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Brenda: This didn’t really affect me as much as some individuals since the university I chose is already a very international community, so I still get to meet people from many nationalities and cultures. The main difficulty is the much larger number of people that you get to meet, which can be quite daunting, especially in your first year.
Philip: A lot of people ask where I am from and I tell them London. Then they ask where is my British accent? At NYU there are a lot of international people so people tend to understand when you say that you lived abroad for five years. I find that they get that.
Manae: I like the international atmosphere. I attended the international orientation on the first day of school. It was quite nice to meet other international students there.
Thomas: When I say I lived in London, they ask “London, England?” Very few people understand what it is like to live abroad except for a few people who have gone to different international schools. It is cool to make connections with them because this is a very interesting experience that only a few people understand.
Alyssa: Sometimes it can be hard, and I miss living abroad and being surrounded by people who have had similar experiences to me, but its actually not as hard as I expected. I think that is because we are all going through the same transition from high school into college, so its another way to relate to people.
Trent: At Tech I don’t even try to explain my story most of the time because it is awkward. I tell them that I live in Saudi but went to school in three different international places. With my backstory it gets confusing to tell people. I do have a group of international friends as well as people from Georgia. I will talk about different things depending upon who I am with.
Francesca: I really enjoy living by myself and choosing my daily schedule. Still there is something sad about thinking back about my time at TASIS England. I may not miss living in boarding school, but the sense of connection one had with your friends living in a dorm was one of a kind, like a yearlong sleepover. I found new friends at university really quickly and I still have a lot of close TASIS England friends living around me that I see often. The transition wasn’t too hard for me, but I know of some who truly miss the friendships and atmosphere the TASIS England community could bring. And so do I. There’s nothing like sitting in the common room on a Sunday morning with all your best friends and talking about life. So yes, I’m happy to be outside the bubble, but one cannot deny the good experiences and memories deriving from my time at TASIS England.
Brenda: I love studying in the UK! Edinburgh provides me with such a friendly environment and a beautiful city. It is overall a very well-rounded and focused university. The city has the perfect balance of being mountainous as well as modern, accompanied by an amazing atmosphere both day and night, so there is always something to do and explore. I absolutely love it and am so grateful that I was accepted and chose to attend the University of Edinburgh.
Francesca: My university is very global, and I do have to admit that I know very few British people and have not learned much about the British culture. Considering my university friend group – two Germans, one Portuguese, one Polish and one Lithuanian – it feels like a continuation of international school rather than a British university. I have probably formed this friend group because I am used to being surrounded by international people. Being in a country away from home gives us all a certain base of understanding and similarity. However, this is definitely not the same for all universities. Often one will be exposed to many, many more local people, rather than international students, so it can't be generalized.