24 Hours In Birmingham

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Grace Zheng

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Grace Zheng

<i>Home Institution</i>: University of New Mexico <i>Expected Graduation Year</i>: 2024 <i>Academic Major / Minor</i>: Marketing <i>Destination</i>: Leeds, UK <i>"Hello" in your host country's language</i>: Hello <i>Demographics</i>: Asian/Asian American, First-Generation American, First-Generation College Student <i>Future Career Goals</i>: I want to work in Public Relations to help out the community I grew up in. I want to use my degree in marketing to make some long lasting impact around sustainability and equality. My goal is to bond the people from New Mexico together regardless of the different backgrounds everyone comes from. I believe we can unite individuals by making not only our state a better place but the world as well. Public relations will allow me to spread ideas I am passionate about while providing an opportunity for voices to be heard on a first hand level. <i>Top Three Study Abroad Goals</i>: Travel- To as many countries as possible to diversify my knowledge, seeing the world or other cultures is one of the greatest privileges to have and I want to use this as an opportunity to learn on a global scale; Grow within myself- Going abroad is such an amazing experience however it can be scary and I want to grow as a person in all aspects while being in a new country miles away from the familiarity of being back home; Inspire- To motivate other students with similar background as me to go out there and see the world for themselves by following my journey

Ever since I went abroad I have noticed I’ve been more spontaneous and care free. Back at home there’s always stress revolving around school and work that is sometimes feel suffocating. For one of my last trip before heading home me and my friend traveled down to Birmingham for 24 hours. Some of you may think Birmingham is a strange place to visit considering it is very similar to any other large cities in England. Well, truth is that we were not just going for fun but instead something that is very exciting. We went to see Harry Styles in concert!

I bought these tickets back in September and has been planning out this trip for months. The actual concert was actually in a city called Coventry.

Coventry was 20 minutes away from Birmingham and the arena was another 10 so all in all very commutable. The concert was absolutely amazing, he is such a talented performer and I feel lucky that I got to see him perform live.

After the concert, we headed back to Birmingham to spend the night and woke up early to explore the city. My previous predictions about the city couldn’t have been more wrong. This city is full of diversity and it was very different from any other cities I’ve been to. While walking around I definitely noticed that it was a minority majority area. They had a huge china town with a lot of yummy foods and cuisines in the city center. The train station was also huge. It was called grand central and now I see why it was named that. Imagine a giant shopping center, with loads of restaurants, and down the escalator is a big train station double the size of the one in Leeds.

The streets were filled with amazing art and I’ve never felt such a sense of community in a large city. Another cool part was the architecture in the city was very unique and in very crazy shapes (I’m assuming something to do with energy efficiency). Overall, it was a very short trip but through spontaneous decisions I am able to make such great memories with the people I have met here.