So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu
A light-hearted piece looking back on my time studying Modern Languages in the midst of Finals season. Productive procrastination to the extreme.
student journalism
A collection of articles written for the student paper Varsity and the online publication The Cambridge Language Collective
It’s all double Dutch to me!
Helaas Pindakaas! As another lockdown scuppers a long-awaited trip to Amsterdam, I reflect on the unexpected finds, challenges, and cheese-related idioms, a year of learning Dutch has brought.
Travel Writing and ‘A Chip Shop in Poznań’
Ben Aitken's travelogue 'A Chip Shop in Poznań’ leads to thoughts on learning Polish and the travel writing genre
Dreaming of Jollibee and Christmas in Manila
A festive feature exploring the delights of my Filipino heritage - and buckets of Jollibee fried chicken.
Searching for answers and Apfelstrudel: A review of The Lost Café Schindler
Meriel Schindler's 'The Lost Café Schindler' prompts reflections on Austrian cultural memory and wider 'Erinnerungskultur'
Postcards from Vienna IV: Österreich Klösterreich
A walking pilgrimage to Mariazell provides inspiration - and plenty of KnabberNossi - for the final Year Abroad column
Postcards from Vienna III: Kaffeehäuser
As lockdown lifts, a welcome return to the Kaffeehäuser and their significance in the Austrian literary scene.
Postcards from Vienna II
A postcard from Berggasse 19, an unassuming apartment block in the 9th district whose address has become synonymous with the name of one of its former residents: Sigmund Freud.
Postcards from Vienna
On actual postcards from Vienna: Thoughts on the lost art - and lost postcards - of writing and sending post in the era of social media.
An Easter far from home
Celebrating Holy Week in Vienna: spinach soups, vertiginous hikes and Austrian Alleluia's.
A Week in the Life: Vienna Edition
A photo diary from the past week of the Viennese adventure, featuring multiple hikes and an escape to Linz!
On FaceTime and Voice Notes: A Year of Virtual Friendship
Lessons learned from an abrupt goodbye - and a year of voice notes.
Postcards from Vienna I: Erinnerungskultur
Some early thoughts on Austrian cultural memory and 'Vergangenheitsbewältigung' - and the dreaded Year Abroad Project
Vienna waits for you...
During my Year Abroad I ended up writing some (quite cheesy) promotional web content for an Austrian student accommodation provider, reflecting on my experiences as an exchange student living in Vienna.
Photo by Nuray on Pexels
![]()
An "Auslandssemester" at the Uni Wien
8.6 semesters and an ECTS nightmare: reflections - and precautionary tales - from a year at the University of Vienna.
Photo by Marta Dzedyshko on Pexels
![]()
5 ways to have "WG-Fun" at the Mediatrix-Heim
Ideas for lockdown student home fun, featuring copious quantities of banana bread...
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels
![]()
5 reasons to say "yes" to Vienna!: Why Vienna has been a "wunderbar" choice for my Year Abroad
As I reach the half-way point of my Erasmus exchange in Vienna, some reasons why I'm convinced it's the most underrated of Year Abroad destinations.
Photo by Wendy Wei on Pexels
![]()
Tips for exchange students in 2020
Moving abroad is challenging at the best of times, and it’s safe to say that 2020 has only gone and thrown a whole toolbox of spanners into the works.
Learning languages: studying and being fully immersed in Vienna
So committed to the language-learning cause that moving to Vienna during a pandemic and Brexit seemed like the only reasonable thing to do.
Photo by Ahmet Yüksek ✪ on Pexels
![]()
Herbst Hits: autumnal adventures around Wien
I’ve got my ‘Herbst Hits 2020’ playlist on, a warming cup of tea next to me, and I’m ready to share some of my recent recommendations… Los geht’s!