First Impressions of Aussie Life

Leave a comment Standard
Purple high-rise.jpg

It’s Durham Palatinate!

Despite an inauspicious arrival, in the first month that I have been here, I have already started to fall in love with the amorphous, evolving city that is Melbourne. From its striking architecture (my favourite so far is a palatinate purple high rise) and wide, American streets to its graffiti-filled laneways and edgy bars, the city is full to bursting with character, style and taste that is entirely its own. I won’t tell you too much about it just yet – I’ll save the city introduction until a time I can act as a true Melburnian guide – but these are a few impressions that stood out to remind me I was no longer in Britain, or even the northern hemisphere for that matter. Continue reading

Part 1: Bolivia

Comments 2 Standard

La Paz

After showing my home-town bestie Alice around the city I’ve called home for the last five months, and a heavy-hearted final goodbye to Santiago, our true backpacking adventure began in La Paz. Due to extensive research on all the horror stories and scams that tourists get tricked into (fake policemans and tourist officials, street violence, kidnappings and the phlegm scam to name a few), it’s fair to say that we arrived in Bolivia’s chaotic capital with our money belts securely fastened and a distrusting attitude. To overcompensate, we stayed in the Wild Rover, the city’s self-proclaimed (and indeed well-deserving) party hostel for gringos. As soon as you set foot into the building, it feels more like a Durham college on the night of a big social or formal rather than cheap accommodation in the heart of La Paz. Whilst it’s far from an authentic Bolivian experience, it’s great fun to meet fellow llama-jumper-clad backpackers and make the most of the affordable British pub-grub served in its bar (I had long been craving a cottage pie!)

Sky high

Continue reading

Guest Post: If you don’t speak Castellano you won’t truly understand Spain

Leave a comment Standard

Jessica is a third year Modern Languages student coming to the end of her year abroad in Spain. This guest post considers the Spanish language and its relationship with Spanish national identity and culture…

It’s safe to say that my Spanish has undergone a profound transformation in the last 8 months. From my first day arriving in Madrid when I quite confidently thanked the taxi driver in impeccable Thai, ‘khob Khun kaa’, for taking us to the train station, I knew I had a long road ahead of me. After five weeks in Thailand I had unconsciously memorized a few local phrases, and I wondered how living in Spain would do the same on a much larger scale. Living in a foreign country is vital to truly surround yourself in the language, perfect the pronunciation of words, and obtain a variety of idiomatic expressions and fantastic swear words from first hand sources. But as you start to notice
the subtle nuances a language holds, you notice the hidden linguistic messages through which the Spaniards individually and collectively project their culture and identity. There are some things that just can’t be translated. Continue reading

1 month in already

Leave a comment Standard

Hello everyone,

It’s a beautiful sunny Saturday here in Dunedin. Although the New Zealand winter is in full swing and the weather has been quite temperamental so far, I’ve almost been too hot in my coat as I’ve wandered around town today. Two years of chilly Durham winters has definitely taught me how to layer up. Continue reading

21 Things to Do in Santiago (Before My 21st)

Comment 1 Standard

In honour of my birthday month, I’ve set myself a bucket list of things to do in Santiago before I turn 21 and leave this deceivingly underrated capital city. It’s easy to take it for granted when everyone’s so keen to escape the urban bubble to travel around the rest of Chile, but Santiago itself is a top tourist destination and has many hidden treasures, some of which I have yet to discover…

Continue reading

Where and how to live on your year abroad

Leave a comment Standard

Hey, finally I’ve managed to get around to posting again. Please excuse my long silence, but there has been a lot of work for me recently and so many other things were going on as well. I also now feel like you know my life in Paris pretty well, so it becomes harder to write about things that are (hopefully) interesting to you. Therefore I have decided to today write about living situations at years abroad. And in order to be of as much use for you as possible I will not only speak of my own experience. Continue reading

Journey to the End of the World

Leave a comment Standard

Just a three-hour flight south of Santiago is the town of Punta Arenas, the regional capital of the Chilean Antarctic. At 8309 miles from my native Tunbridge Wells, it’s safe to say I’ve never been this far away from home.

Punta Arenas is one of three cities in the world, along with Ushuaia in Argentina and Puerto Williams in Chile, to brand itself as the “southernmost city” to boost its tourist appeal. Whilst not technically as southern as the other two, it’s the largest of the settlements and is where my adventure in Patagonia began.

Screen Shot 2017-03-30 at 22.23.39

Racking up the air miles

Continue reading

How to Speak Chilean, by a Gringa

Leave a comment Standard

I stepped onto my 15-hour flight to Santiago de Chile feeling reasonably confident with my Spanish. Never mind nine years of studying it at school and university, I had five months of experience of living in Spain under my belt. Although I’d been warned by a few Latin Americans I’d met in Salamanca that Chilean Spanish was notorious for being one of the hardest- if not THE hardest- to grasp out of the entire Spanish-speaking world, I naively thought to myself, how different could it be? Continue reading

Top 5 Moments in Salamanca

Leave a comment Image

As my time in Salamanca comes to an end, it’s time to look back on the blissful highs and hilariously tragic lows of my first semester abroad in Spain. Exams, losing just a few of my personal belongings, frustration at Spanish bureaucracy, language barriers and homesickness aside, the innumerable highlights by far outweigh the lows. Since there were so many memories to choose from, I decided to pick moments and trips I hadn’t mentioned in previous posts! Continue reading

Have yourself a Feliz Navidad

Comment 1 Standard

The run-up to Christmas has been somewhat different this year. Needless to say there are no mince pies in sight, no Costa Coffee Christmas drinks to fuss over and no Cadbury chocolate advent calendars on sale. Christmas in Spain is, in general, quite different to in the UK as the festivities start a lot later, and the sun is still shining relentlessly…

Continue reading