Making Friends on a Visit to Chester

Posted on: 22 February 2018 by Mary Williams in 2017/18

Mary, a student from University of Georgia in the USA talks about her visit to the Roman city of Chester and what an amazing opportunity it was to make friends!

I have officially been in the UK for one month on an exchange at the University of Liverpool. I have been amazed at the amount of experiences and lessons learned in just being here for one month. One of my favorite memories so far has been a day trip to Chester.

During the second week of being in Liverpool, I randomly got put in a group message with people from my residence hall (… and honestly I only knew 1 out of the 20 people in that group message). The message said they were planning a trip to Chester (… and honestly I didn’t know any thing about the town of Chester). Since I had SO MUCH knowledge on the trip, it was very logical that I should say“yes” and go on the weekend trip.

I ended up going along with the group on the trip, and we boarded an early train to the city. We ended up having such an amazing time! We drank good coffee and walked the streets to see the unique buildings and cathedral of Chester. We got to finish the incredible day with some waffles! All of the activities we did were so fun! But the really amazing part was the people I was surrounded by.

The group was full of people from many different parts of the world including France, Egypt, Austria, Denmark, Australia, and the United States. We all spoke with different accents. We all may debate on whether something is called a biscuit or a scone (… it’s a biscuit). We all may have different lifestyles at home. But, despite our differences, we learned that we also so similar!
We all came on an exchange to Liverpool with a sense of adventure. We all love Disney movies and desserts. We all had similar college experiences prior to the trip. And even, we learned that we all had some fear of being in a foreign place without our family and friends. But all of us expressed how excited we were to learn more about the world during these four months.

This trip to Chester bonded this random group of people in such an incredible way! I am very thankful that I said “yes” to that trip to a city I didn’t know with people I didn’t know. I am looking forward to more months of saying “yes” to more adventures and learning experiences while I am studying here in Liverpool!