NYU Shanghai--food heaven.

Hi Ladies!!

Since I am studying abroad again this semester, I will continue to blog about my experiences.  This semester I am in Shanghai; I am taking B-Law and Intro to Marketing.  I'm not sure how B-Law is like in the city but this semester they changed the professor and the course; it is much more difficult and the workload is a bit more.  It's already been a month since I've arrived in Shanghai... I honestly have to say that I'm not in love with this study abroad site but maybe that's because I keep comparing everything to my semester in Prague. As for now, my opinion of Shanghai is mediocre.  The weather is not the best; we rarely get sunshine.  It's either raining everyday or every other day and it's mostly cloudy everyday.  Hopefully the weather will get warmer soon; it's supposed to get to the 50s (Fahrenheit) in late March.  

Shanghai is a huge city and it does take a good 1/2-1 hr to commute from place to place.  If you are a big fan of food, Shanghai is definitely a place you'd want to go to; food is extraordinary in Shanghai.  Food taste good and is extremely cheap.  Here are some pictures:

There are plenty of opportunities in Shanghai.  If you want to travel within China, it's definitely do-able during the weekends; you can simply travel by train or buses to small villages and other provinces outside of Shanghai.  I am currently interning for a food and beverage company, David Laris Creates.  This internship is very interesting; I am doing a lot of marketing and PR work which is great for my major.  During the second week of Shanghai, we had a internship fair and over a dozen companies were present for students to talk to.  A lot of students are interning for these companies now.

I am living off campus and my apartment is beautiful; we all have singles (either three/four rooms) and the rooms are decent sized.  The on campus housing isn't not bad either, it's on campus and thus the commute to the actual building where classes are is only a 5 minute walk.  For off campus students , due to the mandatory chinese classes (either 9:00 or 10:30), NYU provides a shuttle bus that brings us to school every morning.  Commuting back from school is not hard, we can either take the taxi (14RMB... approximately $2) back home. The train and bus system is massive but very easy to learn.

Now the night life... night life in Shanghai is pretty awesome; there are a lot of clubs that "youngsters" go to.  However, of course you should always go in a group to be safe.  If you are looking into studying in Prague or Shanghai and have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly at lisa.hu@stern.nyu.edu!

Talk to you soon!

Lisa

Reasons to study abroad in Europe:

London to Stockholm

Hey everyone!!
I'm Stephanie, the webmaster for USWIB, and I'm also studying in London this semester!


This is my first time in Europe, and I know I'm stating the obvious, but definitely take advantage of all of the opportunities to travel if/when you go abroad! Last weekend, I found myself in Stockholm, Sweden. SWEDEN! Of all places. But honestly, sometimes the most interesting adventures come from just going on skyscanner.net or ryanair.com, finding the cheapest tickets, and just going with it. Sure, it's nice to plan trips to Paris, Rome, the French Riviera, and Barcelona, but I found this to be a lot of fun, too, even though it was only about 5 degrees fahrenheit. Some of the things we did in Stockholm included going on a guided tour of the Royal Palace, visiting Skansen (a miniature version of old Sweden), shopping at H&M, and exploring a few of the Stockholm islands. Here are some pictures!!

                                         Royal Palace of Stockholm

            View from the ferry as we traveled to Skansen

A couple of words of advice if you ever find yourself going to sweden. First, try to go in late spring, otherwise, bring LOTS of layers. I brought two pairs of skinny jeans with me, and it was a last minute decision of mine to wear leggings to the airport. Glad I did, otherwise I would be "one unhappy bunny" as the british say, since my legs probably would've been frozen if I didn't wear two layers. Second, make sure you budget correctly, food in Stockholm was more expensive than the food in London!!!!


That's all, I hope everyone is having a great start to the semester!

Some NYUL Basics

If you’re currently sitting in your dorm back in New York contemplating or anticipating studying in London, read on for some helpful information! 

Living 

I live in Nido by King’s Cross station. You might have heard about the long and horrible walk to class. But, buses exist and in my short experience here thus far, it takes around 15 minutes if you’re willing to pay for the ride. The building is modern. The ceilings are high. If you’re in a single room, the kitchenette doesn’t include an oven. On the whole, it’s comfortable and convenient. 

Classes 

I’m currently taking Competitive Advantage from Operations, Politics of Human Rights, Abnormal Psychology, and London’s Global Connections. You’re allowed to do a bit of shopping around for courses here which is nice. For the first week you can try out different classes without enrolling in them so you have a better idea of what you want to drop/add by the deadline. 

