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Lyon: first impressions
By Zehra Kes, Université Lumiere Lyon 2, France Bienvenue à Lyon! It has been officially 1 month since I moved to Lyon and here are my first impressions. The city is super lively and there are plenty of things to do. I have so many restaurants, shops, cafés on my wish list to explore. The weather was super nice and sunny when I first arrived, it was very sunny and jolly outside — if you don’t count the bugs. Luckily, my flatmate took me to tour around Vieux Lyon and we came across a beautiful vintage market. I love the artsy aspect of Lyon. It is very likely to run…
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Why Singapore? My initial NUS experience.
By Holly Scholfield, National University of Singapore, Singapore When deciding where I wanted to spend my year abroad, I had two main considerations beyond academics: finances and travel opportunities. Both led me to put the National University of Singapore (NUS) as my first choice. After two months here, I have had the chance to experience both sides of student life in Singapore, from eating at hawker centres and navigating the huge NUS campus, to travelling around Southeast Asia. Here is why I think Singapore is the best choice for a year abroad. Finances: Is Singapore really that expensive? If you have watched Crazy Rich Asians, you might assume that Singapore…
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7 Reasons To Go Abroad
Here Amelia details 7 Reasons why YOU should go abroad!
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Post-year Reflection
By YiPin Wu, University of Tokyo, Japan It’s been a month since I left Japan. I still can’t believe how fast the year went. Before the year, I was nervous and genuinely unsure if I’d made the right decision. However, I didn’t go in with any expectations, like no vision of what the year should look like. I just wanted to see where life took me and experience whatever came my way, even if it wasn’t what I’d planned. And honestly, it was just so amazing :)) !!! Sure, there were moments where I felt homesick or just a bit low. But the good stuff so massively outweighed the hard…
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Weekend Trip in WA
By Beth Cook, University of Western Australia Throughout the semester, it has continued to be normal to spend weekday afternoons at the beach, or have a brief lunch trip and have to race back to make it to a compulsory lecture. A Manchester study break walk around Platt Fields doesn’t quite compare! As a result of these impromptu trips, reading week was much required to prepare for some mid-semester quizzes; however, we managed to squeeze in a two day trip out of Perth. We left Perth on the Friday morning and stopped off in Lancelin for some breakfast and a wander to a beach with incredibly clear blue water, before…
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A Weekend Away: Skiing in the Southern Hemisphere
By Imogen Lewis, University of Otago, New Zealand Of all the things I wanted to do while being in New Zealand, skiing was certainly not the top of my list. But I knew I couldn’t fly all the way here and not do it at least once! Dunedin is only a 3.5-hour drive from Queenstown, so one Friday morning my flat and I packed up the car and set off. We stayed at a hostel called Black Sheep Backpackers, which was 50NZD (£21) per night and even had a hot tub, cold plunge and sauna! On the Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early in time to get the…
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The Little Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to Amsterdam
By Anna Bluemel, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Moving to a new country is super exciting, but it can also be DAUNTING. I tried to research thoroughly before moving to Amsterdam to feel as prepared and connected to my future mystery life as possible, but there are always small differences that you can only ever find out about through actually living there. For example, during my first food shop I had a bit of a wobble and ended up severely missing the trusty Fallowfield Sainsburys. I had heard that Albert Heijn was very expensive so I tried a different random shop – but my research was not very good because…
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On Privilege
By Jessie Punn, Universidad de las Americas, Mexico Last weekend, I went on a trip to Puerto Escondido on the Oaxacan Coast. It was paradise – white sandy beaches, the most crystal-clear ocean, and the most spectacular sunset I had ever seen. One afternoon, after having spent hours floating in the sea and reading my book on the beach, I went for a wander with my friends where we bumped into a lady selling tamales. We bought some and sat down to eat them on the sand. About 10 minutes later, the lady came back and asked if we would mind if she sat with us for a minute in…
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Cafes + Cramming … Amsterdam’s best cafe study spots!
By Anna Bluemel, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands The rumours are true… the workload at UvA is pretty heavy. You don’t need to fret, though – the work is super interesting and varied, and it doesn’t take up allll of your time. Yet a chunk of the year will definitely be spent studying. During exam periods, I got just a little bit too used to the view of the UvA library, and whilst it is stunning, I felt the need to switch up my study location every now and then. In Manchester, I enjoyed going to cafés to study, but in Amsterdam, there are quite a few cafés where laptops…
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A Love Letter to My Bike
by Lily Sanders, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands One of the things I have loved the most about living in Amsterdam is cycling everywhere. I know that may sound slightly ridiculous, but cycling in Amsterdam is so much more than simply riding a bike. The default assumption is that everyone will cycle, whatever the occasion, going to uni, meeting at a café, heading to a restaurant or even a club! I find it so lovely that cycling is a communal activity here, and I feel this especially at AUC because we all live together in the dorms. At the start of my exchange when we were constantly exploring the city…
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Everything I did to prepare for Mexico (and when I did it)
By Jessie Punn, Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Mexico As my third week at UDLAP draws to a close, I have found myself reflecting on all the decisions I made which have led me to be sitting in an extremely comfy armchair, in the gloriously air-conditioned UDLAP library, overlooking the most beautiful of campuses. Moving to Mexico and leaving behind literally everything familiar has certainly been an adjustment, but I am a person that loves a checklist and lives life according to my Google calendar, so here is a mostly comprehensive list of timeline of everything that I did to prepare for UDLAP (that I wish I would have had…
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My First Weeks in Sydney: Whale Watching, Winter Chills, and Settling In
By Lucy Szczerba, University of New South Wales, Australia My first few weeks in Sydney have been a whirlwind of activity and emotions, but all good experiences. Settling into a new place is inevitably going to be full of ups and downs, but these first few weeks have shown me that you adapt to new places faster than you might think.
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