Hi, everyone! Here’s my second post, I hope you’ll like it!
Being away for the holidays let me time to think a lot about what I’ve learned so far during my time abroad. I told you in my first post how much I love Durham for surprising reasons. Well, one of them is Theatre. Continue reading
After 18 hours trip flying from the edge of Asia to the other side of Eurasia, I finally landed at Newcastle International Airport. The dim lights I saw from the coach reminded me how far I came from Tokyo, the megalopolis which never sleeps. The town I am living for the next 9 months was freezing and dark at night but seemed to be peaceful and quiet. Also, the students from 2nd and 3rd years helped us and taught us about the life here in a very friendly manner, which made me quite optimistic about the new environment.
Welcome to Collingwood – being busy for the Freshers Week
Hello everyone, welcome to my very first post! Hope you would enjoy my story. And before beginning, I need to aplogize that though I tried it’s still difficult to organize the passage in a logic way since there are too many things to say. Just be prepared and read!
Different from other exchange students, I visited Durham quite early at the end of July with my twin sister (Yep! I do have a twin sister!). So luckily I got a chance to know what the summer is like here. Continue reading
How do you feel seeing all the pictures of your fellow students on Facebook who are studying abroad?
They seem to have so much fun, and YOU are sitting at home in front of your computer, procrastinating, instead of finishing your dissertation. Therefore I want to give you a little tour behind the scenes of being an exchange student at Durham University and I won’t only stick to the highlights of my first month here in the North East of England. Continue reading
So, I have been in Durham, now, for just about one month. As my thoughts of home start to fade, and as I become more and more immersed in my environment, I can’t help but think of my first week here – and the fabled marathon of ‘Freshers.’
The stretch, I dare say, is filled with its fair share of debauchery, but I marvel at how this initiation to university is so successful in bonding together all of us, in introducing us to our College (St. Cuthbert’s Society), its traditions, and what the university as a whole has to offer. My favorite moment of that first week was certainly the formal dinner, although ‘Harry Potter night’ rivals in comparison.
See what I did there? Yes, it’s been a very long and suspenseful whirlwind of paperwork which has finally landed me in my home for the next academic year, Durham. Strangely enough for one of the UK’s top-ranked universities, Durham isn’t especially well-known outside of Europe and the reaction I most commonly get from Aussie friends back home is “is that somewhere near London?” In honesty, before the long hours spent google-imaging the Bailey to get me through the tedium of the application process, I’d only ever encountered the town in travel novels by American witticist Bill Bryson. So imagine my surprise when I arrived to discover the very man was in fact one-time chancellor of the university!
The Billy B library on the Science Site. Not exactly an architectural marvel, but during O-Week they had snowy owls for students to cuddle (like Hedwig!)
It’s hard to believe that a whole month has gone by since I arrived in beautiful Durham on a sunny afternoon at the beginning of October. 
It’s hard to believe that I have been in Durham for a whole month. It feels like I just got here yet I already have so much to write about and I don’t know where to start! I live in a flat with five other people; four girls and one boy. Unfortunately for our one boy, he is also the youngest of our group, which means he has now been adopted by 5 mothers who encourage him to eat vegetables and wash his dishes. Our little family is made up of people from all over the world ranging from Australia (Hannah) to Nigeria (Folarin) to Cyprus (Desiree) and of course England (Molly and Alice)-which makes for interesting discussions about what we call certain things (ex: pants vs. trousers or paper towel vs. kitchen roll). We have also adopted some honouree flat mates which means there is always something going on in our kitchen. The highlight of flat life so far was a few weeks ago when everyone celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with me and we had the most amazing meal (very un-like typical college food) and everyone humoured me when I made them go around the table and say what they were thankful for (thanks guys).
Thanksgiving!
Stonehenge was a highlight for sure!
After years of saving and months of planning, on the 2nd of September I finally arrived in England. For me, the journey was a long time coming. I figured that if I wanted to see the world and continue my studies at the same time, I might as well make the most of it and spend an entire year abroad. It was always England for me, but Durham came a while later. At first I just saw it online in passing and thought ‘hey, they offer some cool units’ (like FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY which I am LOVING!) but once I actually scrawled through Instagram and Google for hours on end about the location, landscape and beauty that is Durham, there was no turning back. I’m from Perth which, compared to the eastern states of Australia is rather small… and I love it. Durham is even smaller and you’re able to walk wherever you need to go which I find incredible. Continue reading
The Durham Exchange 