Elphie Blackburn: Goodbye Bath, hello Europe

Wow. All I can say is wow. As I sit here in my hotel room in Prague, it’s hard to imagine that only a week ago or so I was living in Bath. It seems like so much has happened between then and now. Well, I guess because it has - and now I’m paying the price – hello sickness! Here’s a handy travelers fact for you all: Give your body a chance to rest, otherwise you’ll end up with the flu and stuck in bed.

Words cannot describe how priceless my time in England has been. I’ve met so many amazing people, developed exponentially as a person, learnt loads, and furthered my degree all at the same time!

As much as I could rattle off a million pros about encouraging students to applying for an exchange program, there are some things that must be mentioned. Obviously my experience will be most likely be different to others, so please bare in mind that everything I’m about to say is from my personal opinion.

From my home universities end, once I finally submitted my application and it was all approved etc. they really cut all forms of communication with me. Now this was all fine and dandy until I was in desperate need for their help. Stuck in England not knowing what to do about it, they took over a month to reply to one of my frantic emails, and by that time the problem was a little beyond repair (which still isn’t completely resolved even now). Whereas here in Bath, it was as if they weren’t exactly on the ball with their creative writing exchange program. The academic staff here were spectacular – could not have gotten a better selection if I tried. Unfortunately the man that was set to organize everything was extremely overworked and seemed to put tailoring an assessment plan for me on the backburner. This meant that I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing assessment wise until the last possible minute. Completing two to three submissions each for five subjects in a few weeks is about as fun as it sounds. Apart from that and a sporadic radiator in my room, everything was as right as rain. So make sure if you have the opportunity to go on exchange, you do it! When I get back to Australia I’ll try and go into A LOT more depth about pros and cons / further info. In the meantime, have some photos of my last few days in Halls and a day in London.