A stranger Thanksgiving
By Nolan F.
Published Dec. 5, 2025
This year would be the first year in my life that I wouldn’t be able to participate in a proper American Thanksgiving with my family. The closest thing to Thanksgiving in Korea is the Chuseok festival which takes place in early October, but during the last week of November, while my friends from back home…
Being present in your city
By Kate K.
Published Dec. 4, 2025
One of the things that I think is important to do in the city that you live in for study abroad is to experience things within your city. The worst thing that I can think of to happen is to live in a city for a semester and feel like you have experienced more in…
November in Manchester
By Sasha O.
Published Dec. 1, 2025
One Wednesday evening, Nov. 5, my friends casually invited me to come watch fireworks. To me, it felt random: no major holiday, no special occasion, just a regular weeknight. Once again, I quickly realized I was missing important context. That night marked Bonfire Day, also known as Guy Fawkes Night, a uniquely British tradition that…
Black Forest hiking
By Kate K.
Published Nov. 20, 2025
One of the major things to do while in Germany, especially in the Black Forest, is to go hiking. Freiburg is a little different from how other cities are, when developing new areas nature is taken into consideration. https://flic.kr/p/2rGzc8f Map of Freiburg (source: wiki commons) Which is evident when looking at a map of Freiburg…
First month abroad
By Devin D.
Published Nov. 17, 2025
As a political communication student, I was very excited to get to travel to Italy to learn new things. What I wasn't expecting was how quickly I was going to see change. As soon as we landed, we were waiting for our train to take us from the airport to Rome. Around the same time…
Groceries in Germany
By Kate K.
Published Nov. 14, 2025
I am currently studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany, and one of the first things that I have found in my time being here difficult to navigate is the grocery store. Sure, most things in the grocery store are how you would expect to find it — soup in the soup aisle, apples in the produce…
My experience with academics in Korea
By Ginger G.
Published Nov. 12, 2025
Now that midterms are over, I’m going to take some time to reflect on academics in my post. Besides my Korean class, most of my classmates are Korean students and the classes aren’t designed specifically for exchange students (though they are taught in English). This, combined with cultural differences, has challenged me this semester. My…
Settling into a traveling lifestyle
By Tom W.
Published Nov. 10, 2025
As I wrap up my second month at Heriot-Watt University, I’ve started to feel truly comfortable with the lifestyle that studying abroad encourages. Over the past month, I visited London, several cities in Norway, Amsterdam, Fort William, Glasgow and Stirling. https://flic.kr/p/2rE5StJ Stirling Castle It was disorienting at first to spend so much time in different…
Reuniting with Mizzou friends
By Nolan F.
Published Nov. 5, 2025
During October I got the chance to reunite with my friends from Mizzou! Last fall semester at Mizzou, I became friends with many Korean exchange students. We spent a lot of time hanging out together, and they are part of the reason I decided to study abroad in Korea. When their exchange program at Mizzou…
October in Manchester
By Sasha O.
Published Nov. 3, 2025
The first time I received a grade back, it definitely made me pause. It was for my Chinese class, where we were asked to write an essay about our language-learning journey. When I submitted it, I felt confident that I had met the expectations, so seeing a 75% initially surprised me. Wanting to understand how…