Potential friends?

Hello! I'm Lenna (21F) and I'll be attending Durham this fall, taking the Archaeology MA course. Thing is, I'm an international student from the US and am diving into the deep end here with no life jacket. I know absolutely no one in the UK and am a bit worried about going into my Master's with no friends off the back. Anyways, if anyone would like to talk or even just offer advice for helping overcome culture shock in Durham, I'd really appreciate it.

Little bit about me:

I'm currently a history major with French and anthropology minors. I've interned in two museums and have studied abroad in Greece. I'm a big geek when it comes to history and sci-fi and I'm from West Virginia (yes like the song, lol)

Hope to hear from some of y'all. xxx

Reply 1

rickmangibson

Original post by photoenvy

Hello! I'm Lenna (21F) and I'll be attending Durham this fall, taking the Archaeology MA course. Thing is, I'm an international student from the US and am diving into the deep end here with no life jacket. I know absolutely no one in the UK and am a bit worried about going into my Master's with no friends off the back. Anyways, if anyone would like to talk or even just offer advice for helping overcome culture shock in Durham, I'd really appreciate it.
Little bit about me:
I'm currently a history major with French and anthropology minors. I've interned in two museums and have studied abroad in Greece. I'm a big geek when it comes to history and sci-fi and I'm from West Virginia (yes like the song, lol)
Hope to hear from some of y'all. xxx

Hi Lenna, my names Amelia (25F) and Im studying Classics at Durham. Im from Devon in the UK, but don't know many people in Durham so I am in a slightly similar situation. Im probably not the best for advice, but if you ever want to talk to someone i'd be happy to chat. I also love history (especially the ancient kind!) but I'm more of a fantasy over Sci-fi fan. Hope you're having a good time at Durham so far! xx

Reply 2

ells1610

Hi ! I’m Ellie ( F nearly 21) and I’m in a similar boat doing sociology at Durham . I’m more then happy to have a chat if anyone needs or wants one xx

Reply 3

Durham Rep Ghala

Official Rep

Original post by photoenvy

Hello! I'm Lenna (21F) and I'll be attending Durham this fall, taking the Archaeology MA course. Thing is, I'm an international student from the US and am diving into the deep end here with no life jacket. I know absolutely no one in the UK and am a bit worried about going into my Master's with no friends off the back. Anyways, if anyone would like to talk or even just offer advice for helping overcome culture shock in Durham, I'd really appreciate it.
Little bit about me:
I'm currently a history major with French and anthropology minors. I've interned in two museums and have studied abroad in Greece. I'm a big geek when it comes to history and sci-fi and I'm from West Virginia (yes like the song, lol)
Hope to hear from some of y'all. xxx

Hi Lenna!

As a third year archaeology student, welcome to Durham! Firstly, the department at Durham is honestly amazing and very welcoming, you'll quickly get well acquainted with the everyone including professors and its a very tight nit department which is quite rare but I promise that should help you settle in better (Side note, the department also hosts a coffee morning for PG students twice a week for PG students to get together and socialise so don't worry about not making friends). Secondly, most people who start Uni don't really have friends when they start, but over the course of their Uni life they do so please don't worry too much about that; there will be plenty of ways to meet people and find friends (college, department, societies, sports, volunteering, part time work, etc). 🙂

As for moving to a new country especially if you don't know anyone there or anything about the culture, that can definitely can be very daunting but there are so many online resources that help prepare you for that as well as student blogs that can shed some light on the experience. On top of that, you'll have your college, department and student ambassadors and they are always there to help with settling in. The Durham student website has a range of different resources from blogs to tiktok videos about life at Durham which I always recommend people have a look at, and the newest episodes of our podcast about Durham is also available on there to have a listen through!

The Durham Student

I hope this helps and best of luck!

-Ghala

Reply 4

liamduke003

Hi Lenna, Hope your first term went well!! :smile:

) I'm Liam (21M) was also came to Durham last term for the first time to do my masters too and definitely also found the prospect of a new place intimidating (and still do tbh)! Not sure if this is too late or anything but I'd be more than happy to have a chat or meet up if you're still looking to meet new people :smile: