The story of my Erasmus year in Scotland

City centre The city centre of Glasgow is very lively and animated. To do shopping, you have several options: Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street and Argyle Street are the largest shopping streets in the city (pedestrian streets).  At the junction between Sauchiehall and Buchanan Streets, there is Buchanan Galleries shopping centre with about 100 shops. Downstream from Buchanan Street, Princes Square is a beautiful shopping centre that features high-end shops, coffee shops and restaurants. Even if you do not want to go shopping, this is still a place to visit for its very pretty 19th century architecture. Finally, located at the corner of Buchanan and Argyle Streets, in the heart of Glasgow, is the St Enoch shopping centre. Buchanan Street Buchanan Street Map of places to visit in Glasgow West End The West End district is my favorite place in Glasgow.  You can visit the famous University of Glasgow, which inspired J.K. Rowling to imagine the Hogwart

Behaviours When I arrived in Scotland, the first thing that caught my attention was the friendliness of the people. Scottish people are very friendly and pleasant, I have rarely seen people so nice with strangers. As a foreigner, you may encounter difficulties, so you can ask the Scots for help, they will be happy to help you. Scottish people have an important notion of respect. It is a quality I have seen a lot of in their daily lives, in the stores, on the street... and it is very nice to live in a respectful climate like this. The language Expect to have difficulty understanding Scottish people when they speak because, whether they are elders or young people, they all have a very strong accent. This is not like the academic English we have been used to listening to and learning in school since we were very young. If you have trouble understanding what they are saying, don't hesitate to make them repeat it, they won't take it badly! Weather Coming from the south

The Buchanan bus station is a popular bus station in Glasgow and the Central Station is the main mainline rail terminus in Glasgow also. I live near to the Buchanan bus station where many buses leave every day to go in all directions. Whether you want to go to Glasgow Airport or Edinburgh, everything is possible. Personally, I take the train more often to go to school, in particular. At the beginning of the year, I bought the 16-25 year old Student Card (£30) which allows me to have a 30% discount as soon as I take my train tickets off peak time, that is to say after 10am. I very quickly made this card profitable that is why I recommend it. You can also find trains to Edinburgh, the Highlands or London for example. No matter where you go, you can always find a means of transport quickly and not far from you.  

For information, I am part of the Business program at the University UWS. I am doing a Licence 3 abroad in partnership with the IAE of Montpellier, I am also validating during this year the Bachelor's degree offered by UWS as well as a DUETI. I therefore validate three diplomas in one (this is different according to the Erasmus destination countries). Presentation of the University of the West of Scotland The University of the West of Scotland has five campuses in Scotland, including one in Paisley, where I am doing my Erasmus year. Paisley is a little town situated to the West of the City of Glasgow. The main entrance The entrance hall The entrance hall Knowing that I live in Glasgow, I have to take the train to go to school. This is very simple because travel time is only 10 minutes and trains leave from Central Station (Glasgow Main Station) every 5 to 10 minutes during the week. Courses The school year is divided into two semesters, from Septem

Finding accommodation in a foreign country can be complicated. In fact, without being able to go there and see the accommodation with your own eyes, it can make you hesitate. In my case, I was looking for a room, preferably in a flat sharing to be able to speak as much English as possible in order to improve my level. In addition, I preferred to take up accommodation in Glasgow itself because I wanted to live in a city with life, activities to do nearby... For information, my university is located in Paisley which is a small town on the edge of Glasgow, 10 minutes by train (this part is more detailed in the following article 'The University of the West of Scotland'). For my part, before deciding to book my accommodation in Glasgow, I hesitated for a long time with my parents because the English system requires you to pay the rent for the accommodation on one or more occasions directly on the website before you can even go there. For foreign students who do not live in

I live in Montpellier, a city in the south of France, then to travel to Scotland I had two options. The first option was to travel with the company Ryanair, which allows a direct trip from Marseille to Edinburgh. If you choose this option, you should plan your car trip from Montpellier to Marseille and then, plan your train or bus trip from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Even if the flight ticket with Ryanair is cheaper, do not forget to include the extra costs for petrol, tolls, transport and also the extra cost of checked baggage not included in the flight ticket (about €45 extra). In summer, you can find Ryanair flights from Béziers or Carcassonne, which are closer to Montpellier (check on the Ryanair website depending on the season). The second option was to travel with KLM (Air France group), which allows you to depart directly from Montpellier with a stopover in Amsterdam to Glasgow. That's the choice I made. The flight time between Montpellier and Amsterdam is about 1 hour 30