CHC Study Abroad Blog: What I did in my free time abroad!
By Mahidhar Sai Lakkavaram
Content
While a good chunk of my study abroad experience was split between my classes and cooking, I still did have some free time in between the cracks to just have fun and experience what living in London is like. So, here’s what I did in my free time while abroad!
College Societies!
Just like UMass Amherst, University College London (UCL) also has a variety of clubs (or societies as they call them) – all of which I could join as an exchange student! If you couldn’t tell already, I love writing, so I joined two magazines, and got published in both of them during my time there.
The first one was a life sciences magazine called Kinesis, where I was a writer and editor, and the second was a fashion magazine called MODO, where I wrote my first-ever fashion article. Being able to write for both these magazines taught me so much about how different media organizations work. First of all, both magazines were so different from each other, and it was also very eye-opening to see how they worked in comparison to the ones back at UMass Amherst.
For instance, at MODO, we first pitched a concept that we wanted to explore, then had to coordinate with a stylist, a makeup artist, a photographer, and a set of models to bring the concept to life.
And then for Kinesis, we had to write in a way to make science communicable to an everyday reader, and think about relevant topics from a general perspective and not a STEM one, which is something I never got the chance to do before. Then, we had to coordinate with artists to curate an original piece for the article we were publishing.
Back at UMass, however, the writing was more-open ended in different media groups, and writers were just focused on getting the article out and not as involved in coordinating a shoot or getting involved with the aesthetic aspects of the piece.
Through these two societies, I got to experiment with all these different styles of writing and publishing processes, which was super helpful as I got to learn more communications skills and become more versatile as a writer!
Picnics
There’s so many great parks and hills in London that would be perfect for a cute picnic! My roommates and I would go to a picnic almost every weekend (once the spring set in) where we’d just sit and relax for hours. Under the sun with good food and company, picnics are so magical! My favorite spots were Primrose Hill or Hyde Park.
At the top of Primrose Hill, you could see the entire London skyline; we’d go when the sun was about to set and just sit near the peak looking at the colorful sky behind the skyscrapers. We’d get a few card games with us and try to set up an aesthetic picnic spread! Some of our favorite foods to bring were pies, crackers and cheese, and fresh fruit!
Hyde Park was another great spot since it was so big and there were so many different places we could sit at! I personally loved sitting near the banks of the Serpentine—we’d see the swans swimming around and the water was so clear and pleasant to look at. Another favorite in Hyde Park was the rose garden, so many pretty flowers everywhere! But beware if you have a pollen allergy, it can get quite bad during the spring!
Night Life
London is very much a night city. There is always so much to do once working hours are over, and lots of fun things to do. There’s also nice walks across the river at night, good food to eat EVERYWHERE and even karaoke places are open at night!
Sightseeing
I tried my best to get to every tourist attraction in London. If you haven’t read my previous blog about it already, there was so much sightseeing to do, and that took up a lot of my time in London! Sightseeing in London is so much fun because there’s so many different places to look at and it's a great way to spend your free time. From St Paul’s Cathedral to Tower Bridge, there’s so many different places to visit in this gorgeous city.
It was the versatility of the sightseeing that made it all the more interesting! You could go to historical places like Big Ben or Buckingham Palace, but you could also visit numerous museums like the British museum, and my personal favorite, art galleries! I loved the art galleries at the Tate Modern as they always had something new to show. For example, they had Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms, which were a huge buzz for how innovative they were. Unfortunately, tickets for the Mirror Rooms ran out pretty quickly, but their other exhibitions are just as gorgeous!
So, that’s how I spent my free time in London! Do you have any ideas on what someone could do in London during their free time? communications [at] honors [dot] umass [dot] edu (Let us know! )