Easter in Leeds.

Easter Crafts 

It is officially the Easter holidays and many students have left the university vicinity, Leeds city, or even the country to enjoy all that spring has to offer. But for some, including many international students staying in Leeds, the sudden long holidays can be slightly daunting. While we have a relatively long holiday, students have essay deadlines and exams waiting for them at the end of the break. So many students have the dilemma of wanting to study hard for these tasks, but also to have a relaxing time. Also, many international students want to participate in cultural activities in the UK to better understand and appreciate the new culture.

This is why the Easter Crafts Event held by the Leeds University Union is one of the best ways for students, especially international students to enjoy an activity that is about the British culture. The event was also a family friendly event which the Union always ensures to signpost in case students or staff wants to bring a family member along to these events. The event filled up quickly and there were many students as well as some children enjoying the activity.

There were three desks and three activities available once we got into the room. One was the knitting wool desk where participants can make Easter bunnies out of. The second one was an Easter wreath desk, and the last one was a paper & cards desk where we could make Easter cards and decorate Easter eggs with the materials provided. I chose the paper & cards desk as I wanted to make an Easter card for my host family.

It was a quite busy event and we passed around essential items such as scissors and glue. The student staff were wonderful, and they showed us how to use certain items and actively helped out the children. The atmosphere was bubbly and relaxed as everyone concentrated on their crafts and chatted with some of their fellow participants.

Everyone was quite creative. Some decorated their eggs with sheep and chicks, others made fluffy bunnies out of knitting wool. One of the participants told me she had intended on making a bunny out of a knitting wool, but ended up it looking like a piglet, which was still adorable! The Easter wreaths were also beautiful, and people were keen to take pictures of their neighbours’ wreaths. We all had a really good time and we were also able to bring back what we had created. I was pleased to find out that my card was the first Easter card my host family had received this year!

The Leeds University Union has been holding several other Easter events, so please check out the other blogs written by our ambassadors!

M&S Proof of the Pudding Workshop

Staying in Leeds for Easter holidays has never been more eventful and I am all the more grateful for opportunities to take a break from studying. The University has definitely stepped it up for the students to meet others who are around during the holidays, enjoy a range of activities and provide ways to interact especially when most of the students are back home.

One of the events provided was an interactive workshop that took place in the M&S company archive which was centred on the best-selling M&S melt-in-the-mouth chocolate pudding (and a side of M&S history as well!). The event started with an enjoyable and inspiring afternoon as we took a trip down memory lane and learned about the humble beginnings of Marks and Spencer through the Marks in Time Exhibition. After that, we learned a little bit more about the nitty gritty of the challenges that the company has gone through while making the perfect chocolate pudding. As a Food Science & Nutrition student, it all sounded too familiar - it's too close to home and I was taken back by how everyone reacted (honestly, I just laughed silently). Imagine creating a product that needs to be consistent so that when it gets transported to local shops in the country, that the quality stays the same. Also, that every customer can enjoy their purchase because they know what to expect from that product, particularly the melted chocolate middle after cooking in the microwave. There's more to it than that but I won't bore you with all the food science details!

The fun doesn't stop there! We were then asked to design our own puddings that we think M&S could potentially sell in their shops. Each of us around the table where I was sitting designed our own puddings (picture with papers) and it was really fun to hear other ideas as we were encouraged to think of one that isn't already on the market, something that could be inspired by our home country's traditional cuisine. I thought it would be great to see ube crinkles (*purple cookies photo) in the shelves so I attempted to draw them - purple coloured ones are made from ube (purple yam) and black one's chocolate. Ube is purple yam which is used in a lot of Filipino delicacies.

Finally, pudding time! Before we started trying it, we were giving a ranking sheet to show us how products are usually tested by experts before it can be finally seen in the shelves. This took me back to my placement as it was one of the things I had to do - yes, one of my tasks was to taste and judge food. So fun, right?! It was nothing short of chocolate-y goodness and it surely did not disappoint! It wasn't too sweet and it was just perfect for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the workshop and it was great to be able to share it with other people as well.

Canal and River Trust Volunteering Session

The Canal and River Trust is an organisation that looks after 2000 miles of Britain’s waterways. The Desmond Family Canoe Trail starts at Liverpool passes through Leeds and ends at Goole and is the longest canoe trail in the UK. At our volunteering session, we were clearing and picking up litter in a small part of the canal on this trail in Leeds.

On the 12th of April, all volunteers for the day met at the train station at 9:30 in the morning and walked to a lock on the canal near the train station where we met the people from the Canal and River Trust in charge of our volunteering session. After a short introduction of our task for the day and a safety briefing, we picked up our waterproof clothing, life jackets, litter-pickers, garbage bags, paddles and got onto makeshift catamarans fashioned out of two canoes. Since we were not professionally trained in canoeing or kayaking, our safety expert Chris joined two canoes with a log and bungee cords to provide stability. We were all excited to paddle down the calm canal on a nice and sunny day.

We paddled a few feet and soon realised that it was going to require quite a bit of coordination and teamwork to steer the boat around and go straight, but we soon had it figured out and paddled for about 20 minutes to the area where we had to pick litter up. We had four litter-pickers for six of us on one catamaran. While two of us at the back tried to keep the boat still and steered it around, the other four picked up rubbish from the banks of the canal and from the water. We found quite a lot of strange rubbish thrown into the canal, from toothbrushes and shoes to crisps packets and drinks bottles. After a couple of hours, we headed back to the lock where we started and stopped for lunch.

We were excited for another round of litter picking on the banks, so, we got back on our catamarans and paddled to a spot where we were supposed to pick litter up from and got out of our boats and on to the bank to pick garbage up. While we were picking up garbage here, we spoke a lot about the environment and the problems around humanity’s management of plastic waste. We learnt a lot about the issue and the implication of our actions since we had now seen waste disposed of by people which seemed to be decades old and we vowed not to use single use plastics, to recycle and to dispose of waste responsibly.

Once we collected as much rubbish as we could from the banks, we loaded it on our catamaran and paddled back to the lock. We were pleased with the result of our effort and some of us even decided to come back and volunteer for the Canal and River Trust regularly. On the whole, we were happy that we had made a difference and wanted to volunteer to make a greater change.