I’ve been back in Glasgow for about 2 months now, and I am feeling pretty settled once more. While I was away in Canada, I came to realise how much I really love Glasgow as a city and there were lots of things that I really did miss about it while I was away. Since I have come back, I have found myself feeling somewhat like a tourist, wanted to visit all my favourite places that I have missed. With things like new buildings having sprung up while I was away, supermarkets closed, and new shops opened, I did feel initially that I had a lot of catching up to do.

When I arrived back in Glasgow, I came with the attitude that I wanted to try and get involved in as much as I could in order to get me settled back in. I have now rejoined the Glasgow Univeristy potholing club, have got involved in an arfican drumming course which I did prior to going on exchange, have enjoyed the live music scene that Glasgow has to offer on any occasion possible and have baically just made an effort to actively get myself doing things in Glasgow.

During the first couple of weeks back in glasgow I helped out with the international induction activities which had been organised for the incoming international students coming to study at glasgow. This was a lot of fun. It got me meeting the incoming international exchange students, and it also got me in touch with other Glasgow students who had just returned from their exchange. It is really great to have some friends who have also been on exchange, as you can talk to them about your time away, but also about how you are finding returning home . I’d really recommend helping out with the induction week for exchange students if you are returning to glasgow after your exchange. I remember just thinking it was great to have lots of different accents around me again, and being able to meet people from literally all over the world. While Iwas away many of my friends were also on exchange and came from lots of different countries. This was something I really missed when I came home.

One thing which does take some getting used to is Glasgow Univeristy’s academic system. In Canada it took me a while to adjust to their way of doing things; at Dalhousie Univeristy I had lots of continual assessments throughout the year. Now that I am back at Glasgow my classes are all marked on the basis of one 100% essay or one 100% exam. So at the moment I am trying to make sure that I am still doing my work throughout the term, despite the fact that I dont have any immediate deadlines coming up. This is a little tricky.

Overall I think that returning to Glasgow after being on exchange does involve a degree of reverse culture shock. It is always going to take a little time to get used to being back, but Glasgow is a great city to be returning to, with so much going on all the time. It’s now my final year at uni and so I am determined to make the most of my time in Glasgow.

The other thing which I have noticed considerably about being back at the University of Glasgow is the size of the university campus. Its really nice to see friends and class mates regularly, bumping into people each day either at the gym, the HUB, the library, outside the library or walking along University Avenue and University Gardens. Last year, due to the size of the campus with its handful of different libraries and sports facilities, I rarely saw my friends and housemates on campus. There were a number of friends that I never once saw on campus or bumped into during my whole year at University of Toronto. Instead meet ups had to be prearranged due to everyone’s busy university schedule. So in that regard being back at the University of Glasgow is very enjoyable. I realize that this might sound slightly contradictory but I miss the anonymity of Toronto and the enormous university. The fact that there were places you could go and you could do your thing without being disturbed. Of course over the course of the year this lessened as acquaintances and friends were made but it was really pleasant to just blend it.

I still miss U of T, the Hart House gym and the different libraries. I seem to have more memories and experiences from my year at University of Toronto than from my two years at Glasgow University combined. That said, I hope this year will be challenging, social, interesting academically and above all a continuation of everything that last year was – somehow. I’d be lying, however, if I were to say that its been any of those things six weeks into the semester. I guess my heart and my head are still in a different city even though its nearly November and I returned in July…

It is just over a month since I have been back as a Final year Psychology student at University in Glasgow. I am definitely settling back into the routine now, but the process of adapting back to this system has not been a particularly smooth one. I definitely remember many feelings of overwhelm, excitement, frustration and anticipation. I will share a bit of my experience with you now.

As a Psychology single honors student you get to choose 9 subjects out of around 25. This freedom to choose what you are interested in was definitely a treat. However, don’t worry about it too much, because once you get the time table of subjects you still have a couple of weeks to change your mind. The first thing that struck me about this process was that the majority of classes had finals worth 100% of the grade. Classes also only run for around 5 weeks and we have 4 lots of 5 week classes, BUT the exams for ALL of these classes are right at the end of the year. I think this seems daunting for any student, but for an EAP student who has just come back from the American system, where everything is continuous assessment and the exams and finals are rarely worth more than 20% (and believe me you get used to it that way – you have to!) it seems crazy to be doing it the way they are here!! But, although I havn’t survived the exams yet, I’m definitely feeling less at a disadvantage now as I realize we really are all in the same boat.

