Letters from London: an (un)official self-guided walking tour in the city

Picture this: two wide-eyed, passport-wielding Bennies fresh off the plane, ready to conquer London. Armed with enthusiasm, Citymapper, and a questionable knowledge of British culture, we’ve officially set up camp in the land of red phone booths, royal palaces and unpredictable weather (Spoiler alert: we still haven’t figured out when it’s appropriate to carry an umbrella and have gotten ourselves caught in the rain).

In this column, we’ll be your tour guides—except, unlike actual tour guides, we tend to get hopelessly lost, trip over cobblestones (more so Kayla than Summer, which she takes great offense to), and make an art form out of getting on the wrong tube. Between us, we’ve mastered the intricate science of trying to understand British accents while secretly Googling “what does ‘innit’ mean?” under the table.

We’re here to give you an unfiltered, slightly chaotic, but always entertaining glimpse into our study abroad adventures. So buckle up and get ready for tales of Tube mishaps, tea disasters and our ongoing quest to figure out how to cross the street without being hit by a red double-decker bus.

We’d like to think we’re looking more like locals by the minute, but let’s be honest, we are still firmly in the adjustment period. As such, there’s a few things we’ve learned that feel worth sharing for this first installment, and maybe they can apply to your CSB+SJU adventures back across the pond too.

Lesson one: public transportation is a gift.

We imagine when we come home, we will be sitting on the Link for hours trying to recreate the feeling the Tube gives us daily.

Want to go to Big Ben on a whim? Tap your Oyster transport card (pre-loaded by our institution with unlimited travel between Zones 1 and 2, thank you very much) follow the signs, hop on the right tube (mind the gap), plot about how to steal and bring home the dog sitting with the guy next to you because you miss your pets, and then walk right off in a brand-new place.

Let’s also not forget that where the tube fails, there are buses/trains/bikes to fill in the blanks. We wish we had more of this back in the states, so don’t take your morning Link commute for granted (and please thank your bus drivers).

Author’s note: In the interest of only saying nice things about the transportation here, we’d like to disregard the time we went all the way to Camden during our first night taking the tube just to realize we didn’t know why we were there and that we were lost.

We then tried to get back on the tube home when the doors closed and left half of our friend group stranded on the platform. (This is not a joke. Kayla made it on while Summer stood behind the glass and looked like she was going to faint because her phone was almost dead, and Kayla was the only one in the group with the directions pulled up. No, of course we don’t have separation anxiety, why do you ask?) The important thing is that everyone made it back to the flats safely, just about 30 minutes apart.

Lesson two: don’t trust your shoes.

If you think you’ve successfully “broken in” your shoes for walkable cities like London, you haven’t. Averaging 20,000 steps a day will teach you this lesson extremely quickly. And especially don’t be like Summer who wore brand new heels on day two and proceeded to give herself blisters that are (seriously) still not healed. Kayla was concerned there was a chance of infection. We’re still monitoring the situation.

The moral is: Get yourself some nice cushioned shoe inserts for your Quad stair treks, or any other journeys (Chapel Walk anyone?)

Lesson three: if you are the worst cook on the planet like Kayla, your life may be a tad difficult…hooray for forcing yourself to learn new skills.

Some study abroad programs have limited food plans, some don’t. Here on the London program, we are 100% on the hook for our own meals.

This has been a trial by fire for Kayla, who regularly burns toast and relies on her food-enthusiast Johnnie boyfriend and Gorecki to save her (hi TJ).

As an extra challenge, food in British grocery stores has much quicker expiration dates— either you eat it within three-ish days, or it goes bad (makes you wonder what in the world we are putting in American food that makes it last so long…)

At least Summer can (sort of) cook and has become the appointed chef in Metrogate Flat 19. There is a silver lining to everything folks, but maybe teach yourself some new survival skills this week, like cooking eggs or something.

Lesson four: Go to the museum exhibitions or community events. Book the random activities you found on Tik Tok. Just do it.

Most of the museums here in London have free admission (hooray for the broke college kids), but additional experiences and exhibits go for a small fee. Booking tickets for special events can even get you discounted drinks and food at a restaurant in the National Portrait Gallery that would ordinarily be way above our tax bracket (it was great, by the way).

Case in point: In October we are making custom purses in Edinburgh, Scotland, because Kayla found a video of the shop and sent it to Summer back in August during a late-night Tik Tok scroll. We quite literally created an entire trip around this activity and are dying to get on the train already and go.

Whether you’re back at home in St. Joe, planning your spring break (already?) or getting ready to study abroad later, find experiences wherever you are.

Go with your friends. Make a whole day (or a weekend) out of it. We’ve found plenty of free activities here too, which is especially true back at CSB+SJU with so many clubs organizing things for you to do. Get up and find stuff to look forward to.

As our first weeks in London come to a close, we’re planning on doing and seeing everything we possibly can and documenting it for your reading pleasure.

Here’s to the next few months of becoming honorary Brits, and the start of your CSB+SJU fall semester back on our home Turf.

We’ll be living vicariously through each other, okay?