St Andrews: Tips

    by Anuradha Choudry

A general advice for those going to St-Andrews - Find out about the Befriender's programme organised by the hope church near the busstand. It is a very thoughtful gesture by the local people of St-Andrews to welcome foreign students and make them feel at home in Scotland.  Don't miss the opportunity and make the most of the societies' activities. They are great fun! Really missing them out here in Bergamo. Very beautiful city but would have been more fun to have more students' activities :)

Sheffield: Extreme Sports Anyone?

    by Becky Chen

One of the ways to benefit from y our stay in Sheffield is going for CAVING in Peak District—which is popular for hiking and walking both for old and young alike.

Peak District is about 30-40 minutes drive from Sheffield Uni. There is a Caving Club in Sheffield Uni, I just happened to find out from the Club n Society Fair and also from the notice board at the Student Union.

In order to join the caving activities, we have to pay some amount of money for membership and equipments. The more experienced members and the experts sometimes organize a few trips even within a week so we can choose whichever day we prefer. The last trip I had was a group of about 8 persons, 3 of them are very experienced and had been to caves all over the world. Transport and equipments are provided, usually prepared by the trip leaders.

The journey in the cave was not easy but the leaders were willing to escort people out of the cave if anyone could not manage or do not want to take the risk at any point of the journey. Trainings are provided before the trips, but weather determines whether the trip will be canceled or not, as it can be dangerous when water runs into the cave, and even if it’s not raining, the temperature and the water in the cave are freezing cold. Although the autumn semester is not the perfect time for caving, trips are still organized whenever it is possible. Those who want a different experience in Sheffield may find this interesting perhaps during the spring semester! 

Arriving in Sheffield

For the ones arriving in Sheffield, this is some advice on where to find the basics (food and home appliances). It's very easy, actually because there's one street where you can find everything you can possibly think of - and very cheap. It's called The Moor. I know for sure that buses 40, 94 and 95 go there, but there are certainly others because it's a very popular street. 

By the way, regarding bus tickets, there are two main bus companies in Sheffield: First and StageCoach. StageCoach is cheaper if you buy single tickets (they have a special student discount - £0.50), but for a bus pass First is better. The cheapest one I found was the week pass (£5). It gives you unlimited rides in the line you choose. The line (named as colours) covers certain regions of the city. Usually one line will be more than enough to get around.

But back to The Moor, you just have to ask the driver to let you know where to get off. The bus stop is just in front of it, and as you go down the street you'll see a big round-shaped sign with "The Moor" written on it. There, in the middle of the street there are vendors selling cheap socks, scarfs, suitcases, etc. If you go down, on your left-hand side you'll see Poundland where everything costs... one pound! And they have a huge variety of things, from food (processed, no groceries) to home appliances, cosmetics, etc. For more home appliances, walk to the end of the street and on your left you'll see Home Bargains. 

As for groceries, there's a big supermarket (Sainsbury). For the ones who are not great chefs (like myself!), a good tip for cheap frozen food is something Fulton Frozen Foods. It's on your right-hand side as you're going down the street, before Home Bargains. There you can find not only frozen food but also meat and great, cheap yoghurt. As for the rest, just look around. There are heaps of shops selling everything!

Finally, if you guys need a new SIM card or mobile phone, the place to go is Carphone Warehouse. It's on High Street, the main street in the city centre. They have their own network, called Mobile World. If you buy a Mobile World SIM card, you can make cheap calls abroad - by cheap I mean cheaper than calls to the UK! The only problem is that their signal is not as strong as other networks', but it's certainly worth it to call home.

I hope this helps. If anyone has any questions about Sheffield, I'll be happy to help! I'll be looking forward to hearing from you guys who spent a semester in the other cities of the consortium.