It is a country so far away from us and a culture that we know so little about. Half-way through my year abroad I feel I've gained a greater understanding for Chinese life. However, Shanghai with its lofty towers could be mistaken for most major modern cities around the world; bar the throng of neon … Continue reading Studying in China – Holly Pickerell
After hanging out in Whitechapel for four months, the author believes that he’s entitled to make this type of lists consisting, mostly, of chain restaurants. Disclaimer: Greggs is NOT on the list. Your own kitchen should probably be No 1 if we’re being honest. 12. The Half Moon (Wetherspoons) Ah yes. Spoons. Ask anyone … Continue reading Twelfth Bite: A Comprehensive Guide to Twelve (sorta) cheap places around Whitechapel that’ll get you through the semester – Xi YU
As an education major, I have spent a lot of my time in different schools learning different teaching styles. Coming to the UK has shown me a new and more focused style of teaching and learning. These are the 5 main differences I found and how to get used to them. Liberal arts do not … Continue reading 5 Differences Between US and UK Academic Systems – Isabel Lohr
Welcome to the city that has a “tube” and monstrous looking buses. The first thing I realized after taking my first trip by tube was how expensive the public transportation can be. Specifically, in relation to New York, since that’s where I’m from. I will break this up into ways to save money on public … Continue reading Saving Money on London Transportation – Jahmir Duran
Going abroad can be a very exciting time. Even just the beginning process of researching cities, talking with other students who may have traveled before you, organizing which other trips you’ll make with your friends can be a bit of a whirlwind. But what do you do when you finally selected your perfect location? For … Continue reading Do’s and Don’ts for studying abroad – Lelosa Aimufua
As I connected to more students I began to gather ways students play sports, whether on a team, or just for fun, and balance their workload at Queen Mary. Queen Mary can be rigorous at times, but there are multiple students who manage to balance it with many different commitments. Commitments on campus are a … Continue reading Balancing Sports and Classes at Queen Mary – Jahmir Duran
About a month after my friends and I left France to go to different countries for our year abroad, my two non-single girlfriends announced back-to-back that they had broken up with their boyfriends. Living in a foreign country, making new friends, discovering a different university, speaking another language than your mother-tongue every day, all of … Continue reading Being in a relationship while studying abroad – Delphine Martineau
One of the main intentions I set for 2019 was to find home in my body. I vowed to make ‘home’ a state of mind rather than a place. As I departed my loved ones and hometown on January 1st to study abroad in London for five months, I knew this hefty goal would be … Continue reading 5 Tips for Staying Centered While Abroad – Sierra Deangelo
For this article, I felt like telling you about my Christmas ! I usually give advice in my articles but for once I will be a bit egocentric and talk to you about my life. Unlike most of my Erasmus friends I have chosen to stay in London for the whole break and not go … Continue reading Christmas Tale – Delphine Martineau
As the end of the semester approaches, I wanted to talk about feeling down during your time abroad. Of course at the beginning most of us were beyond excited, seeing every part of the daily routine as new and interesting since it differs so much from the one we had back home. However, when novelty … Continue reading Feeling blue during your time abroad – Delphine Martineau
When I first started talking about my Year Abroad my preferred phrase seemed to be: ‘I won’t be back until September!’ I was adamant that if I was going abroad, I would be staying abroad: for why would I want to waste my time and money going back to England? This year I have understood … Continue reading Going Home – Tiffany Maria Christopher-Ward
London has a large population of immigrants from the continent of Africa as well as the Caribbean. As such, it can be easy to make yourself feel at home as an Afro-Caribbean person in London. Nigeria, Somalia and Jamaica are just a few countries a part of the African diaspora that have a noticeable presence … Continue reading Easy Ways to Connect to the Caribbean in London
Making friends when studying abroad is considered key to having a good experience. When you land in a new country, completely unknown to you and where you have no bearings it can be very disturbing and make you feel like you should not be there. This is why the first days can seem so daunting … Continue reading Friendship in your study abroad experience – Delphine Martineau
Listen to your body. One step at a time. Slowly slowly, as my Nonna always used to say. But I didn’t go slowly slowly. I was so determined to make this my year that I burnt myself out within the first month. For the last 4 weeks I have seen nothing but doctor’s rooms and … Continue reading Descansa – Tiffany Maria Christopher-Ward
Film and London have long had history. Like New York, LA,Paris and other major cities, hundreds of films have been shot on it’s streets.As a cinephile and aspiring filmmaker, one of my favourite things to do when I go to a major filming location city, is to find areas where they filmed my favourite movies. … Continue reading Putting on the Cinematic London Lens – Carri Case
After travelling to Brazil in 2016 I was hopeful that I’d be able to travel to another Latin American country while studying here in the US - I am chuffed to now be able to scratch off Mexico on my map when I return home! We hadn’t realised until after booking our flights that we … Continue reading A weekend in Mexico City! Katie Bevan
Adjusting to life in a different country can be somewhat hard. Just visiting a foreign place sounds like a lot of money, time, and work for many people. Now, just imagine what it is like to study in a foreign country with a different system of education, cultural values, and money system. It has taken … Continue reading Finding My Footing – Angelina Healy
Ours was an abusive torment that lasted three years. Then, on a Wednesday, my psychiatrist broke the news to me. "I think we can stop your treatment" She said, expecting me to be excited. But I felt lightheaded instead. What was I supposed to do now that Depression and I were broken up? Depression kept … Continue reading Studying abroad, the Anti-Redepressant that I needed all this time?
