Hi everyone, Beckie here again. Today's post, I'd like to talk about something that is University based; the Global Graduates trip. Some of you may be aware of this, some of you may not, but it is an amazing opportunity offered by a generous donor for those on any course, providing you are not in your final year. The trip is just over a week long at the end of the year (after June exams) and involves going to one of six destinations: London and Paris (as one), Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, San Francisco and a newly added Toronto (it was Dubai the year I went). I was fortunate enough to be chosen to go on this trip when I was in my first year; I chose to go to Hong Kong and it was the most amazing experience...which I will tell you a little bit about now.
The purpose of the trip is to meet with alumni of the University now living in these cities. The meetings in general are about what they do job wise, why they live where they do and a little discussion about the University. The meetings can take place in their offices, little local cafes or hotels: one even took us for a three course Rotary club lunch in the Peninsula hotel (it's very nice if you haven't heard of the brand) and it is so interesting to hear about their lives since graduating. The trip finished with a big alumni networking event with many other UK graduates there too. Of course this is the primary reason for the trip but in our free time, we got to do lots of fun exploring of the city.
Some of the things we got up to were: visiting Times Square and Hysan Shopping Mall (all traditional Chinese and Japanese stores), the infamous Kowloon light show, various Kowloon museums (an art gallery and a space and science museum included), Kowloon horse racing track, 'The Peak' (where you can see the full city) and some of the well talked about markets and drinking strips. (You can see my own blog post about it here for more info and pics.) It was absolutely amazing seeing the similarities and obvious differences between our culture and theirs and although, a lot of questionable food was involved (see below), it is by far the best place I've ever visited.
Although, I may be slightly bias on location choice, all of the destinations are amazing cities and have lots of tourist attractions to explore.
For anyone not in your final course year, I 100% advise applying. It is a once in a life time, all expenses paid trip to amazing cities across the globe and even if you then don't reach the final stage of the process, you can't say you didn't try.
You can find all information, including talks at the uni going more in depth into the trip, all before Easter, here: http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/experience/globalgraduates/.
Beckie: www.beckieione.com
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