Student Bloggers
Free Time and New Hobbies
Date
May 10, 2017
One of the biggest differences between campus life in the U.S. and campus life in the U.K. lies in scheduling. At my home school, I have at least one class (if not more) every day of the week, with three jobs and multiple extracurriculars on top of that. It’s a lot but I love it, the pressure keeps me motivated.
Studying at Edinburgh has been an incredible experience, I just wasn’t prepared for how little time I would actually spend in class. The semester has 11 weeks of classes, and with honours classes that only meet once a week, it’s not a lot of time to be in a classroom. So, with all the extra time on my hands, I knew I needed something to fill it, and decided to try out a couple of new hobbies.
The first was print-making. It’s something I always loved in high school but never got a chance to spend more time on. Thanks to Amazon, I was quickly equipped with everything I needed, and I have had so much fun working on designs, cutting from linoleum, and printing the final product.
I also bought a little film camera, the Olympus Trip 35, for my trip to Europe in April. Film photography has always seemed daunting to me, but I watched countless YouTube videos so I could be sure I knew what I was doing. I snapped some pictures while I was away, and then waited nervously to have them printed so I could see how they turned out. I was not disappointed, I love them!
While the focus of any study abroad experience should be academics (ironic, I write this a day before an exam), I do think that the extra time can also be used for new activities, and I have so enjoyed mine!