My Year Abroad: Lily
Our languages students spend the third year of their degree studying abroad, in a country (or countries) that complement their studies. Here, Lily takes us through her Year Abroad experiences so far
Hello! My name is Lily McGregor and I study Spanish and Russian at Murray Edwards. I studied Spanish for A-level but I only started learning Russian at Cambridge.
I've studied in a couple of places on my year abroad. I did one semester in MedellĂn, Colombia, and am now studying in Tallinn, Estonia.
For the Spanish side of my year abroad, I knew I definitely wanted to take advantage of being under the safety net of Cambridge, and travel somewhere far away from Europe. I wanted to go to South America, but as I had never been before it was tricky narrowing down to one country. Ultimately I decided more on the city of MedellĂn itself, rather than on Colombia, as it sounded like a real cultural centre, and I was interested in how the city had revived itself after so much violence, despite some violence still persisting today. I’m so happy I did choose MedellĂn, as it was even more amazing than I thought it would be. I was also able to travel around Colombia loads, which is a huge plus, as Colombia is such a diverse country!
I had much more limited choices when choosing where to study Russian, and I was a little disheartened when making my choice, as I had always wanted to go to Russia for the year abroad. However, I am so pleased with my choice to go to Estonia. I think it really worked out well as I had never been to the Baltics before, and it’s a great opportunity to explore a country I otherwise might not have been to. Tallinn is a funny city to live in, firstly because it is so small, and secondly because of the true mix of the Estonian, Russian and English language. At the time of writing this, I’ve only been in Tallinn for two weeks so still have lots to explore, and I’m looking forward to some trips to the countryside coming up!
In terms of meeting new people, and forming connections, I was lucky that the University in MedellĂn (Universidad de Antioquia) was super welcoming to exchange students and had a buddy programme (programa parcero) which meant that I immediately had at least one person to meet up with. I think going to university was such a good choice as I was able to meet loads of local people, and as Colombians are so naturally friendly they would come up to me more often than not which made things so much easier! There was only one other MML Cambridge student in MedellĂn, and I was so happy to meet her and have someone from home to hang out with, but I do think we were both happy that we were the only ones in Colombia, as if there are too many other English exchange students you can fall into the trap of only speaking English and only having British friends.
In Tallinn, as I’m studying in a language school specifically for British Year Abroad students, unfortunately I’m not getting the language immersion I got in Colombia. However, I’ve made some really good friends and it’s fun exploring the city with them! There’s also loads of events going on in Tallinn, and also lots of international groups, so you are always meeting new people.
The biggest surprise about my year abroad is that I didn’t expect to have so much free time! I was really happy with how much freedom the extra time gave me to travel around a bit and get to know the bigger country rather than staying in the same city the entire time.
There have also been some culture shocks. In Colombia, it took a while to get used to how open and friendly people were! In England people can be closed off to strangers, but in Colombia you always seem to get into random conversations with everyone – be it the taxi driver, the shopkeeper, or just someone on the street! In Estonia, I've found the opposite - people are quite reserved and private. Coming from Colombia made this seem a lot more drastic of a change, but people here tend to give monosyllabic answers. Another shock was also the cold, as it was around -17 degrees when I arrived!
I feel more confident, since living abroad, as I’ve met so many people and learnt to be more open in first encounters. I’ve also learnt to love trying new experiences, and to try say yes to everything! It can be so daunting turning up to events alone, especially abroad, but I’m so happy with the confidence this experience has given me.
Quickfire Questions:
Q: Favourite word or phrase in a different language?
A: Loads of people called each other “mor” in MedellĂn, which is just a shortened version of “amor” and I loved that. I also loved the word “chevre”, meaning “cool” in MedellĂn, especially as it doesn’t sound at all like a Spanish word.
Q: Why did you choose the MML course at Cambridge?
A: I love the mix of culture, language and linguistics that you get at Cambridge, as it lets you immerse yourself in the language from all angles. It’s also great how you have the opportunity to pick up other languages during your study, for instance loads of the students from the Russian cohort also picked up Polish and Ukrainian in their second year. However I needed to concentrate on getting Russian grammar down first!
Q: What makes MML at Murray Edwards special?
A: The Dorothy Gabe Society at Murray Edwards is great as it makes the MMLers in college feel like a community, and it’s also so interesting to hear about what the professors and students alike are getting up to in the presentations they put on.