The possibility of studying abroad has always driven my desire to go to college, and I was luckily able to do so this past spring with UTC. I was nervous going across the Atlantic by myself for the first time AND for five months. The second I walked up the steps to my flat at the University of Stirling, I immediately made friends with my flatmates. My mom flew out to help me move in, but she was there alone and she was relieved when she saw someone else to talk to. Throughout that day, I would slowly introduce myself to five other amazing girls, four of which would become some of my closest friends.
We would walk nearly a mile to the bus stop to go into town and do our grocery shopping or grab a bite all together. Then we would walk back – most times in the pouring rain – with our heavy bags of groceries and share stories and laugh the whole way back. Every Friday night, we would order takeout and then watch a Romantic Comedy before we went our separate ways on the weekend. The best part about studying abroad is how easy it is to travel, especially with trains and affordable airlines like easyJet. I went to Wales, England, Italy, Greece, Belgium, and France during my time abroad. However, I spent most of my weekends at cafes in Edinburgh or Glasgow. I spent so much time in Edinburgh that I eventually felt like a local.
If you like what big cities have to offer, but prefer to live in a smaller town, I highly recommend the USAC Stirling program. There is this hike that a lot of the students take up to Dumyat Hill. Two of my flatmates and I did it back in April and of course we experienced the funkiest weather. It was sunny, then it was cloudy and we walked right under a rainbow. All of a sudden it began pouring rain and the wind was knocking us around, which made it feel freezing. Usually, I would be miserable under these circumstances, but studying abroad makes you want to live every moment.
There is an abundance of history to be learned in Scotland. Literally every street has a story and it is always either beautiful or gruesome. I am a history major, so I chose to study abroad in Scotland because a lot of the historical subjects I find most fascinating connect to there. The USAC program in Scotland provided us with two guided tours to St.Andrews and along the Angus coast where we saw castles and abbeys. I went on a road trip with a friend one weekend and went to see Loch Ness, the Glenfinnan Viaduct (the Harry Potter bridge), the Ben Nevis mountain range, and drove through Glencoe on the way back to Stirling. Also, if you are a fan of the royal family as I am, you would love the Balmoral castle. I went on the same day as a 5k run or something, so there were food trucks and we ate from a lot of local highland vendors.
All in all, I am so grateful to have been able to have this study abroad experience. Now, my iCloud storage is full from the excessive amount of photos I took. But also, my memories are full of the wonderful places and food as well as the friends I enjoyed them with.
Brithny Speraw (BA History) spent Spring 2024 studying abroad in Stirling, Scotland through USAC.
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