Hi everyone!

Everything is actually going quite well since I last blogged. I finally got my final exam schedule, and I should be finished with finals by June 4th. This is great because I leave June 11th to head back to Pennsylvania.  However, that only gives me a little less than a week to do any last minute exploring of Europe.  Because I have classes everyday except Thursday, I spend Saturdays (and some Sundays) vising places in the UK with friends.  After Manchester, the next places I visited were York, UK and Oxford, UK. I will post about my visit to Nottingham and Whitby a little later this week!

York, UK

I visited York, UK on February 16th with a few friends. We were actually supposed to be going to Harrogate that day, but we missed our train. We decided to go York, because it isn’t that far from Leeds (45 minutes). York is a very beautiful town and there is a lot to do while you’re there.  At the time that we visited, there was a Vikings festival. It was really cool and there were reenactments near the Vikings Museum in York.  We also got the opportunity to see the remains of a castle and visited the York Castle Museum. Before we left, we managed to make our way to York’s Sweet Story. This is a must see for chocolate lovers! It’s basically a museum of chocolate that consist of a tour where people get to learn about the history of chocolate.  We didn’t have enough time to do the tour, so we just went to the caf� and bought a lot chocolate! We were also able to walk along some of the York City Walls before it got dark.  The walls were used to defend York during the medieval times. All in all, York was a great place to visit. We actually loved it so much that we plan to go back after Easter break!

 Remnants of a castle in York

A portion of the York City Walls

We stopped for a photo session while walking along the York City Walls

Oxford, UK

A friend and I visited Oxford, UK on February 26.  We really wanted to go to Oxford, but we knew it would be a bit more expensive to visit on a weekend. So, we decided to visit Oxford during the week. The coach ride was about 4 1/2 hours, which actually went by really quick. Once we got to oxford we went straight to the university. The University of Oxford is absolutely beautiful. It was fun walking around the campus. For the most part, the campus is open to the public, and the price to see areas where some scenes of Harry Potter was filmed ranged from 1-5 pounds (which wasn’t bad).  After exploring the campus, we decided to explore the rest of Oxford which is equally as beautiful as the campus. We ate lunch at The Eagle and Child.  This is the same pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, along with other writers, used to get together! After lunch, we explored more of the town and ended the day visiting Christ Church.  The Church’s dinning hall was the inspiration for the Hogwarts Great Hall!

A potion of the university

Christ Church Dinning Hall

Bridge of Sighs

Our booth at The Eagle and Child!

Cheers

~Jazmin

Location: Leeds

I have now officially been in Leeds for a little over a month! I cannot believe it has already been a month since arrived in Leeds. I also realize that it has been a few weeks since my last post. I am extremely sorry for lack of posts in the past few weeks, but I have been really busy with my studies and preparing for my mid-terms (which I have completed!). 

In the beginning of this semester, quite a bit of the professors were on strike.  The strike was about the professors dissatisfaction towards how much they were getting paid.  Unfortunately for many students (including myself) this meant that a lot of classes were canceled for about two and half weeks. Therefore, some people lost two weeks worth of lectures and seminars. I am not sure if the professors got their raises or not, but the strikes did end.

On February 6th, I went to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to see a play for my politics module titled Refugee Boy. The play is based on the novel Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah.  The play was about a young man’s (Alem) transition into Britain from his home country of Ethiopia. The play portrays the challenges Alem has to overcome with the government, himself, his father, and others in his life.  This play was adapted by Lemn Sissay and directed by Gail Mclntyre. I really liked the play.  It was refreshing to see and hear the story of a refugee from the point of view of a refugee and not from history textbooks or professors.  If the play is ever in the US, I would recommend it those interested in international studies/relations, human development, culture, or politics.

On the 8th of February, I went to Manchester with a couple of friends.  Manchester is a really fun place to visit because there are tons of things to do. We visited a few museums which were all free!  My favorite was the National Football Museum, because I love football and there were a lot of things to do in that museum. We spent an entire day in Manchester and saw almost everything except for the football stadiums.

Since that week, I have also visited York, Oxford, and Nottingham! I will talk about these trips later this week and there will plenty of pictures!  I have also finally taken time out to explore more of Leeds, so I will also talk more about this later in the week.

Cheers

~Jazmin

Location: Leeds, UK

It has been almost two weeks since I arrived in Leeds, and I must confess that I love it here.  I live off campus, and the university is actually quite far from where I live.  On average, it takes about 45 minutes to walk to campus, but it can take longer depending on the weather (or if you get lost).  Even though the walk to and from the university is a bit time consuming, there is a lot of beautiful scenery to admire on the way there.

