 Hi everybody, and welcome back to another video. So this is going to be a part two to a Q&A that I did, that I uploaded I guess yesterday, but I don't know when it's gonna go up this time. If you are like, oh I have other questions, I wish that there was another one of these that I could go see and they could be answered. So yeah, I realized when I was editing that one that some of the questions that you guys asked me in that video, I just completely skipped over parts of the question because I wasn't paying attention. I'm gonna start with one of the questions that I like half answered in the last video. So this one was from B and the I answered the part of the question where she asked about planning short weekend trips, but she also asked about packing lightly for weekend trips. How do I go about packing lightly? Yeah, so I'd like definitely struggle with this still. I think my like one tip for this because pretty much every single trip that I've went on I have overpacked and it's definitely gonna depend on like what trip you're taking. Like I packed, I don't know, I actually don't know if I packed better for London. London I was like trying to pull fits, you know what I mean? Like I was, we were going to the theater. So I was like, we were, we had a dinner reservation like real adults. We like wanted to like dress cute. That was a different situation, but like when I went to Dublin, like I looked like a toe the whole entire time. Also there was like a really, there was a lot of very bad weather when we went to Dublin. So honestly, check the weather, which I did that because I would have brought my big winter coat to Dublin because there was like this big wind storm and I was like, oh well that's just a here thing. These countries are literally so close together. So I'm so dumb. Yeah, I think it's definitely a trial and error when it comes to like packing for weekend trips, but I will say a good tip is to bring when you're actually packing for city broad, bring a lot of outfits that are comfortable but also really presentable. This right here, this is like a really old, nice looking sweater. It's casual enough and it's comfortable so that I can just like re-wear it over and over again, bring your favorite pair of jeans if you're just going for a weekend and just like wear the same thing, you know, over and over again because it is definitely not fun when you like have to carry it all on your back because I did that in Dublin where I brought like extra pair of shoes, which in theory is a good idea because our shoes could have gotten wet so it's like good to have an extra pair of shoes. Then I ended up just having to like carry around these shoes I didn't need. It was just like a whole thing. I don't know, it's trial and error man. So this next question is from Shana or Shayna, either one. I'm so sorry if I'm pronouncing that wrong. And then number one question says, how you went about being able to study abroad? Example, program cost, finance, budgeting, planning. Basically I harassed my local study abroad office. Before I did anything, I just booked a meeting with a human being in the office and I was like, hey, this is what I want to do. I want to go for a year. How do I make this happen? And what that meeting ended up doing is it sort of like opened me up to like the options that were available at my school. So at my school they offer, and I believe this is most schools too, they offer like affiliate programs and exchange programs. The main difference between these two is an exchange is going to be a direct exchange between your school and the like host school. You will pay tuition to your home university. Sometimes I know that it can vary and a lot of times I know people end up sometimes spending less on tuition through an exchange program or an affiliate program than they actually pay for like school tuition. I would definitely talk about your options with that. And then an affiliate program, which is what I am doing, is through like a third party entity. Exchange programs, usually they only offer like a certain amount of places because the school has partnerships with certain schools. If you want to go to like a specific place, an affiliate is going to be a way that you can do that. So my school did not offer Edinburgh as an exchange program. So I had to do an affiliate program to come here. Before you can even apply for a study abroad anything, they sent me to, they sent everybody at my school to like a little seminar with a student who has studied abroad and they basically lay all of this out in like a way more detailed way than I could ever do that will tell you by your options. I think that it can be really daunting at the start of it. I did this so long ago too, which is so crazy. I started applying for this in the fall of 2019. If you're worried about finances, again like talk to your study abroad advisor because there are scholarships. If you go to like a school or a country that not many people study abroad in, that could be a really cool option. You know, they may offer more scholarships to people because not many people go there to begin with. So yeah, when I went to my meeting with my study abroad officer, officer advisor, she gave me like a pan, like a, like a access