Student Bloggers

As my first week at Arcadia London wraps up, I am thankful that I prioritized participating in all that the scheduled orientation week had to offer. The first few days on a study abroad program are a crucial time that sets the tone for the rest of the experience. The orientation programming helped me settle into London in many ways: mentally, financially, socially, and physically. 

Firstly, my sleep schedule is essential to my mental health, so I was reasonably nervous about the jet lag of moving to another country. The week one schedule was built to combat this, so adhering to the set standards forced me to wake up early and keep active until the evening. I would often not return back to the housing accommodation until after the sun had set. It was a simple consideration that they made in planning, but it helped me set my brain to London’s time clock before classes began. 

Second, going into studying abroad, the area which most concerned me was my financial stability. During this first week, Arcadia’s programming covered several meals as well as typical touristy outings. Though it was just a cursory spread of activities, it made me feel immersed in London from the very beginning. With a pub quiz at the local student union, a tour of the Golden Hinde ship on the shore of the River Thames, a musical on the West End, and free entrance to the Tower of London, I felt thrust into the most essential areas of the city without having to spend a cent. Going forward, I feel comfortable to research and explore the more niche things that London has to offer. In the midst of that, the groceries that I bought were fairly experimental because I was still adjusting to what English grocery stores had to offer. Going into my second week, I am able to more strategically spend my money now that I had the wiggle room of Arcadia’s covered meals during orientation. Free food is always worth the trip out of the house!

Third, I am a firm believer that social determinations in big groups like Arcadia happen extremely fast. By the end of the first two days, friend groups begin to form. So if you are someone who decides to stay in for some of the optional, more frivolous activities set as part of orientation, you might feel behind when it comes to the social progression happening around you. At first, my group from Kalamazoo College tended to stick together, feeling somewhat isolated from other factions within Arcadia. However, the more orientation activities we attended, the more names we learned and conversations we had. Now, at the end of this crucial time period, we recognize the majority of the people we have started to see in our classes. This is because we walked home with people after the pub quiz and we participated in the cheesy icebreakers at the Golden Hinde event and we struck up conversations with people we hadn’t crossed paths with yet during faculty walking tours. 

Finally, and most importantly, when I say that orientation week helped me physically adjust to London living, there is a double meaning: as it relates to my physical health, the constant walking and moving during orientation acclimated me to living in a big, walkable city again and, similarly, helped me situate everything I had visited and witnessed that week in relation to each other. What I mean by that is, one of the final big outings from orientation week is the Greenwich Boat Tour. By this point, I had already seen the Tower of London, the London Eye, Big Ben, and other important monuments in London. However, getting on a boat and drifting down the River Thames made me draw a better mental map of the city as a whole and how it related to its counterparts. Now, I can confidently figure out going by use of train lines and cardinal directions, which makes me feel more confident as I continue to explore more of London going forward. 

All of this to say, orientation is underrated for the ways that it helps students settle into this unfamiliar environment. I am thankful that Arcadia London took the time to make sure that this was emphasized in our first week in the country. I encourage any future students to take advantage of every opportunity they put before you so that your health in all aspects–physical, mental, financial, and social–can be supported by Arcadia programming.