{"id":735,"date":"2017-02-01T09:49:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T08:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/?p=735"},"modified":"2017-02-01T09:50:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T08:50:29","slug":"a-year-of-firsts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/2017\/02\/01\/a-year-of-firsts\/","title":{"rendered":"A Year of Firsts!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Touch down. Heathrow Airport. Needless to say, it was quite an emotional moment for me coming from India to do my masters. Having realized this dream of studying abroad after two long years, I was looking forward to what the great United Kingdom had to offer. And after five months, well, it sure hasn\u2019t disappointed me. So here\u2019s a list of some of the things I have experienced that certainly makes my short stint in the UK \u00a0\u2018a year of firsts.\u2019<\/p>\n

First set of Chinese, Greek and British friends<\/strong><\/p>\n

And we\u2019re all living under the same roof! It is amazing how well we get along and our lives are all the more enriched by getting a taste of each other\u2019s culture. I have tried learning as much of their culture as possible including language, food, traditions etc.<\/p>\n

First step in London<\/strong><\/p>\n

London is THE place to be in. Period. If you\u2019re an avid fan of Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes or any British- related literature or pop culture, London would be a real treat!<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One of the best things I find not just in London but most parts of the UK are the amazing museums and galleries where you can gain so much knowledge and most of them are for free!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

First taste of British food <\/strong><\/p>\n

I joined a local Church here in Winchester and as part of their student group, they have something called \u2019Student Sundays\u2019 where every Sunday someone from Church would host lunches at their homes for freshers. This is where I got to try great English home-made food for free including\u00a0 the delicious Triffle pudding and got to meet wonderful people. I have tried to replicate a few dishes with my own touch. \u00a0I would definitely recommend joining any local community group. You get a chance to make friends and they make you feel like you belong here.<\/p>\n

First trip to Scotland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I could write a whole other blog about the beautiful city of Edinburgh and my time spent there during Hogmany (Scotland\u2019s New Year). Perhaps, some other time but all I can say is it is well worth a visit!<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Also, I got to see a pair of Scottish street punks in kilts belting it out to the Star Wars theme song. Now that was definitely a first!<\/p>\n

First Christmas done in British style<\/strong><\/p>\n

Family bonding over Christmas at Edinburgh- what more could I ask for? And since they\u2019ve lived all their lives in the UK, I got to experience how Christmas is celebrated here first- hand. A few things that are distinct to a British Christmas that I got to learn- pulling crackers before the Christmas lunch, watching the Queen\u2019s speech and raising a toast to her, hogging on turkey, mince pies and mulled wine. I would here, recommend staying at a bed and breakfast at a local resident\u2019s house if you\u2019re travelling anywhere to get a real taste of the local culture (Airbnb is great).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

First Snow<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was pretty magical as this was my first snow. I was a little kid all over again when I saw it snowing outside (just like they show in the movies).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So these were pretty ordinary \u2018firsts\u2019 but were quite memorable to me. I hope to experience other unique \u2018firsts\u2019 in the coming months. Until next time..<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Faith Stephenie Syiem<\/p>\n

International Student Digital Ambassador<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Touch down. Heathrow Airport. Needless to say, it was quite an emotional moment for me coming from India to do my masters. Having realized this dream of studying abroad after two long years, I was looking forward to what the great United Kingdom had to offer. And after five months, well, it sure hasn\u2019t disappointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[48,25,47,13,38,49,28,37,12,42],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-digital-ambassador","tag-blog","tag-blogger","tag-digitalambassador","tag-international","tag-internationalstudent","tag-masters","tag-southampton","tag-student","tag-studyuk","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/01\/IMG_6361.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","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\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":885,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/internationalvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}