By Sanita Lustika

2nd year BU student, BA (Hons) Digital Media Design

I got an unconditional offer from Bournemouth somewhere in the middle of summer. Since then I had bought the tickets, looked up some friends who have lived in UK to get some advice, bought a new suitcase and so on… But it didn’t really hit me that I was leaving my home in Latvia until the evening before my flight. Taking my luggage and just flying to a different country has been one of the scariest things I’ve ever done.

What not to do:

Quite luckily I had accidentally booked my flight on the day I could get my university housing (UNILET) keys, however it would have been smart to check when I’m allowed to move in before booking the flight. So I got really lucky there.

Top tip:

A top travelling tip would be – if you can, book a morning flight as trying to find a local store in a new town at 9pm to get some food after a whole day of travel is quite an effort.

A must have:

I’m really close to my family, so for me having Skype when moving to the UK was a blessing, as the internet at my house was fast and I could talk to my loved ones as often as I wanted to and it is completely free.

My suggestion:

One thing I would definitely suggest is to go to all of the Freshers events during the daytime run by Bournemouth University. You not only get quite a few valuable tips, but also meet a lot of internationals, because they are mostly the ones going to these talks. I met some of my closest friends there.

Something I learnt:

No  matter how independent you are or how much you think you can rely on yourself, it is not just a new city, it is a new country, culture and way of living in which you are suddenly thrown into and at first the culture shock was there for me, but you soon get used to the change.  So the lesson from looking back at my experience is – don’t be afraid to ask for help. University staff are very friendly and they’re there exactly for this reason – to help you, and they have a lot of experience in that, trust me.