{"id":490,"date":"2016-12-23T15:42:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T14:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/?p=490"},"modified":"2017-01-17T17:39:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T16:39:08","slug":"behold-southampthon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/2016\/12\/23\/behold-southampthon\/","title":{"rendered":"Behold! Southampton"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve had some few first ever <\/span>activities<\/span> these few weeks among them is this <\/span>blog post<\/span>. Let me introduce myself. I\u2019m Winfred from Ghana, a postgraduate taught student in the geography and environment department, studying applied geographic information systems and remote sensing. A mouthful of a course name, isn\u2019t it? My research interests lie in the relationship between place and health. How our environment affects health and wellbeing. This bridge between public health and geography <\/span>is found<\/span> in spatial and environmental epidemiology. In Ghana,\u00a0I work as a public health information officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did I get to the University of Southampton (SOTON)? I studied for a bachelor\u2019s degree in public health at the University of Ghana (UG), School of Public Health, the premier university in Ghana. Through collaborations between UG and SOTON, I was privileged to have met some professors from SOTON who inspired my urge to build capacity in geospatial analysis. Hence, it was thrilling when I won the Commonwealth Scholarship sponsored by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and SOTON to enable <\/span>me to<\/span> study here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saying goodbye to family and friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been a breath-taking journey so far with lots to learn socially and academically. Almost all my expectations about studying here have <\/span>been met<\/span> except the academic work intensity. I didn\u2019t fully anticipate how tough it would be. SOTON is among the very best, hence you must guard its reputation with hard work, <\/span>passion,<\/span> and ambition. Although the academic work is intense, <\/span>there\u00a0was room\u00a0for fun too.<\/span> My department sent us -MSc Students- on a social trip where we had much fun bowling and eating. The bonfire night in Winchester was stupendous but too <\/span>short, I<\/span> was there with friends. Christmas had lots of dinners lined <\/span>up,<\/span> and they <\/span>lived up<\/span> to their hype. Christmas is a whole story on its own. <\/span><\/p>\n

Taking a break from practical session to pose for World GIS day shot with Nic Ka Choon (Commonwealth Scholar) and Wole Ademola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s so much diversity to embrace here. Studying in SOTON means meeting different people from a variety of cultures. It\u2019s just awesome how much you can learn about the rich culture of many places across the globe without ever being there. My coursemates, <\/span>housemates<\/span>, <\/span>friends,<\/span> and lecturers are exciting to interact with and are constantly giving a helping hand. The British lifestyle in itself is <\/span>fantastic<\/span>. Being polite is redefined and amazing, such that you\u2019ll not be tempted to jump the bus queue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday after church with Kennedy Miah my Ghanaian brother and Commonwealth Scholar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, I do miss <\/span>home<\/span>, especially my family. It\u2019s been almost three months without waakye, Jollof, fufu or my <\/span>favourite<\/span> banku<\/span> with grilled tilapia. I\u2019m getting used to some of the <\/span>food,<\/span> but the weather is still not friendly yet. My housemate Radoslav<\/span> teaches me some <\/span>delicious<\/span> student recipes that <\/span>save<\/span> time and money. As of the time I was writing this blog, the temperature in Accra was 28 degrees Celsius you can guess the temperature in SOTON.<\/span><\/p>\n

So much to share. I\u2019d be giving you more peeks into my life in Southampton. If you\u2019re contemplating choosing a university, come join us!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve had some few first ever activities these few weeks among them is this blog post. Let me introduce myself. I\u2019m Winfred from Ghana, a postgraduate taught student in the geography and environment department, studying applied geographic information systems and remote sensing. A mouthful of a course name, isn\u2019t it? My research interests lie in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[29,30,28,26,27],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commonwealth","category-international-scholarships","tag-diversity","tag-international-student","tag-southampton","tag-student-life","tag-university-of-ghana"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/12\/20160929_182903-e1483522439922.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":696,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}