Pure dead brilliant SCOTLAND !

17-19.10.

Awrite! So last weekend I was in Edinburgh and seriously all I can say is that it was AMAZING. I've always wanted to go and now it was so easy to just hop on a train and after 3,5 hours I was there there! We arrived to Edinburgh train station about 9pm, walked to our hostel called Budget Backpackers which was just a 15min walk with bags. For a hostel it was good and the location was next to many sights and bars, so I would recommend it to any young people who are staying in the city for just few nights. 

https://budgetbackpackers.com/

On Saturday morning we woke up at 5.30 as a plan to climb the Arthur's Seat to see the sunrise. Arthur's Seat is a top of a hill in the middle of Edinburgh and it's a part of Holyrood Park. The hill itself rises above the city to a height of 250 m and it provides panoramic views of the city. It's a really popular for hill walking for both tourists and locals. It's also been rumored to be the location  of mythical Camelot (King Arthur's castle) and The Round Table.

So apparently there was also a well made road to walk up the hill, the same one that cars use, but we realized this a bit too late and for some reason ended up taking a climbing route. It was dark and the only light we had was my phones flashlight... We literally climbed a wet hilly stone "wall" at some point which was quite extreme and scary without any experience nor helmets, but after getting to the top it just made the climb more adventurous! And the prize of getting up so early was so worth it, the views were incredible and the feeling on being on top of the city was exiting. But one thing I can say about Scotland and especially of Arthur's Seat is that the wind is SICK. I know there is some kind of a windstorm heading towards UK and the rest of Europe, but man, we couldn't even walk properly at some points! 

After our brisk morning we went to have a proper Scottish breakfast. I even tasted haggis;

it was ok! If you just keep the thought of what's in it somewhere deep in your mind it wont be that bad.. :D They actually had haggis in every restaurant menus around the city. 

That burger meat looking thing was the haggis!

We spent rest of the day just walking around the city and shopping. Such a beautiful city, I can honestly say that I'm in love. Will definitely go back there, hopefully during next year! The buildings are old and gorgeous, you can sense that every block has it's own story to tell. There weren't fast food places almost at all, nor big malls with huge shops in every corner, instead there were loads of cute little shops, pubs and restaurants with their own unique touch. You couldn't walk anywhere without hearing a bagpipes playing and we did indeed also see guys in kilts! And not as a joke, but combined with business style and some of the bartenders also wore them as a uniform . Funny!

The Scott Monument

You could still see the YES campaign around the city

Of course we also checked the Scottish night life, was fun! 

On Sunday we went to see Edinburgh Castle, less than 10min walk from our hostel. Edinburgh Castle dominates the landscape of Scotland's capital city. Battles were fought over it, royalty lived and died within it's walls, and countless generations have been inspired by it. The ticket was 16£ and you could spend the whole day in there. We saw a war prison, the national war museum, the Crown of Scotland (with the sword and scepter) and many other interesting and historical rooms and items.

After dinner we headed back to Leeds with happy minds and had the most hilarious train trip back home. I will so warmly recommend Edinburgh to anyone who's planning a city break, there's just so much to see and the overall atmosphere is incredibly warm and friendly. This certainly was not my last visit in Edinburgh or Scotland!

See ye efyer, guid cheerio the nou! <3

  

Funny cultural experiences

So as you may have seen from my Facebook and Instagram accounts, I've done loads of other stuff besides classes. Have experienced many funny and memorable moments and it's been only 3 weeks here! Here are some of the events and trips I've visited while in England.

1.10.2014

On last weeks Thursday we went to see varsity rugby game. All of us knew very little about this sport, let alone the rules of it. But it was a big thing in this city for students and the tickets were only 10£ so why not! In Leeds there are two big Unis. The University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University (my uni!) and the game is an every year competition between these rivals. You could feel the tension between the teams and fans on both sides, everyone naturally cheered for their own schools team! I do have to admit that all the cheering wasn't really positively sports minded, but I've learned now that it's normal here. And that the referee is always, ALWAYS a ****** (my schools international tutor will also read this blog, so I will censor this a bit..)

