John Lester Court

Whenever I return to my home after a short trip or a stay at relative’s house, I get instant peace of mind since I feel that there is always some connectivity between me and my home. But, when I left India for my higher education, especially knowing I will not return for a year at least, I felt a twinge in my stomach. Earlier, I have claimed sometimes that I am adventurous and love change, but this change was little heavy for me compared to my previous one. I booked the university accommodation in advance so that I can reduce the anxiety to an extent.

Holistic view from my Room.

When I reached my new accommodation (John Lester Court), I was given a place in the 12^th floor. It is a well-equipped room with a common kitchen and toilet which is to be shared with two Chinese friends. To get accustomed with the new environment and people, the management team in CLV organized various events and trips. Since I was involved in almost all events in the university, I was not able to participate in those events. But whenever I return back to my room after an interesting yet tiring day, I felt my room welcoming me back. Especially to sleep cuddling your pillow inside the blanket in the cold ambience is the loveliest thing in the world (I do that every day). With university and shopping city at a walk able distance and everything required set inbuilt, I feel completely content with my new accommodation.

Now I feel my room has turned to become my sweet home and will remain so till I complete my degree the university. The only hard fact is that I have only seven more months for it and I need to look out for my new life after that. Anyway change is inevitable and who knows what tomorrow brings!

Choosing the University

One of the biggest problems with choice is the fear of missing the best option. Fortunately, I picked the best and am enjoying the fruit of it now. When I was applying for universities, I looked for ranking, accreditation and finance and shortlisted quite a few. I did get offers from most of them but I selected Salford primarily because I received the prestigious Vice-Chancellor Scholarship award worth 5000 pounds. Also Salford being a century old institution and known for its technical competence, I gambled on Salford by leaving all other universities. 

From the various financial benefits I obtained from Salford, the 5k scholarship is found to be a start of it. I would like to discuss here some tricks (can call it as tips) that I learned from the past four months which might help anyone to minimize expenditure while having the maximum fun. First of all, if you are fun loving person who love to visit new places and tour around, the easiest thing is to become member to University communities and teams. Especially Interlink is the best way to explore if you are an international student as all the trips are free and exciting. Joining International society will help us to have cheapest trips all over UK. Also from this year the university is paying for our membership and we need not even bother about that too.

My University

Second, if you need to have some extra income then there are a plenty of part-time jobs all around Manchester and some even within the university. To start up with, the university will be conducting job fair where many prospective employers will gather together to give us job. And just by checking the university activities will help us to get the right job. Am sure that working some extra hours can help us to get whatever we want as far as we are in UK. If our money is properly administered it would be more than enough to cover all our day to day expenses as long as we live in UK. Also by selecting a university outside London, we can save more than 50% in the accommodation alone. 

And the third is the exciting part. That is to plan for the future and work. This is my personal favorite also. It’s developing our self and improving our CV with good reference without spending a penny. Joining in communities like SIFE, our personal skills like leadership, organizational abilities and team work can be enhanced. More than that, if there is an entrepreneur within you with the ambitious ideas, Salford is willing to give the office space and also sponsor it. What else is needed? (For more details visit http://www.sifesalford.com/ )

Though I missed to join in some of the communities I listed, I made sure to utilize them this semester and started taking part. After all, my university life might be for another nine months only. So I want to get the best out of it.   

Chinese New Year

Lion Dance

Today I celebrated the fifth day of the Chinese New year (Year of Rabbit) with my international friends. Many events were organized in the Manchester city center and we started early from the student accommodation so that we don’t miss anything. I saw the massive crowd which can be seldom seen in the city center. There were many events organized and the most impressive one were the dragon and lion dance and acrobatics (some martial arts stunts). I also got some blessing from the fortune god and he wished for everyone's wellness.  

After a ravishing Lunch

And in the afternoon, for the first time I went to a pure Chinese Restaurant. I instantly felt the cultural difference with my neighboring country. All the dishes were ordered by my friends since I can't discriminate between anything. The highlight is I started learning to hold the chop sticks (But I asked for a fork and knife later to eat since holding alone can’t quench my hunger).  We roamed around the food stalls and art workshops while waiting for the final firework and took some crazy pictures. And finally the firework proved the waiting to be worthy. It eventually turned out to be an unforgettable day.  

Yupee!! the fireworks

Along with the Chinese, I believe this year of Golden Rabbit will bring fortune and good health to everyone.  

New Experiences

 I always love to experience new things and it was actually one of the reasons I came to UK. Catering to my interest, while I was in India, my friends (from Switzerland) description about UK incited me to join Salford. And right from the day I stepped in UK, I am having lot of different experience which can’t be easily just described in few words. I would like to share two such pleasant experiences I had in this week.

In the warmth of Sunset 

Cycling: I purchased a mountain bike from EBay as I found it to be the best way to explore the city. With my friend Richie who already owned a cycle, we started our exploration together. And our first plan was to visit Manchester united stadium. Though we both have travelled to the stadium many a times, we thought to take some unconventional route with the hope of finding new shortcuts. We got engulfed by the scenic beauties of the country and eventually ended up in Eccles which lies 180 degree opposite to our intended direction. But when you travel with a friend, nothing could stop or trouble you. We found our way back to Manchester united. We indeed had some abuse from a drunken man and angry stares from the some commuters for ignoring some rules (Hope we will master them soon), but it all ended up as a pleasant ride.      

Lost in Eccles

    

Skating: I never imagined skating to be a wild sport. When I got invitation from my scuba team for the ice skating, I was more than thrilled.  Some of my friends started sailing in the ice with ease and some even did some crazy jumps, back flips and triple axles. But when I stepped in to the ice, I instantly found the difficulty and fear gripped over me. I became a child and started tumbling in all direction. (Some were very embarrassing indeed). But the only advantage is that you are not the only one to fall. Though many were skating so well, I found lot of first timers like me and now I started competing with them. With my friends help, I learnt to stand and move with the help of a support. But our falling never stopped. The more I thought I learnt something, the more I fell. It eventually turned out to be the best day of my life with friends competing with each other on the falling rate. Though we had a lot of minor bruises, no one was hurt badly. Looking back at the photos we had a very good laugh. 

   

We learned to Stand at last