Europe
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“Sorry, I don’t speak Swedish”
By Connie Foy, Stockholm University, Sweden There’s nowhere in Stockholm, from the metro, in a swimming pool, to the supermarket, where I have not apologetically repeated the phrase ‘Sorry, I don’t speak Swedish’. Despite my new Swedish friends telling me that I could pass as Swede here in Stockholm, the second I opened my mouth it quickly became apparent that my Swedish skills left a lot to be desired. I used Duolingo over the summer before moving to Stockholm, however I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that the words ‘milk’ and ‘bread’ come up a lot less in daily life than Duolingo anticipated. My frustrations at the language…
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Kaneelbroodjes (Cinnamon Rolls)
(cinnamon rolls and adjacent baked goods I tried in Amsterdam and what I thought) By Chiamaka Ojigbani, Universiteit van Amsterdam I had my first cinnamon roll in Amsterdam, and immediately became addicted. Here are my recommendations to add to your rotation: Et ClaireExcessively fancy café in Zuid. 7/10. The bun had a unique shape and had some orange flavours involved. It had a jam-like filling and good dough texture. Scandinavian EmbassyCute, aesthetic café in De Pijp. I didn’t fully enjoy this (6/10) but I don’t typically enjoy Scandi-style viennoiserie. I find them too doughy, and I think this one didn’t have enough cinnamon or sugar on the inside (though it…
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7 Reasons To Go Abroad
Here Amelia details 7 Reasons why YOU should go abroad!
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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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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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Reflections on My Year Abroad in Leipzig, Germany
By Miranda Dreisin (Universität Leipzig, Germany) Summer has always been a bittersweet time for me. The weather is beautiful and life is more exciting, but for the past three years, it has marked the end of a chapter. This time round, it marks the end of my year abroad in Germany, and in a year it will mark the end of my degree. I am very lucky to still have just over a month left of my year abroad as the academic year finishes in late July in Germany for most people, including me. I do however have exams right until the end of July, which I find quite frustrating,…
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Where Sustainability Isn’t a Trend – It’s Just Germany
By Miranda Dreisin (Universität Leipzig, Germany) I had a friend visiting me recently in Germany, and on an afternoon walk through one of Leipzig’s most beautiful parks, she asked me if the entire city had randomly woken up that morning and decided to go cycling. It was that comment that made me realise that the sustainability that had initially suprised me, had become something I had slowly stopped noticing. Living in Germany has made eco friendliness seem like less of an occasional effort, and more like a consistent everyday expectation. The Culture of Recycling One of the first things I noticed after arriving in Germany was the recycling system –…
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A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO THE BEST BAKERIES IN BUDAPEST
By Nadine, Eotvos Lorand University – Budapest, Hungary If you’re anything like me, baked goods are a staple in your life. I’m not talking about the Lidl or Aldi type (although they do have their place), I’m talking about the handcrafted, exquisite, flavourful kind, where there’s always a queue outside the shop. When I moved over here, my bakery expectations were not very high. Honestly, I didn’t associate Budapest with bakeries — boy, was I wrong! Here is a student’s guide to my top four bakeries in the city (at least on the Pest side). Arán Bakery Arán, which means “bread” in Old Irish, is situated in the Jewish Quarter,…
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4 Interesting Modules of Law at the University of Helsinki
by Ria Mair, University of Helsinki, Finland 1. Animal Law I was excited to study this module since it was a specific area of law that I had not come across at the University of Manchester. ‘Animal law’ covered the main theories and approaches of animal law; local, regional and international regulation; and future prospects. There were many political aspects to this course, following the increase in practices such as animal testing and environmental issues like climate change. A lot of the theories regarding animal rights are linked to human rights, such as the topic of ‘sentience’, discussing where the line is drawn between beings, or the capabilities approach, which…
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How I Settled into my Year Abroad in Helsinki
By Ria Mair, University of Helsinki, Finland Initial thoughts… Before I arrived in Helsinki, I did not know what to expect. After scouring social media to gain insight into student life in Helsinki, it seemed student life would be fairly tame and somewhat dull, as there was not much content online. However, after speaking to a former University of Helsinki student who was on exchange from Manchester, it was the opposite for her, so I felt unsure. As well as this, Finland, and most Nordics for that matter, are not depicted much in media, so I had a limited schema, one I would build from diving into the deep end…
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academics at the UvA
a blog by Chiamaka🎀(Universiteit van Amsterdam in the Netherlands) (me when i realised had to do work on exchange </3) campuses + campus lifeI studied on Roeterseiland Campus, which was huge. I think that the whole of UoM could fit on its grounds. It has an expensive but delicious canteen, 2 bars / cafes and even cinema rooms to rent. The location is maybe a 10 minute cycle from the centre and there is a metro nearby. There are several study spaces on Roeterseiland, which is perfect since the main library is in a random location. I visited Oudemanhuispoort once, which is the ‘aesthetic’ campus. It’s quite nice and is…