There are things that we are NOT in the same boat for. I went through a whole process of discovering on the 23rd September that I would have to do a level three Critical Review because I did not do it while I was away. This was right in the middle of trying to figure out my topic for my 10000 word level 4 CR and my Maxi project and having just began getting my head around the amount of classes, so I did not welcome this news (especially sprung upon me this late in the game). I was frustrated that I wasn’t given any warning before hand and I hadn’t been given any direction as to how to go about it. I didn’t feel supported and I didn’t feel like my extra hard work and projects at Berkeley were being recognized. I was told that this would help me as practice for my level 4 CR and that I needed to be treated the same as the other Psychology students, but I felt strongly that it was not the same making me do this one on top of my level 4 work, while everyone else spent the whole of 3rd year doing a practice on and then gradually building up a topic with lots of supervisor support in order to finish a second CR. So I began emailing and trying to find out about it. After much confusion (as they actually didn’t yet have a system for EAPs) I have actually managed to adapt the research topic and paper that I did in Berkeley into the format of a Critical Review. However this will be different for Psychology students to come as after the confusion this year I think they will figure out what to do before hand next time. (You may even be told to do it during your year with distant supervision – which would reduce amount when you return)

I have been told by prospective study abroad students that they were warned that studying away would mean they missed out on good CR practice and this may affect their performance in fourth year. I was asked if this was true? I do not think this should be something that puts you off! I have now completed my level 3 CR and also had a look at some CRs of friends and something that I learnt from the process is that CRs can be in very different formats, but that if you put in the time and effort to know the subject and listen to the feedback your supervisor is giving you (they are there for you to ask questions) then there is no reason that you shouldn’t do well. You may have more questions to ask, you may feel like you have to put a little more effort in.. But I sware it feels worth every second of it. There has not been one single time that my frustration at the Department or the daunting workload has made me wish I didn’t study abroad.

Some more tips on settling back into being a Glasgow student. One of the main things for me that seemed daunting was the Maxi project (our final year thesis style write-up). My biggest piece of advice is get in touch with your supervisor asap. They are there to help you formulate your ideas. (Also look at supervisors while you are away, and choose one early as they do get booked up quickly). I was very lucky that I got a supervisor (Steve Draper) who is doing projects in a topic that really interests me [although I did find him on the internet ad approach him with enthusiasm myself] and as I did not have a particular topic in mind I was able to join up with him and another professor to be part of an experiment that is carrying out an intervention on the first year computer science students. But generally whether you are a Psychology student or not, Be Vocal. Get to know who is there to support you.

This is a short Final Year! I only have 5 months until ALL my classes are over (in March!) And then only about a total of 7 or 8 months until I will no longer be a student! Or for me, I like to think that within a year from now I may be back in California – as I loved it there and I have every intention of returning, at least for a few months. So, this will be a BUSY year. But it will be a full year for everyone, and if you study away you will complete it not only with a Degree, but also with a years study at an American University on your transcript and MORE importantly a year of experiences, friends, and growth that you would never have got otherwise.

I feel like I sound like a salesperson. Haha! that wasn’t my intention!. It was just that I have had a few people tell me that they felt like the workload on return and what they would miss here was a ‘put off’ to studying away and I strongly think that it is a real shame to look at it like that. And that I guess you can’t really know what I’m trying to say until you do it yourself, but studying away for a year (and having the visa and study paid for you) is an incredible opportunity that I am really surprised that only two people in my department actually took.

My term finished in Singapore as soon as my last exam was over. May 5th. I left Singapore on the morning of the 6th and flew straight into Thailand for the second Full Moon party of my travels. After making my way to Koh Phangan from Phuket airport, via a few hectic bus journeys and dashing for the boat over to the island, we managed to finally relax. Full Moon summed up in a few words is just basically madness, over 5000 people crammed onto a beach, with great music, lots of dancing and, of course, the standard drink, a bucket of your choice!

My original plan after leaving Thailand was to make my way to Seoul, South Korea for 8 days or so, but as this feel through, I decided on the spur of the moment to travel to Beijing with a couple of Canadian girls I had met in Koh Phangan. I booked my flight out of Bangkok 2 days before and spent 6 days in China.

