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This September, I will be taking my studies abroad and live in London for about nine months. Going back in time this exact number of months, I see myself staring at an Erasmus poster in my university, whispering tales of adventure, a foreign culture and girls in school uniforms to me. While it is of course advantageous for an aspiring translator/interpreter to study abroad, I then also realised that this would be a great opportunity to escape the monotonous routine my life had become - sleeping, commuting, studying, commuting, studying, sleeping. I am not a very outgoing person either, so I really hope that living in a foreign country will expand my comfort zone. What makes me a bit uncomfortable though are pretty nasty stories about racism towards Germans, which apparently still exists. On top of that I also don't drink alcohol, so I am not sure what the Britons will make out of me - hopefully not minced meat.
What gives me a huge headache is finding a place to stay in London. My university (University of Westminster) is located in zone 1, where the rents are ridiculously high. I browsed www.gumtree.com for the past two days for flats in zone 2 or 3, only to find that the rents there... are also ridiculously high. The hall of residence of Westminster was already fully booked months ago, so I will most likely have to share an apartment with other people - anyone knows where I can find ads regarding this apart from the university bulletin board?
I was discouraged from opening a bank account as a foreigner, since the effort and red tape would - apparently - not be justified, even when staying for almost a year. This makes me wonder how I am going to pay for broadband internet - I need my TV series and occasional SC2 game, which will be too much for wireless LAN. Could someone please recommend me some ISPs? I've heard that Easynet UK and Netscalibur are pretty good, but I am always open to suggestions.
I'd be happy if you could help me out with my questions and would appreciate any recommendations about what to do in London - I already have a list, but nine months are a long time.
Feel free to use this blog to tell your own stories and experiences when you were abroad.
 
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trust me, an english bank account is worth it.
a girl i know lived in london for only 6 months while working and just for that she kinda needed the english account. i think she paid something like £5 a month for it (i dont know why she was even charged for it but i guess england is just racist like that).
rent is a bitch, you should be able to find a few sites with some google searching but you are fucked. everywhere is expensive, no exception. getting anything less than £100 a week before costs is a stretch.
as far as what to do, depends entirely on budget.
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uh a friend i know who was way late sorting out his uni accommodation just went on facebook and posted on the unis facebook page
could be worth a shot
gl
and if your in an area where the average iq is greater than that of a sausage dog no one will have a problem with you being german
xD
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Are you aware of the university's poor reputation here? Although I appreciate it is too late to change, there are tens of better unis that are within or close to London, and in the latter case rent is a lot lower.
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I think you have some misconceptions about London - we really don't hate Germans! If that's one of your major concerns then that's good because it's really not going to be a problem for you. However, there is a really large student drinking culture, I drink so I cannot comment what it's like for someone who doesn't, but I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for you regardless of whether you drink. The cost of living in London is probably one of the highest in the world, and unless you have a lot of money, you will almost definitely need a room mate if you want to live in central london, I'd advise emailing your university about how to find off campus housing.
Something you'll find in England is that many times employees in stores are really unhelpful and can be rude, or unenthusiastic to help, but setting up a bank account is really not that hard - I did it relatively easy with HSBC. For ISPs I use virgin, which is pretty expensive, but I get a solid 20mb/s which is pretty good in London i think.
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I've never lived in London but yea the rent is ridiculous there, like AT LEAST double what you'd pay in every other city in england I think from what a brief search has shown me. You might wanna try www.findaproperty.com there's a lot of postings on there and I think I used it to find my current place.
As for ISPs, I've never heard of either of the 2 you mentioned, maybe they are local to London, I'm currently on Virgin media, I love me some 50mb fibre optic 
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There's not racism towards Germany on any serious level. It's more a friendly joking kind of thing.. the same way we have with France. A few people may make passing comment in joke, but I wouldn't take it seriously. We don't hate you guys. 
Unless your talking about sport.. in which case yes... beating you at football is possibly the most important thing in the world. Otherwise don't listen to the rumours London is as multicultural a city as you'll find in the world.
I can't see why opening an English bank account would be a hassle, your an EU resident, with a valid passport and what will be an English address. Having an English account will be easier than constantly transferring money from home and getting screwed by the fee's and exchange rates.
I'm an exchange student in Japan (for another 3 weeks) it's honestly the best thing I've ever done. I've met people from all over the world, made contacts with from places I never thought possible. If i could I'd advise every young person to at least spend 6 months in another country studying or living. I think it's the best thing for opening your eyes to the world and giving you experiences in things you otherwise couldn't. You'll return home, a much better more complete person I think.
(Providing the home sickness doesn't get you.. it affects some people more than others. It didn't affect me, but I know some who really struggled)
Good Luck though. Hope you enjoy England. I'm returning there in 3 weeks. I don't live in London, nor visit very often so I can't suggest anything to do there, but definitely if given the chance, travel. Don't just stay in London. London like any other Major City is not representative of the country itself.
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When I was looking for a place to live at Uni, albeit outside of London, I looked on www.rightmove.co.uk and managed to find one pretty easily there.
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United Kingdom10823 Posts
Right, I recently was a student in London, so I'll share as much of my experience as I can. (I still live in London, but have a job now so its a bit different)
1. Facebook is a good place to see if you can find something. A lot of times people post a free room in a student house in the Marketplace, or you could check the university page like dahornnn suggested. I found my accommodation through Facebook, and it worked out great. The price is quite high here, but commuting is always an option (you'll have to take travel into account). You may want to contact the university office about further sources for housing, as well as possible areas to pick up odd jobs to help pay for the accommodation.
