UEA International Student Ambassadors

The spring is here! and with it we have our festival of colours; Holi bringing wonderful colours to our lives. It  is a Hindu religious festival celebrated in many parts of South Asia, but it has in recent times spread to many parts of Europe and North America. The day is filled with colours, the participants play, chase and colour each other with dry powder and coloured water with water guns or coloured water filled balloons. It has a religious significance as it signifies death of Holika (the evil sister of demon) and how good always wins over evil. To celebrate the story, large bonfires are burned during Holi. Ranu South Asia Ambassador

It's that time of year again ... DERBY DAY ! Derby day is when UEA comes head to head with our undoubted rivals (don't ask me why!), Essex university in every sporting you can think of. From Lacrosse to trampolining to football to cheerleading. Whatever sport you like, it's there! The host university alternates from year to year and this year it's UEA's turn. I love it because even though I am not part of any of the sports taking part, I feel completely involved as a spectator and supporter of my fellow UEA students. The day of sporting fun is finished with a night out at the LCR where both UEA and Essex students come together to celebrate in spite of their defeats. It's a great day full of university spirit and pride, so get down to campus this Saturday 14th March to cheer on UEA! More details can be found at: http://derbyday.webflow.com/#schedule

Hi There! It's Patrick, the North American Student Ambassador. I just want to take a moment to brag. Thursday 5 March 2015, I will be going to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. For free. Let me repeat that: for free. Oh, did I mention I'm getting paid to go? Let me start from the beginning. There are many opportunities to do enjoyable work around campus. One of the main schemes for UEA students is the UEA Ambassador Scheme. This is an ad hoc (or as needed) job that allows you to sign up for the shifts you want, when you want. The ambassador programme is a brilliant way to earn some extra cash and do some fun activities on campus or in another part of the city. Moreover, it lets you control how often you want to work, as well, that way I can balance focusing on my studies and working, gaining meaningful experience in an international work environment and in an area I have recently learned is my future career path (study abroad). Harry Potter sprung out of my time working with...

Or will, soon enough. Or, this is an invocation.  I am doubly excited about the season because of the stellar line up at for the UEA Spring Literary Festival which will feature some of my all-time favourite writers. Many of the writers coming to UEA this time are also some of the best contemporary nature-writers of Britain.  Nature writing in 2015 isn't really all about watching flowers dance in the wind, or thinking about dark things while listening to birdsong, it's much more than describing the non-human world in all its glory or awe. Nature-writing, or good nature-writing anyway, is looking at our relationship with the land, meditating on the history of this oldest form of interaction between species and can even extend to becoming an ecological bond itself, balancing memoir and scientific facts, looking at the layers of socioeconomic interdependence with an eco-critical eye. But I'm not really going to bore you with definitions now, and if you want a fresh pe...

Common frog - Rana temporaria The common frog,  Rana temporaria , is found all across the UK. I had seen a few shortly after arriving in Norwich in September 2014, but none since; the winter months are too cold for them and they tend to hibernate. Now, with the onset of Spring, the frogs are beginning to emerge again, ready to begin the reproductive phase of their life cycle.  They can differ in appearance quite drastically and so can be easily confused with other species. I'm not so hot with my amphibian identification and had studied a few different descriptions and raked my memory of my frog encounter before coming across this useful tip. I knew this was a frog straight away because of its bulging eyes, slimy streamlined body and large back legs. For those who might confuse toads and frogs remember those distinguishing features, and that toads tend to look dry and bumpy and tend to walk instead of hop. I always get excited when I come across animals I  d...

Around the same time that we are celebrating the Pancake Day in the UK by eating lots and lots of pancakes, in Russia we are celebrating the festival of Maslenitsa - the whole week of pancaking eating fun! Maslenitsa is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday. In Slavic mythology, Maslenitsa is a celebration of the imminent end of the winter. The most characteristic food of Maslenitsa is bliny (pancakes or crepes). During pagan times, the round and golden shape and color signified praise to the Sun because of pancakes' resemblance to it. Maslenitsa activities also include snowball fights, sledding, riding on swings and plenty of sleigh rides. The mascot of the celebration is usually a brightly dressed straw effigy of Maslenitsa. As the culmination of the celebration, on Sunday evening, Lady Maslenitsa is stripped of her finery and put to the flames of a bonfire, a ritual that is signifying the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Happy spring ...

The Great tit is the largest bird in the tit family with very distinctive plumage. Their white cheeks stand out against their black crown and throat. Their backs are a yellowish green and their feathers a blue-grey. Their yellow bellies dashed by a black stripe down the middle. It is easy to spot and identify these once you have seen them once or twice. It is common in bird species for the male to have a more elaborate plumage than the female as it is a display of good fitness and therefore a good mating partner. However in great tits, as with some other bird species, the plumage between sexes does not differ too drastically. Identifying sexes is still quite easy, as in males the black belly stripe extends passed the cloaca whereas in females it falls short about halfway down the belly. Determining age is a little more difficult as it relies on the judgement of shades of colour on the wing. Different species of bird molt feathers at different ages and a different number ...