Beijing was unlike any city I visited, the culture shock here was its greatest. I had totally taken for granted the fact that everyone in Singapore spoke English and realised that China was worlds apart. Whilst in Beijing I did all the touristy sites – The People’s Palace, the Forbidden City and strolled around a few of its main parks, amazed by the older generations and their passion for Tai Chi early in the mornings! But, the one thing I felt was compulsory and that I wanted to do slightly differently to everyone else was the Great Wall of China. We decided to follow a tour run by our hostel, which was slightly off the usual tourist trail. In total we followed over 10km of the Wall, and our group was pretty much the only people on that section of it. No droves of Chinese tourists with their matching t-shirts and flashing cameras! However, it was a huge challenge. Parts of the wall were so steep that you had to clamber up deep steps on your hands and knees and sometimes going down was worse than coming up! We passed through 31 towers and saw restored sections and parts that we so crumbled we almost couldn’t make out a path through! It was a once in a lifetime experience and doing the harder route was the best decision I made.

Next, I flew out of Beijing and into the city of Hanoi, North Vietnam. I had already travelled around the south in December and knew that the north would be a completely different experience. Vietnam is a beautiful country, its food, people, architecture and scenery is unbelievable. After exploring Hanoi for a few days we booked a 3 day, 2 night cruise on an old junk boat around Ha Long Bay. The limestone ‘islands’ I suppose, were strangely eerie at night, but during the day we kayaked from the boat and ventured into secret caves and lakes, it was so much fun! A few people I met on the boat and I decided to travel around the rest of the North together and so we took a bus up to Sapa. Sapa reminded me of a small Swiss skiing village. Every morning the mist would linger over the rice terraces and the smell of freshly baked bread would waft through the streets. The best to explore the surrounding area was by scooters, so we shared 4 between 7 of us and set off. We experienced all different types of weather as we climbed and went over, the highest mountain pass in Vietnam, the Tranh Tom pass.

The journey I made next was to be my longest of the 12 months I spent in Asia. I took a coach journey from Hanoi over the border to Vang Vieng in Laos. This relatively small town is famous for tubing. To explain tubing to you, imagine a river, a rubber ring and various bars to stop off on your way downstream! It was one of the most bizarre situations, but also one of my favourite!

After settling in Laos for almost a week we made another cross border journey into Northern Thailand, and arrived in Chiang Mai 12 hours later. The culture of North Thailand is totally different from the south, and the islands, and especially the bustle of its capital, Bangkok. Whilst in Chiang Mai we visited a Tiger Sanctuary, completed a full-day Thai cooking course and rented scooters to drive out and  see the waterfalls in the local area. Pai, a smaller town nearby was like something out of the 70s. So many local residents we met were ex-travellers who settled there permanently. It is hard to describe the atmosphere, but if you ever visit Thailand, Pai is famous for being so many people’s favourite place!

Onwards and downwards – to Bali! After another stopover in Bangkok (thanks to the budget airline, AirAsia, it is now one of the cheapest places to fly from) I was so excited to be returning to Bali after spending my recess week there in September. This time , I had over 3 weeks to travel around and see much more than I did before. We started in Kuta beach, reputable for being a holiday hotspot for Australians. It was crazy – we spent our days tanning on the beach or by the pool, having surf lessons and meeting the local Balinese people and our nights partying on the ‘Strip’ with thousands of other young people. I have never seen so many beautiful people in one place! After 8 nights, we had had our fill and moved on. Nusa Lembongan, a small, undeveloped island, was our refuge before making our way to the Gili Islands.

Anyone who was on exchange with me, or has ever met me, knows that I am a walking advertisement for the Gili Islands! My previous visit had been rushed and now I had the chance to stay a bit longer and really appreciate my time there. The islands themselves were busier than I remembered, but this was down to it being peak season for the Australians. We stayed on Gili Trawangan but this time I saw the other two islands – Gili Air and Gili Meno. We took a snorkelling trip around all three islands and saw turtles, the largest clams I have ever seen and huge schools of fish, all the colours of the rainbow.

I ended my summer on a massive high, after 2 months of travelling before I returned home. I have to say, it was great because I finally visited all the places I had heard so much about, but never made it to during the academic year because they were too far away or I didn’t have enough time. So many of my fellow exchange students went straight home, and immediately regretted their decision. I constantly recieved emails telling me how jealous they were and how they wished they had done the same as me!

That is one of the greatest tips I could give to any exchange student. Make the most of your summer, while you’re already out there!