The academic admin team will tell you to not book any flights before the first week of classes because make-up days and field trips occur on Fridays. Of course, despite their advice, I decided to book a trip to Verona, Italy for my first long weekend (Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening). What are the chances right? Two days ago, I received an email informing me of a class trip to Greenwich with Seeing London’s Architecture. So, I ended up dropping this sought-after course for my non-refundable ticket. But it’s okay. Now I’m taking Abnormal Psychology instead, which is just as interesting and applicable, if not more. I’m looking forward to professionally psychoanalyzing everyone I meet soon. 

The professors’ bios are all pretty impressive. They’re outsourced from various schools around Bloomsbury to teach for a few hours a week at NYU in London. 

Class sizes are small, ranging from 7 to 30 students in the classes I tried this week. 

Extracurriculars

The selection of clubs and student organizations at the University of London Union is pretty limited and volunteering opportunities presented at the fair have also been insubstantial. SHINE is a popular volunteer program where students get to work with kids in schools around London. Unfortunately, this semester, they were only taking 30 students and by the time I got to the Volunteer Fair 15 minutes after it began, the spaces were filled. 

Other opportunities included cheering for runners at various marathons organized for various causes - all probably great fun with friends but I was expecting some other longer term consistent volunteer position openings at the fair. 

London Spring 2012 Correspondent - Daphne

Hello all!

My name is Daphne and I will be a USWIB Study Abroad Blog contributor for this semester.

For those of you who are thinking of studying in London, I hope you will find my blog posts useful and entertaining. If you have specific questions about NYU in London, feel free to email me at dyx202@nyu.edu. I'm keeping a personal travel blog as well (The Young and the Rootless). Please do take a look!

I'm living in Nido Student Residences at King's Cross. In terms of Stern classes, I'm taking Competitive Advantage of Operations. Other classes I'm registered for include Politics of Human Rights and London's Global Connections. This weekend I am traveling to Verona, Italy. As the semester progresses, I will keep you updated on academic information, extracurricular opportunities, and travel tips from my experience abroad.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Daphne



 

End of November

Hi Ladies,

It's been three and a half months now in Prague and I've been to more countries.  Fall break was great!  I went to Italy (Milan, Florence and Rome), Barcelona, and Zurich.  A majority of Nu students went to Italy for fall break because there are so many diverse cities in italy and I definitely recommend it.  I recently came back from London.  It was amazing! If you are home-sick, London is definitely the places to go but I do have to warn you, London uses Lbs. which is now 1.6 exchange rate.  Finals are coming up and there is a lot of work that needs to be done (presentations, essays, readings), everything is happening now.  Here are some pictures of my traveling trips!

London's Big Ben

Zurich was peaceful

Florence canal

famous church in Barcelona

Budapest was beautiful

Traveling

Hi Ladies,

Here are some pictures:

The Lub! Bring your student Visa to get in for free; I didn't and had to pay $10 Euros! :(

The Eiffel Tower lights up every hour and is absolutely beautiful at night!

The three awesome RA's.  We were in Cesky Krumlov

The Beautiful Cesky Krumlov,  I had more scenery pictures but this pretty much is how everything looks like.  Gorgeous! I recommend this NYU sponsored trip if you like palaces, castles and beautiful scenery.

The Indonesian Restaurant we went to in Amsterdam, good food, it wasn't all that filling and it cost us each 20Euros each.

Amsterdam, we walked past this every single day... we just always end up here, I have no idea why! LOL

It's been over a month in Prague now and I'm still loving it, I'm sure I will never stop loving this place!  So for the past few weeks, I've traveled to Amsterdam and Paris!!  Amsterdam was a weird but fun experience, I'm definitely going back because there were things that I was not able to do due to "reasons" which are quite obvious...  Paris was AMAZING!! I spent 3 days there, the weather was great, I went to almost all the touristy places and spent too much money buying bags but it was worth it, for sure!  I will continue to travel every weekend, so if there are any questions, feel free to just contact me through email and I can tell you my whole experience in Prague! lisah1251@gmail.com! :D

First week of classes!

Hi Ladies!

I just survived the first week of classes! Classes weren't hard, besides the quite-alot of reading we have to do for the next classes.  It's been raining and cold... around the 50's with crazy wind.  Prague weather is extremely weird, it's never constant and it's really easy to get sick.  A lot of my friends have been getting sick and I feel I'm starting to get sick too!  I'm taking ORCOM, MOA, Media Criticism, and Advertising and Society.  All of these classes are interesting and I'm very looking forward to this semester!

