I have to admit that I’ve never been to England before, so I had no experiences to compare with and I almost felt a little bit jealous of the others, who talked about sunny shiny weather in San Diego, Sydney, Bangkok or even Seville. But when I arrived in the afternoon at the 11^th of September at the Gatwick Airport, I couldn’t have laughed more about the fact that it was actually sunnier and warmer than it had been in Stuttgart the entire week.

It was pretty amazing to experience the first moments of London city and student life during best summer weather conditions. Except for photographical documentation of course, photos and sun aren’t often a good match, but here are some of the best shots:

One of the best decisions I could have made was to fly to London a week earlier for the International Students Welcome Program. Not only because it was one additional week to orientate in a new environment and get used to all things different. Luckily, people in London are soo helpful with everything. They even have it written onto the streets, on which side you have to look for crossing cars. You can see that on one of the photos below.

But also, if you don’t want to be around other German people the whole time, the program is a great opportunity to meet other students from other countries. With whom you are forced to speak English of course. Even if the games may remind you of being in first grade, it can also be a lot of fun of being childish again… But of course it is not mandatory, and a lot of the information I’ve received at the program, I heard at the introduction week for the second time.

Even if I don’t really like to admit it, I was a little bit worried about the whole studying part. The experience of living on your own in a new environment, making new friends every day and in addition to that, studying at a new university in a foreign language… It can be a bit overwhelming. But I have to say that it’s great.

Yes, there is a lot of work, especially self-study, to do, the professors expect a lot of their students, but the courses are chosen carefully. So at some point you can see the matching points and this makes it a lot easier to remember all the stuff that should be learned. Moreover, you can easily get in contact with other Erasmus students and students of British origin, because in the courses, we’re all together and there is no such thing as separation. All in all, the University of Greenwich is a very multicultural university.

Bucket list

I put together some kind of bucket list, which can be useful for those of you planning on spending their semester abroad in London like me:

1. One time you have to try English Breakfast and Teatime…

if there is not enough time, you can mix them up and experience it all in one go.

2. Get a new view on the sights and go on a thames river boat trip;

Tip: you don’t actually have to go on a sightseeing boat, at the normal daily boat connection you can see all of them too and it’s cheaper.

3. Do a little vintage shopping and visit Camden.

Tip: if you’re openminded for crazy, not vintage stuff, search for the Cyberdog store and get suck in a whole new universe…

4. Walk as much as you can!

London is such a great city and of course the tube and bus connections are great, but there is so much more to see. You would be surprised by what you would have missed.

5. Last but not least if you get here, you will have the greatest time of your life, I’m sure of that.

And you really have to join some societies of the university, because it makes the whole experience even better than you think.

So that’s the end of my first report. But if you would like to get more information on my life here in London, feel free to contact me via email alicia.krafft@mhmk.de

Lovely regards from London,

Alicia

I thought it would be a fun article about my great experiences and unbelievable trips here in Thailand (maybe I’ll come to that later), but a current issue has forced me to change my topic. As many of you probably know by now the king of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej has passed on Thursday October 13th at the age of 88 years.

Many of you may think now well what does that matter to me, he wasn’t my king. But when you live in Thailand you couldn’t help but notice. Notice a change in people, a change in society, a change in everyday live.

It is difficult to explain, especially to someone who has never been to Bangkok, but in the first weeks that we have lived here we experienced a very open, very kind and very content culture, eventhough many people suffer from poverty it seemed as if they were satisfied with their situation. But since the king has died we couldn’t help but notice that these deeply calm, happy and satisfied people have been shaken to their core. The kings death wasn’t only some ruler dying, for Thai people it was like a part of their family, a piece of their heart left them, and passing Thais on the street you can see it in each and everyone.

Thanks to our professors, we have been up to date at all time, they actually organized a line (Thai whatsapp) group to give us as many information as possible and answer all of our questions.

They have explained to us that this is a historical time for Thailand a the next years will determine the future of the country and in which direction it will head. King Bhumibol Adulyadej was the uniter of the nation, a uniter who is now gone and who will be missed more than we can imagine.

Eventhough the king had died on Thursday we did go on our first trip with the University on Saturday. The sense of the trip was to give back to Thailand, therefore we went out to Klong Kone, a reforestation project, and actually got to plant Mangotrees in the ocean or to be more specific in the mud. Quite dirty I gotta say and coherent with a few injuries. 😀  

But first we literally got to eat lunch in the middle of the ocean where we were served sea food in a bamboo house which to german standards still kind of frightens me when I think of the way it was built. 🙂

After that we went to plant the trees which was coherent with a mud bath, which in my opinion some of us might have enjoyed a little to much (Jonas 🙂 ). Which was followed by a thai style wakeboarding session one of my highlights of the day. The day was rounded up with a trip to the floating market near by.

All in all, I appreciate the opportunity to spend my time here in Thailand as I have already learned so much not only about the Thai culture and people but also about the influences other cultures had on it- And ofcourse have celebrated a little. 😉

Well in that matter have a nice day

(all photographs were taken by Ajarn Hong)