Brighton in July

Great! The month of the first STS departures is here. Even though my group don't travel until July it still feels a bit more "for real" when the earlier groups a getting properly prepared for their trips. I've even got my host family well in advance and I've heard that some of you have got yours as well. If you don't know yet, who your host family will be, don't worry. You should have got them two weeks before departure, so for some in my group it could actually be in the beginning of July.

There are a few common things students usually worries about before their first trip. One of them is how the host family will be. Other things could be if you'll get strange food, if it will be hard to make friends in the group or what happens if you get ill.

For now I will focus on host families, but I talk about other areas as well in later blog posts. There are almost always some suprises when you first see your English host family. What kind of suprises depends much on where you come from and what you're used to.

* Space - In Scandinavia we're used to bigger houses or apartments in general. House prices in England are higher than in Sweden for instance, so most familes can't afford the same luxury of space as many of us. Also take into account that the UK is half the size of Sweden, but with more than six times as many inhabitants. That means a Swede has twelve times more space per person!

* Bathrooms - you might not be used to carpets on the floor in your bathroom, but it's not uncommon in England. I've also experienced more bath tubs and fewer showers than in Sweden. In some homes you'll find two taps instead of one, one for hot water and one for cold. Don't be afraid to ask your host family how to use it. Sometimes they have a device that connects the two taps to one shower head

* Food - You easily take for granted that the food culture of your home country is "the right way to eat" and very alike what people eat in other countries. It can be quite different, though. Even though you'll probably get some vegatables, it might not be as central in English cooking as in Scandinavian. You might also get a breakfast with less fibers and more suger than you're used to. If you want to eat nutritious, you might see this as a problem, but then try to think about this as just three week of experiencing another food culture.

* Social interaction - How we talk to each other differs between families in our home countries, so you could of course experience differences between your own family and your English host family. If you're from a noisy family you might find a more quiet family a bit strange, or the other way around. Try to prepare yourself for anything and you will probably be suprised by how normal and friendly your hosts are, even though it maybe smells and sounds different than in your family.

As a conclusion, my best advice for all students is "try to be open for everything", be positive and look upon differences as something you can learn from and tell fun stories about to your friends when your back in your home country.

/Emma