By Mohamad Kanjo, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France.

It was on Thursday, 5 September, 2024. I woke up at 3 am to prepare for my journey from Lyon, France, to my new home in Manchester. Although it wasn’t University of Manchester accommodation, it looked ideal to me: a big, nice bedroom; another room with an office; a low rent with everything included; 10 minutes away from the hospital where I was allocated for my one-year exchange as a third-year medical student…