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Time flies when you’re having fun
By Annabel Savage (Stony Brook, The State University of New York, USA) I’ve been at Stony Brook for almost a month now, and yet is seems like just yesterday that I arrived to an empty room and was questioning quite what I had let myself in for. Since then I’ve barely had a moment to stop and think (and write the blog!) Before I left I was warned that I would stick out with my accent, but I didn’t quite appreciate how much so, we speak the same language don’t we?! Everywhere I go people pick up on it, and I regularly get asked to say ‘something English’. I’ve also…
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Pre-Departure to Amherst
By James Eyke (The University of Massachusetts at Amherst). After a long summer, all the preparation and sorting out for travelling to America is about to come into effect. Visa in hand, I will soon be stepping off the plane into a completely new environment full of opportunities and heading to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Naturally, one starts feeling very nervous around this time. Having not travelled as far as Northern Spain in the past 15 years, thousands of miles across the ocean is quite a daunting task. The thing I am most apprehensive about with regards to my journey however, has to be getting from Boston International Airport to…
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Arrival at Stony Brook
By Annabel Savage (Stony Brook University, New York). It’s strange to think that only a year ago I was getting ready to start at Manchester, and here I am now, sitting in my new room at Stony Brook University, Long Island, preparing to start a new life here. Back in January when I first found out I’d been accepted here, it felt like a million miles away, but tomorrow classes start and the true college experience begins. The last few weeks prior to my departure had been hectic trying to see everyone before I left, so I didn’t have too much time to think about what being away from home…
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Post-UMass Travels, Part 2
By Hamish Russell (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA). So before I head home after six of the best months I could have asked for, I’ll give a little update on my travels. The first port of call after leaving Philadelphia was Washington D.C., the capital of the USA. I spent my two days in D.C. mainly on and around the National Mall visiting pretty much everything, starting with the Lincoln Memorial on the west side and ending with the Supreme Court building to the east. I also spent some time in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, which was huge, but somehow made to feel small by the sheer number of people inside…
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Post-UMass Travels, Part 1
By Hamish Russell (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA). So now that my time at UMass is up, the travelling has got underway. My first stop was staying with my roommate and his family for about a week and a half and seeing the Boston and Cape Cod areas. After making the journey from UMass to his house – during which we had to turn around and drive back to UMass because our room keys were still in our pockets, and we didn’t fancy the $150 fine – we had a couple of days of just chilling out after the exam period. Once we’d recovered, our first stop was Martha’s Vineyard. The…
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Not One More: The 23/5 Isla Vista Shootings
By Elizabeth Hardy (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA). “And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.” – Maya Angelou I thought a lot about writing this blog entry. My experience at UCSB has been fantastic; but I certainly feel to not include the following would be an injustice to giving a truthful account of my time here. On May 23rd, at approximately 9:30, Elliot Rodger began driving…
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The End… Almost
By Hamish Russell (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA). Now that final exams at UMass Amherst are over, I thought I’d fill you in the goings on of the last few weeks. First up was the UMass Spring Concert, which featured the Goo Goo Dolls as the headline act – they were seriously good, despite it being almost unbearably hot and cramped in the Mullins Centre’s standing area. The weekend after the concert, I headed over to Boston to pay a visit to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, where I was given a bigger event than I was expecting… The game happened to feature a memorial…
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Roommates
By Madeleine Taylor (University of Maryland, USA). I think one of the things most British exchanges are nervous about when studying in America is the prospect of having a roommate. I know I was worried when I arrived – what if we didn’t get along, what if they stayed up too late and were loud or messy? There are most definitely many things to worry over. When I arrived at The University of Maryland, having received my room assignment maybe only a week before, my roommate wasn’t due to move back in for a few more days. I’d done the obligatory Facebook stalk and she seemed like she would be…
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Visiting Philadelphia
By Hamish Russell (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA). Spring break was a really nice change of pace for me; having already done the clubbing sort of holiday with my UK-based friends I was more interested in hearing the tales that others brought back, and staying clear of the fray myself. So, while many of my friends from UMass headed to Cancún for the week, I caught my flight from Boston to Philadelphia. As soon as I landed I was thrown into the culture of a new city, with new terms for seemingly trivial things replacing the new words I’ve become accustomed to while in Massachusetts. I was told off for…
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American Academics
By Madeleine Taylor (University of Maryland, USA). So, I really haven’t been keeping up with this blog very well lately and I am about to explain part of the reason why. The academics here in America could not be more different than back in England. I’ll lay out the differences simply: Method of assessment: Here in Maryland I have at least 4 methods of assessment for each of my classes, with participation (attendance, talking in class and sometimes bi-weekly response papers) usually counts for around 20% of your final grade. For me, a massively keen student, participation grades have been great – but if you’re not used to showing up…
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Sadly, you have to go home some day…
By Helen Sheldon (Stony Brook University, New York, USA). So, in a flash I went from this… To this… Need I say any more on how it feels to have come to the end of my study abroad adventure? The crystal blue skies above Bryant Park ice skating rink are a long distant memory as I sit here writing this in Manchester with the rain and wind battering my window.. It is great to be back with my friends and to be able to see my family after such a long time, however there will always be a part of me that wishes I was back in NY! I have…
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…what “big freeze”?
By Elizabeth Hardy (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA). Needless to say, the cold weather has not hit Santa Barbara. In fact, most people were celebrating when it rained this past weekend – it has been the first big rainfall I have seen in the five months I have been here. Life here has recently been very, VERY busy. It seems Study Abroad is an opportunity to get involved in just about everything…. so that is just what I’ve been doing. Since I arrived back in January I’ve volunteered at Santa Barbara Film Festival, signed up to run my first 5K, started life drawing classes, got an internship and been…
A study abroad journal by students, for students.
