Making Friends, Not Enemies While Abroad in London

Everyone going to a new place alone has that thought in the back of their head that it may be kind of hard to make friends once they arrive. Unless you’re just immensely confident in your friend-making ability (in which case that’s pretty cool for you) but you’re not like the rest of us. Coming to London I wasn’t immediately concerned about making friends here, but it was definitely something I thought about more as I realized I would mainly be around other American students, so I wouldn’t have that appeal of being from another country. I mean, half of the other students with me are from the same school so it felt a little too easy fitting in with them. I’ve found pretty quickly here that in order to make friends outside of the people you live with, you have to get a little out of your comfort zone and talk to people that you normally wouldn’t. I’ve been lucky enough to make a few friends in the Stay Club where we live or in passing at restaurants or pubs which has been nice. I’ve been lucky to find friends that I can count on to explore the city throughout the program.

Thinking back on all of the stuff we’ve done so far as a group, it is almost difficult to pinpoint one memory that will be easy to remember for a long time. Our time here feels like a blur as new information and locations are constantly being presented and our time together draws to an end. While we have spent time in places ranging from Bath to Dover and gone to countless museums and art galleries, the things that will be the easiest to remember are simple. Playing games like UNO, euchre, and hide-and-seek, going on walks at night to Primrose Hill, and that one time we saw a fox are all things that felt insignificant but will surely make lasting memories. In reality, as long as you’re enjoying the time you have here with others you can call friends or classmates or even acquaintances it will be something that you can look back on fondly. 

That’s why there isn’t really anything to worry about when it comes to making friends. As long as you ensure you don’t change who you are just to fit in with another group of people or try and make yourself something you’re not, you will find friends here who will be fun to do things with. The best advice I can offer for making friends while here is taking any opportunity to go to events hosted by your program and to go on all of the field trips as these will more than likely involve others from your program who are looking to travel and make friends as well. Also, try and create some group chat that will allow you to communicate with others from your program and an in turn plan events that you can do with them. Finally, just remember that virtually everyone else is coming here alone and they will be looking to make friends as well so just keep an eye out for people you’d like to hang out with and they will likely be doing the same.