By Nadia Younis (Wellesley College, USA)

It’s so crazy to think that half of my semester abroad is done already! The past two months have been so hectic, that I’ve only just had the chance to post now. So, where to begin?? I guess I can’t go more than just a few sentences without telling you all how cold it is here in Wellesley. I arrived to a snow covered campus and within just few days of my arrival, there were snowstorms and record-breaking weather. Aside from the fact that campus did actually look awesome covered in snow, I hated the weather. I felt like I was trapped in my room most of the time, as buses often refused to run. The weather is only now starting to improve (but it did snow just two days ago!).

Something else that took a little getting used to, which will be useful to know for those of you planning to come to study in the States, is the concept of a roommate. I got a little lucky with my room allocation in that I was assigned to a suite. Being in a suite basically means that my room is inside the room of another student’s, so I basically have to go through my roommate’s room every time I want to leave or enter my room. It might seem strange to you having to spend so much time with another person at first, at least it did to me, but soon you will find it normal and will probably even become good friends with your roommate.

My main reason for choosing Wellesley in the first place was to have the opportunity of studying in an institution completely different to Manchester, and different is exactly what I got. I will talk about the academic differences in a later post, which I guess is the major difference. But other things, aside from the fact that Wellesley is an all girl’s uni, like for example the distance from campus to the city centre is worth mentioning. The bus into Boston takes 50 minutes and only comes once every hour. This is a massive contrast to the Magic Bus that comes literally every 30 seconds. Boston is an amazing city though, and it is definitely worth making the effort to go. As well as having so many places to visit, it is home to Harvard University and also MIT, which means that there is always something interesting going on.