When I returned to the UK in December 2019 after spending the Autumn semester of my final year abroad in Norway, I was filled with the incentive to live the same as I had there: to the fullest. I would say yes to those coffee dates, those nights in the Student’s Union, re-join aerial fitness Read more
The main fear I had weighing heavy on my shoulders about studying abroad is that it would be a very lonely experience. I always tried to submerge myself into the bigger groups but it never worked out; I think I learned the lesson that the bigger the group, the worse the drama enough times to Read more
My final week in Oslo was crazy one. Despite having lived there for five months, I still had so many things to discover and staples of the city to witness. So I spent my final week doing as many things I wanted to do and could feasibly do. I did not get to do everything Read more
Am I excited to go home? Yes. Am I ready to go home? Not quite. When I started the application process to study in Norway, I was conflicted in how I would cope without everyone I love at home. And since only my boyfriend would be visiting me in these five months, I was sure Read more
Now that my time in Norway is nearly at an end, I have been quite quiet here as I have been busy checking off everything I have desperately wanted to do before I leave. So, whilst this will be a short one, I wanted to share my experience of the beginning of the Christmas holiday Read more
The first week of October and turning another year older was not a smooth ride. In fact, anything that could go wrong, did go wrong that week. So in the very early hours of the Sunday morning that week, I booked myself a twenty-four hour trip to Bergen. This is probably the most spontaneous I have been Read more
The first thing that just about everyone who knows me personally said when I revealed I would be moving to Norway was ‘you know it is cold and snowing all the time, right?’ Four months in my study abroad, the temperatures finally hit subzero and the snow arrived. When the temperatures were reaching just above Read more
After saying goodbye on a train platform in Switzerland four months ago, I was reunited with my boyfriend recently. As discussed in Long-Distance Relationships, myself and Ben are both on study abroad schemes so travelling to see one another has not been feasible until now. After publishing that post, many have reached out and asked how Read more
In the last days of October, I finally took my first trip outside of Olso during my semester abroad. My boyfriend was visiting and, as a gift to one another, we decided to take a short break in Tromsø. Living in the south of Norway, the initial interest in travelling above the Article Circle is, Read more
When you start university, you are often told about the fresher relationship. The fresher relationship is someone you meet in the beginning of first year and have a whirlwind romance before it fizzles out before the semester is out. Apparently not one to join the stereotype, I am here two years later with that person I met on Read more
One thing that they do not tell you when you plan to live in Norway is that the night life is incredibly less lax, despite the drinking age being eighteen. Norwegian bars and clubs have various ages limits for entry, mainly ranging between 20+, 23+ and 25+ with fees ranging from free to ten pound. Read more
Call me strange but I have never spent my birthday without my family or outside of university and home. When I first got my nomination for studying in Norway, this understanding that I would neither see my family nor be at home for my birthday was instant and prevalent throughout the administration process. Celebrating a Read more
Every year, Oslo set up candle-lit mystical walks beside the city’s rivers to celebrate the September equinox where day and night share the same amount of hours. This week, myself and my friend, Anna, took the candle-lit walk alongside the Akerselva river where we were surrounded by eclectic art installations, live music, dance and interactive Read more
안녕하세요 (an-nyeong-ha-sae-yo!) My name is Laura, I am a 3rd year Neuroscience student and this summer I attended Seoul National University International Summer Programme. Seoul is a vivacious city and the young person’s paradise, with a hundred and one things to see and discover and I will do my best to condense it into a small Read more
Since being diagnosed with chronic pain and fatigue conditions nine years ago, it is fair to say athletic activity has not been on my agenda. I spent the years leading up to university learning how to manage my conditions to the best of my ability and, in my second year of university, I felt confident Read more
