I'm writing this final blog post from my home in Scotland, and thinking back to the amazing time I had during my semester in Nova Scotia. Everyone will be returning to Acadia sometime within the next couple of days, and although this means they start classes a week earlier than I will at Dundee, I can't help but feel a little jealous of them. Of course I'm also happy to be back home with my friends and family, and I am sooo excited to see my Dundee friends again.. such mixed emotions!
So anyway, I guess it would be appropriate to make this final post not only a summary of my adventures, but also for it to contain some advice for you students that might want to take part in a similar exchange.
My first piece of advice; if you're even remotely considering the option of spending a year or a semester abroad, fill in the application form! Take time to fill it out and have it submitted on time. Speaking from experience, a last minute rush to fill out the form is pretty stressful, and it will also really work in your favour if the form is submitted before or on the due date. It would also be better to fill in the application form and then decide you no longer want to participate, than to not fill one out and then decide you do.
Secondly, of course it's scary travelling alone and temporarily moving to a country where you know no one, but what you will get from the experience will completely outweigh the scary stuff. On September 1st, leaving day for me, I was about to get on a plane for the first time by myself, being not too sure of how airports even work. This was kind of terrifying, although my excitement was getting in the way of being too scared, and by the time I'd been in Aberdeen, Paris, Montreal and Halifax airports, I was feeling pretty confident about how to get from the check-in desk to the plane. Besides, there are always so many people around to ask for help. As for going somewhere that you don't anyone, it's really just like coming to uni in first year. Everyone around you is in the same position and they're all new too, so just talk to people and they're bound to be friendly back. For me, being foreign in this situation was an added bonus, since a lot of people found me pretty interesting for that reason and so wanted to talk with me and hear my funny accent.
Thirdly, remember that although you will obviously want to have fun with your new friends while you're away, you are on a university exchange programme and so actually having to study and do assignments is necessary. The amount of work was a bit of a shock to me initially, with 5 subjects and numerous midterms, quizzes and assignments, but at least everyone else has the same amount of work. Plus it makes the work for 3 modules at Dundee seem easy in comparison!
Finally, the biggest obstacle for me, money. When taking part in a Transatlantic Exchange, you have to pay for flights and accommodation, and I also payed to eat an unlimited number of times in meal hall, since all the residences are catered, for medical and dental insurance and for the books for each subject I took. Unlike on an Erasmus exchange you aren't paid a bursuary every month, but since I'm Scottish SAAS continued to pay my fees while I was away, just at the Dundee rate since my time at Acadia was only a temporary move, and if you usually get a loan then you can continue to receive it while being abroad. My birthday is in summer and I was lucky enough to get Canadian dollars and traveller's cheques (which are actually really useful - you can use them in some shops or take them along to a bank and get them cashed for free, and they're more secure than cash which is irreplaceable if lost or stolen) to avoid using credit or debit cards too much while away, due to fines implemented by the bank for their use. I worked my butt off in my summer job at ASDA too, and had to miss out on a holiday to Turkey with my friends. Although I wouldn't recommend working 14 hour shifts on a checkout, being away and not having to worry too much about spending or being unable to do things due to a lack of money made those crazy shifts so worth it.
Anyway, I guess that's it for my final blog post. I hope it will prove useful to any of you considering going abroad to study. It really was such an amazing opportunity for me, and has only strengthened my eagerness to spend more time travelling in the future.
Good luck to any of you who do go away, and wherever you go HAVE FUN!
