Jenny Walker: University of East Anglia, United Kingdom

I'm having a really fantastic time here in Norwich. The Easter holidays have just started and I can't believe I've already been here for more than two months. Norwich is a beautiful city. It has a great sense of history about it, with lots of hideway cobblestone streets, a ridiculous number of churches (some of which date from the early medieval period), and there are also random chunks of the 900 year old wall that used to encircle the city scattered throughout town. There's a fantastic student culture - the union pub is good and there's more pubs than you could possibly visit in one exchange trip. I've joined a couple of clubs and societies to get more into the uni life and meet new people. There's the Conservation and Wildlife Society, Art of Living (which combines yoga, relaxation techniques etc.), and the film society. I've only been out on one trip with the Conservation group but I had a great time. We went to Buxton Heath, which is a reserve about an hour north of the city, and cleared gorse. It was a nice opportunity to see some of the local environment, which by the way is gorgeous and very much lives up to the romantic ideal of the English countryside.

View of the Lake

I'm enjoying most of my classes here, and I've found that English students tend to be much more interested and involved in class than at home!

I really like the fact that the majority of people in a tute will contribute, and I feel really comfortable speaking up myself. I understand now why the British call it 'reading' for your degree. You're expected to organise your own reading for class, and preferably do a lot of it! Unlike at UOW where we're told exactly what to read and when, here we tend just to get a long list of books and make it up as we go along!

I love living in university accommodation, and I'm very lucky to be with a really lovely group of people, most of whom are also international students. They've come to be my core group of friends, and we do just about everything together, but I also feel like they're my family over here. It's amazing how quickly you become close to a bunch of strangers you really know nothing about when you're all thrown in to the same household together. I should also mention that the room's here have a wonderful view! The facilities of the flat itself aren't too crash hot, but it's worth it to wake up in the morning and see the lake and forest from my bedroom window. There's a photo of that view. The weather here is truly insane. I feel like since I've been here I've seen every kind there is. Intense wind, storms, snow, hail, and a surprising number of pleasant sunny days.

View from my window

Apart from my time in Norwich, I've done a bit of traveling. I've visited London a few times now and I don't think I could ever get tired of it, although it's prohibitively expensive so I don't think I'd be able to spend a lot of time there. Before uni started I also went to Paris and Amsterdam with my boyfriend, and had a really great time! There's a few photos here from that trip, including some that feature Disco the lamb.


Trafalgar Square	Disco at Westminster Abbey

I received Disco as a gift a couple of days before I left Australia and decided to make him my traveling companion. So, I've been taking photos of him in various international locations, including Kuala Lumpur airport, and some of the major attractions in London and Paris. I'm leaving for another backpacking trip tomorrow. I'm spending a week in Ireland with my friend

Penny (who's from Greece), and then traveling through Northern Italy, southern France and Northern Spain with Vienna (from New York) and Sarah-Jane (from UOW!). Very excited! I've changed my flight home as I'm going to spend 2 weeks in Greece with my Greek friend Penny. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and exactly one of the reasons I wanted to come on Exchange!

Hope all is well in Wollongong and the new uni year has got off to a good start,

Regards,

Jenny Walker (UEA, UK)