Jess Knachel ’27 talks about the friendships you make on a Carleton OCS program.
Last January, I hauled my suitcase up several flights of stairs into a beautiful sixth story flat in South Kensington. I was jetlagged, damp, and daunted by the premise of sharing a new space with half of the 21 Carleton students on the Living London OCS program—most of whom I had never had a conversation with before our pre-departure meetings. But I was also excited. I had hope that at least a few of the people that were going to be my classmates, flatmates, travel-partners, and support system for the next ten weeks would become my friends.
Breaking the Ice
Most of us knew at least a few people on the program, but not many. Nancy Cho, our faculty leader, was instrumental in helping us break out of our comfortable bubbles. One of her first assignments for class was to have us visit the V&A museum in random groups of three. Seats at plays for theater class were randomly assigned, and we were encouraged to explore the city together. Outside of class, we first got to know one another by having conversations in the common spaces of the flats, braving London grocery stores, and losing pub trivia together.
Old Friends
Throughout our time on the program, Lauren was my partner in crime. We were already friends before London, and having her with me made the transition from Northfield much easier. We got up to all sorts of adventures. Together, we took the train to Edinburgh over Midwinter break, explored London neighborhoods, perused countless bookstores, and got food poisoning from the same hot dogs in Notting Hill. She was there with me through thick and thin, and she is in basically every London memory I have (also due to the fact that I lost my phone at the end of the trip, and most of the photos I now have were taken by her).
New Friends
Many of the new friendships I made in London have only strengthened since getting back to Carleton. Gabriel and I first got to know each other in coffee shops across London after our Urban Field Studies class. One year later, we are carrying on the tradition by going for weekly coffee-catch ups in Northfield. Kate and I pretty much ignored each other for the first few weeks of the program despite having a mutual friend at Carleton pressuring us to become friends. That is, until we sat next to each other at a play and discovered our friend might have been onto something. Last fall, Kate and I sat next to each other at several Carleton productions. The Weitz isn’t quite the same as the National Theatre, but it’s pretty close.
These are just a few connections I made in London! While I was still on OCS, I had no idea that so many of the people I met would continue to be integral to my life at Carleton.
Community
One thing that brings together a group of random Carleton students on OCS is a common goal. Going into an Off-Campus Studies program, everyone wants similar things: to learn, explore, meet new people, and have fun. The social energy reminded me of freshman fall at Carleton, where people don’t have familiar friends around them, and are more open to making connections with new people. It is important to start your OCS program with an open mind, and assume that everyone around you is also open. If I could go back, I would start more conversations, and start them sooner.
Close proximity is built into every facet of a Carleton OCS program. For ten weeks, we read the same books, watched the same plays, and explored the same city. We shared our ups and downs, and had to learn to work with each other and live in close quarters. On some weekends, we traveled to new cities around England like York, Oxford, and Stratford Upon Avon. One of my favorite excursions was our trip to Revaulx Abbey. We spent the day exploring the ruins like a jungle gym and taking photos, including the only piece of evidence that all 21 of us (and Nancy) were actually in the country together.
It may be unrealistic to expect to become best friends with everyone on your OCS program, but I think it’s safe to say you can count on a unique sense of community that will last long after your term abroad. As one of the many English majors on the program, I still have classes with and see a lot of my old London flatmates around Laird. Last term, I was on the bus for an English-department field trip with an old London friend I hadn’t kept in touch with that much post-OCS. As we chatted, I mentioned that I was wearing my “London play sweater,” and she said that she had recognized it as such before I even said anything. I realized that there were several people on campus that had no idea what is going on in my life anymore, but knew which sweater I wore to the theater, what time I woke up in the morning, and could probably make detailed, accurate guesses about my opinions on various works of Shakespeare. There is a certain unspoken familiarity that develops between people you live, work, and see plays with for 10 weeks that remains once you get back on campus.