to like their like pamphlet library where there was just like hundreds, not hundreds. I don't even know. It felt like hundreds of these affiliate programs. I probably walked away from our meeting with like 35 pamphlets. I was so all over the place. I was like, oh, I'll go here. I'll go here. I was like, oh, I'll do a semester in this country and then a semester in this country. I, I'm like a thinker. So when you give a thinker lots of information in like all of the, in like a very exciting way, I spent like a whole weekend like reading through 35 study abroad programs. And I was overwhelmed as one would, you know, one would be. I called my mom and I was like, I'm super overwhelmed trying to plan this. And she was like, hey, have you heard of Edinburgh? And I literally like hung up the phone or maybe I was still on the phone. I don't know. Put my stack of pamphlets and there were cycling bin. And I was like, okay, I'm going to go here. So that's sort of how I ended up at Edinburgh. Honestly, it can feel a lot like a part-time job. There's like a lot of homework involved and figuring out what classes you have to take. And there's a lot of forms and there's a lot of, you actually have to apply as well as like picking a place. So go to your office and they'll give you all the like good information for like your school. And then number two, a part of your question was advice on how to figure out what you're passionate about. LOL, help a girl out, haha. Sorry, I said, I read that weird. I don't know how you're supposed to read textiles. I'm like flattered that you would ask me this question. I don't know. I mean, I've always just been like a very like intense child. How to like, how to find it. Yeah, I mean, I think that it can come in like a lot of different ways, not necessarily like a job or it could come in that form or it could come in form of like a hobby or just the thing that you want to pursue or certain things that I was just like I, I had in my heart for years, like as a kid, because I was like an over-thinker completely always growing up. And there were always things like I was like, oh, like one day I'm going to do this thing. I would kind of like keep it to myself and like ruminate on it for like five years. And then I would like wake up one day and be like, okay, today's the day, which is like a little chaotic of me. However, that is just the God's honest truth. Like I remember when I was a kid, I had a very traumatic incident where I like always knew that I wanted to do like musical theater in high school. Like I just thought that was the coolest thing. And I was like a really quiet kid. And then I had this like very traumatic incident when I was seven, where I was like out of voice concert and I started like uncontrollably laughing and crying at the same time. Yes, that is possible for that to happen. I was singing under the sea from the little mermaid. And then I just quit for like a very long time. But like in my head as a kid, I was like, oh, I'm like, no, I'm going to like do this one day. Then one day at camp, I just like came home and I was like, my parents and I was like, oh, like I, I'm in the musical. We were doing The Wizard of Oz and I was the Tin Man. And then I just like did that for years and years and years. And then like with YouTube, like again, like that was something like for probably like five years where I was like, oh, like I'm going to do this. I don't know when I'm afraid right now. Yeah, I think listening to those things that are like on your heart is like a really big thing. But I think fear a lot of the times like stopped me from pursuing the things that like I really wanted to do. But then also like if you just have no idea, like you're like, I don't even know what I like to do. Like just like try stuff, be open to learning in like all its forms, like talking to new people, you know, reading books, trying new hobbies or I don't know, getting involved in things that maybe you have thought. Like I would never like that because honestly, it's always in those moments where I'm like, I would hate that that like, and I try something. Like I always learn something from it. I always gain something from it. So I don't know. That's, I don't know if that's like good advice. Both this next one is from Yasminah. If you're interested in study vlogs, Yasminah has like really great, really great vlogs. She lives in Finland, like super great travel and like fashion content. You guys should all go check her out. And she's really, really funny too. Her vlogs crack me up. She wrote fav spots slash study spots in Edinburgh. My like favorite study spots are August 21st. I just find it really cozy in there. They have really good like chairs. I think trying out like a bunch of different cafes. There's a cafe on like every single block and most of them are pretty good. But yeah, August 21st is one of my favorites. I really like the lady and the bear. It's like right on the meadows. For like studying the, the library bar in like the teffy area, the university is really a great place to study because you can order, like they have all these like QR codes on tables here. So like if you want to copy or something, you can like scan it and get it right to your table. I don't