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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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💌 A Love Letter to New York City
By Hannah Parsons, Rutgers University, New Brunswick Social media portrays New York as a huge city with endless opportunities, places to visit, food to eat, drinks to try and shops to explore. And, honestly? It really is like that. Before I went to New York, I imagined it as big, scary and overwhelming. I had seen countless Tik Toks about how small you feel when you stand amongst the skyscrapers, and I completely understood what they meant. But at the same time, I always saw New York as an amazing place where you could be whoever you wanted to be. I have been drawn to New York since I was…
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52 Hours, 7 States, 5 Friends
For our end-of-year trip, we decided to travel sustainably and take the train across the United States from Chicago to San Francisco. We travelled on Amtrak’s California Zephyr, which makes 35 stops along the way.
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Camping at the foot of Mt. Fuji
By YiPin Wu, (University of Tokyo, Japan) We went to a camping place, called Fumotoppara Campground, which is near Mt.Fuji. I met up with two of my friends at Yokohama and we drove to there. On the way, we stopped at a big supermarket to stock up on everything we needed (ingredients, drinks, firewood…). Driving another 20 minutes, we arrived at the campground. Fumotoppara is famous for its view of Mt. Fuji, but we were just a bit unlucky:) the weather that day was pretty gloomy and we could barely see it. Setting up camp was straightforward enough, but the campfire was a whole other story. The wood we picked…
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Tokyo Restaurant Recs
By YiPin Wu, (University of Tokyo, Japan) As a foodie, ofc I’m not missing out the food in Japan. Sushi, Curry, Ramen… These are the spots I kept going back to, and the ones I’ll miss when I leave. 202 Curry (202カレー道) This is probably the place I’ve visited most since being in Tokyo:) This is probably the place I’ve visited most since arriving in Tokyo. It’s “soup curry”, a style of curry that originated in Hokkaido, thinner and more broth-like than regular curry, but packed with spice and flavour. I’ve tried quite a few soup curry places across Japan, including up in Hokkaido itself, and this one is still…
A study abroad journal by students, for students.
