Problem Solving as an Exchange Student

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This post is one I wrote while on a foreign exchange in Scotland, it features some of my good friends and focuses on the keen problem solving abilities of exchange students with a hint of comedy.

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Exchange students are an interesting bunch of people and although we are all from different cultures and locations around the globe most all of us share a common interest in learning about other cultures and exploring. The more I speak with students that I have meet while here on exchange the more I realize the similarities we all share and how we think alike in many ways. In this blog entry I would like to share a couple of stories about the exchange students problem solving abilities. Okay story number one if you take a look at the student in the bottom left photograph in the back on the left side of the window that is Prerak, an exchange student from Singapore. Prerak is an engineering student which means that problem solving is something that is an expected skill. Here in Scotland the water faucet has two different outputs and two different extreme temperatures half puts out scolding hot H2O and the other is freezing cold H2O, but what do you do if you want warm water? Well fear not my friends Prerak has solved this dilemma, he simply tied a plastic bag with rubber-bands over the faucet and cut a hole in the center so that the hot and cold water mix together before leaving the bag giving you warm water. When I asked him for these photographs he followed up saying: "It's literally a plastic bag! But I'm panning to cut open a big 2L bottle and make something out of that to replace this with!" Now although this may not be an original thought it is unique to this exchange students experience so I thought it deserved to be mentioned in this post. This may seem like an odd thing to want, warm water of all things but believe me after burning and freezing your hands under the faucet this is a genius invention you may want to consider.

Story number two: drying your clothes. Now this one is a bit more original in my opinion. Washing clothes at the laundromat especially for something as simple as a bit of mud on your pants after going on an adventure can get pretty pricey, not to mention that the money you spend could be used for another adventure; so what do you do if you wash the mud off in the sink and need to dry your pants? Well I'm glad you asked, because Prerak also came up with a contraption for this. This one is a bit more humorous than the last one, according to Prerak when hanging his pants on a hanger from the curtain rod they were to high up so a simple solution to this was to tie his "selfie stick" to the curtain rod and hang his pants on it. This enabled him to adjust the height and dry multiple areas of his pants at will. Side note, it is much easier to just put your pants on the heater, the heater doesn't get to hot and I'm sure you wont set anything on fire haha but I think this was creative none the less.

Okay on to story number three: a place to put your worn but clean clothing. If you look in the same photograph I mentioned previously take a look at the young woman siting directly across from Prerak, that is Mila. Mila is an exchange student from Germany that is working on her masters degree. When she mentioned this dilemma and her solution I could relate to it and I believe that many of you can as well. So what do you do with clothes that you've only worn once so they aren't exactly dirty but you don't really want to put them back in your wardrobe? As I mentioned earlier Mila has a solution for this. All you need are two larger boxes from the store and some wrapping paper. Then stick both boxes together, wrap them in the wrapping paper and there you have it a convenient and nice looking clothing holder (I couldn't really think of a better name for it). Using the same wrapping paper Mila changed the color of her pin board to match. I think this was a lovely use of some boxes and wrapping paper, the outcome is not only functional and nice to look at but it is also cost effective.

These are just a couple of examples of the problem solving abilities of the exchange student, there are many more that I could have mentioned but for now here are a couple to illustrate my point. Although these ideas may not be the most original I believe that they tell the story of these students and are unique to their own experience as exchange students in Scotland. One of the best parts of studying abroad and knowing exchange students is that we are all in someway facing the same things, and so hearing about the ways others have solved the problems that they are facing helps you feel like part of a group and not alone. People to say the least are really very interesting so I encourage you to get to know those around you regardless of where you are, because like it or not you will have at least one thing in common with everyone that you meet, and who knows maybe what you learn will make a good story.

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did please like, share and comment bellow.

As always keep working hard and best of luck on your journey.