Hi! I absolutely love your blog posts. I am also thinking of going to Leeds for exchange next year. I was wondering what your thoughts are on accommodation in terms of getting catered/non-catered residences. Do you find it annoying to cook every single day/grocery shop? Also, this may seem like a really stupid question, but is it easy to make friends there? I'm kind of nervous about this whole being alone, exchange thing. ps. sorry if this was too much to read!

Thank you!  That’s so nice of you to say that.  Leeds is great and I definitely would recommend it as a destination for an academic exchange.  As for the accommodation, I was a little bit worried about getting a self-catered residence because I can’t cook at all.  Basically, all I’m doing is boiling food haha.  I won’t lie, it’s a little bit annoying having to handwash the dishes after cooking.  

Now, I really don’t mind getting put into this particular self-catered residence as I’m meeting a ton of international students.  Our residence is apparently going to be fixed up next semester so it’s only available this fall semester.  That’s why the majority of international students who are only here for one semester were put here, at least that’s what I believe.  In terms of making friends, it is pretty easy.  Don’t be shy!  Introduce yourself to people and smile.  Almost everyone is in the same situation where you don’t know a single soul.  You’ll get to become friends with so many people that you feel alone at all, I promise!

Hopefully that helps.  Let me know if you’ve got any more questions :)

PS.  No worries!  This wasn’t too much to read.