I’ve now been at MMU for a few months and the time has absolutely flown by. The semester started off a little rocky with my laptop breaking and timetable issues, but we are now on track and things are going really smoothly.
I live with two other girls from Flinders uni and one girl from Windsor in Canada. We live in a really nice house just off a street where there is so much to do and we’ve really become a little family. Manchester definitely reminds me of Melbourne, it’s a bit grungey and creative and there is always something to do.
The university itself is so amazing. Apart from the initial mix-ups with the timetables which they were apologetic about, the teachers and students are all so friendly and just trying to help us settle in as much as possible. Studying fashion design means there is always a lot of hands-on work and it can be ridiculously time-consuming, this hasn’t changed. I am still trying to balance having a social life with the amount of work we get but it has just been so rewarding.
I’ve made really amazing friends so far and feel like I’ve been learning so much. I feel as though coming to this uni has been so beneficial as they work in a very different way and it’s kind of opened my eyes up to a whole new way of designing and creating clothes. The teachers are so passionate and it has really inspired me to push myself when it comes to uni work. It just feels like this was totally the right decision to make, and as scary as it was to come over, it has been so easy while being here. I felt settled in only 3 or so days into the semester.
There are some really amazing places to visit in Manchester such as The Northern Quarter for vintage shopping and galleries and libraries. There is also always a gig to go to, and they can be so cheap! Manchester is also a pretty easy place to travel from, you can get cheap plane tickets to Europe for as low as 10 pounds and I have been travelling a lot around the UK too. So far i’ve been to Liverpool, North Wales, Edinburgh, and to London twice.
Another really important thing to note about Manchester is the people are SO NICE. The stereotype of people in the North has always been that they are a lot more open to conversation and meeting people than the South, and that is totally true. They have made me feel so welcome and are so interested in hearing about Australia, definitely a big help in me settling in here.
Manchester has been so amazing so far, I can already tell it’s going to be hard to leave. The place is so amazing and the people are so kind and I will be sad to leave it all, but so so happy I had this experience.
Grace Kandelaars, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Fashion) student, went on outbound exchange to Manchester Metropolitan University for S2, 2018.
See Grace’s 1st blog post here