep dark but up-lifting folk-like music played by two guys on a kind of Bouzouki instrument and concertina (or probably it was an accordion) anyway… and those two guys were great, They really got us all spinning, twirling, and stumbling over our own laughter and each other’s feet. 

It snowed!!! (I thought I’d miss it)

And the weather! I love the rain.

On the less inviting side of this experience so far ( which I do have to say isn’t really a thing because everything is just fabulous) but nevertheless…

• The Washing: 6.30 NZD to do a load. 3.40NZD to dry that load… no further comment besides… ludicrous!!!!
• Sandwiches are everywhere. You name a flavour, they got it. Nothing like the originality of English food.
• The weather! I abhor the wetness.

Overall, arriving and getting everything sorted has been chaos! But in the process, I have met some really cool individuals! I’m now engaging with some exciting and epic course material! And I’m slowly exploring my way around the local area! I’m always looking for ways to push my comfort zone to grow as a person both in my personal life, and also in my studies, and I’m excited to share hopefully more bizarre experiences while being here!