Welcome to Manchester!

Hi all- My name is Maggie, and I’m in my third year at UW.  I’m studying Finance and participating in the CISB program while minoring in French.  So far I’ve spent 2 months here in Manchester and have no complaints—I’ve met great people, taken some amazing trips, and am in classes I enjoy.  There are about 85 other students in the business exchange program here from all over the world and the international society did a great job of having group activities arranged for us so that we could meet everyone.   It’s also nice that there are several other people from the program in every one of my classes, making it seem a lot smaller than it actually is (U of Manchester is roughly the same size as UW).

One of the hardest things about being outside of the States, for me, has been the lack of American sports.  I’m a huge fan of basketball and American football, so not having any games available to watch has been quite a tough pill to swallow.  A group of us did manage to find an Australian bar that was showing the Superbowl, however, the commentary was by Brits… Just not the same.   We’ve also gotten student tickets to both a Man City and Man U game, and I was front row for Man City.  We were probably 10 rows from the top at Man  U, but it was still an awesome experience.  One of the other students has been a Liverpool fan since he was a kid so he got a few of us Liverpool tickets last Monday and it was one of the best sporting atmospheres I’ve ever experienced.  And most importantly, I’ve managed to find streaming video of the NCAA tournament so I can watch our Dawgs roll into the Sweet 16!  This past weekend in Prague I met up with 2 friends from back at the UW, and we watched the Huskies beat New Mexico together—it almost felt like home!

So far my main trips have been to Amsterdam and Prague, but this is the last week before Easter break and we get a 3-week long vacation before heading back to start studying for exams.  I’m traveling with my roommate who is from Western Ontario’s business school and we’re going to be hitting Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and Greece for our break.  Sounds like an adventure and I can hardly wait the 36 more hours until we are free of school and on the road!