So the last few weeks has been crazy, we were lucky enough to get a weeks break over the Thanksgiving holiday so a group of 10 of us exchange students went on a holiday! We explored Washington DC, New York City and Niagara Falls and it was all amazing! One of the best parts about an exchange is all the people you meet who are also on the exchange program, and the best part about this is that they are just as keen to travel and explore as you are. We saw the White House, all of the amazing (and free) museums in Washington, the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Times Square and got to take advantage of all the bargains during the Black Friday sales.

I think one of the advantages about Miami is its location. It is close (by US standards) to many places that are worthy of a visit. Cancun is only a two hour flight away and the Bahamas is close enough to go via boat! Orlando (the themepark capital of the world) is only a 3.5 hour drive and a flight to Washington was only 2.5 hours. Travel in the US is also relatively cheap if you find the right deals and they have some really good (and cheap) bus companies that have wifi and power points by every seat which makes the trip go fast.

Having only arrived back to campus a few days ago it’s time now to get stuck into revision as we all have finals coming up in the next two weeks. Another positive thing that I have found about UM is that for nearly all topics there are about 3 or 4 exams throughout the semester that aren’t accumulative, meaning that once you have taken mid terms you only need to focus on new content in class for the final exams. This reduces stress and I think you learn  more this way because you have to learn as you go instead of what I know many people do at home (me included) and procrastinating until a week before exam period and then having to revise a whole semester in a week or two! I can’t believe how fast my exchange has gone and that I will be home in under a month. It really has been one of the best experiences in my life and I can’t recommend it enough.

Tahlee Mckinlay, a Bachelor of Psychological Science student, is currently on a semester exchange at University of Miami in Semester 2 2015