On Settling In

It’s been more than three weeks since I got here, in a beautiful, vibrant, historical yet modern city of London. Many have asked why I chose London over other cities in the UK—which relatively cheaper in terms of living cost—so that I can save up and travel the world at the of the day. Firstly, because if I have to choose any place to visit—even better to live in—within the whole world, I will definitely mention London in seconds. It’s been a long dream for me to actually arrived at Heathrow & experience this London-living as a day-to-day thing. King’s College London, on the other hand, is one of the top university which world can offer you to study at. Being a King’s student also been a dream and to finally hold my King’s ID card makes me realise how blessed I am to learn from the prominent figure who happens to be the founder of HR in the UK.

Therefore, for me, every single experience in my London days worth the struggle and travel the world is just one gigantic bonus that Allah might allow me to have at the end of my study.

Anyway, settling in is not as easy as I’ve ever thought.

I spent 17 hours flight with mostly listening to Ed Sheeran “Photograph” song and looking at my significant others picture & finally drank an antimo to have a proper sleep to throw the negative feeling of leaving everything behind. 2016 taught me a lot of lessons about people who actually matter and those who just came to your life to teach you a lesson. Those who actually matter, the so-called significant others—to be precise—family, best friends & one specific person that I just met earlier in June, came to the airport and makes it even harder to walk into the departure gate. I seriously suck at goodbyes.

Living the first week was quite complicated because I need to arrange a lot of stuffs—moving in, register to a GP, open up a new bank account (in order to make sure the scholarship money can be received asap), setting up your new room, cook (a lot) and also getting to know the neighborhood as well as people you live with. I live in Whitechapel, East London, where most of the citizen is Indian-Pakistan & Bangladesh immigrants. In general, it is not a decent-clean neighbourhood to live in, but it is surrounded by halal food, 5-minute walk to the East London Mosque & most importantly, it is affordable. I live with 4 Indonesian students in a 3^rd floor-small flat & thankfully they’ve been nice and became my support system in terms of settling in.

I also miss home tremendously. By home I mean to see Ayah, Mama & Vina in daily, to have dinner and talk about how was your day as a regular thing, my office lunch with Neysa & Kenny, and also to have a regular after work Citos time with my high school best friends. I still have no idea how to survive a year without them, so my definite priority was to buy a pin board and put their pictures and cards with warm regards on my desk. At least I feel close to them and I remember how supportive they are. Of course, with a lot of calls. 

On Living The Dream—To live in London

The London life has been great, so far. I learn how to commute from the flat to campus—and another part of London that is necessary for more than once visit. I gazed my eyes & still have that jaw-dropping look on The London Eye, Big Ben & the famous Millennium Bridge that I used to only see in Harry Potter. It feels like a dream to call this place a home for the next 1 year. It seriously is.

Moreover, I realised that my campus is just 10-minute walk to South Bank by the River Thames which is a great place to sit and have a good time. I visited the crowded yet one of a kind Camden Market, the nice Old-Spietal Market, the typical big city place like Covent Garden and Soho & East London famous place called Shoreditch & Brick Lane with its hipster around. London also has their famous museums that I easily fall for (and they all free entrance museum, by the way)—The Natural History Museum, Science Museum & The Victoria & Albert Museum has their own uniqueness that anyone will love to experience even more than once. I also witnessed The Changing Guards Ceremony at Buckingham Palace, right after a class. Then I understand why living in London is so expensive, because of the experience that you might have in a day to day living, obviously. My friends who study around The UK need to arrange a trip and have this tight schedule to explore the city while I can easily visit any place because there will always be the next week.

Thus no matter how hard it is to manage your financial life nor the less likeliness for you to save up, London still has its own perks to live in. My local London friend said that “If you’re tired of London, you’re tired of living.”

On Being a Business School Student

I am not only enjoying London of course. The main reason I am here is to pursue a dream to have that Msc degree after my name at the end of the day. How’s the journey so far?

To sum it up, it is not easy.

By means, this is not the field that I’ll easily excel in. I suck at numbers and now I have to face accounting—understanding financial statements and even worse, analysing it. I have to see everything from a business perspective, not focusing only on how people would react or feel, like in psychology. It is also not easy to switch from a practical perspective to academic one, where everything needs to be scientifically proven. Nonetheless, it is great to learn something that you’ve been doing for the past years. To finally understand what I do from an academic perspective is indeed satisfying. Now everything makes more sense due to academic research data that I am forced to read. I will definitely recommend people to jump into the working world before they consider taking any master degree.

Studying abroad also open a door of having international friends from all over the world. I literally have friends from the UK, US, Germany, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Chile, Colombia & also other countries from Asia e.g. China, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, India & Thailand. From our discussion, I learned how HR practices are different across the world—and it is so interesting in a way you can understand how culture can affect how the business run. Again, it is not always easy to blend in—thankfully my classmates are nice & I am blessed to have two (very nice) Indo friends who're going to be with me along the year in the program.

On Being Responsible

My departure to the UK does not really mean that I can walk away from my financial responsibilities back home. Not having a monthly salary from working means that I have to manage my money even better to make sure that I still can cover the bills even from afar. Easy? No. Of course you have the temptation to spend it on things you don’t really need but will only available in the UK, or food that is way too expensive but will be worth the experience or places that are not on you travel list, but you still want to visit because of if you don't do it now, then when? I am still learning how to juggle between those things, living a good-decent life in London and also being responsible. In fact, I am already blessed enough to get this opportunity. So I won’t complain about how early I have to wake up to cook my lunch in order to save up or how hard it is to say no to trips I can’t afford.

So that’d be it, the first 3 weeks in living the dreams. Not always easy but always, always worth the experience. I understand that living apart from home, pursuing this academic dream and juggling between being a responsible adult & being young-and-let's explore the world type of person will help me grow in a lot of ways.

Wish me tonnes of luck!