For my first article, I wanted to address a question that you might ask yourself when you study abroad: what is it going to be like? What should I expect? This might seem like a silly question at first because most people share the same vision of this experience. Of course, you are here to … Continue reading Study abroad : Expectations vs. Reality – Delphine Martineau
I landed in Heathrow airport in London on Sunday, September 16th. In the time span of one month I have traveled to Paris and Amsterdam, while also traveling around the UK. I have to admit that I was nervous when I decided to spend the semester abroad in the UK. The days leading up to … Continue reading My First Month Abroad – Nasser Ghaffar
I've recently started my year studying abroad in New York City (as a part of a four-year politics degree @ Queen Mary University of London) and wanted to vlog my time in the big apple!
They say that going off to college is finding a type of freedom. The freedom away from parents and some rules. It gives a lot of students a new start and the opportunity to reframe their way of thinking. It is a place to find yourself and get away from things that might have tied … Continue reading The freedom of going abroad – Carrie Case
As someone who wants to work in both radio and television, and who has done so from a very young age, being based in New York City is pretty surreal. You just have to wander a few blocks from Times Square and you’re surrounded by countless television studios, taping theatres and queues of eager fans … Continue reading And we’re going live in 3, 2, 1… – Katie Bevan
I always knew that waving goodbye to my parents for nine months at the airport would be hard and as much as I prepared myself for that moment, a spell of tears felt inevitable. I guess those of us that have had an emotional airport encounter are very lucky to be in a position where … Continue reading A bus journey I’ll never forget – Katie Bevan
This is not only an important year for me; being my Year Abroad working for the British Council as an English Language Assistant in Andalusia, Spain: but it is also the year I make everything right. For a long time, I have considered myself a disappointment, a failure, and I have chosen to share my … Continue reading Adapt and Overcome – Tiffany Maria Christopher-Ward
Cliché or not, I have been in love with the idea of Italy since my teenage years. It has so much historical value, impeccable cuisine, and some of the most beautiful sights in the entire world, not to mention arguably the most romantic language of all. When it came to choosing the location of my … Continue reading Getting yourself Abroad -Amber Fisher
I want to start by mentioning that I specifically refer to my stay in China as my stay in Chengdu. China is a vast country with a rich history spanning from the western to eastern borders of China. Chengdu is a large central city within the Sichuan province not far from the Tibetan plateau and … Continue reading My experience in Chengdu – Charlotte Moore
Get to know the Global Opportunities Team and what has inspired us to travel the world and help students to do the same! We also find out why the GO Team love Queen Mary and their top picks to visit in East London. This week we sat down with Director of Summer School, Sophie Dilley … Continue reading Get to know – Sophie Dilley, Director of Summer School
The forthcoming autumn marks four years since I began my undergraduate journey. As I look forward to joining QMUL as an exchange student, I also have great deal to reminisce about. People are often intrigued by the fact that by this time next year, when I will hopefully turn the tassel, I will have studied … Continue reading The Intercontinental Undergraduate – Ashwin Malik
When I found out I would be spending my junior year studying at Queen Mary University in London, I was ecstatic. I’d wanted to visit London for so long, and now I was going to get to live there for a full year. It was kind of a dream come true. After getting accepted though, … Continue reading Study Abroad FAQs – Miriam Jaffe
Four months ago, when I just arrived in London, I was shy, scared to make friends with others, and also anxious about whether I would enjoy my time here. I remember clearly that I wouldn’t even go out of my room as my social anxiety hindered me from meeting with other people. Now, as my … Continue reading Goodbye London, Or: It’s a New Beginning
It was a shock to me when I first knew the fact that men are the minority among those who study abroad, making up only 35% of all study abroad students. I thought more men would study abroad in U.K. for its travel adventures, sports teams, things that are usually related to masculinity, but the … Continue reading Men Learning New Perspectives Abroad – Unique Xue
When I first landed in London, I didn’t know how involved I would get with Queen Mary in general, let alone with their Global Opportunities office. Within the first two months of being in London, I got an email from the Global Opportunities office, asking if anyone currently studying abroad would be interested in getting … Continue reading Reasons to blog while abroad – Miriam Jaffe
