 Hi everybody and welcome to this week's video. School has really been like ramping up in the past couple of weeks, so I thought that I would, I took a little break from last Friday, but I thought that I would sit down and make like a real Q and A video, just so I could like really address, you know, most of my audience are people who are planning to come in to study abroad. So I thought that it would be a good idea to just like actually address some of the like general things that people are wondering about. I'm also, I'm tired. See, we're just gonna hop right in, but if you are new, I post new videos every Friday most of the time, where I talk about study abroad. I talked about gap years too, so if you're interested in that, you can scroll back to last year and find that content. So the first question, just starting right off the bat, is do you have any dorm recommendations for study abroad students in Edinburgh? As of right now, I am not gonna be making a video on which dorms I recommend. I will be doing this at some point, just for like privacy reasons. I obviously don't wanna like spill the tea about where I live. However, I will be making like a full, I wanna talk about it, but yeah, not right now. So this person said, I was accepted to study abroad for fall 2022 and I applied for Pollock Halls. However, I'm a bit concerned that I will be 21 and I've heard in Pollock there are many 18 year olds. What I will say is if you are studying abroad, I think this is most UK universities if you're coming is that you will get put with first years no matter where you live. I think maybe you could specifically apply for like graduate student housing, like look at on your program, if your program or your school is offering you, you know, like a list of options, try Googling which ones maybe are graduate school housing. You could go that avenue. What I will say is I do live with first years. That for sure has its challenges. I am, I'm 22 going on, my God. So there are certain moments where I feel like the senior citizen of this building and it's like 9 p.m. on a Tuesday and everyone's, you know, going out for the third night in a row and I'm like, okay, it's time for my tea and my program and my program is what I call, like my show. It's like old lady lingo, it's my program. So yeah, regardless if you live in like a hall style or a flat style situation, you're gonna live with first years. I would say is just like try and make the most of it. I mean, I, it's, it is different here because as an 18 year old, as a first year in university, you are allowed to go out. So they sort of have different like sets of freedoms. I was like really worried about this too and my biggest advice to you is to like not let it be a problem because no matter the age of people is what, of what I have found. Obviously there are some circumstances where maybe I just like don't have a lot in common with somebody, but I think honestly, you know, just cause like of life stages, honestly, like you're going to find people that you have things in common with. You're gonna find people that you just don't really mesh with regardless of age. And I would just say trying to think about it so much and just go and, you know, meet new people and get out there and make friends because I think that it's in my head, I was like, oh, this is gonna be like a way bigger issue than it turned out to be. And I've also like a lot more people take gap years here and there are a lot of more international students who skew older. Yeah, that's sort of my advice. It's gonna be on a situation basis, I would say, really to bottom line it. Like it's more about the type of people less about the age, I would say. And that comment was from Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks for watching. And then this one, this next one is from B and a little cloud. So fun. Okay, so how do you go about planning and packing lightly for short slash weekend trips in the UK and Europe? Tips to cope with loneliness and homesickness while you're studying abroad. I'm gonna break this up so it's two different questions. So starting with, how do I go about planning and packing lightly for short weekend trips? Honestly, it is so easy to plan a trip here. It's pretty ridiculous if you have like a computer and some basic skills, it doesn't take much because there's, I was like, there's like way less planning and you can get plane tickets for so cheap and public transportation is so good. So even if you're like, how am I gonna get to this like random location? Chances are there is a train and a bus that will take you exactly there and it's gonna run like every 15 minutes. It's just absolutely crazy. Yeah, and cheap flights are also really, really easy to come by to go to Dublin, which was in my previous, I went in March. No, I went, oh my gosh, I went February to Dublin. I planned that trip in probably about like an hour with my friend Teresa. We just like sat down at a cafe and we were like, okay, where do we wanna go? And we, for that trip, just like give you, for instance, we booked plane tickets through Ryanair, which is like sort of, it's sort of like the spirit airlines of Europe is what I'm like, I have gathered except it's like people clown on it a lot, which they should. But I think our plane tickets round trip to Dublin were like 30 bucks. So that was like $15 a plane ride, which I mean, it's very funny because people here are like complained about the prices of things all the time. But like, if I can't even go home from college for like, that does not exist. That just does not, that does not exist. The cheapest way to travel in America is like by car. And that's like, that's not even a tank of gas. So that's just upsetting. But yeah, I flew Ryanair, very funny experience. I'm sorry, this isn't really addressing your comment, but I'm gonna tell you about Ryanair because we get up in the air, absolutely slingshotted. And I have never, I don't know how to explain the sensation other than the plane did not take off as so much that it felt like there was like a rubber band that just flung us straight into the atmosphere right through the plane ride. They come around with like a cart. This is 100% real. They come through like halfway through, not with like little like airplane pretzels, but they have a cart of hard liquor and like cigars and cigarettes for sale. Like you can't smoke in a plane. In terms of like getting places, the train is gonna be your friend. Local trams, buses, Ryanair, if you're a student, because heck, if I, you know what? I will endure the slingshot, you know, into the air and the cigarettes and whiskey cart for $15.00, hell yeah. Probably why they have the whiskey cart. Yeah, I will also say, like looking up reviews for hostels. So I stayed in a hostel in Isle of Skye and in London, but in Dublin, we opted not to stay in a hostel because the reviews for it were terrifying. And I will say like as a woman reading the reviews, that's gonna be an important thing. Cause, you know, I like my life in like the forward trajectory, I guess is what, I don't know how to put that. In Dublin, we actually ended up like price matching in Airbnb and the Airbnb we stayed in was so nice. And it was so beautiful. She had snacks for us. She gave us like lipstick and like little