I have not traveled around nearly as much as my fellow international students. Some went to Edinburgh, Paris, and more places around Europe. I commend them for their eagerness to travel. Honestly, I haven’t spent that much time out of Liverpool, much less out of England. I don’t have this similar desire to get out there to different countries at least at this moment. I often get crazy looks when I tell this to other international students who want to get as much as they can out of the experience. These trips feel like more work than they are worth, and they don’t get much time to settle down between all of our responsibilities from classes to volunteer hours to assignments.
In my free time, I don’t travel across Europe. Instead, I hang out with the friends I made in the international group. I haven’t made a lot of friends with classmates outside them, which I know isn’t great. All the international students live in the same hall, making it easier to meet up and form last minute plans. Like going to Crosby Beach on October 15.
On our days off classes, we watch movies in the lounge. (Each flat has a small living room with a TV.) For my birthday last week, we watched Knives Out (2019) in preparation for the second movie, which came out recently. Or we watch movies at ODEON Liverpool One, the closest movie theater to campus. (It’s a quick train ride away.)
We also eat out at the restaurants on Lark Lane, a street not far from our accommodations at Aigburth Hall full of restaurants. Lark Lane tends to not be as full on Saturday nights as Liverpool One. If you want to eat at a sit-in restaurant at Liverpool One on a Saturday, you have to make reservations. Otherwise, it is impossible to get into any of those places.
The night life here is very strong. I haven’t been to any clubs and bars myself, but they are hard to ignore when walking through the city center at night. It is quite common to hear drunk people singing Karaoke as you walk by, especially Halloween night, which was a Monday for crying out loud. That didn’t stop the people from partying.
If I’m not hanging out with friends over the weekend, I’m only doing a few things: chilling out in my room (which typically involves reading or playing video games), shopping at Tesco and Home bargains for food and other necessities like Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Chocolate bars and Ginger Ale, or cooking my own meals. I’ve only ordered delivery to my accommodations once. Most of the time, when I open up the UberEats app, I tend to add a meal to my cart without ever submitting the order because I manage to convince myself that I don’t need it and begrudgingly walk into the kitchen. My meals consist of canned vegetables like corn and peas; canned protein like sardines, tuna, and black beans; and a source of grain like rice or pasta. There is the occasional canned fruit or tangerine. The longer I’ve been in Liverpool, the more I’ve been creative with meal prep. I’ve recently dabbled in cooking raw chicken for soup, something I’ve never taken the time to do before in fear of poisoning myself.
Unfortunately, it is getting harder and harder to hang out with my friends as we draw closer to the end of our study abroad experience. Due dates for assignments are getting closer. I’m struggling to get things done. I want to use what time I have left in this glorious city to get things done and enjoy what time I have left with my friends.