|
When I started my bachelor's I actually knew right away that I wanted to go abroad in the third year - where to was still the question. Soon it was time to choose. For a long time my dream had been to study in America, preferably New York. Due to the high cost, I quickly put this out of my mind and decided to go for a country within Europe. It ended up being Glasgow, Scotland, and looking back I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I wanted to go to a country where they speak English so that I could study in English. I knew pretty soon that I wanted to go to the UK and especially thanks to the series Outlander I chose Scotland. The country is really beautiful, the people are super nice and helpful and Glasgow is a perfect starting point to the Scottish Highlands.
|
Where might you know Lotte from?
Committee member AC 21/22 Committee member EAC 22/23 Committee member 23/24 
|
In retrospect, I was incredibly lucky with my house. There was a huge demand for student housing and I even met people who had to stay in a hostel temporarily to find another place to live. I lived with a total of 8 people (6 Dutch people and 2 internationals) with whom I had a super good click right from the start. Our house was right in between the city center and the university so everything was easy to walk to.
On September 7 I flew to Glasgow. The first two weeks we mainly had time to explore the city and the country since our classes didn't start until September 19. We visited all the famous spots of Glasgow with three roommates and quickly found out what a fun city it is. There are super many fun pubs, cafes and clubs but at the same time the city also has an awful lot of historic buildings of which the university is surely a highlight. J.K Rowling even based Harry Potter's castle (Hogwarts) on it. The university had also organized a fresher's week which was super fun. During the day there were all kinds of activities (we just didn't really visit these) and at night there were lots of fun parties with the Vengaboys performing as the highlight.
Once classes started I had to get quite used to them at the beginning. During my very first lesson, I was a little stressed; everyone knew each other and I heard the heavy 'Glaswegian' Scotch accent everywhere. Apparently in Glasgow they have the heaviest accent in all of Scotland. The teacher also had a super Scottish accent so I really struggled to understand at first. Fortunately, this soon got used to and at one point I also met a few other exchange students in this subject. With them I also ended up doing some super nice hikes. In early December the four of us went to the Isle of Arran, where we climbed to the top of the highest mountain on the island, which was really cool (unfortunately we fell once on the way down).
Once classes started it suddenly didn't feel like vacation anymore but I slowly started to feel more and more like a resident of Glasgow. During the week, I attended my classes at the university, learned in the university library and went to exercise with roommates two to three times a week. The six of us (the Dutch) almost always ate dinner together so we talked a lot each day. We also usually went out twice a week. Our favorite club was 'The Garage', a club with a total of 7 venues and only a five-minute walk from our house.
The nice thing about an exchange is that you do and see so much. Since you are only there for four months everyone wanted to see a lot of the country. We did many tours to the Scottish Highlands, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, Inverness and the Harry Potter bridge. We also went to the capital city of Edinburgh several times. To finish, we went to London with six roommates for a few days before the six of us flew back home.
For anyone hesitating to go on an exchange, I would definitely do it! I had such a great time here, meeting nice people, seeing new places and improving my English - I wouldn't have missed it at all.
On September 7 I flew to Glasgow. The first two weeks we mainly had time to explore the city and the country since our classes didn't start until September 19. We visited all the famous spots of Glasgow with three roommates and quickly found out what a fun city it is. There are super many fun pubs, cafes and clubs but at the same time the city also has an awful lot of historic buildings of which the university is surely a highlight. J.K Rowling even based Harry Potter's castle (Hogwarts) on it. The university had also organized a fresher's week which was super fun. During the day there were all kinds of activities (we just didn't really visit these) and at night there were lots of fun parties with the Vengaboys performing as the highlight.
Once classes started I had to get quite used to them at the beginning. During my very first lesson, I was a little stressed; everyone knew each other and I heard the heavy 'Glaswegian' Scotch accent everywhere. Apparently in Glasgow they have the heaviest accent in all of Scotland. The teacher also had a super Scottish accent so I really struggled to understand at first. Fortunately, this soon got used to and at one point I also met a few other exchange students in this subject. With them I also ended up doing some super nice hikes. In early December the four of us went to the Isle of Arran, where we climbed to the top of the highest mountain on the island, which was really cool (unfortunately we fell once on the way down).
Once classes started it suddenly didn't feel like vacation anymore but I slowly started to feel more and more like a resident of Glasgow. During the week, I attended my classes at the university, learned in the university library and went to exercise with roommates two to three times a week. The six of us (the Dutch) almost always ate dinner together so we talked a lot each day. We also usually went out twice a week. Our favorite club was 'The Garage', a club with a total of 7 venues and only a five-minute walk from our house.
The nice thing about an exchange is that you do and see so much. Since you are only there for four months everyone wanted to see a lot of the country. We did many tours to the Scottish Highlands, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, Inverness and the Harry Potter bridge. We also went to the capital city of Edinburgh several times. To finish, we went to London with six roommates for a few days before the six of us flew back home.
For anyone hesitating to go on an exchange, I would definitely do it! I had such a great time here, meeting nice people, seeing new places and improving my English - I wouldn't have missed it at all.
|
|
|
|
