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).
The City never sleeps
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.
Goodbye Manchester
So my time to say goodbye to this amazing city arrived eventually. I haven’t been home for a week yet, but it does feel nice to be back. However, this whole year in Manchester, both working and studying, has been amazing and I’m very grateful for it. Thank you to all the people that have run into my life during these months, you have made them truly unforgettable.
As my final post I wanted to share a little project I did for one of my classes where I combined Trainspotting (one of my favourite films) and the experience of studying abroad.
On Making Your Study Abroad Experience Your Own, and Other Final Thoughts
By Shannon Mahon (Villanova University, United States of America)
I started writing this post as a cheesy, nostalgic account of how much my year abroad meant to me and all of the great things I learned about myself and the world while I was here. I got about three sentences in before I realized how that would do nothing to accurately depict my point, and it would get nowhere in telling others what it’s like to study here, and here is why: Continue reading
Summer in the City!
It’s been so long since I’ve last written. Manchester seems both like just yesterday and like forever ago; I completed my spring semester, and it was definitely the best year yet overall. Now, I’ve just settled in to my apartment in Boston for the summer! I am so happy to finally be living here and working here. Given that I’ve spent my entire life frequently visiting Boston with my family, I’ve come to love the city, and it has become familiar to me on many levels. My sister goes to Boston University, I love the Italian atmosphere in the North End, and it makes me feel more alive to live by the ocean.
I am so blessed to have an internship in such an exciting city. I’ll be working on medical writing and editing at a very inspiring and successful pharmaceutical company, and this is the perfect time for me to learn about awesome career opportunities. It’ll be different than simply learning about career paths during my previous years at Colgate; this is so much more real because I will be graduating in 2019. Exactly a year from now, I’ll (hopefully) be settling in to begin my official first job, or perhaps graduate school.
The other interns are from all over the country and world. I am definitely looking forward to meeting new people and networking. Here are some of my goals for the summer:
- Always be confident.
- Work like Jason. (Jason is a guy from my dad’s work who is an incredible worker, always asking what else he can do, always contributing ideas for new ways to move forward).
- Don’t worry about anything.
- Fearless pursuit of excellence.
- Live in the moment, enjoy the city!!
- Write more.
- Be kind to yourself.
- Always go above and beyond, be mature, dependable, and responsible.
- Be a self-sufficient and independent worker, but also work well in a team.
- Learn new things each day in order to prepare for an exciting career.
I think ten is a good number, and this is a good variety of goals. Here are ideas of places to go this summer and things to do, which I’m sure will grow as time goes on:
- The Lawn on D at night.
- Eat lobster tails from Bova’s outside!
- Read outside, or even in the Boston Public Library.
- Walk around Boston Common (or have a picnic).
- See a baseball game at Fenway.
- Eat more lobster rolls.
- Go to the Mapparium.
- Eat a Boston Cream Pie.
- Gym membership at the Fit Rec.
- Watch a performance by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.
- Go to the ICA.
- Go to Museum of Science Planetarium.
- Go to Museum of Fine Arts.
I can’t wait to go to at least a handful of those places, and I know that time will go by faster than I expect. I’ll sleep soon, but I have a good feeling about this summer and my first day! I’ll write more later.
It’s time to say Goodbye
By Carine Huurman (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Time flies when you are having fun! It’s a common saying but so true.
This is already my last blog about Manchester, as I am home already for a few days. Time is up. Continue reading
Missing Home, and other Not-So-Perfect-Study-Abroad-Experience Feelings
By Shannon Mahon, Villanova University, USA
My study abroad experience is somewhat unique (at least by American standards) in that I am studying at University of Manchester for the entire academic year. Of my friends and peers that go abroad, nearly all of them will only be gone for one semester or a summer. With that unique experience comes a unique perspective-especially because I went home for a month for our winter break. Continue reading