When I first returned home I was instantly welcomed back by my family who were eager to listen to my stories. After a year away from my family, and a family fridge, I couldn’t help but stand in awe at all the goodies inside the fridge. I know this might sound silly, but when your living on a student-traveller budget (although during the term time my meals were all provided during the week) you have to cut-back on certain items that you cannot afford. Freshly baked bread, olives, hummous, cheese and pricey Nutella become a treat and are not a given. I really appreciated the fact that there were lots of treats in the fridge. It seems that time apart makes you appreciate both your family and your well-stocked fridge. Strangely enough, when I was at my best friend’s house and we were pillaging her fridge during our post-club inebriated state, I felt bad. It felt strange to help ourselves to all this food, even though it was her house. I think after the summer in Toronto with my friends, where we would regularly go food shopping but were limited in what we could purchase because of our budget, I began to appreciate both food and the time/money that goes into purchasing it. Not that I didn’t before Toronto, it’s just your appreciation is heightened. The same goes for all those t-shirts, jackets and shirts that you didn’t take with you on your year away but suddenly want to wear because you haven’t seen or worn them in months and months. It seems as though distance and time can really improve certain things like your love for food, clothes….and certain friendships! This is definitely true for some of my friendships. With many it is as if I never left, as if I didn’t spend the month of December freezing due to the formidable Canadian Winter. The whole “it-seems-as-if-you-never-left” concept is both a good and bad thing. Why? It is good because you can take off where you left, and it shows that the friendship is as strong even though you haven’t seen each other in a long time. On the other hand, it’s as if you never changed. There is this fear that things slip back into old ways and that, yes, your year was amazing but things haven’t really changed.

There are two aspects of my life in Toronto that I wasn’t aware of until I returned home. In my first month back in Glasgow I had this need, this urge, to be in the City Centre and the West End surrounded by other young people in a busy, happening environment unlike the tranquil, and frankly rather boring, suburbs of the South Side. I honestly think that this comes from a year of living in Downtown Toronto where there were constantly people walking, running and biking past my front stoop on Spadina Avenue. Due to where I lived in Toronto, at the centre of the city and at the heart of the university campus, I was constantly plugged into the city’s energy. You couldn’t help notice the bikes, the squirrels, the people…everywhere! It was only on Sunday evenings, walking through University College campus on my way back from Hart House gym, that Toronto was truly dead. The other aspect of my life that I was aware of was the intense and close nature of friendships I had in Toronto. As an international student, living away from home all year even during the typically family-orientated festivals like Christmas, my friends became my family. As clichéd as this sounds it was true. My close friends were my family and we were constantly hanging out and when we weren’t doing stuff together we were talking on the phone, texting, tagging photos on Facebook, commenting on photos… It sounds almost quite child-like, like wee school kids, and I guess to an extent it was like that but it was also very special, intense and a lot of fun to have a solid group of friends from all over the world. People that could support you, and people that you could support during the good and bad times. I saw my friends every single day. In Glasgow when I returned, I again had this desire/need to see my friends all the time. Not in a ‘needy’ way, it was more than I wanted to maintain the closeness that I had whilst in Toronto.

This forthcoming academic year shall be challenging yet I believe that my experience at University of Toronto will steer me in good stead in every sense – socially and academically. I want to try and get involved in as much as I can given the fact that I’m in my final year. Already I’ve applied and was successfully chosen to be co-Head of PR for Subcity Radio. There are number of other non-academic things that I am involved both related to the University of Glasgow. After a year at University of Toronto where I joined a number of clubs and societies, I want to try and continue that this year. I realized the importance of these groups in making fiends and experiencing new things. I guess this is why a year away, studying at another institution, is a positive experience beyond all the obvious benefits (new city, new friends, new life, new places to travel, new foods to discover… I could go on)

Since I have been back home I have missed people that I met on exchange even more than I thought I would. But thanks to the wonders of facebook and skype keeping in contact and up-to-date with them has not been a problem. In fact last week I actually had a friend from Sweden, who I met while I was on exchange, come over to glasgow for a week to visit, which was fantastic. So the exchange antics have not come to an end quite yet.

I spent the majority of summer in my home town up in the north east of scotland, working in a local store and generally just catching up with friends and family. I was quite surprised how quickly I adjusted to being home. It was just so great to have some time off from the studies and to properly catch up with everyone (a years worth of catching up can take a while). I have really enjoyed being home and enjoying all things scottish once more.

Just last week I returned to glasgow though and I think it is only now that it is really starting to dawn on me that I really am not going to be going back to Canada. With freshers week in full flow here in glasgow I cant quite believe its a year ago since I set off to Halifax. Having been volunteering with some of the ineternational student events and with keeping in contact with Glasgow students who have just set off to begin their exchange in Halifax, part of me really is missing Dalhousie University and Halifax city. But at the very same time I am really quite looking forward to getting settled back into the student life in Glasgow, as I missed this city a lot.