The Indian Buffet right around the corner of where you take NYU classes. Reasonably cheap place and good food!

The Tram (22) that we take to class from Machova.  They are VERY convenient and come pretty often!

Bottoms Up! This was our first night out to Mecca on Wednesdays.  Warning: a lot of NYU students! But still it was free and it was fun! :)

 

Beautiful Prague ;)

The beautiful Wenceslas Square, 10 min walk from campus.  Plenty of shopping places around here.
 

I'm going to the first NYU sponsored trip this weekend, Český Krumlov.  It's some sort of hiking trip, one night and two days.  A lot of the trips are hiking trips but the place is gorgeous and I'm sure I"ll love it!  I booked two trips, one to Amsterdam and one to Paris... I can't wait!!

I will post again by the end of the month! :)

August in Prague

Hi Ladies!!

I've arrived in Prague for 3 days now and it's been great!  The weather is great, around the 80s and sun all day long until around 8pm!  First off, I want to point out for future people who come during the Fall, you should definitely pack enough summer clothes just because it doesn't get cold until late September, meaning you'll need a month worth of summer clothes and with the sun on you all the time you will WANT to be wearing cooler clothing.  Shipping cost a lot, my family just told me 10 lbs to ship to Prague will cost $60 and I am missing things I need from home!! :(  A lot of things here cost the same.... if not maybe even more expensive.  I brought shampoo here and it was a pretty small bottle for 4-5 bucks which you can get a much better deal in Rite-Aid or something.  Cereal here cost roughly $4-6...  I really should have bought my own pot that I brought but did not bring... the pots here are not as clean as I imagined them to be and I did bring my own sheets, thank god.

But anyway, Prague is Beautiful!! I walked for 2 hours by myself today, just roaming the streets near campus and took the train home by myself!! So proud of myself.  Once you get used to the metro system, it's pretty easy to use!  I went clubbing last night at Mecca (Wednesday Mecca's!) it's free!  Don't go until 12 if you like it when the dance floor is crowded!  The dance floor was empty until near 1... drinks there were okay priced... a "shot" (which was really 1/2 a shot) cost 20 which is roughly 3 dollars.  It was fun, of course they don't have music and people don't dance crazy like us Americans do but there were A LOT of NYU students!

As for classes.... we have a 1 1/2 week INTENSIVE Czech class which started today. I need to find out if it's PAss/Fail or graded.  Supposedly we are the first year they are making this mandatory...  Class is 4 hours with a 2 hour break in between... the professor is very passionate about Czech/Prague history and culture and so if you really want to get involved in Prague history this would be a great and interesting class for you!

btw I'm living in Machova and I love it... taking the train it takes... 10/15 min to get to campus with an additional 5-10 min walk depending on how fast you walk.
I will post pictures by the end of this week of this beautiful place!

Best,
Lisa

A weekend in ROME!

Hey USWIB Ladies!

I have been studying abroad in Prague for the past three months and have been loving every part of it.

I just wanted to update you all and tell you about one of favorite trips to ROME, ITALY!

With three days full days dedicated to seeing, exploring, and experiencing, I set off to Rome with just my roommate and backpack in hand.

I landed in Rome to discover that the city is surprising small and easy to navigate. This was great because with the motto of the weekend being "no monument left behind," I was determined to see every single piazza, monument, and famous site possible and we actually managed to do this.

One of my favorites places, which is not hard to guess, was the Colosseum. My roommate and I were simply walking and exploring down a main road in search of some lunch, turned left, and ended up finding the Colosseum. This just goes to show the close atmosphere of the city. Almost everything is in walking distance and this allowed me to spend more time with my favorite monument. We went to see the Colosseum at night, during the day, we went inside, walked around it, and every single time it was even more awe inducing.

It is absolutely beautiful and we could really feel the entire Gladiator history and culture when we toured the inside. Another one of my favorite places was the Roman Forum where I was not only able to see all of the remaining Roman ruins, but you can actually walk between them and really feel the history and imagine how people lived during the time.

Not only were the monuments beautiful but the people were friendly, and the food was GREAT! From pizza to pasta to Italian ice to gelato, everything was just SO good.

I really had no idea that I would be so entranced by this city and after that weekend I can definitely say that Rome is one of my favorite places in the world!

If there is just one piece of advice that I can give any USWIB lady, it's to GO ABROAD. and while I highly recommend studying in Prague, to be honest, no matter where you study abroad you are sure to make new friends, broaden your view on the world, and the most amazing semester of your life.

See you soon,

Pooja