York, England, Britain
WHAT TO EXPECT
Panic starts when you realize there aren't any 24-hours shops
around and the food you find seems to be rather different to your
regular home-made meal. But fear not, there is nothing to worry about.
Even in the country where the rain never seems to stop, it is possible
to keep your self well fed, safe and warm following the right advices.
Communal memory of our society has left the following legacy:
ARRIVING IN YORK
The
easiest way to arrive to York is taking a plane to Manchester, then a
train to York and finally a taxi to uni. Very brave people arrive in
London, take the tube and then the train to York, to then show
their courage by taking bus number 4 to uni and walking all the way to
their new accommodation dragging their suitcases on the fields full of
duck's poo.
Usually, at the beginning of the term there
are free buses to uni from the train station. If you get accommodation
in the uni you should get enough info from the Accommodation Office about how to get your key.
Bear
in mind that arriving in York after 6pm means an early excursion of an
hour to the surroundings to get some food and probably sleeping with
all your clothes on because you don't have a duvet. There are some
links of shops near uni on the left, check their opening times and
location. Often, you can get a duvet and a pillow in advance from the Accommodation Office. If you need some help please contact the society.
MONEY
We
all know England is a very expensive place to live. To give you
an idea, you will pay monthly for accommodation around £350! and
do not expect more than one room (with a shower and a toilette if you
are lucky) and a shared living area. In money matters York is cheaper
than London but more expensive than other cities like Sheffield. £850
will be roughly enough to keep you for a month, however you may not be
able to travel around or party every weekend. Before you start crying
and invoking Mephistopheles to sell your soul, notice it is not very
difficult to find a job around here. But, do not expect a mid manager
post right at your door step! Housekeeping, typing surveys or pushing
trolleys are always easy-to-get jobs. A good place to start
looking is Unijobs or Adecco (contact their temping pool agent), but adds offering posts are everywhere.
FOOD
Wait!
Do not ring your mom to ask her to ship you a ton of food yet, learn
from the ancient wisdom of fusion food. Lets start from the beginning,
where to buy.
·
The best food is usually sold in Marks and Spencer (including the
wee sized papayas). Marks and Spencer is also the best way to blow
your budget. Whenever you feel posh and fancy, shop your food in Marks
and Spencer. The nearest M&S to campus is in the city centre.
·
Sainsbury's and Morrisons are slightly cheaper than M&S and keep a
good standard for fresh food. You can also find Sainsbury's and
Morrisons own brand products which are good quality for less
money. Both are near Monkgate, a few steps from the city centre.
·
Also near Monkgate is Netto. Netto is a synonymous for cheap in this
country. Its fresh food is not really very fresh, but there is no
better place to buy cans, pasta and jam among other things. There is
not much variety in the products, but whatever you find there you can
be sure is the best price in town. They sell other things besides food
like cleaning products and garments. Those are also cheap but there is
no pattern for the fantastic offers they have, today you may find cheap
baskets and spices, tomorrow trainers and CD players. You need to bring
your carrier bags otherwise you have to pay for new ones. Furthermore,
a pound coin is needed to borrow the trolley.
·
Nearer to uni, in Fulford, we have Aldi and Iceland. Aldi is very
similar to Netto but fresh food is a bit fresher. Iceland sells good
frozen food and has many of the things you can't find in Aldi. A good
piece of advise is: take a trolley from Iceland, go to Aldi and shop
there, then go to Iceland and buy what you couldn't find in Aldi. Do
not forget to save your Iceland's bags, they are for free, but
Aldi charges for them! The best thing in Aldi are the apple pie
cookies, it is impossible not to love them.
·
If you want to shop once in a month you'll love Tesco and ASDA. Both
are huge (normal size for Mexican standard) and cheap enough (ASDA is
cheaper than Tesco). The only problem is that they are unreasonably far
to go by bike or on foot. Going by bus is nonsense, it takes a lot of
time and you'll get a nice backache. Some people organize them selves
to go by taxi and pay the taxi fares altogether. You can also do
your shopping online in Tesco and ASDA.
·
The worst place to do your shopping is Costcotter inside uni. It
is over priced and food goes off before the best-before-date. It is
even worst during the summer because they seem to collect the leftovers
from other shops and sell them to the students, probably with the aim
to test human resistance to bacteria.
· One of the favourite places of the society members is Freshways
(27-29 Hull Road). This is a shop close to uni which opens from 9 'til
9 every day of the week. It has a huge variety of cheap international
food. A couple of meters away, there is a nifty Chinese market.
Supermarkets
do not open until very late but there are some that remain open 24
hours like ASDA and Tesco. Check before you go to avoid
disappointments. If you live outside campus is possible you find a
corner shop. They are useful but not copious.
Now lets move
to the peculiarities of cooking in a hostile environment. I recommend
to bring with you some spices difficult to get here like epazote,
chipotles, mole, green tomatoes, tequila, etc depending on your
taste. Indian and Chinese food are tasty, easy to cook and you can
get them ready to make in almost every supermarket. Moreover you can
find cheap cookbooks and all the ingredients so you can learn an
experiment. Latin modifications to other countries food mostly result
in happy bellies. Get used to the taste of the fruit (it will never be
like home). You can try eating some paper to train (just
joking!). Tomatoes are a rip off everywhere. Mix canned tomato in
the blender with fresh tomato when blending a sauce, otherwise it will
be pink instead of red. Beef is often not great, but fish,
seafood, pork, chicken and lamb are OK. If you buy them in the market
behind M&S you can ask for student discount. As you will
notice fast food means fat in this country, so if you don't want to
become part of the morbidly obese statistics avoid having English
breakfast and fish and chips everyday. Jacked potatoes are, on the
other hand, cheap and nice. They are tasty with tuna an corn and very
easy to cook. Pinch the potato and place it in the microwave for 10
min, then move it to the oven and wait until is thoroughly
cooked. Pasta is a good option for everyday food. There are many
sauces you can try and if you add some minced meat and spices you can
have a nice meal. Salads are also good, even tough tomatoes are
usually tasteless, you can get very nice dressings from the
supermarket. Hungry and with no food in the fridge? You can try
the places on campus.