like golden, like under eye bags. And there was like a little thing to make tea. We felt so cared for by this Airbnb. So I will say look, look for Airbnbs if you can, but if not, you know, read hostel reviews and book them to your heart's desire. And then, okay, any tips to deal with loneliness and homesickness while you're studying abroad? Okay, so I do want to do like a whole video on this maybe at some point to like further about like my experience with this. But I think that the biggest mistake, just like getting right to the point is spending too much time trying to uphold your life at home. I think that's just like, I don't know, that's like a really honest way to put it. Like, and it kind of rips the bandit off of this conversation because, you know, if you're here for three months or four months, you know, it's really easy to feel like it's temporary. And I think that feeling of like, oh, this is temporary can, you know, that they're like, oh, I'm just gonna go home. Like I don't have to try to like put myself out there and like meet new people. I think that that can be a really big hindrance for you to uphold your own mental health because while like you may have, like I have some of my best friends that I still talk to like on the phone because they're my besties, you know, I want to talk to them. I want to talk to my parents, of course. Yeah, and obviously, you know, call your loved ones for support, you know, because it is a very, it can be very overwhelming, you know, the first couple of weeks that you're here a month. Honestly, there are, this is why I want to go the whole video on this because it's like, there are like so many stages of it. And like I still am dealing with like new things every week that are different, that are frustrating and they're like very, they're really like small things. But then they start, they start to like add up. Like you have like a, like a tally of like, where you hit your breaking point. You're like, okay, fine. Now I'm homesick. Like I had to return a package two, two, three weeks ago and it took me like five hours because I just didn't understand the systems here. And it is a hundred percent moments like that where I'm like, I want to go home. Like it's, but I'm having like a great time like enjoying the culture here. I'm having a wonderful time. But then it ebbs and flows, one could say. Yes, obviously call your loved ones, loved ones for support. However, I think for the first couple of weeks to like compartmentalize it, treat it like you're moving here longterm. And I think that it's going to, that is going to benefit you greatly. Like you have to, you have to treat it like you're moving there, but also treat it like you're temporary, but in the good way. Because like, I think that you should tap into that like feeling of being temporary because I think it'll push you to do a lot of things that maybe you wouldn't do at home. But you also don't want to feel so temporary that you're like, well, none of this matters anyway. Like I'm going to have to say goodbye to these people because that's a really, that's a really like easy way to feel like sort of like downtrodden, not downtrodden. Why can't I think of a different word? But yeah, if you're feeling down, I think for me personally with homesickness is I haven't really experienced it as much as I have. My first, oh my gosh, my first semester of college was probably when I have felt, I've ever felt the most homesickness. And I go to a college like eight hours, 10 hours away from where I live. So this is not my first experience moving away. So I think that homesickness has affected me differently because I'm older and I can compartmentalize it more where I'm like, okay, my life is here. What are physical things that I can do in this country to make myself feel better? And then I think the luxury that you don't have, especially as a year-long student is break times. On the weekends, people will go home. A lot of students live only an hour away or a couple hours away by train or plane or something like that. And they have a luxury of going home for the weekend. And when people do that, you're like, oh my God, I am jealous of you. I think in those aspects of you just wanna go home and not be a college student anymore, we all have those moments where you're like, I just wanna sleep in my own bed. And I can't do that right now. What I do is I'll just be like, okay, I'm gonna go get my favorite food. I'm gonna spend some time talking to my family this weekend and sort of taking a step back from college life. That can be really good. Sort of aspect to deal with as well. Aspect to deal with, I don't, that's a good thing to do. Hannah also asked about homesickness. She said, just kinda accept it there. It is so exciting. My question is dealing with homesickness and what it's like making friends. Any cute places that aren't too expensive. I'll end with this like one question. So I sort of answered the homesickness one already and I'm definitely gonna elaborate that on that more in another video, but what's it like when making friends? Yeah, I think making friends here is a really like special experience. I have found that I have, I probably have more friends than I ever have in my whole entire life, which like maybe like a weird thing. I don't know if it's just like, I fit in in a different way that's like better here. But then, you know, there's obviously people that like I don't, I don't gel with just like anywhere that like I just wouldn't get along with or like, but I will say that people are very open here in a different kind of way than in America. Like I feel like we have like a big emphasis on like friend groups. And like that definitely does exist here, but it's like there are a lot more ways to like get involved that aren't just like Greek life. If you have a hobby or something, you know, I have a whole video on this about like making friends and like joining societies and things like that. That's a really great avenue. But yeah, I find that people just like can talk about a lot of stuff here. Like it's a lot, there's a lot less judgment around like hobbies and things that, you know, you may like to do. People talk about politics and I don't know, like things that are going on in the world. And not that we don't talk about things like that in the States, but it's just like, I don't know how to explain it. Like, I don't know. Like I feel like we're constantly like apologizing for things that we like doing in the States because it's like, oh, that's cringy or like that's, you know, and people just like in general have a lot more like things that they do for fun here. So yeah, there's less, there's less judgment. I don't know. But then there's also judgment in like completely other different ways. But yeah, I think I'm going to end it here for today, but there are some other really great questions in there. So I'm going to maybe do a part two another day. But yeah, and if you like missed the part where I said, like I was doing a Q and A and you're like, oh, I have a question now because she said this one thing, pop it down below and maybe I'll add it to the next one because that seems like an efficient system. So thanks for watching. Puh-puh-da-puh-pah, pah-pah. Puh-puh-da-puh-pah, puh-puh-pah-pah-pah. Puh-pah.