In the beginning Leeds Beckett led the game. Later Uni of Leeds took the control of the game and for a long time it looked really bad for Beckett. Then just 6 minutes before the end Beckett started to collect points again and in the end won! Wohooo! I can only say that the atmosphere almost felt like a Finland-Sweden ice hockey game, everyone were so intense about the game and the victory! It also added the cohesion of both unis. 

3.10.2014

Last Friday we went to city center to see different light artists around there. Really beautiful and all free! Afterwards we headed to a nearby Irish Bar O'Neill's. Very lovely night indeed!

4.10.2014

On Saturday we saw a football game between Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday, another funny event here! Man, these people take football seriously!! I heard that Leeds United have a quite fierce reputation, although not as extreme as it was in the past... And yes, I could see what people mean. Not that anyone was violent, but aggressive with yelling maybe. For example the Sheffield fans sat in their own area at the stadium and they were surrounded by  30 polices and vigilantes so no one from either sides would try to make contact. Really weird! The game ended 1-1, so thankfully everyone left the stadium in peace. Good game and nice company!

Adrian, Camilla, me, Gabs and Marwan

5.10.2014

Trip to York!

On Sunday we finally made the trip to York. Our school was supposed to provide a free bus trip and a guided tour a week before already AND also on that Sunday but for some reason everybody still couldn't get the seats. Well that didn't stop me or my 3 friends from neighbor flats to go!! We took a morning train from Leeds to York, 12,5£ for there and back and it took only 30 min. 

York was founded almost 2000 years ago to North Yorkshire. It's a popular travel destination and the city's economy is dependent of the every year tourism. We didn't go to any guided tours, just walked around the city and visited this lovely vintage fair that is actually coming to Leeds on this weekend. 

The Vintage Fair

 The best street band I've heard here! Have noticed that many bands here play outside as they try to promote themselves...

The street that I heard had been a visual inspiration for Harry Potters Diagon Alley, even though the "real alley" is located in London

York Minister

Happy, but tired and hungry..

... But the I got my very first Sunday roast!

Have a nice weekend everybody, I'll be back next week! Bye loves<3

About courses

So my courses started last week. Here in Leeds my studies focuses on PR and event management. I have classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but even though I have day offs I'm going to use them on studying so I'll have my weekends free.  I know my friends and family aren't going to believe this, but it's what I have to do here! Studying is quite similar as it is in Finland, but there are some differences and more work to do. I have really conflicting feelings about my courses as it seems we have a lot of reading and tasks to do, but then the topics we go through during lectures are obvious things which we have learned during our first year in Laurea. Then again, I've had only two weeks of lectures, so maybe the start just feels easy. 

One of my courses (by the way, all of them are 2nd year studies so I'm in the same position as I'd back home) is Public Relations & Events. During this semester we will learn to define, examine critically and manage PR. Besides lectures we have two big parts of the course, which is an essay in January and group assignment, both with a 50% value of total rating. In our first lecture we mostly compared different companies public images and talked about their main messages in commercials. We also discussed about the difference between PR and advertisement. Ads are something the company can control totally by paying for example TV channels, magazines or web pages to show their ads, which have been strictly designed. Then there's PR, which happens by the hands of other parties. Company or a public person can try their best to have a good public image, but if the press or maybe a contestant finds out something unpleasant then there's nothing a they can do about it. I'm really interested about this course and I believe it will be useful to know more deeply about  PR if/when entering to the business world. 

Wednesday's course Celebration, Ritual & Culture is my favorite. It explores the cultural elements of different societies and considers the role of rituals and celebrations in them. During the first two classes we've mostly just talked about all of our backgrounds and family traditions, because those are also small rituals. Many people in this class are from different countries or cultures, which is a great base for our topics. I think there are only few exchange students besides me, but many are born in somewhere else and lived in UK for years now. For example there are students originally from New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Latvia, Poland, Malaysia, Netherlands and many more. Then the backgrounds can also be religious, some are Muslim, Jewish, atheist or belong to different Christian parish. Looking forward for these topics during this semester!