One of the many things that I have quickly grown to love from living in Norway is the transport system. For £40 a month, I can travel anywhere on bus, tram, metro, and even ferry in Oslo with Ruter – the main travel service here. This means visiting the tourist attractions is incredibly easy to get to Read more
After the stress of planning, shopping and bleeding money, finally making the move to the country that will be home for the next semester or year is initially a relief. But moving to another country is a monumental moment in life that comes with its trials with loneliness and do not let anyone say otherwise. Read more
1. It is people friendly. As much as swimming in the Fjords was enjoyable, I did exit the water with very bloody feet. Sognsvann is a popular hangout spot for students, runners and families so it is pedestrianised to an extent. There is a paved trail for runners, there are numerous jump off points into Read more
It has been exactly a week since I moved to Oslo, Norway and what a week it has been. It has not been easy; there have been metro mishaps, social anxiety and general desire for a sense of geographical direction but this is a look into how I have settled into life in Scandinavia. The Read more
It has been a week since I first touched down in Bali and already it feels like a home. A strange home, different to anything I’ve known before where walking is replaced with jumping on the back of a scooter and the loud noise of tropical birds and dogs fighting sings me to sleep every Read more
Coucou tout le monde ! (Hello everyone!) My final blog is based on social issues in France. As this topic is quite broad, I have tried to narrow down a few problems that stood out to me during my year in Chambéry. Menace terroriste Ces dernières années, l’un des problèmes sociaux les plus importants en Read more
Salut et bienvenue ! Today’s blog will cover the topic of National Holidays and local area of interest. Un jour férié national est un jour nationalement reconnu où la plupart des entreprises et d’autres institutions sont fermées. La France compte 11 jours fériés français chaque année. Cependant, deux régions; L’Alsace et la Lorraine ont deux autres jours Read more
Bonjour à tous et à toutes ! Today’s blog will cover the topic of Food & Drink. There are so many delicious specialities offered by French cuisine, it’s hard to choose between them! However, I will focus on some delicacies of the Rhône-Alpes (the region where I am currently studying). Food – La Nourriture La Read more
Hallo und wilkommen zu meinem dritten blog für LingoMap! Jetzt bin ich für einen Monat für mein zweites Auslandssemester in Köln in Deutschland. Nach anfänglichen Schwierigkeiten, einschließlich der Tatsache, dass ich keine Wohnung finden konnte, habe ich mich endlich hier eingelebt! Ich vermisse wirklich das Leben in Lyon und habe dort so eine gute Erfahrung gemacht, aber Read more
Bonjour tout le monde, j’espère que vous allez bien ! Bienvenue à mon deuxième blog pour LingoMap ! Ayant été donné le sujet plutôt général du divertissement et les loisirs, je vais parler de mes voyages à la fois en France et ailleurs cette année. Annecy Annecy, a small town in the Alps is one of the first places I visited during my Read more
Salut et bienvenue à mon blog sur la santé et la forme physique ! I am currently in my second semester at Université Savoie Mont Blanc in Chambéry. Thanks to its location in the mountainous Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France, the town boasts an impressively wide range of sports and activities, promoting health and fitness. When Read more
Bonjour tout le monde ! Bienvenue à mon premier blog pour Routes into Languages Lingomap. Je m’appelle Eloisa et maintenant je suis en troisième année de français et allemand à l’Université Cardiff. Pour mon année à l’étranger, j’ai étudié à l’Université Catholique de Lyon pour le premier semestre, et je vais à Universität zu Köln Read more
I spent the first semester of my year abroad in a town called Chambery, in the Rhône-alpes region of France (South East). The town itself was quite quiet, but because it was located in such a mountainous region, there was a huge range of sports available to do. I was super nervous that when Read more
Bonjour tout le monde ! (Hello everybody!) Ça va ? (How are you?) This is my first submission for the Routes into Languages LingoMap blog. As you can see from my profile, I am a third year History and French student at Cardiff University, currently on my year abroad studying at Université Savoie Mont Blanc Read more
I cannot believe how quickly time flies… I only have two more weeks of lectures and then that will be the end of semester one of my year abroad. These past few weeks have been manic (hence my lack of blogging) but I’ll try to summarise some of the things I’ve gotten up to over Read more
