Week 10: Preparation Tips

A corollary to my post on packing tips last week, that should help you keep a few things in mind to prepare before you come so you won’t be stranded without some necessary things when you arrive.

• Figure out what you’re going to do for a credit card/bank account. Get a no foreign transaction fee credit card (I’m currently using Chase Sapphire and I know Bank of America and Capital One are other good options.) You don’t need a chip credit card but it can get annoying (some automated machines, like at Tube refill stations, don’t take swipe cards so you have to wait for a person to process it for you at the counter and there’s not always someone there). I hear there’s currently a Bank of America travel card that actually has a chip, which seems pretty smart and now I wonder why all travel cards don’t have this feature. Get a bank account that won’t charge you ATM fees. Bank of America doesn’t charge you ATM fees if you use any bank in the Global ATM Alliance (e.g. Barclays in the UK, BNP Paribas in France, Deutsche Bank in Germany; but note there isn’t an alliance bank in every country and it also doesn’t apply to Barclays in France for example or BNP in the UK). Capital One is another option you can check out. I have friends who have to pay $5 every time they use the ATM with their regular bank card so figure this out beforehand!
• The rate for exchanging currency in cash before you leave the US is terrible (not to your advantage compared to actual market rates) so just bring a little. Once you get here you can withdraw local currency for a much better rate at ATMs (assuming you followed my last tip). I would also have a small amount of Euros ready, assuming you want to travel (I haven’t figured out what the cheapest option will be for me yet since I didn’t think about this beforehand and now don’t have access to any of my regular banks.)
• Figure out how you’re going to get from the airport to your dorm, or just find someone to share a pre-booked cab with like I did. I knew I wouldn’t able to take the Tube with all my luggage and figured enough people would have booked cabs already that I wouldn’t need to. It worked out for me and I suggest you definitely share since it’s pretty pricey and a cab definitely fits at least 2 people with a full load of luggage. However, where I saw people run into problems is when they had planned to share a cab with a friend who was getting in on a different flight. Usually there’s no way to contact your friend when you land since no one has a phone yet.

Week 9: Packing Tips

Now that I’ve gotten familiar with my set-up for the next 4 months, I wanted to share some packing tips for anyone studying in London, or anywhere really. I’ll probably do more of an all-around tips post later on, but I wanted to get this packing stuff down while it’s still on my mind. (Also I’ll admit I think this makes me feel better about some of the dumb packing choices I made that made lugging my 3 suitcases–1 of which was overweight–here more painful than it should be…haha)

Packing/Preparation Tips

• Do NOT bring appliances like hair dryers and straighteners. My roommate and I did not listen to this figuring that we had adapters and converters; my roommate’s hair dryer blew out completely even with the converter… Pro Tip/Exception: I am actually using my straightener here because I checked and my converter is compatible with my straightener’s wattage. My roommate’s hair dryer had a higher wattage, and I’m too scared to kill my own hair dryer forever since it doesn’t say on the appliance so always CHECK and you might be fine.
• NYU London’s SPEX club (Stern Political Economy Exchange) runs a rummage sale every semester (and SPEX is also present at a few other NYU global sites) and you can buy things for cheap like used hair dryers, straighteners, hangers (one of the biggest complaints was that our closets are too small and did not come with nearly enough hangers), laundry baskets, etc., and even used books. Pro Tip: do not buy hair dryers or straighteners at the rummage sale! They are much cheaper, not to mention new and including all the accessory parts, at a store called Argos. However, I did calculate the per hanger price here and it is worth it at the rummage sale. Also keep in mind that only so many additional hangers will fit in the tiny closets, and I think 5 hangers (sold together for £1 at the rummage sale) is the perfect amount.
• Check for your textbooks in the lounges of both Byron and Guilford since past residents usually leave them behind (and try do this before everyone else gets there!). Then check at the SPEX rummage sale. Definitely do not attempt to buy your books in the US before you come because even if you can’t find free books lying around I would say the book sale prices are still pretty reasonable. For custom textbooks you’re gonna have to decide if you want to chance it. Or ask someone who took the class here before.
  
• Bring a backpack and a lock for travel. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this, but now that I’m thinking of it you won’t have to.
• Minimize the toiletries you bring. I know this is common sense but I’ll tell you right now that the 2 most popular drugstores that you can find everywhere are Boots and Superdrug so you can even browse their websites and check to see if they have what you need, which chances are they will. Pro Tip: Superdrug tends to be cheaper, and both are in Brunswick, the nearest shopping center.
• If you are picky about your stationary bring your own. The paper size is different here (it’s difficult to find college/narrow-ruled paper), the holes are in different places (it’s a 4-hole punch), and thus the binders are also different. I wouldn’t really advocate bringing all that dead weight here when you can buy perfectly adequate substitutes, but just know that it’s useless to bring US-style binders without enough filler paper and vice versa.
• Consider shipping stuff here instead of going overweight on your luggage. You can have stuff arrive before you move in and NYU will accept it for you, unlike the policy in New York. However, keep in mind that you have to go to the academic centre to pick up packages, so if you have a lot of stuff you will need to factor in the cost of taking a cab or maybe bribing all of your friends to help you.
• Bring an umbrella! It promptly rained the first day I was here and I even brought an umbrella but just hadn’t thought about unpacking it yet.
• Check the weather and pack accordingly!!! The umbrella thing does technically fall into this and I knew it would rain a lot. But where I went wrong was packing too many summer clothes when it gets cold so much earlier here. Whoops…

Ok…will post more preparation tips that don’t have to do with packing next week. Stay tuned!