My last course is Project Management and Finance. Yes, not particularly my cup of tea..... But I kind of had to choose it so the PR & Events would be available for me. The purpose of this module is to provide students to understand how important it is to have the knowledge and application of project management and finance skills in both national and international event industry. Main thing is to learn to identify, evaluate and use the mechanisms and tools in project management. It is also important to learn how to be a good team member and how to take properly care of all the financial parts, so the course will also go through those things. Maybe not my favorite one, but the theory will be useful in future. 

Unfortunately no fun photos for this post.. :D

Bye loves!<3

Firts Post

This is the first post of my blog, where I go through my experiences as an exchange student in Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom. In Finland I'm studying hotel and restaurant management in Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Espoo. Here in Leeds my studies are focused on Public Relations and Event Management. Have been in England for 3 weeks already, so I'll try my best to go through all that time on todays post. Hope you'll enjoy reading about my adventures in here and hopefully these texts will inspire someone else to take this chance one day!

18.9.2014

This was the day my journey began. I already knew I wanted to take part of our schools exchange program when I applied to Laurea. Living abroad has always been a dream for me and even though I see my self quite social and easily to approachable person I had my concerns. I've always lived in a same city in Finland, went to my local pre-, primary-, junior high- and high school and basically more than half of my current friends are from those times, some I've met even younger. So no matter how social I am, this would be the first time in a totally new environment with new people, without the possibility to just call and meet up with someone close. Of course I was also stressed about all the practical things like, is my accommodation situation as it should be, have they certainly added me to the right classes and would my luggages also make it to Leeds with me. 

My mom, dad, sister, grandmother and grandfather escorted me to the airport. My feelings weren't as stressed or nervous as I thought they would be. I felt joy of finally doing the thing I had been dreaming for many years. The moment I started to feel sad was when my baby sister (ok erm, she's 19...) who I'm really close with, started to cry because that was probably the moment she really realized I wouldn't be just around the corner for the next 4-5 months. Even when I'm writing this post I feel bad when I think of that moment. I miss her too, she's my sister and also best friend even though we still sometimes fight like little kids! I know it was probably just as hard for my parents as their first child was about to go abroad by herself, even if the child is 22 years old. They seemed brave, but in my heart I know the amount of worry they had then and have now in their hearts.

At the airport I did the usual, went to buy couple books for flights and then went to a cafe for some breakfast. Apparently I stayed in my thoughts a little too long because at some point I realized my name was announced and that the gate was about to close. WHAT?! So I started to run with my small suitcase, laptop bag, purse and takeaway coffee towards the gate. As all my friends might know, I was totally freaking out and had to leave my cup to the floor (sorry for all the cleaners in there!) to get there on time. By the way I also bypassed a Finnish rap-artist Elastinen on my way, haha. So in the end I arrived just on time and made it to the flight, thank God! 

My flight to London Heathrow took about 2,5h and then I had to wait 3h for the next one. The second one was only 1h so not bad at all! Luckily my bigger luggage had arrived too and then I headed towards city center. I arrived on Thursday and we were supposed to get our keys to the student accommodation on Weekend so I stayed at a hotel for few nights. I spent the first two days just by myself, exploring the city. I felt this was a good start for my self, because I like to get to know where I'm staying and learn to remember the right streets and places. The first night I went to bed quite early, because I had woken up at 5am and felt super tired after travelling. 

19.9.2014

Day 2. After waking up, I went to see Headingley Campus where I would have all my classes. AMAZING. Old beautiful campus area, that was built as a college but also served as a war hospital during WW2. I just walked around there and compared it to my home campus in Finland. Just a little bit different, if I may say... During the next week we also had a guided tour at the campus to see the classrooms, library and they also showed all the sports fields inside and out. Headingley is a very active campus, and it's where most of the Leeds Becketts sports clubs are mainly located in. 

