UQ Program: Bachelor of Science/Chemical Engineering
My year in Edinburgh was amazing, wonderful, exciting, crazy and at times unbelievable! From the beautiful places I visited in Europe, to the great friends I made from all over the world, there was not a single dull moment, all year, nor was there a single second I regretted during my exchange.
Academically, the University of Edinburgh is excellent, and besides being one of the top 20 Universities in the world, it has a very prestigious reputation, and there is a real sense of history about the campus, from the hundred year old buildings including the incredible McEwan Hall, to Teviot, which looks like a castle! The courses I studied were interesting and challenging and the lecturers who taught me were from all over the world. The Scottish lecturers accents were at times extremely challenging, as thermodynamics is sometimes hard enough, without adding a strong Scottish accent on top! I was studying my 2nd/3rd year of a dual degree in Chemical Engineering and Science while in Edinburgh. The courses are a little different to those offered here at UQ, mostly due to weighting. Edinburgh has a much greater emphasis on Exams, and I even had one course which was 100% Exam. This was a little different, but manageable!
Edinburgh itself is absolutely amazing, however it has to be said that I spent the first two days just smiling, nodding and blindly agreeing to everything anyone said… the Scottish accent takes a little time to understand, especially when everyone pulls out the ‘Aye dinnae ken’ when they hear you’re from Australia (roughly translated, means “I didn’t know!”) The city itself is beautiful, and has been described as ‘the most desirable city in which to live in the UK,’ and I totally agree. It is big enough to have a city feel, but not so large that you cannot walk to most places you want to visit. There is a great variety of shopping, an awesome theatre (STOMP visited!) and a highlight was definitely the Winter Wonderland, which arrived in December, complete with outdoor Ice rink, especially when it started to lightly snow as we skated! Deep fried Mars Bars are a must to try, but I for one did not return for seconds all year!
I had hoped to travel while on exchange, and I was not disappointed! Within a few weeks of being in Edinburgh a group of 5 of us headed off to Paris for a four day weekend, which was… intense! The total sleeping hours only just reached 15, and our bank balances were severly dented, however it was a weekend I will never forget! We ate in the cutest French restaurant down the street from Sacre Coeur, climbed the Eiffel Tower at night, saw the Notre Dame, Le Louvre, went on a river cruise and ended it all off by wearing Minnie Mouse ears all day (perfectly acceptable in Disneyland… less so through customs at the airport!) I was also lucky enough to have a friend from Norway, which led to a week long holiday for a group of 5 of us. We encountered -20C temperatures, snow up to our waists, we skied at a Norwegian Ski resort (skiing was a first for me; I spent more time falling over than actually skiing, and thoroughly enjoyed it!) to the phenomenon that is ‘Sauna and Snow’… in which 5 hours was spent alternating from sitting in a boiling hot sauna to running around crazily in the snow! Although I didn’t find any moose… the entire week was incredible! There were also several weekend trips to visit friends’ homes, and in this way I was lucky enough to visit the Scottish Highlands, the Scottish coast (and be fake rescued by a lifeboat in freeeeezing water!) as well as Manchester! As a final highlight of my exchange, I went on a Topdeck trip around Europe, where I visited Rome, Venice, Salzburg, Heidelberg, Amsterdam and London. Too many stories to recount there! But again, incredible!
As far as tips for future Edinburgh University Exchange Students… all I can say is prepare yourself for the best year ever! Definitely buy a mobile over there and organize Skype early! For super cheap travel go with Ryan Air, sure you sometimes can’t take that many clothes… but if it’s for a weekend, and you get to go somewhere amazing for 10 pounds, surely that’s worth it??? Some favourite places to go out include the Brass Monkey, Aspen, the Vodka Rev and Why not, and the best shops ever have to be Chocolate Soup (omg!), and Black Medicine, which is the coziest coffee shop I’ve ever seen, especially if it’s snowing / raining outside! And contrary to popular belief, it is not rainy, snowy, cold, grey and miserable for alllll of winter in Edinburgh, (that’s what I was told to expect), but I found that while it was cold for a little while, and it did rain, and snow, and sometimes I felt my toes would actually fall off… overall the weather was secondary to whatever else was going on, a good ‘brolly’ goes a long way to making everything seem better, and really… the weather is never an excuse not to enjoy yourself!!!
All in all, it was a year I will never forget, and the 5000 or so photos I took will forever remind me of nearly every detail!!