Exchange Erasmus Report

NCD – New College of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom

Fall semester 2014

Andrei – Liviu Grigoriciuc

Andrei – Liviu Grigoriciuc IBA – International Business Academy Page 1

My name is Andrei Grigoriciuc from Romania and I have started my university studies in August 2013 in Kolding Denmark at Iba – International Business Academy for Marketing and management program. The first year in Denmark was really good for me because I started to improve my English skills and the environment from here helped me to improve myself.

After one year full of experiences and great memories in Denmark I decided to challenge myself for a new experience, maybe a new level because all of us know England is the country with many universities in top 100 of higher universities. The idea to go abroad again after I come in Denmark from Romania came when I participated at IBA culture presentation where were present many students came from many countries with this program, Erasmus Plus.

The first day at my new school was organized in coffee area called Starbucks building. We had ourselves presentations like: Which is our name, age? Which country are we coming from? There I met my new friends who become my best friend from England, Lionel Fernandez from Belgium.

I felt a bit weird because the official language is English and sometimes I was in the situation: What? What did he say? I felt de difference between my English and the professional English. Because we were an international class only with international students from European countries was easy to understand each other. In the first two weeks I had the problem to understand the British accent.

Also in the first day I participated at many presentations, about school, SOIS – Society of International Students at the New College Durham, Heath and safely and also we known out new teachers. The first day was very charged schedule.

New College of Durham can give you many opportunities because they have many partners and professional board. It is one of the universities with higher educational level. The university has around 300 international students.

SOIS - https://www.facebook.com/SOISdurham SOIS stands for Society of International Students at the New College Durham, UK. Their goals are to make an interesting live for International students during the staying at New College of Durham.

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ASC – Advice Support Career This is something new I have met at New College of Durham. It’s a professional desk where everybody can ask for help about, future career, about stress of exams and they could be like a supervisor of your studies.

Making a comparison between IBA – International Business Academy and NCD – New College of Durham , there are no very big differences, because both of them are very organized , both of them have many international students ( maybe IBA has more many then NCD ), both of them are based on projects and practice type of learning.

Making a comparison between Kolding and Durham, the difference is maybe a bit about the weather because in Durham, the weather is rainier but I like this kind of weather. About the size and no of population, I think it is the same.

Durham and the best places to visit.

For sure the main place to visit in Durham is around downtown where we can see the Cathedral of Durham and also the Castle of Durham. Because both of them are situated on a island and around the island is wather there are many bridges which also are like principale points to take pictures .

Durham Cathedral - The Cathedral Church of Christ has over 1000 years of history

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The cathedral has been built in 1093 Durham Cathedral witnessed further

turbulence during the Civil War. In 1650 the Cathedral was closed and used by Cromwell to incarcerate 3,000 Scottish prisoners.

The Cathedral is also responsible for the care and upkeep of the woodlands and riverbanks which provide the stunning setting for the Cathedral when seen from the west.

Today the Cathedral thrives as a place of worship and hospitality, welcoming over 600,000 people every year. It continues to be a focal point for the community of Durham and the wider North East region offering a deep sense of place to all who come.

Walk Street

In down town of Durham became an atraction for walk because a lot of people are going out to have walk in the dark and day because everything was arranged and it become a pleasure to take some air after stressed day . There are many restaurants , caffee area and shops.

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Beamish museum

Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum is an open-air museum located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County, England. The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialization in the early 20th century.

Much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, together with portions of countryside under the influence of industrial revolution in 1825. On its 300 acres (120 ha) estate it utilizes a mixture of translocate, original and replica buildings; a huge collection of artifacts, working vehicles and equipment; as well as livestock and costumed interpreters.

The museum has received a number of awards since it opened its present site to visitors in 1972 and has been influential on other "living museums". It is a significant educational resource, and helps to preserve some traditional north-country and rare livestock breeds.

The town area, officially opened in 1985, depicts chiefly Victorian buildings in an evolved urban setting of 1913.