I thought I may as well do something productive with my time whilst waiting for my laundry to finish and start my next blog. These past couple of weeks have been extremely busy but I’ll try to summarise the best bits: Laundry Ok, so this isn’t exactly the highlight of the week, or any week Read more
At long last, here is part three of my adventures in Yamagata. My apologies for the delay – it’s been a pretty busy week as usual. To pick up where I left off, we’d collected our new translator and then immediately after we visited a Japanese castle. We made a quick stop at a foot Read more
First of all, my apologies for the late post – this past week has been unbelievably busy and tiring, but very fun. We had a pretty full-on week of mostly sightseeing which made a nice break from all the work we had been doing in the fields. Even without the sightseeing, some interesting things happened Read more
The past week has proved busy but highly productive, not to mention enjoyable. Already it feels as if I have been in Yamagata forever, and I wouldn’t mind if that was the case. In terms of work we have been busy weeding rice paddies, weeding vegetable patches, weeding an athletics track, weeding a flower garden…yeah, Read more
Yesterday I arrived in Tokyo but was too tired to update after so much walking – my apologies for that. These past few days have been quite hectic but fun. I met three of the other volunteers in the airport and we all caught the dreaded 12 hour plane together. When we finally arrived in Hong Kong, Read more
So here I am; the day has arrived and I’m off to the airport to start my adventures in Japan. The past few days have been filled with a never-ending stream of advice from my parents about travelling and staying safe, and I have packed everything I could ever think of needing in any potential Read more
My final LingoMap blog! As an undergraduate, it can be scary to think about leaving the student days behind. Student life is great, it has given me a huge amount of freedom, independence and courage, without which I would not have been able to fly the nest and live abroad! The saying goes however, that Read more
Finally I am back with another LingoMap blog! I hope you have enjoyed reading about my year abroad journey so far! For this blog I am focusing on school and college life in Spain. The first thing I will say about school life in Spain is that it is extremely different to school life in Read more
We’ve had snow in Vancouver!! They say it never snows here but we’ve had snow on the ground every day this week, which has made concentrating on studying for finals so much harder! I have just finished my last final, exam season has been hard (hence the silence in my blog writing), but with the Read more
I’ve only got 2 and a half weeks of school left before finals start- where has the time gone?! In Canada, you get a day off for Remembrance Weekend, so we bussed to Seattle for the weekend- we stayed in City Hostel- which was in an amazing location. We went to Pike Place Market- which Read more
It’s week 7 here out of a 12-week term, it’s scary how fast time here is flying by and I’m beginning to panic that I won’t get everything I want to do done before I leave! Cramming my weeks full of school work so that the weekends are free, so I can make the most Read more
Today we went to the science fair at Ubon Ratchathani University. We left at around 9.30 and travelled on the school bus with some of my G.12 students. I don’t remember much of it, but my students have now seen how I look when I sleep on a bus. I was still a bit tired Read more
So today I had my G.10 class that I was dreading first thing at 8.30am. It sounds silly to say that I wasn’t looking forward to a class, but it’s true. They can be the least well-behaved out of the students I have, but they also have the most to learn and can be the Read more
So today was a difficult day, looking back I think it was mostly my doing though. I had three lessons today and I was still a bit tired from the weekend. This had affected my lesson planning as well, and because the lesson plans weren’t as well thought out, the lessons lagged too. I had Read more
We were up at 7am this morning and rushed out by 7.30am (I had just about enough time to clean my teeth) so that Aum could get us on a van to the right bus station in Bangkok before our bus to Ubon Ratchathani left. We got there and there wasn’t a van going straight Read more
So we thought we had until at least 8am to get ready to go to the waterfall. But would it really be Thailand without surprises? Instead Aum woke us up at 7am and said that we were leaving soon. So we went and got ready…only to be waiting for another hour. We found out later Read more
Today I managed to sleep past 8am. It was great. I packed and updated my blog in the morning before we left. I also, however found out that there had been a bomb in the early hours of the morning in Hua Hin. Some of my friends back home had messaged me to make sure Read more
Today we had the day of school to hold a ceremony to celebrate mother’s day. If you’re confused about why mothers’ day is in August, it is because in Thailand mothers’ day is on the same day as the queen’s birthday. This is because the Thai people see the queen as the mother of their Read more
This was our one sleep-in today, and somehow my body woke me up at 8am. Which is a sleep-in compared to 6.30am, but still! I would have preferred to sleep a little longer. But it did mean that I could download some episodes of Ugly Duckling for the journey home. I also got to breakfast Read more
We woke up at 7am and got ready in half an hour. We left the hotel at 7.40am and walked to the bus station which was only a five-minute walk away. Just enough time for the coffee I made in the hotel to cool down. We soon found the queue for tickets to Khon Kaen, Read more
I was back to my normal classes today. As much as the younger years are adorable and it was really nice having a Thai speaker leading the lesson, I did slightly miss my own classes. I must have been quite excited to see them again because I woke up around 6am and decided to get Read more
I woke up at 5am this morning so I could shower and make sure I had packed everything. As much as it was a sensible idea, I really wish I had set the alarm half an hour later. We got to the bus station (thanks to Aum calling us a taxi) and waited until our Read more
Today we had a much appreciated lie in, and an endless supply of toast, which was even more appreciated. We also got to play with the dogs before breakfast. Needless say it was a great morning. After getting a taxi to Central Plaza, which Aum had called for us, we met up with Eleanor in Read more
I woke up around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I looked up various TEFL courses. Since being in Thailand the idea of teaching abroad after I graduate has become more of a possibility. By the time the others were moving, at 4am, I had looked at a couple of courses and narrowed Read more
Because we were so crazy and excited to go to Chiang Mai, we booked a 8.20am flight there. This meant waking up at 4.45am to leave at 6am (at the latest). Thankfully I had done most of my packing the night before so I didn’t have much to do, apart from have a frightfully cold Read more
This Saturday morning we woke up at 6.30am, not because we were going crazy after two weeks in Thailand, but because we were going rafting at 10 at Sirindhorn Dam. I had packed for rafting the night before and managed to put a few clothes aside for Chiang Mai. I managed to leave the room Read more
Unwaith eto mae amser wedi hedfan heb i mi sylweddoli! Erbyn hyn dwi adra yn mwynhau 6 wythnos o wiliau cyn dychwelyd i Berlin am yr 2il Semester ar ddechrau mis Ebrill. Ers y blog diwethaf dwi wedi cael lot o brofiadau gwych a dwi’n teimlo fy mod i’n dechrau dod i adnabod Berlin a’r Read more
So, 16 days until departure; I cannot believe how quick time has gone. It seems like only yesterday I was applying to study abroad for my second term at Cardiff University, despite it being at least 9 months ago! Since then so much has happened, I have received my acceptance letter to study at Macquarie Read more
Pre-departure The best feeling was when I received an email congratulating me on my success in achieving a grant to study abroad. I had the option of choosing where to study as long as it was for at least a month and in a recognised institution. Salamanca seemed ideal for me as I had always Read more
Blas caught up with Chris Beynon, a final year Economics student who spent last summer volunteering in Burundi, a small country in central Africa with Tearfund as part of the International Citizen Service (ICS) scheme. Can you tell us about your placement and what it involved? ICS is a British government funded initiative that aims Read more
Hello, my name is Olivia and I spent 4 weeks in China this summer completing a Chinese language course at the prestigious Xiamen University. Xiamen is in the south of China as is said to be one of the most beautiful places to live in China which could be largely down to its lovely stretch Read more
After a 30 hour journey and several flight delays, we finally arrived in Hong Kong. The first shock occurred as we stepped out of the cool air conditioned airport, and into the hot and humid weather. The sweating had begun. Something you have to get used to in China. After our failed attempt to acclimatise, Read more
Travelling in China is always an experience and today’s trip to Gulangyu Island was no exception. If you’ve never travelled in a densely populated city before, you’re in for a surprise. In order to get to the island we had to get 2 buses and a ferry all of which were absolutely packed. Imagine a Read more
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