Greetings from Coleraine!

Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m on my international year of the four year level 8 culinary arts course in SETU. For semester one I have chosen to attend University of Ulster in Coleraine from September to December. University of Ulster has three campuses, Coleraine, Belfast and Derry. The Coleraine campus is much smaller than SETU with only 5000 students. There is a very relaxed atmosphere here and we met many other international students. The university has many amenities for students such as a gym, various sports clubs and a strength and conditioning suite.

I am renting an apartment with Hannah, one of my classmates. It is a two bed apartment located in Portrush. The apartment is a two minute walk from the beach and has a lovely long walk up around the cliffs with gorgeous views. It is a ten minute drive to the college by car, luckily Hannah and I take turns driving to college each day. There is a bus stop straight across from our apartment and the train station is a five minute walk also. There is lots to do around the Portrush, Coleraine and Portstewart area. I have been to many bakeries and cafes over my few weeks since my arrival in Northern Ireland. The town is very calm and quiet which is also nice.

The modules in ulster are quite different to SETU. The modules I am studying are product development, applied sensory science and quality control and lastly, food studies and nutrition We look at different aspects of food such as developing products for the shelves and researching the information needed in addition to the products. It’s interesting to see the method behind producing products and all the testing required to make it feasible for sale. For us, we only have college on Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s which means we can go home for the weekend if we wish. The lecturers are very warm and welcoming and are easy to talk to. They made us feel right at home upon arrival and in the first few weeks of classes. Overall, I’m enjoying my experience so far in Portrush. I’m settling into a routine and I’ve plenty of spare time to explore the area and have fun. We’re nearly halfway through, the weeks really are flying by. We finish classes on the 15th of December for Christmas. I’ll sign off here from West Beach, Portrush.