Food here is flat (read horrible). UK is where taste buds come to die. And vegetables and fruits are expensive, you may want to carry supplements with you.
You will notice that European culture while not as individualistic as the American one, it is also not as communal as Asian and African. These cultural differences will weigh on you at times. To keep your spirits high. I suggest you remember that Africans dance better. But if you are Kenyan, stay away from southern and western Africans. You will be outshone.
You may experience latent racism, nothing outwardly manifest, but a coldness and bias that you can feel in your bones as certain individuals act or speak towards you, no matter how polite their demeanour is. Because of this, your Africanness becomes more distinct to you in certain ways. You will realise you have an accent. But if you can be heard and understood, don’t fret. You will also realise you are multi-lingual while many of your classmates especially from Europe and United States are at best bilingual. Those who have English as a first language tend to be monolingual (how sad is that, again feel free to have a moment of silence to contemplate the barrenness of such linguistic poverty).
Speaking many languages is a competence we take for granted here in Africa because our socialisation has made it a necessity. It’s a gift out here, brag about it, show off a bit, and thrive off it. You also have a burden of being a cultural ambassador and having to deconstruct the African poverty pornography theme out here. No, you don’t have to go overboard and paint Africa in all rosy hues like a 21st edition of Out of Africa but you can point out certain things that are true such as; Kenya is the home of mobile money banking, traffic jams are a big issue in urban spaces in Africa (sorry no Tarzan in site), and for all the vilification of Africa there are many multinationals making abnormal profits in Africa so it’s not as horrible as everyone imagines. And don’t fail to mention Nairobi is the NGO capital of Africa and has wicked entertainment that causes many to never want to go back home when their tours end.
That thing about looking younger than your years when you are African, it doesn’t just hold for Pharrell Williams, is generally true. While it’s (supposedly) a good thing, it can have some less than pleasant consequences. You will be asked for identification every time you buy alcohol (sigh) and (especially if you are female) you will be hit on by lads way younger than you; you are lucky if you are into that. Curiosity about your skin colour may take on a sexual turn.
Your skin colour will be viewed with curiosity and in certain cases enthusiastically fetishised (rare, but true and very creepy). My advice, if no one is rude don’t get worked up about it; if it helps, chalk it up to being exotic even as you keep away from the creeps!
Lastly, you will always compare and contrast stuff in your host country with back home. Don’t get too carried away when people call you love or honey, that’s just their manner of speaking, they are not hitting on you. It’s also so liberating to moderately swear during formal conversation, something you can’t do in Kenya without offending all sorts of sensibilities.
In the throes of winter, you will miss the Kenyan sunshine. When you take the train or the more than a century old tube, you will appreciate the efficiency of a public transport system and how it makes life easier. If you are like me you will love the vibrant reading culture and proliferation of bookstores no matter how remote a place is.
Don’t be shocked if you miss the simplicity and witticism of conversing in Swahili and even sheng. You will constantly scoff at the quality of tea and coffee here in the UK (frankly it’s the pits) and no amount of brainwashing or cultural integration will ever get you to even mildly tolerate that horrible concoction, that monstrosity of a beverage fondly referred to as ‘English tea’.
So do come to the UK to study, but be prepared for the financial and social hurdles that you will encounter. It is worth it, I promise.
The new friends, the cultural insights, the expanding world view, the opportunity to view your Africanness as a minority as you never will back home is totally worth it.