Meet Aya Kawanishi

Hello, I am Aya Kawanishi, a Japanese student in the International Study Centre at the University of Stirling in Scotland. This is my first year at the university and I am going to be writing a blog to share with everyone who is interested in the experience of an international student in Scotland.

How I ended up in Stirling

It was such a coincidence to come back in Scotland. Before I started to look for a university I had already visited the UK for my high school trip and Scotland was actually my highlight of the trip. I was so impressed that Scotland has its own culture. By the end of the trip, I liked Scottish people, culture and especially their accent so much! But I had no idea at that time that I could come and stay here as a student. I would say it wasn’t too difficult for me to decide a university when I found out that the University of Stirling is one of the leading universities for Journalism studies which I’m intended to do after the foundation. I was so happy to find a place in Scotland. My home town in Japan is near Tokyo where everyone is so busy and the city is so noisy for 24/7. For me from such a background, this pretty green campus (which even has its own loch!) was simply perfect to be a student.

Enjoying being part of the university

Stirling is a small and rather quiet city. It has some pubs and clubs and I have had so much fun with my friends so far. I usually go for a pint with my friends on weekends and this seemed to have become part of our routine of a week. To get refreshed from the study, I think nothing can be better than having fun with friends! When I prefer to stay on the campus I just hang out with my friends visiting each other’s room or we often cook for each our home counties’ food. We sometimes go to Glasgow or Edinburgh for shopping. These big exciting cities are definitely good for shopping but they also have plenty of museums and galleries you can visit. I’ve been to the Kelvingrove art gallery in Glasgow and also National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh so far. I like exploring in arts. These cultural institutions are free in the U.K. so I thought why not visit them!

During the term time, I’m involved in the dance society and international society. I enjoy so much our general practice in the dance society. We have several kinds of dances like contemporary, hip-hop, ballet, tap, breakdance and so on. I’m trying hip-hop now and it’s been a great fun. We’ll have a competition sometime in next term so I guess we are going to be pretty busy for practicing after this break. I’ll post it when it gets into more details.

Finally about the course, I’m doing the Business and Arts course which covers a wide range of subjects. I like the subjects which are relevant to Journalism Studies but also there are some I don’t! When I found it a little tough in some subjects, my friends help me how to work out and vice versa. The teachers are also very friendly and helpful. I started an extra writing work on my own last term and one of the teachers helps me to check my work. Fortunately it’s been making a good progress! So I think I’ll continue with it next term. It’s so hard to study on your own but when you involve someone else it’s much easier to persuade yourself to commit the work because then you have a bit of pressure! That’s one thing I discovered how to keep myself busy. There are too many new things that I can learn and enjoy at this university and I just don’t want to miss them all!