By Melissa, University of New South Wales Austalia
Leaving Manchester
By Ssu-Yun, Tsai (Alice)
National Taiwan University
Today, 6th June 2019, I finished my stay in Manchester. Over the last few days, I’ve been immersed in sadness, knowing I might not be able to see some of the friends here anymore in my whole life, and it’s very unlikely for me to enter into St. Gabs ever again, the lovely hall I lived for about 10 months. From what I know is that this hall will be a nunnery next year. Even if it’s still a school accommodation, I will not have access into it again, either.
Read This Before Traveling
By Kiana Lim
Nursing student, Villanova University, United States of America
I believe that everyone who decides to study abroad should make time to travel to other countries. It can seem daunting, especially because you’re still trying to adjust to a brand new country you have just moved to. But my mom reminded me before I left that I probably won’t get an opportunity like this ever again. This is especially because, for me, it can get pretty pricey to travel to Europe from America. From that point on, I knew that I wanted to make time to travel during my study abroad experience.
While traveling to a foreign country can look pretty glamorous on Instagram, there’s a lot of planning and preparing that goes into every trip. I had no experience with planning trips prior to this year, and so I thought I would share 3 basic steps to start your planning as well as my tips and tricks for anyone else wondering how to start.
A New Place for my English skill to “level-up”
As an exchange student from Taiwan, I once imagined the exchange to Manchester as a magic potion that makes my English skill “level-up” miraculously. After a semester, I realized that this assumption is both true and untrue. In fact, Manchester is a new place with more obstacles and more experience points. The more I know the insufficiency of my ability, the more motivated I am to try to improve myself.
Foodguide Manchester
By Luna, Heinrich-Heine-University, Germany
As you already got an overview about the city and what to do – here’s to the food lovers. You might say I like having amazing food (and you might be right with that) and Manchester offers you loads of small and independent coffee shops, restaurants and bars where you can treat yourself after working hard on your studies (or without any reason). Who needs an excuse for food?
Continue readingThe City never sleeps
By Luna Sickau, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf (Germany)
The city that never sleeps. I know that this is what people say about New York, but Manchester can compete with this (if you know the right places to go).
Manchester – the global city
By Luna Sickau, Heinrich-Heine-University, Germany
When you’re going abroad, you always inform yourself about the place which is your home for a couple of month. You may google it, check the wikipedia entry or ask your friends and family. You may also visit the city before you’re even decide to apply for a university exchange. But you’ll never know if you made the right choice before you start living in the city and start to live a daily life there. If you’re reading this and already know that you will come to Manchester – CONGRATULATIONS! You made the right choice.
My name is Luna, a 21-year-old girl from Düsseldorf (Germany) and decided to come to the University of Manchester before finishing my bachelor class of Social Science at home. I fell in love with this amazing city one year ago, when I made in internship in Manchester for a month in the summer of 2017.
Now, more than a year later I am finally back and able to experience Manchester for half a year. I am living in a private flat, shared with international students (I would always recommend staying in a private house rather than living in a small and expensive student accommodation) and I want to give some insights of my daily life and the tell you how it is to be a part of this vibrating city – the city of Manchester.
Manchester is a colourful and busy city with endless opportunities and places to go. Since the day of my arrival, I felt welcome, accepted and appreciated. You’re never alone and even if you feel so, there are so many places to go (in Uni and everywhere else in the city). The people here are friendly, open and helpful (even though I was a bit confused that the bus driver called me ‘love’ on the first day).
The organisation of the University was brilliant, I already got loads of information at home and the welcome week is a must for everyone who’s coming over for their studies. Luckily, I found my two besties on the first day of the welcome week during a campus tour and we started to go to events and parties during freshers week. After spending the first days (and nights) in the city, you’ll get to know other students and the most popular places to go. Even if you experienced the freshers flu week (week 2), it is easy to catch up with your courses and the teachers and tutors are willing to help students if there are individual problems. At the beginning I was a bit confused because of my timetable (as I didn’t have as many courses as I normally have at home), but the workload might be higher than at home and before the first due dates after reading week, you’re happy to have enough time to focus on essays and catching up with readings.
Enough of first impressions – the next post will have loads of photos and tips where to go and what to do. MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME IN MANCHESTER!
Northern Quarter
St Peters Square
University in September
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
All photos made by myself, please do not copy or use.
Don’t Forget to Call Mom
By Kiana Lim
Nursing student, Villanova University, United States of America
I like to consider myself a fairly independent person.
Back at my home university, I would take a two-hour bus by myself from Pennslyvania to New York whenever I would go home for a holiday break. I thought that this would prepare me for a seven-hour plane ride from New York to Manchester. I definitely underestimated myself.
I had so many worries racing through my mind the day I was leaving home. It had finally hit me that I wasn’t going to see my family for three months, the longest I’ve been away. I was concerned about not having packed enough, packing too much, not making any friends, the list goes on. When I got on my plane, I started to worry about my friends back home. I wasn’t sure how my adjustment would be once I got back to my home university. There are not many people from my home university who study abroad for a full year. However, I soon realized that I shouldn’t let my nerves ruin my experience abroad. This is a once in a lifetime experience, and I knew that I should take advantage of it.
Missing Manchester
It’s been 2 months since I’ve left Manchester. I ended my semester-long exchange here in mid-December, and after a 2-week trip across Europe, I reached Singapore, right on time to usher in a new beginning.
So, what took me so long to come up with a reflection post? I guess I’ve finally had time to myself so I could pen down my thoughts about these 3-4 months. In between finishing up the essays for my alternative assessment and starting a new semester back home, it was easy to put off the writing of this post. The fact was that i was in denial – I didn’t want to face the fact that exchange had come to an end for me, neither did I want to think about all the things I was already sorely missing.
The daily commute to and from school. Oh, bus 147, how I miss running after you.
Wetherspoon’s breakfasts, a gem I discovered far too late. It’s the simple things. Less than 5 pounds for probably the most delicious English breakfast I’ve ever had? Yes please.
How much students here use their voice, to stand up for a cause they believed in.
Strike for pay cuts, the student union building was always decked out in banners and posters publicising some public campaign or another. One that caught my eye was the bright orange banners that called for an end to gender violence. I remember another campaign that aimed to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness in the town. To someone like me, who comes from a country in which platforms for voicing one’s opinion in such a public manner are not as established, these signs and events were amazing.
Afflecks building, and the well-known “on the 6th day, God created MANchester” sign. Blasphemy? Maybe. Quintessential photo spot for anyone who visits the town? Definitely.
In the meantime, I’m still receiving promotional emails from UNiDAYS and Virgin Trains, as well as emails advertising day trips to UK towns. Perhaps I’ll unsubscribe to those in a few weeks’ time, but for now, let me hide away in the corner under my blanket so I can pretend it’s still winter in Oxford Road.
From Lyon to Manchester
By Aurore, Université Claude Bernard Lyon1, Lyon
Being away from your country is both something exciting and something really stressful. My year in Manchester is my first year abroad and my first year in an other city than Lyon, my hometown. I have to say that is was quite difficult, and it still sometimes is.