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Jet-Set to Jersey: From NYC Adventures to Rutgers Realities
By Alex Toomey, Rutgers University, USA The Plane Journey: Tears, Tunes, and Timmy Tim: My journey began with a predictably tearful goodbye—pulling myself out of the comfortable embrace of my friends and family at the painfully early hour of 6:30 AM. Well, maybe not that early, but when you’re a sleepy girl like me, anything before 9 AM feels like dawn. As the taxi pulled away, my tears only intensified, so naturally, I chose to make things worse by playing the most heart-wrenching songs known to man. Think “Scott Street” by Phoebe Bridgers level of emotional torture—#dontbeastranger indeed.
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An Itinerary for the Perfect Weekend in New York
by Millie Elwell, University of Maryland College Park, USA Lucky enough to have family friends in New York, I have visited quite a few times over my year abroad. So here is my perfect itinerary from College Park, Maryland (not inc. accommodation).
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New York New York!
By Christevie Ngoma, University of Toronto, Canada I decided to take advantage of being close to North America and travel to New York! All I needed was a travel buddy! I have a friend in Montreal whose doing an exchange year at McGill University, and she had a visitor from the U.K. so we all decided to be tourists together!
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Why I Chose to Stay in America Over Christmas
I decided to stay in America over the Christmas break instead of flying back home and I would encourage other students to do the same. I was lucky enough to travel to Montreal, New York, Boston and Miami and each destination was completely different from the last. After overcoming the initial loneliness of spending Christmas away from my family, I really valued the opportunity to travel and spend time with other exchange students who were in the same position. Before coming to America my friends and I decided to spend Christmas together in Montreal. This was an easy choice to make for me as the flights home from Cleveland are…
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Christmas break
Harry at McGill in Montréal To recall correctly the last blog was pretty bleak as it covered the academic side of exchange. So as a bit of an indulgence this installment will be dedicated to fun things that happened over the fabled ‘holiday period’ after finals. It was a long time coming.
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Returning to Manchester
By Annabel Savage (Stony Brook, The State University of New York, USA) It’s strange to think that I’ve been back in the UK for as long as I was in America and the time has gone so quickly since my return. In a way my whole semester abroad feels like a distant memory, but sometimes it feels like just yesterday. The adjustment back into Manchester life took a little longer than I had expected, although socially I felt like I slipped straight back in, the workload and teaching style I had been so used to here in first year came as a shock to the system. I feel I have…
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Back to Manchester
By Joe Vis (Stony Brook, The State University of New York, USA) I can’t believe I’m writing this already, but I am now at the end of my first week of lectures back in Manchester. I always knew that four months was going to be a relatively short time to spend in New York, but it flew by even quicker than I expected. Upon leaving I had mixed feelings, obviously heading home for Christmas with the family and catching up with friends I hadn’t seen since the summer was a great prospect, but leaving so soon was tough. I’d quickly gotten used to the way everything worked in Stony Brook,…
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NOW YOU’RE IN NEW YORK, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
By Erdoo Yongo (North Carolina State University, USA) As I stated in my first post, before heading off to my exchange university, North Carolina State University, I went to New York. On New Year’s Day I boarded the plane from London Gatwick, not knowing what to expect from the USA – especially New York, but still feeling excited. The best thing about a late flight was that as the plane was landing all you could see were lights. Flashing lights… I guess I should not have been surprised as New York is the city that never sleeps! After an eight hour flight, my tiredness outweighed the excitement that I was…
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Leaving America
By Annabel Savage (Stony Brook University, The State University of New York, USA) I originally wrote this blog the day I landed home from New York, but in the hustle and bustle of Christmas I’ve only just found/posted it! I’ve just landed home from the seven hour flight that marks the end of my time studying abroad in New York. The last four months of my life have flown by, and sitting here reflecting on them it almost feels like a dream. There were ups and downs and definitely moments when being in Manchester would have been much easier, but the memories I have come away with are some of…
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The Big Apple
By Annabel Savage (Stony Brook University, The State University of New York, USA) I’ve just returned to SBU from Thanksgiving, and while passing through New York, on the way to visit friends, I realise how much I have taken my proximity to the city for granted. Life will be a little less magical when it is no longer a bus ride away. No matter how many times I go into the city, it will never loose its charm. Only a bus ride away from campus, and with four months to explore, I was convinced I’d tick everything off my list. Instead, everything is still very much unchecked and I find…
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First Visit to NYC
By Joe Vis (Stony Brook, The State University of New York, USA) The first weekend at Stony Brook arrived and me and a group of friends decided we were going to take the earliest opportunity we had to go in to New York City. So far, all I’d seen of the city was a brief view of the skyline from the runway at JFK before being taxied out to Stony Brook, so I was understandably very excited. There is a coach service that runs from the campus directly into the centre of the city so we turned up bright and early to wait for this. By the looks of it,…
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Arrival in New York
By Joe Vis (Stony Brook, The State University of New York, USA) After all the planning, forms, emails, goodbyes and last-minute packing, the time had finally come to set off for Stony Brook. Unfortunately that time was also 3am. Leg one of the journey was a drive from Liverpool down to Heathrow Terminal 5 accompanied by both parents. One seeming ever more nervous about her eldest jetting off to the other side of the world and one seeming ever more annoyed at having to be up at 3am. The drive went smoothly but unfortunately it was about the only thing that did that day. Immediately after saying goodbye and getting…
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A study abroad journal by students, for students.