I have been able to walk to the university in about 30 minutes, but I have officially bought a bus pass for the semester.  I thought this was best for those days when it is raining (which has been most days).

The semester has started for students at the University of Leeds.  I am taking three modules (courses).  Each module consist of a one hour lecture and a one hour seminar/tutorial. Both the lecture and the tutorial occurs only once a week, leaving a lot of free time.  I also have three our workshop for my political science module that occurs 3 times during the semester.  Having a lot of free time is great, because not only do I get to explore and travel, but I also get enough time do all my readings for my modules.  My modules consist of a lot of reading, and it would be almost impossible to get everything read if I didn’t have quite a bit of free time. This Thursday, I am attending the play Refugee Boy for my political science module, Contemporary Africa. I hope to discuss my reactions to the play next time.  Also, all my professors are great and really seem to enjoy the material they discuss in class.

On Saturday, I visited Liverpool with some friends who are also international/study abroad students. Liverpool is a very beautiful city and there were numerous attractions for people to see.

While in Liverpool, we explored the city and visited some of the museums.  The one museum we were all excited for was the Beatles Story Liverpool.

It was a really cool museum, and I learned a lot about the Beatles. The Beatles Story Liverpool is definitely a must see for Beatles fans! 

Another museum we visited was Tate Liverpool.  The art in Tate ranged from interesting to absolutely amazing.  There was Picasso painting at Tate which was very exciting to see! I was so excited I had to take a picture to show everyone!

This is the Picasso painting at Tate Liverpool. There is a bowl of fruit, a violin, and a bottle in this painting. Do you see them?

I had a lot of fun in Liverpool. There was just so much to do, and it was beautiful. My next trip will most likely be to either Newcastle or Manchester or both!

Below are some more pictures of Liverpool!

Cheers

~ Jazmin

Location: Leeds, UK

I am sorry for the delay in blogs, but it has been a really busy week. However, I finally have time to update everyone about what I have been up to since I arrived in Leeds.  First off, the trip to Leeds was quite long.  I missed my connecting flight at Heathrow Airport in London and had to wait over 5 hours for the next flight to Leeds/Bradford Airport. 

By the time I arrived to my accommodation (Liberty Dock) in Leeds, I hadn’t slept for over 24 hours and I was suffering from some major jet lag. Even with my lack of sleep, I still decided to go get dinner with a fellow student from Penn State who happens to also live in Liberty Dock.  We walked to the city center and ate at a place called Giraffe.  The food was good and we learned that it is not normal to take food home from restaurants in the UK like it is in the US.

I got the fish and chips with mashed peas and my friend Sarah got the risotto.

My second day in Leeds was very eventful! I took the bus for the first in England and attended the international orientation. I met a lot of amazing people from all over the world including Canada, Australia, Singapore, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. A group of us decided to get something to eat at a pub on campus in the university union (yes, there is a pub on campus), before going to our individual orientations for our designated schools. I had an amazing burger with chips, but unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it before I devoured it.

We all had a great time in the pub. The people on the right are Natasha, Lauryn, and Devra. They are all from Canada and we all met at the international orientation. 

After our individual orientations, my friend Natasha and I decided to walk back to Liberty Dock with two other people who live in our accommodation.  Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and were lost for two hours in the city of Leeds. We did find our back to Liberty Dock after stopping and asking people for directions.

On my third day in Leeds, I went to Leeds Market with my friend Natasha. They sell almost everything in this market. There were even hair salons in the market! I am going to be cooking for myself while I’m in Leeds, so it was nice to see that a lot of the fruits, vegetables, and bread were inexpensive/affordable. After we finished shopping we had lunch to escape the sudden rain. Later that day, we decided to go get dinner with our friend Thomas. We got lost for over an hour looking for a certain street and decided to eat at Nando’s. We ended the day watching movies and eating snacks because we couldn’t get to a party we wanted to attend.

So far, I have had an great time in Leeds. The people are friendly and the city is beautiful.  I have my first class tomorrow morning and I hope to explore the city center a bit more tomorrow.  I will also be going to Liverpool on Saturday!! Oh, here are some pictures of the area around Liberty Dock.

Left: The River Aire

Right: A bit of the Royal Armouries Museum and some apartment buildings/flats

Cheers

~Jazmin

Location: Leeds, West Yorksire, UK