go to the library here because it is literally always packed with people. There is not a single day that you will go and like not have trouble finding a seat. Every single time I have gone, it is packed to an maximum. So I just don't really go to the library. I do, I, you can, there's a lot of like individual school libraries, which is super cool. So like the history of art library on grass market is really, really cool. And if you go to like the top of the building, you get like a really like insane view of the castle. The next question is, it's going to be a really long video. I'm so sorry. What day do people typically arrive in Edinburgh before the semester starts and is welcome week the same as freshers week? Yes, I believe welcome week and freshers week are the same thing. Basically, freshers week is where there's no class. And I know it is the same as week as welcome week. So the welcome week, there's just like a bunch of events during the day. So the school puts on like a lot of really cool events and societies put on events so you can like get to know them. I went on a bunch of walking tours that week. Societies do hub crawls or the book society did like bookshop crawls. There's like even like a cafe or coffee society. I know they were doing little things where you could get to know people and like you wouldn't go from like cafe to cafe, which is like super cute. And then the first part of this question was what, what day do people typically arrive in Edinburgh before the semester starts? So I don't actually know how it's going to change this next year. And it's going to depend on your program and your school and like when your lease starts, wherever you live. But I moved in a week before actual university students came. So it was like just international students. So it was like barren. There was like nobody here is very weird and quiet. We did that because we originally thought that we had to quarantine when we came, but then they changed the laws like, you know, a couple of weeks before we came. So like everything was already set up to be that way. So I would assume that for next fall, you'll arrive the same time that all the freshmen do. This is from Techno. So they said, I'm studying abroad in London soon. But my biggest fear is that it won't make any friends. It's going to suck living alone and having no one to hang out with or talk to in real life is making friends abroad hard. Yeah. So this is what I'm going to say on that because being a year long international student is a little weird. And like just to come, I just want to be like completely honest with you guys because there are going to be people that you meet that are super excited to meet like international student and they're going to like want to be friends with you and like pursue that relationship. But then there are certain scenarios where you will introduce yourself as, you know, a study abroad student and people will be like, oh, okay. And then they'll kind of like move on. That's honestly been my experience. It's sort of like been one or the other reaction because honestly, like if you're living with freshmen, like a lot of them are, you know, looking to make friends, like you're all sort of in the same boat, especially like other international students, everybody is in the same boat and most people are like very open-minded and like want to meet other people. I will say like there's, there seems to be a very big push, like the first week that you arrive. A lot of people sort of, I've seen this a lot with like American students is like a lot of them want to like group off into like friend groups, like right away. Honestly, that can either go really great or it can go kind of poorly. I would say keep your options open. Like the first like three, you know, weeks that you're there, just try and talk to like as many people as you can until you find people that like you really gel with. I don't even know, I'm not answering this question. It's just like a harder question to answer because it's just like everybody is so different and everybody's experience is going to be so different. But I will say like people are really, really social in this country. Yeah. And like I technically live alone, but I also like live in a building. So like I know a lot of the people who live in this building. So that has sort of worked out. Yeah. If you're living like far away, you know, I would say watch my other video where I talk about like making friends because, you know, like Facebook groups, societies, those kinds of things like getting involved. You're just going to have to like kind of push yourself to go to those things. I'm 100% positive that you're going to find people who are like interested in a friendship with you because like you're probably fabulous. So I hope that answered your question. Thank you so much for watching. If you got it all the way to the end. Yeah. If you like this video, you know, give it a like and subscribe. I post new videos every Friday. And you know, about study abroad. And if you have any more questions, like this has been honestly kind of fun for me to film these. So please leave them down below. I will maybe do a part three. Who knows? But yeah, for now, thank you so much for watching. Okay.