One Year Countless Experiences: a London guide

You're in a new city, and you are going to live here for a year or two. You think you have time? No - there is never enough time in London!

As someone who has made this mistake, I can tell you right now: enjoy your time while you still can because one year goes by in the twinkle of an eye. Thankfully, I learnt from my experience and will share three tips that helped me. 

Before I go on, I want to say: do not panic. While one year goes by fast, it gives you enough time to experience London and Europe as well. London is an exciting city to live in for a year. People pay a lot for flights and hotels to visit a place you will call home for the next year or two!

And now, let me give you my few tips to enjoy your time here before the year runs out.

1. Make a list of the things and places you want to experience

This sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well, I knew all the things I wanted to experience in my head. However, I did not have them written down, so I ended up not realising it when I experienced them. For example, I always wanted to go to Convent Garden; and when I had to go there to open a bank account, I did not remember to go around and experience the place like I wanted to. Therefore, my tip for you is to make a list. You can go old school and make this list physical, paste it somewhere visible, or make it on your phone.

Learn to say 'yes!'

The joy of being in an institution with an international population like LSE is that most people are also in London for the first time! And most people do not want to experience places alone. So, you will receive a lot of invites, and when you do, especially if it's something on your list or something that would have been on your list - say YES! The worst that could happen is that you have fun or make friends for life or travel buddies.

LSE Halls have unique events!

One of the stressful parts of exploring the UK is the logistics (I still have to use City Mapper, and it doesn't work outside the city!). Thankfully, LSE Halls takes care of that with their events. Oxford and Cambridge were at the top of my list to visit when I knew I was coming to London and LSE Halls was organising a day trip to Oxford. I booked it, and it was amazing! I did not have to think about transportation and we had ample time to explore the place ourselves. Moreover, we had an official tour that took us around and showed us interesting places.

London is an exciting place, and I am sure you have plans to explore the city while you're here. To ensure you have enough time to experience all you have planned to experience, my 3 tips for you are to make a list of places you want to visit and things you want to experience,  say yes to the opportunities that come your way, and lastly take advantage of the hall's events they are a fun and relaxed way of experiencing London.



Written by Dzigbodi Christon-Quao