Finding a new normal in Cardiff.

By: Sarah Smith

With two months left of my semester exchange, I have had to continually stop myself from preemptively grieving this amazing experience. So to help myself celebrate it and exercise some gratitude, let me tell you about my experience studying at Cardiff University.

I love Cardiff, I have never been a ‘big city’ girl and Cardiff is the perfect balance for me. Busy enough that there’s plenty to do and plenty going on, but small enough that faces become familiar and the environment is never overwhelming. Cardiff has also been a brilliant home-base in order to travel around the UK and Europe. I’ve been able to take weekend trips around the UK to London, Belfast, Bath, Cambridge… The list goes on. Plus on our easter break I was lucky enough to travel around Europe for three weeks with my amazing friends I’ve made.

I have been able to tick off and soak in some truly bucket-list locations with wonderful people. Some highlights were visiting Paris and seeing the Palace of Versailles, walking the track of the Iconic Monaco Grand Prix, learning how to make pastel de nata in Porto, and seeing the stunning Semana Santa processions in Málaga. I feel that I’ve been able to have a good mix of locations I have always wanted to visit, as well as letting myself be surprised by places that others suggested and I never would have thought to go otherwise.

Of course, being on exchange isn’t all travel and nights out. The academic structure at Cardiff has been a big adjustment, though not a stressful one. By far the biggest difference I have found at Cardiff is the weighting of assessments. At Waikato as a psychology student I have never had an assessment worth more than 33% of my total grade. At Cardiff however, I have two exams worth 100% of my grade, plus two others worth 95% and 50% respectively.

Aside from exams, my Welsh culture and folklore class had only one assigned essay worth 100% of my grade. Initially I found this incredibly intimidating because I personally perform much better in written assignments than in exams. But as time has gone on I have just had to be sure I’m keeping up with my study and be very grateful that my grades on exchange are only pass/fail. For the most part I have also enjoyed my classes. My lecturers are all brilliantly competent and passionate about the topics they teach which makes tired days at uni way better.