Flash back to a year ago. Second year was over, and all I had to look forward to was a short summer and a year in a country that I knew very little about. I’d never lived abroad before and I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Of course I was looking forward to … Continue reading The End – Kyran Penny
Ever since I left London in June of last year, I’ve been longing to go back. I’m sure that‘s a similar experience for many people who study abroad, or really for traveling in general. I always knew that I’d find my way back there someday, but the big question of when was very much up … Continue reading Touching (back) down in London Town – Miriam Jaffe
The 19th of May was an unconscionably warm day ~seriously~ I didn’t just wear a sun hat to get into the wedding spirit, I needed it. I firmly believe that this was a pathetic fallacy, the sun-baked streets reflecting the excitement of the crowds parading outside Windsor. Not only did the wedding produce one of … Continue reading Why you should watch the royal wedding if you haven’t already – Shola Lee
I’ve always been interested in the history of medicine and hospitals. My husband puts up with me starting dinner conversations with things like “did you know we fix cataracts pretty much the same way that ancient Egyptians did?” and “apparently they wouldn’t give women anaesthetics when they started using them in Europe, because they were … Continue reading Exploring Museums – Kelly (Sherrinford) Honegger
As you probably know, STEM students continue to be the minority of those who study abroad in their undergraduate study. Many STEM students either think it is impossible for them to study abroad or feel like it’d be a burden. However, let me assure you, those conceptions are not necessarily true. Myth #1: It Doesn’t … Continue reading 4 Common Myths about STEM Students Studying Abroad – Unique Xue
I’d never considered living in China before (in my naïve brain a vast and homogenous country of pandas and communism, where all my worldly goods are produced), and if not for the scholarship I will briefly write about in this post, I think I would never have had the chance or the means. In my … Continue reading 三天打鱼两天晒网 – Daniel Halford
It can be quite hard to study abroad if you identify as a queer person, because not all countries are open towards queer and trans people. However, London is an amazing city where different kinds of gender expressions and sexual orientations are accepted by the majority of Londoners. As a result, my queer identities have … Continue reading Strengthening my Queer Identities in London – Unique Xue
On my second day in Sweden, during the walking tour around the city, our guide mentioned the celebration of the arrival of spring known as Valborg. When I was researching Uppsala before I arrived, there was a lot of talk about this celebration and how Uppsala is like a hub for people to come to … Continue reading Valborg – Kyran Penny
Rachel Godfrey was awarded the QMUL International Correspondent Scholarship in collaboration with IFSA Study Abroad. Whilst at Queen Mary, Rachel blogged all about diversity and inclusion in study abroad. We sat down with her before she headed back to Wesleyan University, CT, to talk about her experience. Rachel tells us what it’s like to be a student in London, cultural differences, diversity … Continue reading Part 3 – An interview with Rachel Godfrey
While many students are beginning to reflect back on their fall study abroad experiences, I am only halfway through my full year abroad. Sometimes I worry about what I will be missing at home in the spring, and I definitely miss my friends and family back home in the United States, but I think that … Continue reading Why I chose to study a full year in London – Tessa Reading
Rachel Godfrey was awarded the QMUL International Correspondent Scholarship in collaboration with IFSA Study Abroad. Whilst at Queen Mary, Rachel blogged all about diversity and inclusion in study abroad. We sat down with her before she headed back to Wesleyan University, CT, to talk about her experience. Rachel tells us what it’s like to be a student in London, cultural differences, diversity … Continue reading Part 2 – an interview with Rachel Godfrey
Rachel Godfrey was awarded the QMUL International Correspondent Scholarship in collaboration with IFSA Study Abroad. Whilst at Queen Mary, Rachel blogged all about diversity and inclusion in study abroad. We sat down with her before she headed back to Wesleyan University, CT, to talk about her experience. Rachel tells us what it's like to be … Continue reading Part 1 – an interview with Rachel Godfrey Talking Diversity, Culture and Life at Queen Mary
I always knew that I was an introverted person, but I did not know that I have social anxiety until the second year of college. I realized that had felt stressed and anxious in almost all social settings: from a theater rehearsal room, a Friday night party, or the cafeteria resounded with American small talks, … Continue reading Living with Social Anxiety Abroad
In the past couple of weeks, change has been blowin’ in the wind. By that I mean the wind is no longer blisteringly cold, and has become somewhat pleasant. As winter moves into spring, the Swedish population has begun to appear from their homes after many months in what seemed like hibernation. Having never experienced … Continue reading The Changing of the Seasons
