{"id":191,"date":"2019-11-08T01:29:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T01:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/international\/?p=191"},"modified":"2020-01-11T15:17:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T15:17:39","slug":"new-beginning-my-first-week-at-edge-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/international\/2019\/11\/08\/new-beginning-my-first-week-at-edge-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"‘New Beginning’: My first week at Edge Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What does it feel like to actually be in another country? If you’ve ever been abroad I guess you have some ideas for the answer. But for me, I only knew what it feels like on 11 September 2019, when I officially arrived at Manchester Airport, to begin my first year at Edge Hill University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edge Hill entrance! (pardon my first attempt at panorama mode :))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hello there, I’m Vy from Vietnam and I’m here at Edge Hill to study for a master’s degree in TESOL (that’s a cool acronym for um.. teaching English as a foreign language, essentially). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To answer my own question in the beginning, well, strangely, it feels… familiar? I remember thinking at the airport and on the way to Edge Hill: this peace, these roads, even the airport remind significantly of my hometown in Vietnam. Except it’s colder, a lot colder. (like, 15 degrees here versus 32 degrees home, yeah?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let me get back to the topic and give a breakdown of my first 7 days at Edge Hill thanks to which I can confidently tell people: it’s possible to not miss home and have the best first week imaginable in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1. Welcome to (North West) England<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Edge Hill’s welcome sign at the airport<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The best thing on arrival is you get free pick-up from the airport by Edge Hill’s International Office. To receive this lovely service you need to inform the office of your arrival details. Your destination should be Manchester or Liverpool airports<\/strong>, and ideally the date and time should fall on the window time on the office’s plans. However you can always arrange pickup service with the office regardless of when you land. Read more about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edge Hill International Office provides free transit from Manchester\/Liverpool airports. This is such a lifesaver if you’re like me, new to England, or new to being abroad altogether. Here to your left is me waiting outside the arrival gate of Terminal 2 because at first I could not find the pickup staff. We could only find each other after I emailed Kay (from the office) a photo of where I was standing at the terminal. So a word of advice from my experience: save all the contacts from the International Office (mail, phone number)<\/a> to get in touch when there’s a problem.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Lovely weather on our arrival<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After a breezy 45-minute transit featuring a lovely driver and a cool English playlist, we arrived at Edge Hill (me and about 10 other international students). Now I got to see the so-rumored “Hogwarts entrance” for real instead of on the iPad screen. Weather was nice and they said we were lucky because it’d been raining days before. Also, on a side note, even if you’ve just gone through a 10 plus hour flight, make sure you look presentable because you will have your student ID photo taken and printed right on the spot in that little house on the left of the picture. It’s called the security hut. Or you don’t need to care because you’re like some people who look great all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the security hut, we would get keys to our halls room. Using the keys can be different from what you already know and therefore can be quite tricky. But I got help by a student guide from the International Office so no worries. Getting a sneak peek at our new home and unloading all the “physical burden” at our new room, we headed off to the International Office with our student guide. This was when we got a welcome meeting from the International Office, got a chance to say hi to other international friends and a pleasant surprise: a welcome bag from the International office. In the welcome bag we got chocolate, potato crisps, easy peeler, card game, information guides on Ormskirk (town where Edge Hill University is situated), the uni’s Arts Center (wonderful live performances coming!), Students Union activities (free trips and workshops coming!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n