Studying across the pond makes travel and fun easy
Letters from Abroad
After you have registered, there is still the problem of finding all your classes. Normally Queen Mary students get a personal schedule, but study abroad students may find themselves running from department to department to find out where are their courses.
London can be a very expensive place to live, but here in the East End it is almost comparable to Baltimore. You can buy a pint for around $3.30 and meals at most pubs in the area are between $6-$10. $40 can get you about one week's worth of groceries and a movie costs around $6 with the student discount.
Traveling to Europe from London can be extremely cheap. Ryanair, a large discount airline, frequently has one-way flights for between $20-$40. Traveling with them is not the most comfortable experience (the seats don't recline) and everything costs extra (even water).
Classes are organized differently here, with two or more separate lectures for the same class in one day. It is slightly annoying to leave class and then come back an hour later to the same subject. The advantage is that it is not difficult to arrange your schedule to have a day off. I have Mondays off and plan to use my three day weekend (as well as Ryanair) to see the Louvre in Paris, eat chocolate in Belgium or watch a sex show and smoke marijuana in Amsterdam.
Hostels are a must if you want to keep it cheap. I found them to be friendly and a great way to meet people (I am still in touch with several people I shared a room with).
There are several pubs near Queen Mary where students go to watch cricket, football (soccer) and rugby. Sports fans here are crazy about the games that they watch. I watched an India versus Pakistan cricket game in a pub that probably had twice as many people as it should have been able to hold. The cheering and booing was so intense, that two vans full of police officers were called to calm any possible pandemonium.
So far London appears to be an extremely diverse city. There are many different accents (some incomprehensible) and a lot of alcohol. The food is not nearly as bad as it is rumored to be but, for some reason, they think curry is an English dish.
London can be a very expensive place to live, but here in the East End it is almost comparable to Baltimore. You can buy a pint for around $3.30 and meals at most pubs in the area are between $6-$10. $40 can get you about one week's worth of groceries and a movie costs around $6 with the student discount.
Traveling to Europe from London can be extremely cheap. Ryanair, a large discount airline, frequently has one-way flights for between $20-$40. Traveling with them is not the most comfortable experience (the seats don't recline) and everything costs extra (even water).
Classes are organized differently here, with two or more separate lectures for the same class in one day. It is slightly annoying to leave class and then come back an hour later to the same subject. The advantage is that it is not difficult to arrange your schedule to have a day off. I have Mondays off and plan to use my three day weekend (as well as Ryanair) to see the Louvre in Paris, eat chocolate in Belgium or watch a sex show and smoke marijuana in Amsterdam.
Hostels are a must if you want to keep it cheap. I found them to be friendly and a great way to meet people (I am still in touch with several people I shared a room with).
There are several pubs near Queen Mary where students go to watch cricket, football (soccer) and rugby. Sports fans here are crazy about the games that they watch. I watched an India versus Pakistan cricket game in a pub that probably had twice as many people as it should have been able to hold. The cheering and booing was so intense, that two vans full of police officers were called to calm any possible pandemonium.
So far London appears to be an extremely diverse city. There are many different accents (some incomprehensible) and a lot of alcohol. The food is not nearly as bad as it is rumored to be but, for some reason, they think curry is an English dish.
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Cheap Airline Tickets Site
posted 2/16/10 @ 10:15 PM EST
Its true, nothing is cheaper than already being in a central location overseas so you can just hop around like you would state to state in the US. However, there are many cheap offerings in travel these days that should be checked out for those not already overseas. (Continued…)
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