Blogs

Some people say the hardest part of being an international student in Canada is learning the language, some say it’s getting used to the winter, but I think it’s being able to fit into the culture and adapt to the changes.

It was last Friday before the start of clinical placements when I received the news that Singapore had raised its Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level to Orange.

In preparation for my work-study placement, I had shifted my uniforms to the side of my closet, hoping to save a few minutes in the mornings. Notes had been compiled and categorised in print and digital formats. I had even drawn up a timetable to keep track of submissions and evaluations. I was ready, but DORSCON Orange changed everything.

We are experiencing a global crisis due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and our first concern should be our health and that of those around us. This is something we all agree on. However, the potential impact this pandemic will have on my studies has been constantly on my mind during the last few days.

We’re Clare and Katie, two chemistry BSc students from the University of York. Our final third-year project centred around finding new and innovative ways to teach chemistry. As we come to the end of our project, we’d like to share with you our experiences and reflect on the opportunities that emerged along the way. 

As a working-class female student from a large industrial town in the north of England, I came from an educational environment that did not really expect or prepare me to climb the social ladder. Consequently, when I got accepted into an elite Russell Group university, I was never really prepared for the loss of my identity, or the loss of a sense of home and place as I attempted to find my feet in the environment of higher education.

Imagine a place blanketed by a thick layer of forest punctuated by meteor craters (the highest number of craters per square kilometre in the world), studded with bogs and natural mires.

Snuggled next to Latvia, underneath Finland, and bordered by Russia, Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe. With a population of 1.3 million and a land mass smaller than most US states, Estonia is, indisputably, tiny. But while it might not be large, its impact on Europe and the world is immense. Ever heard of Skype? Invented by an Estonian.

It has been hard to be here in Shanghai during the Covid-19 outbreak, but I am hopeful. 

Things have slowly started improving in Shanghai. The Tongji University campus supermarket is now open, and we can easily purchase food, drinks and stationery between 10am and 2pm. The number of new cases in Shanghai is reported to have subsided, and everyone seems hopeful that this epidemic will be over soon. 

In 2016 I visited some friends who were working in humanitarian organisations in Kazakhstan. I soon fell in love with the country and moved there for work in early 2017.