Josh Rawclffe

It’s been way too long since I wrote an update on this website, so I’m going to try and summarise what I’ve been up to over the past 4 months.  The second term of my year exchange did offer some new experiences, getting to know new people and continuing to get to know others! I think one of my biggest highlights of this term however has been getting back into Taekwondo and competing in my first ‘formal’ competition in over 10 years! While it was a different style to the WT rules I’ve been used to, it was such a valuable experience that I really enjoyed! What made it the most however was being with the Queen’s University Kang Duk Kwon club, which made me feel welcome from the day I stepped in the Dojang at the first training session back in September. I’ve been hooked ever since! It’s going to miss training with everyone involved and if I ever get chance, would love to visit and train again one day! Another big highlight for me was experiencing the Canadian winter. While harsh

Distance: Over 6500km Total days: 40 Days Major stops: Quebec City, Montcon, Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton, Banff, Jasper, Vancouver, Vancouver Island Transport: Via Rail Accomodation: Camping and Airbnb Start Date: 28th of April Start line: Kingston, ON, Canada End Date: 6th of June Finish line: Vancouver Airport, BC, Canada

January's come and gone and with a blink of the eye we're flying through 2019. I think the familiarity of Canada and coming back post Christmas break has helped the clock tick along at a much quicker pace this term. I've only got about 10 weeks left in Kingston, which is frightening to think given how fast the last 5 weeks feel. Anyway, aside from doing the minimal amount of work to get through my degree, here's an update on cool stuff January had in store:  Cross-Country Skiing!  I've never done any sort of skiing in my life, but given the winter weather here it was a perfect chance to try. Also, the idea of  having 2m rulers stuck to my feet and travelling at a speedy pace seemed fun so I gave it a crack. Turns out, it's a lot harder than it looks. Although I think it was just me who seemed to be another level of bad compared to other people in the same beginner boat. So far I've given this a go twice, with varying levels of success (or, a bette

I'm not usually the sort of person to type the stereotypical 'New Year' post online and on social media, in fact I don't think I've ever made one of those cringe posts about the year, until now. Yet here we are, on a new years eve 2018 reflecting and thinking about what this year has brought. A quick heads up, this post hasn't been edited well but, if you've not much better to do, please go ahead and read on. I'm so lucky to have had some incredible experiences in 2018 with some incredible people.Whether that's friends at Warwick who got me through the hell that is EC226: Econometrics, the friends I've made since moving to Canada or the people who've I've known for years, I'm so so grateful. At the start of the year, I wasn't really sure what I was signing myself up for, splitting myself across 3 continents and not really having a purpose for it. I've tried to embrace a care-free 'why not?' attitude and so far it&#

It's a little bit crazy to think I'm already 2 months in and more than a quarter of the way through my exchange year at Queen's University. At this point, I feel like I've started to find my feet on this Canadian adventure, with a good group of friends here and, probably just as importantly, a good schedule with keeping up with people back home.  This time last year was about the time I really started to seriously consider taking a year abroad and looking back, I'm still not too sure what the biggest reason was that convinced me to accept the place at Queens, or even to go to Canada in the first place!  So, why (or why not) do a year abroad?  I think the biggest thing I've managed to take so far is the amount of free time I have compared to being at my home university. While it's not the same for all courses, I was allowed to take the Year Abroad as a pass/fail option to my degree, meaning that the module scores do not go towards my final degr

  Wolfe Island  With what turned into a weekend of no plans, we set off on a relatively close trip to Wolfe Island, just a 20 minute ferry journey from the harbour in Kingston. In all honesty, in off-peak season and in the late afternoon, there wasn't a great deal to do especially without access to car/bikes. However, we did manage to make our way to a nearby corn maze and set about wandering through never-ending corn fields. Also the owner of the corn maze was incredibly nice and managed to give us a lift back so we'd get there in time to make the ferry back! Bon Echo This was the first exploration into one of Canada's many national parks in Ontario. With autumn really taking place, this was an opportunity to catch the red maple colour of the trees at peak time! We ended up on a 10km hike, with some beautiful views across both the forest and a number of lakes. While we did end up in the middle of a thunderstorm 5km in, was a cool trip and a great