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A typical North Eastern Railway station is reconstructed on the edge of the town. The station building itself came from Rowley, just a few miles from Beamish, which both originally lay on the Stanhope and Tyne Railway

In view of the impact that coal mining has had on its region, the museum has major collections related to this industry.Access the link below : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamish_Museum

School and learning environment

After the first day of school I was really delighted of my new school. Because I applied for Marketing and Management I had to choice for 3 modules and I decided to take,Mop – Managing Organization Performance , Strategy and Change and Event management because this module was more close than others I had to choice. But finally I am happy for my decision because I improved myself about finance, event managing and strategy in marketing with possible reactions after changes.

The school and learning environment is developed, the technology did a strong impact over New College of Durham and that make easier to coordinate many tasks.

I had around 12 lessons per week with seminars and classes, and a lot of free time to spend with my new friends. Because we had a lot of free time we joined for some extra activities like: football, volleyball, trips around the city, and trips in other cities.

I was really surprised when I had the exams because when I gone in the exam room I was only me and paper. Making the comparison with IBA where we can have access at internet and we can use our laptops and notes, here I had the surprise to have exam without any other helps. Just me, some empty papers and my lovely pen .

Exams:

o About Exams : I have had 3 different exams- Organizational managing performance module :

Before exam I had a project of 3 weeks about Morrison’s Wm and I have to study it and to answer for some questions received together the case.

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The exam was oral exam with my tutors with question from Morrison’s Project. ( 15 pages – 3000 words )

- Event management: Written exam about creating and develop an event. With questions from an event from 2 years ago happened in Durham.Lights Event, we had to resolve the case and find the wrong point happened.

- Strategy and change: it is more about strategy of marketing and the feedback of change strategy.It was a really hard exam because we didn’t have many lessons or seminars about it and it was really hard to make the research and learn about all we have to do.

Extracurricular activities:

Volleyball

Football – I really enjoined to be in the New College of Durham Football Team because I had classes of training with professional teachers.

Here is the link with one of the good game I have played for New College. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_4dWW6QS9E&channel=newcollegedurhamtv).

During the time spent with new college football team I met and I did new friend relationship and I still keep in touch with some of them and they tell me after each game.Being there with them I also improved other face of my English skills because I become friend with most of them. I will finish saying about football team: it was amazing to be there with them and had fun. And their behave was like a professional team and it think it touched me.

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(The first one from the bottom row in the left part)

Trips (, Liverpool , Newcastle , London , Glasgow , Middleborough , York )

We had weekly a trip organized by SOIS but I am going to tell the best one when we have been in Liverpool and visited : Liverpool museum , The bigger store center , and I think one of the best place for me in Liverpool is: Anfield – like a temple for me .

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I have had a tour of the stadium of Liverpool, one of the loved team in the world as I know. For me this was the most interesting trip for me because my passion is football and I had the chance to see and to hear the story about this fantastic football club.

Liverpool Stadium: Anfield

Night out in Newcastle

After we finished with all stressed exam we have decided to go out and refresh our minds, having a good dinner and then to go in clubs. Because we felt the end of semester and we know that some of us will leave the England after Christmas break we stayed together and we were more friendly.

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Good bye dinner or the last dinner together

All the class we had a night out together because we felt good to be there and also because the Christmas was near , we decided to had a Goodbye dinner or Christmas dinner. I don’t know what can I say more about this night , as you can see on my face I regreted to leave them after 3 amaizing months there, with many friends and activities together .

As I said on my facebook page , this is not a good bye text, this is a text means I wanna see you again .

‘’ Hello all . I wanna say thank you to everybody for all support, I met a lot of great people here in

Durham and I had a very good time . I wish come back and visit you in summer. PS : Lad's from New College , you may win the league this year and I will be happy to hear news from you .For all my classmates I wish you good luck in your future career .I not good at goodbyes but I wish you Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year. —  Traveling to Bucharest, Romania, starting from Newcastle Airport. ‘’

Thank you Erasmus Plus and all the people helped me to go there ( Clare Dorking , Sigrun Sigurjonsdottir and to my teacher for their recommendations .

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