I spent my year abroad at the University of East Anglia, or UEA for short. UEA offers both on-campus and off-campus student accommodations. Some of the on-campus housing blocks are much like the dorms/suites you'd find in college campuses in the US: a number of rooms per hall and a shared bathroom. Others differ in one main (and exciting!) aspect: each room is en-suite, meaning you have your own bathroom. After living in the dorms my first two years of college and sharing co-ed bathrooms with sometimes-not-so-considerate hallmates, this was probably the most enticing part of UEA's housing for me. The flat's kitchen was exciting as well. I chose to live at an off-campus site called the Village, which is about a 10-15 minute walk from campus and has en-suite bathrooms. I wanted to experience of living off-campus but not have to take the bus to school. One of the disadvantages of the Village though, is that many exchange students choose to live there, which means you don't get to mingle with the British students as much. The following are pictures of the Village from when I stayed there so you have can a view of what your housing may look like. I took these photos in the middle of unpacking (i.e., don't judge me for the messiness):
The room itself was tiny. I could stand next to my bed and take one step to stand in front of my desk. But it probably wasn't that much smaller than my single dorm room at home when I really think about it.
The closet. Can you tell from the lack of warm clothing (minus a wool coat) that I was unprepared for an English winter?
The bathroom or "pod." The bathrooms in the Village consist of a toilet, sink, and shower rolled up into one. You can't see the showerhead behind the curtain on the left in this picture. Basically, the whole pod is made up of waterproof material that is a little hard to define. Picture a plastic bathtub stood upright against a wall and given a door. One family member described it as a Star Trek bathroom. As mentioned earlier, I was tired of sharing a bathroom, so this unconventional one was good enough for me.
I don't have a picture of the outer part of my accommodation, which was nothing too exciting anyway. Instead here's a picture of some of the more architectural halls on-campus, referred to as the Ziggurats.
Question:
What are you looking for in terms of housing for your time in the UK? Or, if you've already studied abroad, what were the pros/cons of where you lived?
Happy 2012 Summer Olympics everyone! As you’re
probably well aware, the Summer Olympics are taking place in London this year. Perhaps you’re lucky
enough to be in the area right now, or will be in the next couple of weeks. If
you are, you’ll get to experience the infectious energy that the Olympics hold.
I’ve always found that the Olympics can bring sports fans and non-sports fans together
alike. (Personally I don’t watch sports with any regularity, but the Olympics
make me want to watch. Platform diving competition on a regular year? Naw, that’s okay. Platform diving at the
Olympics? Yes, please!). The
excitement of rooting for your favorite athlete/team or country, the water
cooler moments (ex. the men’s 4x100 freestyle
swimming relay in Beijing) and personal stories, or just the liveliness of
the big event, all of them bring people together.
If you’re in London right now, you’ll get to experience
the culture of the city in what will most likely be a heightened state. Yes,
there will be the usual attractions of London to see, such as the London Eye, but
there will also be other events to go to and things to see related to the
Olympics. Even if you don’t have event tickets, there are still ways for you to
enjoy the games whether you’re rooting for the UK or the US (or maybe neither).
Get some friends together and go to a pub to watch one of the football games,
which will surely be one of the more popular sports to enjoy. Or if you have
access to a tv in your living arrangements, throw a potluck viewing party. Better
yet, check the official London Games website to see if there’s an outdoor
showing on a big screen “live site” near you. This applies to those outside of
London too, as there are outdoor events held throughout the country. If you’re
in the city for the day, there will be tons of opportunities to just people
watch out on the streets near the arenas. Maybe you’ll see someone famous, who
knows?
This was one of the first questions I asked myself when I arrived in the UK. The advantages were being able to write checks, not losing the value of my money due to fluctuating exchange rates and it would be close at hand. However, it meant that in times of need, such as paying my credit card bill, my parents here in the States would not have had access to my account. Credit card companies like money. Access was necessary. It also meant that when I began running out of money, they wouldn't have had as easy of a time transferring much needed emergency funds into my account. Food is necessary and unfortunately, money is needed for food!
In the end, I decided to to leave my money in my home bank and I added my Mom to the account so she could easily take care of any issues and problems I had. This choice really had it's plus and minuses. As mentioned, the biggest plus was having the availability to pay bills however, I lost money much more quickly. At the beginning of my year there, the exchange rate was $1.50 to 1 British Pound, however, by midway through the year it had changed to about $2 to 1 British Pound. It doesn't sound like a huge difference, but as you're spending money in the UK, it dwindles much more quickly and by the last two months I was completely out of funds. I think in hindsight, I would have opened a bank account and transferred some money, but also left a good deal in my home bank. The money in the UK could be used as spending money and the money at home for bills and hopefully a cushion for my return home.
Just a note, you don't need to open a bank account to pay for the fees to the University. These can actually, if you prepare your home bank and the University in advance, be transferred over quite easily. I just contacted the office before I went over to ask how they wanted to work out the payments and then discussed it with my bank. The bank needs warning or they think your account is being tampered with. They frown on tampering. When I arrived in England I went to the office to finalize everything and it all worked out just fine. Also, if you are studying abroad and not going as an international student, you want to check with your own University. They might prefer you pay them and they send the checks off to the British institution.
