An International Student’s Experience at Middlesex University Living in Barnet by Amanda Strid

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Ever since I was around 15 years old, I knew that I wanted to study in the UK. I just didn’t know what I wanted to study. I knew that I was very interested in languages, so when I was 19 years old, I decided to study linguistics at a university in Sweden. But I slowly realised that linguistics wasn’t right for me..

A few years later I moved to Greece, while my sister moved to London to study at Middlesex University. I had decided that I was going to stay in Greece until I had figured out what I wanted to study. I have always loved to write and read, and one of my friends said that he was going to apply to a university in London and asked if I wanted to move here with him. I was looking at courses and found the course that I wanted to study, it happened to be the same course that my sister was studying.  

As we got the idea when it was too late to apply and get our visas in time, we decided to wait a year. My friend changed his mind, but since I had found a course that I wanted to study and I had always dreamt about studying in London, I decided to apply anyway.  

I ended up moving to Platt Halls in Colindale, a student accommodation provided by Middlesex University. The accommodation is only a 20-minute walk to the university. The bus also stops right outside of the accommodation. It felt like a perfect place to begin my three years of studies. Everyone in the halls were added into a group chat and everyday someone texted to ask if people wanted to meet at the benches that was spread all over the accommodation. That led to me becoming a part of a big friend group consisting of mostly international students. We were hanging out multiple times every week and grew closer to each other. We studied together, went out partying or just hung out. On the second Thursday every month we went to The Greyhound to listen to some music students play jazz. We met students and lecturers from the university, as well as regulars at the pub. We also went there for quiz nights. It was incredible to meet people of all ages coming together with a common interest, whether it was music or quiz knowledge. We always had so much fun and laughed a lot. I think some people even thought we were being too loud as we were listening to music and singing most of the time.  We even went on several trips together, such as to Toulouse, Oslo and Vienna.  

We became a family, which was comforting as all of us were far away from our own families. Other people at the accommodation said that they envied our group as we were always hanging out.  They even pointed out how diverse the group was as we were from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Lithuania, Russia, Greece, Portugal, The United States, Australia and the UK. The same benches that we had met at during the first week at the accommodation became our spot and that’s where we always met up. Even during the winter, we mostly hung out at those benches. At the end of May, days before people were starting to go home for the summer, we even had a farewell party at the benches. Some people in the friend group weren’t coming back after the summer, as they had been doing their Masters and were starting a new chapter of their lives.  

At the end of our first year, me and three of my friends had decided that we were going to find a house together.  A week before we started the second year, we moved into a house in Hendon. We were happy to still live close to the university. When we moved, we got a new area to explore. We realised that we lived close to multiple grocery stores and only five minutes away from Brent Cross Shopping Centre. Suddenly everything felt so much closer, we could get multiple buses from the shopping centre to different places, and we discovered that getting the overground from Hendon Station was sometimes faster than getting the Northern Line from Hendon Central.  

As the weather got better last spring, we discovered that there are many great parks in Hendon where you can play football or other sports or just enjoy being out in the sun.  

I am incredibly happy that I moved to Platt Halls and grateful that I met these amazing friends. It’s never easy moving to a different place or country and not knowing anyone. You constantly have to build a new network of people. This experience has made me more confident, and I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone. My interest in languages is still there and being around people with different nationalities has made it spark even more. I’m more determined to learn as many languages as possible, which I also think will help me in my writing.  

I am happy that we decided to move to Hendon, because we still live close to the university. But it’s also easy to get the bus, the tube or the train to central London, to explore other places in and around London.  

Written by Amanda Strid. Published 30 April 202

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