Though international students are in no way a homogenous group, there are certain things that bind us together. We have all decided to leave our home countries, friends and family, to pursue a degree at one of the UK’s finest educational institutions.
For three years England and York will be our adopted homes and we are being thrown head first into English student life. Though for the most part it’s tremendously fun and notoriously easygoing, it can also be a bit daunting and at times confusing.
But you need not worry, as the token international student of Vision’s editorial team, I have taken it upon myself to educate you. From the purely practical, to the curiously cultural, these are the 10 things you need to know about being a student in the England (that they don’t tell you about in the university prospectus).
1) English people LOVE fancy dress…
I put this first because I really cannot emphasise it enough. Where I’m from (Norway), dress-up parties come along once in a blue moon; a rarity reserved for when we’re feeling especially adventurous. In York, they’re a weekly occurrence.
Freshers’ week alone will offer up plenty of opportunities to dress up in ridiculous costumes, whether it’s for college events such as Derwent’s infamous Slag ‘n’ Drag or for one of the many, many themed bar crawls. Join a sports team (or any society for that matter), and you can bet that 90% of the socials will include some sort of theme.
The biggest problem with being a relative amateur in the art of fancy dress is that it can be difficult to assess how far you should go. I have found that more often than not, bigger is better. In other words, go all out. It’s more embarrassing being the party-pooper who didn’t bother dressing up, than the keeno who was perhaps a bit too enthusiastic with the facepaint. Either way, get it wrong and you could always blame it on being foreign. It’s been known to work.
2) Familiarise yourself with England’s proud shopping institutions…
For your essentials, the best thing you can do is venture outside of campus. It may be convenient to do your first food shop at campus store Costcutter, but you’ll regret it when the English arrive with the tower of food paid for by mum and dad. Supermarket chains Morrisons, Tesco and Asda all have massive branches relatively close to campus. The sooner you locate them the better.
You’ll be able to buy a duvet and a pillow from your college porters lodge, but from experience, it would probably be more comfortable to wrap yourself in some toilet paper. Head over to Argos in town, and get a cheaper, better alternative. It will do wonders for your beauty sleep. While you’re in town, you might as well pop by Boots, where you can get any and all toiletries. Why not go to WHSmith’s for stationary and PoundLand for props for the fancy dress party? And you can end the day at the people’s favourite restaurant chain, Nando’s.
It’ll be like a field trip of British consumerism!
3) Pack wisely…
How much closet-space do you think you’ll have in halls? You’ve got a rough estimate? Good. Now slash that by about 60% and you’ve got the reality of the situation.
The stuff I own/space I’ve got to store it ratio is, in most cases, negatively skewed towards the latter. Now this is the case for home students as well, you might say. True, but do you know the difference between them and you? At the end of the year, their parents will come and pick them and their abundance of stuff up in a station wagon. You will single-handedly have to drag it across train stations and airports.
A good rule of thumb is, if you have to think about it, you don’t need it. I spent a good 20 minutes debating whether to bring four pairs of shorts, just in case I decided to take up a new sport. Suffice to say, I didn’t, and for a year they took up valuable closet space, collecting dust at the very back.
4) Watch TV!…
Like most other nationalities, the English love TV. But there seems to be a sort of overwhelming collective enthusiasm for a select group of shows here, which is unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else. These include, but are not limited to, The X Factor, Tool Academy, Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, The Only Way is Essex, and more than anything else, The Apprentice.
I haven’t really gotten to the bottom of exactly what it is about this business-themed reality show – the British version of Donald Trump’s brainchild – that so resonates with the student population but for some reason this show is like crack to them. You can trust that whenever it’s on, your Facebook and/or Twitter feed will be clogged with that characteristic, snarky English commentary. Watch it, and you will always have a topic of discussion ready to fill any awkward silences.
5) And leading on from the previous point… iPlayer. GET ON IT…
It took me way too long to discover this gem; don’t make the same mistake! The best way to catch up on the shows mentioned above is through this amazing Internet TV service. Basically, each of the biggest channels has its own online player where you can view most of the shows aired on TV, free of charge. BBC has iPlayer, Channel 4 had 4oD, ITV has ITV Player.
It is a godsend when you’re hungover or just ill; a curse when you have an essay due in. It truly is one of the finest procrastination tools known to man.
Part Two coming soon…