I went to China first, to the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. All the teaching was done in English, which made it accessible. The first few weeks I was quite anxious, I had no idea what to expect and I didn’t know who I was going to meet. But at the airport I met the other exchange students, and then I met my flatmates, two Germans, and we immediately made friends. I didn’t think that would happen so quickly. Everyone was in the same boat, with the same motivation and energy. Everyone wanted to go out, have fun, explore.
We travelled a lot. During the Golden Week holiday, we took the train right across central China to visit Wuhan, Nanjing and Suzhou. It was our first time properly going out of Ningbo and everything was completely new. It was amazing.
The support when I arrived in country was great too. They sorted everything out on the first day. I remember needing a Chinese bank account and someone went with me to the bank and helped me arrange everything I needed to do. It was intimidating at first getting used to all the new ways of doing things, but once everything was set up, I felt well prepared for the rest of my time there.
