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