Author, Labiba Kaiser is an International Student Ambassador at the University of Liverpool.
With winter holidays starting and Christmas bells ringing in every corner of Liverpool, my favourite time of the year has arrived at last!
While most students are busy returning home, it obviously feels a little homesick when you’re an international student. For me, with my home being more than 8,000 kilometres away, it’s quite hectic to travel back for the holidays when exams are so just after the break. All the Christmas arrangements going on around me makes me want to share the experiences with loved ones.
But, they say ‘Home is where you make it’ and Liverpool is now a home away from home for me, with its hospitality and friendliness all around the city. While I was quite stressed with the thought of how my Christmas is going to be this year; the University, my Liverpool friends and the city itself is looking to make this one of the best Christmases of my life. So this is how my first Christmas in Liverpool started:
The city, its lights and wow the SNOW!
Liverpool is all about surprises at Christmas. The city inaugurated Christmas by turning herself into the city of lights! I went to see the lighting up of the whole city on the first day with my university friends. I couldn’t believe that I was getting the Christmas feeling that early in November, just by walking through the city centre.
We headed to the Christmas market, which was buzzing with foods from all around world like Belgium chocolate waffle, German sausages, Halloumi fries, Dim Sum etc!
December is nothing without a white Christmas and Liverpool won’t let you miss that. The Dock set up its own ice skating field and I never knew it was so fun to fall over ice this many times!
Did someone say Christmas decor and baking?
I’m a person who loves festive baking and decorating my house. Every year I decorate my house with my mum and sister for lots of different festivals and I was missing that. You don’t feel the same zeal when you’re buying decorations alone and it’s also costly being a student.
When I received an invitation from my department to attend the ‘Christmas Festive Social’ at the University I didn’t realise this wish of mine would be granted. I was so excited to see the variety of decorative pieces the University brought for us. Making tree decorations and Christmas cards together with my friends and teachers felt no less than home!
Later, we also arranged our own Christmas baking at a friend’s apartment and look at the great work we have done! We even took the cookies for our classmates the next day and everyone loved it!
Look at our cookies, don’t they look great!?
Plans for the holidays
With Liverpool being a well-connected city, it’s so easy to travel to nearby places anytime during the year. Almost all cities in the UK are decorated with lights and Christmas markets during this season. During the holidays, we plan to visit York and Manchester for a day, and then on Christmas day, I plan to visit a family friend in Glasgow to have my Christmas dinner with her. There’s so much to do in the holidays that it’s almost impossible to get the time to feel homesick in Liverpool!
I would admit, at first the thought of spending Christmas alone was very overwhelming for me. But on the first day of December when I walked in class, one of my closest friends in Liverpool gave me my first Christmas present saying she couldn’t wait any longer as she thought I needed my winter essentials as soon as possible before the weather gets rough. This moment was so special for me and made me realise I actually made a home here in Liverpool away from my own country.
I’m so glad that I attended all the welcome week events arranged by the University for the international students which helped me find all these wonderful souls whom I call my family now!
If you are staying in Liverpool over the Christmas break, take a look at our Student Services website for advice and guidance.