Week 2: Welcome Week

Hey guys,

Well I’ve been here officially for a week now so I think it’s a good time to update about everything.  What’s weird is it really feels like I’ve been here much longer because of everything we’ve been doing and how tired I am.  But it’s a good tiredness 🙂

Hmm…so what’s been going on… well NYU has been very prepared with activities for us and it feels like Welcome Week all over again except kind of like in an alternate universe.

Some highlights:

• The first day we went on a walking tour of the area and it rained (like really poured) and I realized it would be a good indicator of weather for the rest of the time here -_-
• Pub Quiz put on by NYU where I met new people and discovered how much we fail at British trivia.
• Got to check out ULU, the University of London Union, where we have free membership.  It has it’s own bar and everything and I’m excited to meet other London students (real London students) when school starts up for them again.  (They don’t start until like end of September or even later…what?!?)
• Club Night at the Piccadilly Institute.  It’s mental hospital themed complete with kind of creepy mannequins hanging from the ceilings lol.  Also it was my first time on the Tube!  (I think I’ll do a post on comparisons between London and New York at some point but I’ll wait for some more things to add.)
• An NYU club called SPEX always runs a rummage sale…more on this later…but picture everyone lined up at 9 am in the morning in the basement of Byron (our dorm building) as if we’re trying to get into the most anticipated sample sale of the season and ready to fight for the last used hair dryer or clothes hanger there.
• A coach tour (bus tour) where we got to see all the famous stuff and I got so many points on Foursquare and the London Calling badge (sorry, I’m kind of obsessed :P)  But we didn’t have time to go into anything so I’ll definitely need to come back.
• Event at a wine bar.  Loved the atmosphere and definitely met a lot of cool people.
• Scavenger hunt around where we live.  Got to see Platform 9 3/4 with the half trolley stuck in the wall at King’s Cross!  Missed 1st place by just a few points, which we would have gotten if we had just managed to take a photo of the pink car we saw before it sped away.  For getting 2nd place we each got a deck of British-themed playing cards.
• After the scavenger hunt some of my teammates and I decided to eat at Nando’s upon the recommendation of many who had been here before.  It’s a chicken fast-casual restaurant, all over the place here, and definitely worth it.  The lemon & herb Peri-Peri sauce was delicious and goes with everything!  I don’t think mashed potatoes (or just “mash”) is served with gravy here, but not to worry, it’s a perfect canvas for Peri-Peri sauce!

Tower Bridge with the Paralympics symbol still adorning it, seen on our coach tour.

Week 1: Intro

Hi everyone!

Since you’ve stumbled across this blog where I will be documenting (read: rambling and posting excessive photos hoping they’ll do a better job doing the talking for me) my adventures studying abroad for the semester, I thought you should know a little about me.

My name is Vivian Li.  I’m a junior at NYU, majoring in Marketing in Stern, and am going to be studying in London this fall.  This is my first time in Europe and first time traveling out of the country by myself and I couldn’t be more excited!  I have loved traveling with my family over the years but this will definitely be a new experience where I hope know I’ll see and learn a lot.

I am from the Bay Area in California (Nor-Cal represent!), but was originally born in China (I lived there until I was two), and am slowly migrating my life to NYC.

As far as classes go, I’ll be taking Operations Management, British Cinema, and Modern Drama in Performance.  I am particularly excited about the latter two as I love film and theatre, but feel like it’s something I never have the chance to study and learn the basics about.  The Modern Drama class also involves weekly outings to watch actual performances, and I feel like this is a great way to take advantage of living and studying in this city for four whole months.

Stay tuned for my next blog, where I’ll give you an update about how I’m settling in (spoiler alert: it’s great!) and also try to provide some useful tips for anyone planning to travel here.  I thought I would write about my preparations as I was packing, but now that I’m here I realized I could give you some edited advice based on what I’ve already encountered (a.k.a. precautions I had so carefully considered backfiring completely) and it would be 100x more useful.

Until next time…

Cheers! (l love this expression and plan to integrate it into my vocabulary by the time I’m done here)

-Vivian

P.S. Enjoy this picture I took as I was leaving New York. Look at those fluffy clouds welcoming me into the sky and saying it’s a great day to be flying to London today