Later that evening a few of us international student agreed on our Facebook group to meet up and get to know each other. We went to a pub tour and saw a little what Leeds night life has to offer! Also another Laurea student Anna from Finland arrived that evening, she's also my flatmate now. 

20.9.2014

Saturday was our moving in day. So me and Anna took a taxi from hotel to Sugarwell Court which is our accommodation for these 4 months. I must say that my first feelings of the apartment were BAD. It was a ground floor flat, dirty and old. Nothing any of us expected after the photos we had seen beforehand. Have to admit that the first thing I did in my room was that I just sat on top of my suitcase and started to make plans for a different apartment. We went to Sugarwell reception and said that this is NOT what we should get after paying 95£ per week. They came to see the flat and agreed that the previous residents had left it in a bad shape. But after it was cleaned and we got a new vacuum cleaner everything started to look much better. During the next week me and my flatmates started to decorate our own rooms and hanged posters etc. to the hallway and kitchen walls. On that day I couldn't even imagine that now it would be a place that I call home. Of course it's not a "real home" but it's still my home for this autum so why not call it that. Here are few photos of my little room. 

My lovely flatmates

 Anna from Finland, also studies in Laurea but her campus is in a different city. 

Kristin, Germany

Malin, Sweden

Maria, USA

Funny girls, I love them<3  And I think we are all in the same page when it comes to living, so we are lucky.

After settling in, we also got to know other residents in our building. One flat held a party where everyone met before heading to a club. Nice evening, we went to a place called Halo, an old chapel which had been turned into a huge nightclub.

22-28.9.2014

During this week we just got to know different things. We had a campus tour in Headingley, which I already told about, but also a small tour in the City Campus as well. Us ERASMUS students had a seminar, where we were informed how to use the schools web programme MyBeckett (similar to Laureas Optima&SoleOps), what to do if we need health care or who to contact in different situations. I think this was a good preparation for us before the real lectures strated. 

This week I also bought a bus card to First buses. This was 120£, which is a lot but it lasts until the of December and you can use it any time of the day/week. Otherwise a single ticket is 1,2£-2,5£ and a day ticket  3,90£. There are two different bus companies in Leeds. First buses are the so called public ones and they do almost every routes. I can use number 51 and 52 from Sugarwell to the city center or to Meanwood. The other company is called Tiger buses and those (92 and 93) go only from Monday to Friday and their purpose is to do routes between both campuses and all the student accommodations. Yes they are cheaper, but those buses are NEVER on time and they don't go that late so I don't trust them that much. Usually when going to Headingley and back, I just walk the 30min route rather than wait forever for the bus to arrive. 

On Wednesday we went to a Freshers Fair, which was kinda like exhibition of all the activities you can do in Leeds Beckett Uni. There were loads of different clubs to join, from football and lacrosse to scuba diving, skiing and hiking. Almost any hobby you can come up with: they were there. The fair also gave a lot of free stuff, like booklets and kitchen towels etc. Such a fun event! I gave my email to scuba diving, snowboarding and carting groups among other things. Afterwards I skipped the snowboard club because I can do it enough in Finland for more decent price if I wanted to and I felt that the scuba diving actually wouldn't be my thing. So now I'm planning on joining the next car racing event when it is the time! I also bought a gym card for our schools gym, it was ~70£ for one semester. That way I can go there when ever I want and I can fit it better to my schedule. 

And naturally during this week we got to know the city well and went out a LOT. Also almost everyone has had the flu here, because of all the people from different places with their own bacterial strain gathering into one building, spend the week drinking, eating badly and all of this with almost no sleep. Malin told that students in a new environment are the second group for prone most to diseases, after the 3 year old in day care. 

Gabriella, Anna & Mitchell

A boat bar on dry land

Nation Of Shopkeepers

Internationaaaaaals

So that was a little opening for my future posts! Tomorrow I'll tell more of my interesting courses and my last weeks adventures. Bye loves!