So basically its a mixed bag, and I dont think that that is a bad thing at all. I had a great year in Canada, and now I plan to do my best to have a great 4th year here in Glasgow.

Of all of the things I could have done this year, or with higher education, or just this part of my life, study abroad was the most self-educational, rewarding and life changing things I could have done.

I have gained, amoung many things, my independence; a willingness and comfort on relying on myself. Becoming someone on my own, out of the normal bounds of the people who shaped me to be who I am. I have come back the same person I was, only I have grown in many aspects.

It wasn’t a holiday by any means, you have to work hard; UQ is a very academic school and there is alot of coursework instead of the 70% final that Glasgow has for most of its courses. But even through all of that, it gave me a great insight into what it’s like to live there – yes, being alone, but finding the treasures of Australia, the beauty that the country and many of the people possess, and overall a hope in humanity in this world – that I can go 10,000 miles and still find people just like me, with the same beliefs and passions, and that we can all come together, any nationality, language and ethnicity, and depend on each other as a new family unit.

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The last weeks were very odd. There was the slow come down from the exams, and the knowledge began seeping in that I was soon leaving those I had grown to love. It was a sombre experience, it went so fast but those last days and moments are the ones you remember, so they have been replayed again and again in my mind. The difficulty is that although these people have become your family, there is no certainty that we were going to see each other soon. The reality was that we are students, we do not have an income, and we are from very different places, miles apart, and with future careers in different fields ahead of us. But it didn’t, and hasn’t made me lose hope; I guess it’s testament enough that we had the bond that we did back then, even knowing each other the short while we had. It was a really special thing.

An important thing to understand going into all of this is – things will change. You might change slightly or dramatically, your surroundings and culture will change, you will meet new friends who you may have to adapt to, you will have to study somewhere new, and you will have to then uproot from everything you just got used to, then come home where things will be different since you left. Adaptation and just willingly accepting it is the key – and at the end you’ll believe me when I say it’s worth every minute.

During the second semester of my exchange the topic of converstation ofetn turned to what people were thinking about doing once they had finished their courses at their exchange university. And I remember different people having very different ideas about what they wanted to do next.  Some people were just really looking forward togetting home and catching up with their home country and firnes and family there, others were looking to get a job, while others were were looking into all kinds of differennt ways which would allow the to keep travelling for as long as possible. 

Before I went on exchange I had always hoped to do some travelling round canada after my exchange.  Some of my friends travelled from Halifax and worked their way west, finally ending up on the west coast.  It was a huge trip, and covered such a distance, but sounded absolutely fanatastic.  I had planned to join them on this venture, but half way through the term my mum told me she was going to nepal and asked if I wanted to go with her, in may.  I had always wanted to go to nepal and I decided to go with her, and to do some research for my dissertation while I was out there.  This was an incredible trip.  It did mean however that after I finished uni, I didnt have all that long before I flew back to scotland.  I had enough time to enjoy some relax time to spend time with my friends doing some of the things studying had made hard to do during the term, so that was a lot of fun.  Had I not being going to nepal I would definietly have stayed longer in canada and taken the opportunity to see a bit more of canada. 

If you do plan to go travelling in canada, one of the things taht a lot of my friends did was couch surfing (you can find it on the web) its where you stay  at local peoples homes for free things, and everyone I spoke to who did this had really good experiences.  I didnt try it so I dont have personal experience but its  something to look into.

One thing I would say to all of you who are thinking about whether or not to go travellng after your exchange is that it is a great opportunity to see some of your host country or surrounding country, when you dont have to be worrying about studying anymore.  A lot also depends on money of course, for me I did come back being a bit in debt, but I worked during the summer and paid off my overdraft fine.  I dont regret spending any of the money I did when I was out there because I got to do some amazing things and I really didnt want to regret not doing something out there just so that I saved a couple of dollars.  allow for some unexpected expensiveMoney is of course really important and you have to budget etc. 

I had a great summer and speaking  to my exchange student friends (who all did very different things atfer the exchange) they all had a great time to.  So there is def not a right or wrong answer to what you should do after your exchange/  If you are on exchange now, you have plenty of time to think about what you fancy doing after you finish studying, so make the most of it and…enjoy.

Austin, Texas. Berkeley. San Francisco. Santa Cruz. San Diego. Bonnarro Music Festival. Buffalo, New York. Toronto.