Back in Finland

10 weeks went incredible quickly and week ago it was time to pack my bags and fly back to Finland. All in all my exchange was amazing! I met so many lovely people, tried campus life, traveled across UK and of course studied interesting modules in Aston University. I thought it would be nice to put pieces all together and tell final thoughts about living on campus and the studies and my exchange overall.

Living on campus
 
I lived on university’s campus in James Watt residences. It was very near the main building were all my modules were held. It took around three minutes to walk from my residence to school. Never lived before that near to school! My flat was on ground floor which was a bit noisier than upstairs but after couple weeks I got used to people coming and going and lift talking “going up” or “doors opening”. I had four lovely flat mates and we shared a kitchen but had our own bathrooms.

Cleaning lady came every Friday to clean our kitchen and I was really surprised also about window cleaner guys. Also my bathroom was cleaned by cleaning lady once in a month. So from my point of view it was total luxury that there was someone cleaning flat for us. This will not happen for a while in Finland.

Before arriving I was thinking how cold it will be in rooms because I had heard stories about UK’s cold houses. These stories did not luckily match to my room. It was warm and no wind came from windows.

And one of best things in campus was that they had really good gym just couple hundred meters away from my residences. I tried several aerobic lessons and used gym regularly.

Living on campus was extremely good idea, it is a bit expensive but it was worth it. If you are doing your exchange in Aston I truly recommend to live on campus – all in all it is fun and easy.

Studies in Aston

Aston University’s atmosphere was really international and there was students all over the world. In my modules students were mostly from China and India and I met only few British people which was a bit surprising. Post-graduate program lasts only one year (two terms) and after this students will write their thesis.  The term I spend in Aston was their second.

I studied four modules (30 ECTS credits) in 10 weeks. At first it sounded a lot to me but after all it was not too bad and it is more than possible even if you are traveling around all the time like me. I wrote already about modules Strategy, Change and Leadership and Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies. Besides them I studies modules Assessment, Performance and Reward and Public Policy, CSR and Sustainable Development. Both were really good and I was happy with all the modules I choose.

Assessment, Performance and Reward was graded 20% of group work and 80% of exam and also mandatory workshop was required to pass the course. Workshop was really interesting. We were studying what assessment centers do and how they assess people. In group work we developed scale to measure job related personality traits.

Aston uses virtual learning platform called Blackboard and students were able to find past exams from there.  Luckily questions in exam were quite similar than in past years so after preparing to answer old questions it was quite easy to answer to the questions in exam.

Public Policy, CSR and Sustainable Development was graded 100% of one final assignment (3000-3500 words). I found this module the easiest one maybe because we were able to choose our own topic to this essay. Teacher of this module was lovely and we had interesting lectures during those 9 weeks.
All in all I was really pleased about my studies and modules that I choose. I learned more than I thought beforehand about fields I have not studied before.

Traveling back

I travelled both ways with SAS. I bought tickets to go and come back separately and there was no significant difference on price, all together flights were around 200 euro. There are not straight flights from Helsinki to Birmingham so I stopped both ways in Copenhagen and especially coming back it was good place to do last shopping. 

Final thoughts

Altogether my exchange in Birmingham was awesome experience and I highly recommend doing exchange there. Everything went smoothly and I did not find any difficulties during my exchange.  Only negative aspect in my opinion is that 10 weeks it too short time and for me it was more like little holiday. But I really enjoyed my time in Aston and Birmingham and I would do the adventure definitely again! :)

Aston Villa - Chelsea

I spent yesterday evening at Aston Villa vs. Chelsea match. Over 40 000 people and atmosphere was amazing! :)

 Aston Villa won 1-0, yay!

And after match of course it was time to have burgers. I enjoyed our Saturday evening a lot, match was incredible and burgers were excellent finish to that evening. :)

2 done 2 to go

After my amazing road trip I took couple days to get to school-mood again. But here I am! Today I submitted three assignments and that means I have succeeded to accomplish two of my modules (if I don’t fail them… hopefully not :)). 

The first one was Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Emerging Economies, my favourite module during the exchange. Teacher was really good and we had two assignments to do, both worth 50% of final grade. First one was about identifying one Emerging country with theories and in the second one we made our own venture idea which was placed in emerging country. Both assignments were interesting with twist of creativeness.