Ultimately research of your bank here, the banks in the UK (such as Barclays, Lloyd's of London, NatWest, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, etc) and your specific needs will help you choose which path to take. The question I put to you is, which way are you leaning?
So, you need to purchase a ticket for the Tube. The
process of buying a ticket is pretty easy and doesn’t require too much
explanation. Simply line up at one of the ticket machines in the station and
follow the instructions: pick the type of ticket you want, insert money, out
comes the ticket, poof! (Hopefully
you’ll be buying your ticket when it is not rush hour and there are a multitude
of machines available, not when there is a massive line that weaves around and
around. I only experienced this once, but it felt like I was in line forever.) Probably the trickiest part of
buying a ticket is determining what type you need.
The Tube map is broken up into nine different zones and the price of your ticket depends on how
many of these zones you plan on traveling in (as well as the time of day if you’re
using an Oyster card, see below). The farthest I ever went out was where
Heathrow is in Zone 6. You’ll most likely not need to go any farther out than
that, as the other zones go out into more suburban residential areas, but you
never know, so keep the zones in mind when planning your trips. Central London is mostly contained in Zones
1 and 2. If your trip consists of sightseeing in the heart of the city,
then know that you do not need to buy a ticket that will go out of these two
zones. If you do happen to buy a ticket for a certain set of zones but
accidently go out of it, that’s okay. When put your ticket through the gate
reader it’ll reject it, meaning you have to go up to one of the service booths
and pay whatever extra fee is required to pass through. Nothing too bad. Trust
me, I did this; it’s pretty much how I learned to pay attention to the zone map
in the first place. Live and learn.
Once you’ve determined which zones you’ll need for
your trip, you can select the appropriate ones when purchasing your ticket.
There are a few different types of tickets:
·Single fares: Need to go from one
station to another in a single trip? Then you’ll want to buy a single fare.
·Day cards: Thinking of spending the whole
day in London hopping to and from different sites and stations? Buy a day card.
This is where knowing the zones comes in handy so you don’t end up buying a day
card for zones you’re not going to go to (i.e., spending more money than you
need to).
·Oyster cards: Living in London or intending
to be in the city often? Consider getting a reloadable Oyster card. They save
time and money.
Oyster
cards are reusable cards that you allow you to add funds on a pay-as-you-go
basis or at regular intervals (monthly, weekly, etc.). Overall, they offer
lower fares on the Tube, but the discount is dependent on whether or not you’ll
be traveling during peak rush
hours. There are both regular adult cards that anyone can purchase and
special 18-and-older student cards. There are restrictions for getting a
student card, which you can read about here. Personally, I didn’t
make use of Oyster cards because I was only occasionally in the city. Most of
the time, I just bought day cards. Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve utilized an
Oyster card, even if it was just to make myself feel cool by being able to scan
it on the yellow-colored reader.
In addition to giving you general information and
recounting our own experiences abroad, we’ll also be suggesting resources to
take advantage of before or during your time in the UK. One of the areas of
additional resources is the travel book. Yes, travel books are most likely not
used as much as they were in the past due to the internet, but there will
always be people who prefer browsing through a book over clicking through
webpages. If you’re one of the former, travel books are a great (and condensed)
way to find things to do, or even to remind yourself of sites you want to see.
For example, a friend and I were perusing through the available travel books at
a hostel in Rome during some downtime one day. While flipping through one I was
reminded of “The
Mouth of Truth” (La Bocca della Verità ) I had seen in the movie Roman Holiday. I decided that that was
one of the places I wanted to stop at during our sightseeing.
This post will concentrate on Let’s Go: Britain 2009. Okay, so 2009 isn’t exactly up-to-date, but
it was the latest edition of the Let’s GoBritain series at the local library
and I’m not one to sit myself down in Barnes & Noble and outright read a
book then and there. Let’s Go isn’t
the first series that comes to my mind when thinking of travel guides. Fodor’s
or Rick Steves’ books are among the popular options. (Speaking of Rick Steves,
apparently he visited the aforementioned Roman hostel during our stay. He
wanted to review it for one of his books. Unfortunately, since the hostel was
tiny, there weren’t any openings available. My friend and I came back from the
day out and the manager and one of the other guests were talking about getting
pictures with him and having him sign various items—including one of his travel
guides.) But the small font on the cover that states “[Britain] on a budget” caught
my eye. As a student, the words “budget,” “sale,” and “free” were always
enticing, as I’m sure they are with you too.
One of Let’s
Go’s strong suits is that it employs students as its researcher-writers.
