A study abroad check-in from Isabelle Woidela
Community, Lifestyle March 26, 2026, Comments OffNestled in the heart of the Queen’s gardens, I have found myself residing in one of the world’s busiest cities. For the Spring semester, I have been studying at Regent’s University. Slightly below the city line, the campus is housed among cherry blossoms, grand gardens, and the endless green trails of Regent’s Park, a royal park in the very city center of London.
I have been here over two months now, and time has never moved quicker. It has been a race to keep up with all the exciting moments that study abroad offers, especially when living in a city of nine million people. However, within those millions, I have found the most wonderful corner of new friends. Everyone keeps asking me, “how many British friends have you made?” and the answer is not many. To the contrary, my everyday friend group consists of people from all over the world. Regent’s is one of the United Kingdom’s most international universities, so consequently, I spend most of my days with friends from Belgium, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, France, and Germany.
These new friendships have produced countless conversations explaining each other’s cultures, traditions, families, hometowns, and exchanging stories rooted in nostalgia. Over a study session and a couple local focaccia sandwiches, I taught an Italian friend the traditional country two step and Footloose’s famous line dance, and she taught me a traditional Italian dance from her hometown of Toremo.
Recently, I attended a birthday party for a friend from Brazil. When the cake was presented with the candles lit, she taught us how to sing the classic tune of Happy Birthday in Portuguese, bringing a slice of her home to Notting Hill that night. That night we celebrated her in song: first in Portuguese, then in Spanish, and then lastly in English. While I’m sure our pronunciations were atrocious, we just laughed and soaked up every second of our off-key tribute to her 21st birthday.
In between line dances and birthdays, I have explored this massive, incredible city. Overwhelmed with the impossibility of seeing every inch, my friends and I have exhausted the tube lines exploring neighborhood after neighborhood, making memories on many street corners. We start most of our mornings with a bakery, followed by visiting museums, parks, and shops throughout the afternoon, before ending our nights usually with music in our favorite corners of Shoreditch or with a chill card game at a pub in Soho.
However, we have spent a few weekends away from our little London life. After scanning every cheap travel tickets website there is, we had the privilege of exploring Oxford, England, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Vienna, Austria. While each of these trips were beautiful adventures, by the end, my friends and I all found ourselves slightly homesick for our slice of London.
It is safe to say we have fallen in love with the city and lives we have created here. Studying abroad has taught me a lot–mostly out of the classroom. I have learned irreplaceable knowledge from the people I have met and what we have experienced together.
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