WEATHER
What can I say,
it is depressing. Prepare for days where the sun doesn't seem to come
out and endless showers. The best you can do is check the weather
forecast everyday. A sunny morning does not ensure a dry day, just as a
dark cloudy midday can become in a beautiful warm afternoon.
Always, and I mean always be prepared for rain. Winter in England
is a curse every Latin in York suffers. You'll be punished with the sun
rising at 9 am and setting at 3 pm. During the summer sun
sometimes rises at 3 am and sets almost at midnight. Get nice dark
curtains or you won't be able to sleep at all. If the summer is good
you'll have the opportunity of not carrying a jumper or an umbrella
while the Brits stroll around half naked enjoying a scorching 20 degree
day (he he). Summer is the time to organize BBQs and have some fun
outdoors, but please, do not cook the ducks and geese of campus, you
can get kicked out of uni (this is not a joke).
CLOTHING
There
are some nice cloth shops in the city centre. What is more, we have the
designer outlet nearby (bus number 7). Refrain of buying something you
don't need, at least until the sales are on (December 26th and
some other dates during spring and summer). When the sales start you
should be prepared for a blood bath. To start go to Next. They open the
sale at 5am and most probably there will be a gigantic queue. If your
religion is not consumerism wait until the second part of the sale
where prices drop from 50% of the original price to 30-10%. This is a
good time to go to Paul Smith and Armani.
For everyday
garments go anytime to Primark in Leeds. It is cheap and the quality is
OKish. If you are cheap among the cheapest buy your clothes in
Poundland (anything for one pound). Wool is (surprisingly) cheaper in
York than in Scotland. So jumpers and other wool garments may be an
inexpensive present for the family. Bring enough winter clothes to
survive until the Winter sales and then buy a nice coat. You can also
buy second hand coats from the small adds or the second hand shops
while you wait for the sales. Summer clothes sold here are OK, but
consider bringing your own ones.
LEISURE
English
way of having fun may be quite shocking. Clubs are quite an experience,
specially on student nights. They are awfully decorated, there
aren't any waiters and drinks tend to be rather expensive. For some
people this might be their lucky year, for some others the alluring
experience of being harassed and groped by 25 drunk strangers is far
from enjoyable. Every night before 11:30 there is a race in every pub.
The winner is the drunkest person and everyone tries really hard to get
the first place. Being realistic, it is not that bad, or at least
I've gotten used to (a favourite of the society is cheap-as-chips Hansom Cab).
You can have the time of your life or stay at home sobbing of terror
every night. The secret is surround your self with friends and make
sure they understand when you are happy/uncomfortable/drunk.
If
you run out of money for a cab, call one and ask Security Services at
uni to pay for it. They'll bill you later but at least you won't wake
up belly-down floating in the river Ouse (not joking, it happens more
often than you think).
Something that is really interesting
to see is that people don't remember anything of a party (that includes
people they were introduced to). Don't bother to wave if they don't
seem to recognise you. A good way to have fun and meet people is
to join one of the many societies (like the Latin-American). Sports,
acting, films, anything is good to have an excuse to socialise and
procrastinate.
STUDYING
I suggest you
to attend most of your lessons. It will be easy for you to pass the
exams if you actually know what they are about. Exam time is hard for
every student. Some of them manage to plug them selves to a unit that
saves them the effort of eating and going to the toilette. Graduates
flood the study room and the library and don't sleep for a month.
Afterwards, sick of all this studying, they get massively drunk and
swim into the (filthy) lake, often acquiring a third eye. Be careful
with your essays, you can have problems if you copy & paste from
Internet. Check the procedures to follow before you hand in an
essay. If you are a PhD student be aware of the timing for your year
reports.
ACCOMMODATION
Luckily
accommodation is ensured in this university for all single non European
people, so quite a few of our members can relax a bit in this
matter. If you have to look for family accommodation apply early.
If you didn't get accommodation, email the society and we can recommend
you some landlords. University accommodation often includes the cost of
services within the rent fees. In private accommodation is the opposite
case. If you live with flatmates be tolerant. They probably drive you
mad defrosting fish on the heater, but I'm pretty sure you have several
annoying habits that displease them too. Avoid misunderstandings by
speaking early (and probably loudly) about what upsets you.
A
good thing about living in campus is that kitchen parties are frequent
in Wentworth. Learn this, don't be a cheap bastard and always bring
something to drink or eat to parties.
HEALTH
You
get medical service for free if you live at least 6 months in the
country, however you have to pay for your medicines. Drugstores require
prescription for every medicine that actually works, so you must light
at least 10 candles to your favourite saint in order to get one in the
uni health centre. With respect to your teeth, there are few and very
expensive dentists so have a check up before arriving to avoid having
to wait for an emergency appointment two weeks after the pain starts.
Bring a spare set of glasses and your own medicines (do not forget
saldeuvas picot!). You can forget about all this nightmare if you get
private insurance, however it is not cheap.
York LINKS
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Tourism
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Restaurants
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Shops
Sommerfield, Sainsbury's, Netto, Aldi, Costcutter, Iceland, Morrison, Marks and Spencers
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