The second module was Strategy, Change & Leadership. Lectures were always on Tuesday evenings from 6-9pm so sometimes it was bit hard to stay focused. Still I attended to all the lectures and that was one achievement by itself. Module was divided into two parts and first one was about Strategy and Change and second part about Leadership. It included also two assignments (50-50). First one was more challenging because task was to identify a change. Whatever we could think of. Second assignment was more straightforward and it was about examine effective leadership with case. Interesting course all in all!

Next Tuesday I will have my only exam and before that only one assignment to go. Nearly finished with school I could say, yay! :)

Road trip

I spent long weekend on a road trip from London-Stonehenge-Bournemouth-London.

My friend from Finland arrived on Thursday evening at 9pm to Heathrow where we rent a car. In evening we drove to Binley B&B near Stonehenge. B&B was amazing, horse farm in middle of nowhere. Next day we had nice Full English breakfast at farm and continued trip to Stonehenge.

Stonehenge was amazing - I cannot believe that people 3500 years ago have been able to carry all those rocks in place. After wondering around we continued to Bournemouth. It must be really nice city in summer time - I tried also my first UK fish and chips there.

On Saturday on way to London we stopped at first to see small castle and also in New Forest Cider farm. We had nice a fresh lunch with tasty cider and we also bought couple bottles with us. All ciders were produced in farm!

In London we saw main attractions and also went to Madame Tussaud. It was my first time there in it was so much fun. Of course afterwards was time to do shopping in Oxford Street.

We were lucky to have so nice weather all the time - sun was shining almost every day and in London we could walk even without jackets! Just a perfect trip and now its time to last squeeze with school work. Next week I'm going back to Finland, I do not know where these weeks are gone!

Glasgow & Edinburgh

 Glasgow cathedral

 Edinburgh castle

Couple weeks ago we made our exchange student trip to Scotland. At first we visited Glasgow and then Edinburgh. Journey to Glasgow was extremely interesting because we were traveling there by Megabus at 2am - and in bus there were not seats at all - only beds. I have never seen anything like that and hopefully it was first and also last time traveling like that. But it was definitely an experience!

We spent one night at Glasgow and saw some attractions there like beautiful cathedral. After Glasgow we headed to Edinburgh which was amazing! I could say the most lovely city after London in UK. If you are planning to trip to UK you have to go there.. We went to see Edinburgh castle and many many other places.  Just near the city was pretty hills where I went also hiking a bit. Weather was nice and Edinburgh amazing. :)

All in all I really enjoyed our trip and maybe some day I will go back to Edinburgh - it was so beautiful!

Travelling around

Past few weeks have gone so quickly that I cannot believe. Besides studying I have explored Liverpool, London and Bristol. Here couple photos from those cities.

Liverpool - the most beautiful cathedral that I have seen in UK. Besides that we walked thru quiet Chinatown and saw many museums.. Someone could say too many. 

London - Was amazing - I am happy that I go back there in few weeks.

Bristol - Nice and peaceful city with beautiful river and the best afternoon tea this far.

Saturday waffles

We have found the most amazing cafe with delicious desserts near our campus. Today was a waffle day after long week of studying. Yummy! 

Time passes too quickly and I am almost half way thru of my exchange. Luckily I have made a lot of plans (most of traveling) for next five weeks. Tomorrow I'm going to Liverpool and next weekend I will stay at London. I booked also a trip to Scotland with my exchange group! We are going there in couple weeks - I cannot wait to see Glasgow and Edinburgh. Week after Scotland my friend is coming from Finland and we have been planning a road trip to see Stonehenge and Bournemouth. So many exiting trips ahead of me! :)

Aston Villa Football Stadium & Hall

I did not have any special plans for Saturday so I decided to go to Aston Villa football stadium. Stadium is quite near our campus so I walked there. Weather was good at that time so it was nice to look around a bit.

When walking besides stadium I saw a sign to Aston Hall. I did not know beforehand that even exist but I was so curious that I had to go to take closer look at it. Building was really beautiful and old but unfortunately I could not get in. Next time then!

Weather changed suddenly and it started rain. I knew that Aston train station is not too far away so I walked there and took a train to Birmingham New Street Station. Train was quick and 2 pounds was ok price to get back. While I was on my way back home it started rain hailstones - so we almost had snow for 5 minutes.