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Story Location: Scotland

  • Academics Abroad: It’s Not Better It’s Just Different

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    Academics Abroad: It’s Not Better It’s Just Different

    Nine hours of total class time throughout an entire week may seem like nothing in comparison to the American system where each class has roughly this amount each week.  During my time abroad at the University of Edinburgh, I had exactly that. Nine hours of a class per week. On top of that, all of my…

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  • Dealing with Family Loss While Abroad

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    Dealing with Family Loss While Abroad

    Going abroad is exciting and wonderful but can also be a little intimidating. Leading up to my departure to Edinburgh, I had all those conflicting feelings. I had asked all the necessary questions to students who had studied in Scotland and I felt confident in my abilities and ecstatic for the opportunity to live in…

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  • Maximizing Your Experience Abroad the Old-Fashioned Way

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    Maximizing Your Experience Abroad the Old-Fashioned Way

    The Honeymoon Phase From the first moment that I knew I would be studying abroad, I immediately decided that I wanted to write and maintain a travel blog and start a new Instagram page dedicated to documenting the highlights of my travels. I also wanted to start a food blog for all of my foodie…

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  • Music, Identity, and Belonging in Scotland

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    Music, Identity, and Belonging in Scotland

    Magic happens when a room of hundreds of people falls silent, in a collective motion of pulling the acoustic blanket around ourselves, tucking into a nighttime story together. Magic happens when you get goosebumps and an irresistible urge to move, to latch onto the music, from the first few notes of a fiddle, and you look…

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  • Dancing Through Scotland

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    Dancing Through Scotland

    How Dance Taught Me Lessons I Used During and After My Semester Abroad My parents enrolled me in dance classes at the age of four and I’ve been dancing my way through life ever since.  Dance has been an integral part of my life from a young age and has given me many opportunities to…

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  • Feeling at Home Abroad

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    Feeling at Home Abroad

    Most weekends this semester, you’d find me in or around St Andrews, Scotland. Unlike many study abroad students, I have not been doing as much traveling this semester. Don’t get me wrong: I love traveling and I think it’s a great part of your study abroad experience. Due in part to my limited finances, however,…

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  • Edinburgh vs. Boston: 3 Differences

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    Edinburgh vs. Boston: 3 Differences

    Even before deciding to study abroad, I knew that the American university system is based off of the Scottish education structure. Some of the courses I signed up for, based on the syllabi, were even very similar to ones I had taken at Brandeis, my home university. And, of course, they speak English here. Knowing this,…

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  • How Not to Get a Prescription in Edinburgh

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    How Not to Get a Prescription in Edinburgh

    I have epilepsy. Luckily for me, it’s no big deal. I’ve had it all my life, but was only diagnosed when I was 16. After that, they quickly put me on an antiepileptic medication that controls it well – I’ve been seizure free since 2012.  In fact, if all goes well, I’ll even be off…

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  • U.S. Election: A Perspective from Abroad

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    U.S. Election: A Perspective from Abroad

    This year was my first time voting in a presidential election; it’s the same for many of my U.S. friends studying abroad with me. We couldn’t help but notice how odd it was watching it from across the ocean. Sitting in Scotland, reading BBC and the New York Times, scrolling through Twitter and Facebook, it…

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  • Edinburgh: 4 Friends and Their Families

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    Edinburgh: 4 Friends and Their Families

    Parents worry. That’s sort of their job. Even if their son or daughter is 20 years old and hasn’t lived at home in years. Even if their child normally goes to school hundreds of miles away and there’s this thing called a cell phone that reduces that distance to almost nothing. Of course, that’s not…

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