Tag: london

An afternoon in Notting Hill

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Besides my parents and sister who visited me here, a friend of mine decided to come over for a weekend as well! Me and Esmée met each other via Instagram. She is a really kind and creative girl (check out her amazing blog via the link!) and we both share the same interests. Therefore, I was really happy when she asked if she could visit me. Overall, it was one of my best weekends in London: we had a lot of fun, took a ton of pictures and it was great to show her the city through my eyes. Since she has visited London once before, we decided to skip the main tourist sights and focused on the most photogenic places and charming neighboorhouds. A place which therefore couldn’t be left out in our planning was Notting Hill: one of my favourite neighbourhoods. It’s famous for its colourful buildings, which functioned as the perfect backdrop for our pictures.

I present to you, the results:

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Life in London: bucket-list, study-talk & catching up

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First of all: my apologies for my absence the last couple of weeks. It was quite hectic since I planned a lot of activities with friends and besides that, I had to finish some assignments on deadlines.. but I’m back! You guys need to catch up with a lot, so I’ll make sure to write about all my adventures in the near future.

I’ve been living the London life for more than 2 months now and I’m still loving it. The city has got so much to offer that even after this period I still have a lot of places I want to visit. Some of my closer friends and family members know that I created a bucket-list of things I really wanted to see/do here, but I felt like sharing it with you as well. Here it comes:

Bucket-List London

  • Visit a musical/theatre: Wicked! √
  • Visit the London Eye/Shard
  • Afternoon tea: √
  • Meet the Queen: (One day… ;-))
  • Daytrip Oxford/Bath/Brighton: Bath √
  • Visit the Emirates Stadium: √
  • Shoot at sunrise
  • Feed a squirrel
  • Visit Skygarden
  • Visit Platform 3 3/4: √
  • Visit the Court: √
  • Eat a full English breakfast: √
  • Picnic in a park

As you probably noticed, I’m half-way through so I’ll try my best to accomplish the remaining points within these last weeks.

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Now, let’s talk about my exchange-programme. I’m following three modules at the moment, which all have a quite different outline, but that keeps it even more interesting. The English examination system of the subjects I’m studying is mainly based on writing essays, so that was definitely something I had to get used to. Luckily every assessment was explained very clearly and my professors provided sufficient feedback. It was quite a transition to adapt my writing style to Academic Legal English, but being surrounded by international people and living in an English-speaking country for more than 2 months now, made it all easier for me. Besides that, the seminars are different from what I’m used to in the way that they are more interactive: British students participate on a higher level in classes and professors assume from their students that they are very well-prepared, able to think beyond the prescribed reading material and ready to enter into discussions. Having noticed this, I became more motivated to adapt my study methods. The examination of two of the modules is mainly based on a final essay and for the third one I have an exam in May (for which I need to come back to London).

Since I like to stay active, I bought a gym membership at the sport centre of my university where you can find me lifting weights 2 or 3 days a week. Furthermore, I regularly go to salsa-nights which I really enjoy here in London. When it comes to food, I usually make my own lunch and dinner, but when I’m with friends I like to eat out. One of the best places to try out new food are food markets: cuisines from all around the world are represented and usually free tasters are offered. The Up-market on Sunday in Brick lane & the food market on Portobello Road in Notting Hill are my all-time favourites. Also, I became a fan of Indian food! The list of restaurants with the Indian cuisine is endless here. You can wake me up in the middle of the night for naan bread with paneer and a nice chicken curry 😉

I hope I gave you guys a better insight in my daily life. Blogposts about my activities and trips are coming soon!

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Studying abroad: my reasons and choice for London

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It all started last year: I was almost finishing my Bachelor of Law and started thinking of what should be the next step in my life. Starting right away with my master didn’t sounded like a good idea to me, since that would mean I would have to to find a job soon and my life as a student would be over (wait, whaaat). In my opinion, I needed more time and experience before starting to get more serious. Travelling and exploring new cultures have always drawn my attention, so that’s how I began to think of studying abroad. I felt like I needed a new challenge: living in another city, getting involved into a new student life and experiencing a new culture: it all sounded very appealing to me. From that time on I started working on turning this idea into reality.

Picking the university and city to study was probably the hardest part, since my university offered a huge list of universities to which I could go. I had to make a top-3 list of my choices. After a lot of thinking and research, London was the city where I wanted to study in the first place. Living in the UK would mean that I would have to speak English all the time, which would help with improving my English skills (who knows if I manage to get a British accent before I return home ;-)). Besides that, I wanted to experience living in a world class city, gaining more knowledge of the common law system and of the rich history this big city has got to offer. I chose to study at the Queen Mary University of London, since it has a very good reputation, offers good Law courses and is situated in the city centre. After a few months I heard that I was accepted for the Erasmus+ program, and I couldn’t be any happier. The preparation for this big adventure was just about to begin..