There is a page in the book with dedicated photos and short biographies of the
writers. It’s nice to be able to see the contributors’ faces and know that they
give a younger viewpoint on things. In general Let’s Go seems to strive to cater to younger travelers, especially
student ones, over families or an older generation. I highly doubt that a fact
like the annual per-person beer consumption would find its way into some of the
other travel publishers’ books. Some basic chapter points include: communications,
UK customs, suggested itineraries, and planning. The rest of the book goes into
different regions in more detail, split up into the usual categories like “Entertainment
and Nightlife” and “Food and Pubs.” Probably the most interesting section is “Beyond
Tourism” which outlines volunteer, as well as short- and long-term work,
opportunities. I don’t think everyone in necessarily interested in au pair and
day farming jobs, but it’s nice to know that the options are available. Overall
Let’s Go blends the more traditional
sightseeing destinations with ones that might appeal more to students. This is
most likely even more apparent in the company’s student and budget series of travel guides.
One of the things that is a must-have on your
packing list is a UK voltage converter and charger. Of the many electronic
items you may choose to bring with you on your trip (laptop, iPod, tablet,
e-reader, cell phone, digital camera, to name a few) most, if not all, require
some kind of charging; hence the need for a converter to safely plug in your
devices. UK outlets run at about 230 Volts while US outlets run at 120 Volts.
So if you don’t want to potentially short-circuit your pricey equipment, look for a converter rather than an adapter.
Adapters work perfectly fine on most things, but to save yourself some worry I’d
suggest getting a converter.
For some reason when I was shopping for my trip
abroad I had a hard time finding US to UK converters. I needed one for my
laptop and cell phone. (I decided to bring my cell phone from home to use
rather than purchase one over there. The options you can take regarding cell
phones will be discussed in another post.) The only one I could find was this
monster of a converter. I’m not sure why I didn’t think to check Amazon.
I don’t remember exactly where I bought it, but I think it might have been
Fry’s. Since I was leaving soon and it was the only one I could find in stores
at the time, it ended up being the one I brought with me. It certainly took up
a considerable amount of room and precious luggage weight. I can only describe
this converter in the following way:
Picture a brick. Imagine its general weight and
dimensions. That’s what my first converter was like. A brick. It was similar in
size and was definitely heavy enough to be comparable.
Why yes, I did lug something like this around with me to and from England. (source)
I used my converter all the time while I was in
England. Beside its size and weight, the only issue I had with it was that it
got hot after it was used for a while. That was until I found a much more
compact one. One day I went to the electronics store Maplin to find a watch
battery and stumbled upon one much more conveniently sized. Considering the Maplin
in my area had a small storefront, I wasn’t expecting to find anything of sort,
especially a US to UK converter (UK to US, yes I would have expected). Compared
to my original converter, this new one was tiny
so I bought it. Yes, I did have to pay a lot more for it due to the dollar/pound
ratio, but it was worth it. It ended up being a wise purchase because I took
the smaller one with me when I traveled within the UK and often used both at
the same time in my flat: one to power my laptop and the other to charge my
phone. Sadly, I didn’t think to buy a European plug converter as well, so there
were a few times when my camera ran out of power while I was on vacation and I
had no way of charging it.
Bath (Part Two but posted first. I
like to be contrary. In Part One I will discuss Bath’s main attractions.)
You might well wonder if I’m not referring to personal hygiene. No. Nor am I
referring to the giant porcelain tub in your home. This is not about home
renovations or installing fixtures. I am referring to the beautiful city
found on the southwest coast of England.
Bath, located in Somerset County, is rich with history and culture. The city
is best known for the Roman Baths located on the main drag and while the baths,
the museum and Bath Abbey are definitely must sees if you are visiting this
area, today I would like to speak a little about the shops and interesting
finds you can discover here.
One of my favorite little hole-in-the wall finds (that happens to be part of
a VERY small but successful chain) is called Ben’s Cookies. They are located on
a side street and have the most mouthwatering, delicious cookies I’ve ever
had. They differ from the average cookie due to the almost cake like texture. I’ve
never had anything like it, and miss these cookies greatly. Truly amazing.
Another gem is a beautiful tearoom called Hands of Bath. They
have an absolutely lovely cream tea (tea served with a scone, clotted cream,
and strawberry preserves). It isn’t fussy or particularly grand, but you
are sure have a relaxing rest from touring the city.
Now, don’t forget to scope out the live statues situated around the
baths. They somehow manage to paint and clothe themselves in colors almost
exactly matching the bath limestone used in the buildings. Some are quite
serious and others like to play with the tourists. They tend to be one of those
unique little quirks that are fun to find in a new city.
Also, if you are a Jane Austen fan like myself, it’s fun to just wander
around the central area down pokey little streets and alleys. The whole
area, despite being filled with modern shops such as House of Fraser, Lush, and
Monsoon, retains its aura of Regency glory. Many of her books had scenes
based in this wonderful city. It is often used in Austen films
considering, I imagine, that it’s rather difficult to reproduce. I still
maintain that one of the streets near the baths was featured in a pivotal scene
in Persuasion where Anne grabs Captain Wentworth before he leaves. It was
exciting to see and yes, I’m an Austen geek. Somewhere I have a photo of that
street!
Wandering can be the best way to discover your own finds. You may be
attracted to some other little shop or the Postal Museum, or a graffiti covered
wall like a coworker of mine. One of my favorites was an AWESOME Oxfam (like
Goodwill) bookstore right as you are walking toward all the shops. I
found some hard to find books there! It’s all about your interest and what you
like. Go explore.
