Malcolm Oberg: Life in Sunny Scotland

After spending a week in Aberdeen, I finally understood what culture shock felt like. Everything felt a little off; cars drove on the wrong side of the road, the beautiful architecture of the buildings clashed with the boring nature of the shops inside, and there are no mountains or trees!

After spending two weeks in Aberdeen, I realized that I actually love being here. Aberdeen is a beautiful city, but in a different way from Vancouver. The Aberdeen beach goes on almost as far as the eye can see. If you take a short bus further up the coast you can see amazing cliffs, and if you're lucky, some wild deer or seals. The city itself took a little getting used to, since almost all of the buildings are made out of gray granite. But now that spring is on its way, the blue sky combined with the thousands of yellow flowers in Aberdeen's parks make the city look amazing.

Studying abroad has been an amazing experience so far. Even if my my accommodation leaves a little to be desired, my flat mates are amazing. Even if school isn't the most exciting thing to do while in Europe, I've made good friends with my classmates and other international students. There's always something for us to do, from clubbing, to playing pool, going bowling, or going on day trips up to some castle or another. I'm really excited for my upcoming trip to Ibiza, hopefully it will be a little warmer than Poland was.

No matter how windy it gets, no matter if we're still getting snow in April, I'm still loving my time here.

Malcom is a third year Bachelor of Business Administration student studying abroad at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland.