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A Collage of My Favourite Activities – Ver. South Korea
If my other posts have been about the big things – the culture shock, the travel, the emotional weight of leaving – then this one is about the small things. The afternoons, in-between moments that didn’t make it into the itnerary but made it into my heart anyway. Consider this a collage: unchronological, unpolished, and entirely honest. Cherry Blossom Walk Spring in Korea arrives slowly at first, snippets of sunshine, a warm breeze cutting through the cold, and then all at once. One week the trees look bare and the next the streets are lined with blossom so dense it almost looks like something out of a fantasy book. We…
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My Top Tips for Studying Abroad
A year abroad is, in my opinion, one of the best things you can do for yourself. But like anything worth doing, you get out what you put in. Here are some things I hope will help you to either decide whether or not to go for your year abroad, or some things you can think about while out there. Say yes (almost always, and within your means). The version of you that stays in and watches Netflix is not the version of you that comes home with stories. Say yes to the dinner invitation even when you’re tired. Say yes to the day trip you hadn’t planned. Say yes…
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January in Japan
Three Weeks of Food, Culture and Friends Winter in Korea is cold. It’s so cold. Temperatures can get down to -20°C… so I decided to book a trip to Japan to escape the worst of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love cold weather, but two months straight and you begin to feel differently. I left Korea and its -11°C weather, and flew to Japan, landing in 11°C (still not warm, but marginally better – I’m not built for winter okay) wearing layers upon layers. Happy to be able to take off most of them and not get hypothermia, I left the airport and was picked up by my friend,…
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The Truth about Coming Home
What no one warns you about when you depart for your exchange is how difficult coming home will be. Obviously this feeling is different for everyone; some may find that, at the end of their exchange period, they are ready to come back. Some may want to come back sooner and some may never want to leave. I was the latter. During all of the preparation for my exchange year, so many people told me that I will likely get homesick, and that even if I find it really hard in the first few weeks, to stick it out and give it a chance. I knew there was a slight…
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Keeping up with hobbies whilst on exchange in Melbourne
By Amelie Duroux, University of Melbourne, Australia What I hadn’t expected when I moved to Melbourne for my exchange was how much I’d miss the activities I would do every week in Manchester. When you suddenly leave that life behind, there’s nothing making you continue these activities, but I hadn’t realised how much they had contributed to my identity and given me structure in my weekly routine. Luckily for me, I found ways to keep most of these hobbies going, and also start some new ones. For example, in Manchester I went bouldering with my friend every Monday. I was worried that I wouldn’t find anyone who liked climbing in…
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All about Melbourne accommodation: where to live whilst studying on exchange
By Amelie Duroux, University of Melbourne, Australia It can be so tricky to know the best place to live at university, especially when you are moving across the world to study abroad. I personally had no idea which accommodation to choose when I was preparing to move over to Melbourne, and ended up choosing the accommodation that the majority of the other University of Manchester students chose. The student living culture at the University of Melbourne is so different to the UK universities, because the majority of Australian students do not move away from home – they continue living at home and commute into university, sometimes with journeys which are…
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Choose your timings
Scarlett Gilligan, Universidad de las americas Puebla, Mexico One thing to consider about your year abroad is how you choose to divide it. For me personally, I believed the most suitable thing for me was to stay for the entire year, something I don’t regret at all. However, I have friends that have moved to South America for semester 2, friends that have moved to work in CDMX for semester two, and some who are spending their first semester in Mexico after Christmas. I have loved both semesters dearly but without a doubt, they are starkly different, each with their advantages and disadvantages. Here I will try to stay as…
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Discovering Melbourne coffee and brunch culture and working in a café
By Amelie Duroux, University of Melbourne, Australia One of the most exciting things about moving to Melbourne has been realising you can never get a bad coffee. Good baristas and coffee culture is so distinguished here that every cup you have is of such high quality. Part of the reason I wanted to come to Melbourne was for the brunch culture – I had worked for a couple of years in an Antipodean brunch café in London, which made me want to experience Australian coffee and brunch, and I had said this in my application for my exchange year abroad. Melbourne have claimed to have invented the flat white, which…
- Application, Canada, Erasmus, Global Guidance Ambassador, Mental Health, North America, Uncategorized, University of Toronto, Year Abroad Travel
Rainy Days and Dealing with FOMO: The Art of Solo Dates
By Isabelle Henaghan, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Choosing to do a year abroad can be daunting for many reasons. You might end up reeling pros and cons lists on your notes app on the 142 as you reach closer to the acceptance or referral deadline with My Placement. But whether you had premeditated the concern of feeling alone or not, I am confident that it is a feeling that almost everyone experiences during the exchange. Doing a year abroad is one of the best decisions I have made for myself. I have absolutely loved meeting so many new people from all over the world, and I have found the…
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Study Abroad Application Advice/Help/Guide
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Why Kensington Market Is Still One of Toronto’s Best Places to Explore
By Isabelle Henaghan, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Kensington Market quickly became one of my favourite spots in the city. It’s a neighbourhood that feels completely different from downtown Toronto with so much colour, creativity, and character. The streets are lined with vintage stores, independent cafés, tiny bakeries, and food spots from all over the world. Every time I go, I notice something new: a mural I hadn’t seen before, a second-hand shop hidden down a side street, or a live band playing outside a café. One afternoon, while browsing through a vintage shop, I started chatting with an elderly leatherworker who had been working in the area for decades.…
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Travelling Australia by Campervan
By Arthur, University of Manchester, UK. One of the many unforgettable parts of my exchange year was a campervan trip up the east coast of Australia with my school friends. After not seeing them for half a year, they both decided to spend their hard earnt money on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure through Australia’s most popular coast. It was experiences like this that made any small drawback of the year feel completely insignificant. My friend Lucas flew out a week ahead of Louis, giving me the chance to show him what Melbourne had to offer before we had found our vehicle for the journey. Renting it was surprisingly easy- a simple…
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Why it is (sometimes) good to worry your parents: a case for solo travelling
By Meg Luddington, University of Sydney, Australia A decision to study abroad is usually enough to give your parents grey hair or encourage an already unhealthy relationship with the Find My iPhone app. That is before you even mention the idea of travelling alone either side of the study period at your new uni. But here is why you should do it anyway!
