Uni has been going on for quite some time now, and it is actually almost over. There’s two weeks of uni left, and I have 4 essays left to submit. All the topics that we take here that are not science or maths have essays instead of exams. I have 2 essays each for 3 of my topics, but I have an exam for my maths topic in January.
At the moment, I am staying at the university and not travelling because I am studying and writing essays, but I have travelled around a bit. I have been to Edinburgh, London, and Cardiff for a weekend each. Edinburgh was amazing; easily my favourite place that I have ever been! London is beautiful, but I didn’t spend much time there because I am going back with my family for Christmas and I don’t want to do something that I can do again with my family. Cardiff was lovely, but I am glad that I wasn’t there for more than 2 days, because there wasn’t a whole heap that I was interested in doing.
Time here in England has been amazing and I am so happy that I decided to do this. Some things that I have noticed that would help if you are planning on coming over to England, so even just going on exchange:
- Try to save up a bit (I know, I know, it’s shocking, but travelling is actually fairly expensive.). I’ve been booking my travel between finishing uni and going home over the weekend, and it is really very expensive. I cry a little over the amount of money I have spent in the last 3 days.
- Make sure you have a way set up to call your family and friends back home, and make the effort to keep in touch with them.
- If you are going somewhere with a big time difference, get out there and make friends in your new timezone. In England we are currently 10 and a half hours behind Australia, and therefore there is a period of time between about midday and 9 pm at night where there is no-one awake in Australia for me to talk to, so that’s when your friends in the timezone you’re in are important.
- If you’re going to a European country and it’s going to be Winter, just … buy about 15 umbrellas and 400 pairs of flat, waterproof boots with really really good tread on the soles, because you will just need them.
I’m sure there’s more, but most of it you have to do yourself, stuff up yourself and learn from it, and I would not want to deprive that from anyone.
Rebecca Spry, Bachelor of Mathematical Science (Honours)/Bachelor of Letters (French) student, Semester 2 2017 exchange at University of Leicester, the United Kingdom
