Moving to a new city or country can be difficult. This can be for many reasons: homesickness, culture shock and living with new people as well as others.

I have personally grown up in Scotland and moved down to England during the Covid Pandemic for university. I have also been in Spain and Italy for semesters abroad for Erasmus. I have experienced these all, in different ways, in the different places I have lived.

For me moving into university accommodation far from family was daunting, however, making friends with flat mates really helped as well as looking into societies and of course talking to those on my course.

One tip I have is to socialise in your kitchen with those from your flat as it is a great way to get to know those you live with just that bit better.

Being homesick varies for everyone for me I found that when living in Leicester I wasn’t affected the same way I was when I was in Spain and Italy. It is totally normal to be homesick and everyone will experience it in different ways, from feeling down to having physical symptoms.

One tip I have for feeling less homesick is to call and video call home often.

Culture shock is a real thing people experience when living in other countries. When living abroad the ‘Aperitivo’ at 5pm and having dinner between 8pm and 10pm was a major change for me as the usual time for dinner in the UK I would say is typically between 5:30pm and 7:30pm. Having to adapt to eating at different times can be difficult to adjust to and if you eat at the other times when out at restaurants then you could be likely to be the only ones in eating at that time.

Living with new people is hard for most and it is made even harder when in other countries when you are living with people who speak different languages adds an extra challenge to it. However, speaking to them and interacting in the kitchen can be so rewarding especially when you know at least one of you are helping the other advance in a second language.