by Ros Harwood (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada)

Having got over the emotions of leaving Manchester and my friends there and  another great summer of travelling in Europe behind me, I have seen people going out to Australia, New Zealand, Arizona, Singapore and LA in the past few weeks and the excitement is mounting ahead of my departure to Canada on Monday.

Accomodation is all sorted, flights are all booked, the next challenge will be determining how to fit in a year’s worth of stuff (mainly clothes) in a 23kg bag, in particular taking into account the extreme weather conditions that mean the sun will be out when I arrive in Canada but a couple of months in will be turning into snow and sub-zero temperatures so I’ve heard! so that will be what I am juggling this next week in addition to more goodbyes with my family and friends.

The other issue that has cropped up is I have found out that in Kingston, many of the student houses come unfurnished, so on 25th August, after 10 hours travelling and a change in time zones, I will arrive at a house with an empty room and no bed! Didn’t expect this to be the case after having rented in Manchester and have desperately been searching for someone selling a bed that I can have, there are a few options  but it may involve a couple of nights on the sofa or floor. Fortunately IKEA exists in Canada!

For now its back to the packing and the possibility of taking two bags on the plane……