Studying abroad has a unique way of accelerating the pace at which relationships are formed. When a timeline is imposed on your experience in a foreign country, there is something urgent about the need to make friends faster. With that comes increased intention and openness. Speaking from personal experience, the pace at which I bonded with people from my Business & Entrepreneurship program in London was unlike anything I had encountered before, even as a freshman in college.
I was in London, surrounded by Brits, immersed in an unfamiliar culture, adjusting to grey skies (initially, at least) and the loud buzz of a enormous city. In those early weeks, the only solace I could find was among the people in my program because there was something oddly comforting about being surrounded by UC students. Though I had come to London to challenge myself to appreciate a new culture and become more comfortable in my own company, the fact that we all went to school in California made friendship-making seamless. I could talk to UCLA students about classes we had taken, apartments in Westwood, our go-to spots in Los Angeles, etc. With students from other UCs, the commonality of the “American college experience” was enough to bridge any gap I thought we may have. And different cities in California aren’t all that different from each other.
Because the program was an extension of the UC system, there was limited opportunity to interact with students from UK institutions, which I think would have been an entirely different experience. Almost no one arrived knowing each other, which gave the first week the overwhelming energy of freshman year and new student orientation. It was a period of heightened social interaction where you talk to anyone and everyone before forming your “groups.” I would like to think I found my closest friends within the first month, but I was still creating unexpected friendships with people I barely knew just weeks before we all flew back to California. I want to emphasize that having limited time truly eliminates the luxury of waiting to put yourself out there because in a matter of just 10 weeks, you have no idea when and if you will see some of your classmates again.
Knowing that our time together had an expiration date made every interaction feel more deliberate and valuable. I was aware that returning to UCLA would mean distance from people scattered across California (San Diego, Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, etc.) but I wasn’t deterred. If anything, it increased my appreciation for the diversity of our program. There is something unreal about exploring a new continent in your twenties, having easy access to the whole of Europe and friends willing to travel alongside you. London is such a busy city, and because everyone in the program arrived with a collective enthusiasm for exploration, the entire experience was beyond what I could have imagined. I was never bored because I always had company for any activity I had in mind, whether it was trying a new restaurant, shopping, sightseeing or going out.
I met some of the most remarkable people in that program. Many of them go to UCLA, while others have already made plans to visit. Traveling to new places with people you have only just met carries its own speciality. I’ve accumulated so many memories and lore that would otherwise take years to build under “ordinary” circumstances. It feels less daunting than freshman year, too, because I arrived in London with more confidence than I had at the age of 18.
Ultimately, I’ve realized that friendship doesn’t require a long history, but rather an accumulation of shared experiences. In a new city, curiosity acts as a magnet of sorts. Don’t sweat the fear of being alone. If you are planning to go abroad, you’ll find that you naturally drift towards people who will make your time living in a new city more spectacular than you thought was possible. I urge you to approach your study abroad experience with an open mind, because although it may seem like a repeat of freshman year, it is a glamorized and much smoother version of what you have already been through.
