First Impressions of Leeds

First Days in Leeds

My mom and I took the train from Edinburgh to Leeds on Monday, January 18, and we met Katherine and her Dad in the train station! My mom stayed for 3 busy days of shopping for some essentials for my room and exploring the city. My first impressions of Leeds are all positive – it’s much bigger and more scenic than I thought it would be! There are tons of shops in the city center, with a very interesting mix of old and new buildings. Wednesday, January 20 was move in day – we moved our suitcases into Montague Burton, our temporary student accommodation. We said a tearful goodbye as my mom left to catch her flight, but I was feeling ready and excited to finally start this adventure!

City Center

                     

                           First time on campus!

Welcome Events

We had met 2 of our flatmates (translation: roommates) through Facebook, and we went out for dinner together Thursday night. Laetitia is from France and Pearl is from Australia, and we had so much fun talking about similarities and differences from home – we discussed everything, like slang (we taught Laetitia the word ‘sketchy’), sports, and music. We later met our 2 other flatmates, Edith from Hong Kong and Jackie from New Jersey! 

First Dinner with the Flatmates

Welcome programming for new international students began the next day, and continued until the end of the following week, the first week of classes. Thursday was Campus Discovery, a self-directed tour around campus using a marked map with which we, of course, got lost – BUT we won the selfie competition with a prize of £10 ($20 CAD)! There were other socials throughout the week, with time in between activities to do some more exploring and meeting lots of new people from all over the world.

The Winning Selfie

Some notable first few nights out include a pub night at Yates on Friday, a nightclub called Propoganda for an Arctic Monkeys Special on Saturday, some delicious late night food at a fast food place called Flames (for my Hamilton friends: Flames is the Basilique of Leeds, but with more chicken)!

McMaster Science @ Leeds

We were in the temporary accommodation for 5 nights, which was quite difficult; we couldn’t unpack, so we were still living out of our suitcases. When Monday finally rolled around, we were so excited to get into our permanent flat and unpack! That same day, school also started, which was a bit crazy and exhausting but it worked out well.

Temporary Room in Montague

Permanent Room in Leodis

First ‘Week’ of Classes

I really enjoyed my first week of classes... If you can even call it that considering I only have class Monday and Tuesday (I know, how great is that?!).  A full course load here is 60 credits, and each class is worth a different amount (10, 15, or 20) based on the amount of work is expected. I am taking 4 courses:

1. History – The Body, Disease, and Societiy in Europe, 1500-1750

2. Psychology – Eating Disorders

3. Psychology – The Biopsychosocial Approach to Understanding Human Pain

4. Food Science – Traditional Alcoholic Beverages (the final project involves brewing our own beer at an industrial brewery!!)

From my first impressions, I would say that the major difference in academics is the reduced hours of class, and increased hours of ‘independent study,’ when you are expected to read assigned research articles simply to deepen your understanding of the topic (not to answer 3 multiple choice questions on an exam). Also, I am used to very large classes at McMaster, but my classes here range from 40-70 people. I really like the small class size, and the professors encourage class discussion and participation, which I have never experienced at university before. One of my courses has an exam worth 100% of my mark, and another one has no exam at all, but an essay worth 60%. It is definitely going to be a challenge– it almost feels like we are back in first year trying to figure everything out all over again!

After classes ended on Tuesday, Katherine and I focused on getting the last few things we needed for our flat. The first grocery shop was difficult and exhausting because we needed everything and most of the brands were non-recognizable (it took us forever to choose each item). We also went to Kirkgate Market (photos below), where we got cheap and fresh produce; we also noticed that they have everything there, including a stand selling couches and a little beauty salon in the middle of the market.

      

Trampolining 

There is a program here called ‘Give it a Go,’ where every society (translation: club) holds a welcome session at the start of the semester to let anybody try out the activities! I did my first one today (Friday) – Trampoline! I went with some new friends and we had a lot of fun, but we decided we may not have the skill needed to join the society and participate in trampoline competitions just yet… Afterwards I went to the Brotherton Library on campus (photo below) to do some readings.

Brotherton Library