2. Getting an English bank account is useful in many ways. While I'm pretty sure you can pay for all your bills easily with your credit card/overseas account, having the benefits of the 0% overdraft, 24/7 services and emergency support will help, especially living in London, where there are so many banks that you can easily find a solution to your problem. I'd recommend going through all the banks' student accounts and basically picking the one with the biggest overdraft. Even if you don't need it, its nice to have that buffer, and it can possibly make you money! (Stick the excess money into a good Instant Access Saving Account, and let the interest build)
3. We don't hate the Germans, at least, the most of us don't. Its just a matter of rivalry in some aspects. We have the same relationship with the Aussies, but its all in good fun. You'll always find racist everywhere, but don't let a few assholes ruin the reputation of the rest of us, we're good people in the most part :D
4. Virgin is probably your best bet nowadays. London is getting pretty well set-up with fibre-optic broadband, and virgin is leading the field in that right now, so you get a reliable fast connection most of the time. BT is an option, but they're expensive and their after-salves can be annoying and tedious, so I'd lean towards Virgin.
5. The drinking side is a non-issue. I'm a Muslim, so I've never had a drink, and my experiences found that people tend to be mildly surprised, then shrug it off and never mention it. Personality matters a lot more than drinking habits, its just a matter of finding the right people. Even then, if they are heavy drinkers, they just accept that you don't drink and move on. As long as you can get along with people, you'll be fine.
Gl hf, drop a blog when you get here, a few of us could meet up sometime
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On July 26 2011 23:33 Quint wrote:This September, I will be taking my studies abroad and live in London for about nine months. Going back in time this exact number of months, I see myself staring at an Erasmus poster in my university, whispering tales of adventure, a foreign culture and girls in school uniforms to me. While it is of course advantageous for an aspiring translator/interpreter to study abroad, I then also realised that this would be a great opportunity to escape the monotonous routine my life had become - sleeping, commuting, studying, commuting, studying, sleeping. I am not a very outgoing person either, so I really hope that living in a foreign country will expand my comfort zone. What makes me a bit uncomfortable though are pretty nasty stories about racism towards Germans, which apparently still exists. On top of that I also don't drink alcohol, so I am not sure what the Britons will make out of me - hopefully not minced meat. What gives me a huge headache is finding a place to stay in London. My university (University of Westminster) is located in zone 1, where the rents are ridiculously high. I browsed www.gumtree.com for the past two days for flats in zone 2 or 3, only to find that the rents there... are also ridiculously high. The hall of residence of Westminster was already fully booked months ago, so I will most likely have to share an apartment with other people - anyone knows where I can find ads regarding this apart from the university bulletin board? I was discouraged from opening a bank account as a foreigner, since the effort and red tape would - apparently - not be justified, even when staying for almost a year. This makes me wonder how I am going to pay for broadband internet - I need my TV series and occasional SC2 game, which will be too much for wireless LAN. Could someone please recommend me some ISPs? I've heard that Easynet UK and Netscalibur are pretty good, but I am always open to suggestions. I'd be happy if you could help me out with my questions and would appreciate any recommendations about what to do in London - I already have a list, but nine months are a long time. Feel free to use this blog to tell your own stories and experiences when you were abroad.
Hey there, I live in London.
Check out Russell Square.
GET YOURSELF A BANK ACCOUNT. It's incredibly useful and all of my international student friends have one. HSBC and Natwest are popular.
Also phone the accommodation office for your university.
EDIT: Okay, well.. what Hassy said pretty much
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United Kingdom10823 Posts
On July 27 2011 00:08 oniontaker wrote:Show nested quote +On July 26 2011 23:33 Quint wrote:This September, I will be taking my studies abroad and live in London for about nine months. Going back in time this exact number of months, I see myself staring at an Erasmus poster in my university, whispering tales of adventure, a foreign culture and girls in school uniforms to me. While it is of course advantageous for an aspiring translator/interpreter to study abroad, I then also realised that this would be a great opportunity to escape the monotonous routine my life had become - sleeping, commuting, studying, commuting, studying, sleeping. I am not a very outgoing person either, so I really hope that living in a foreign country will expand my comfort zone. What makes me a bit uncomfortable though are pretty nasty stories about racism towards Germans, which apparently still exists. On top of that I also don't drink alcohol, so I am not sure what the Britons will make out of me - hopefully not minced meat. What gives me a huge headache is finding a place to stay in London. My university (University of Westminster) is located in zone 1, where the rents are ridiculously high. I browsed www.gumtree.com for the past two days for flats in zone 2 or 3, only to find that the rents there... are also ridiculously high. The hall of residence of Westminster was already fully booked months ago, so I will most likely have to share an apartment with other people - anyone knows where I can find ads regarding this apart from the university bulletin board? I was discouraged from opening a bank account as a foreigner, since the effort and red tape would - apparently - not be justified, even when staying for almost a year. This makes me wonder how I am going to pay for broadband internet - I need my TV series and occasional SC2 game, which will be too much for wireless LAN. Could someone please recommend me some ISPs? I've heard that Easynet UK and Netscalibur are pretty good, but I am always open to suggestions. I'd be happy if you could help me out with my questions and would appreciate any recommendations about what to do in London - I already have a list, but nine months are a long time. Feel free to use this blog to tell your own stories and experiences when you were abroad. Hey there, I live in London. Check out Russell Square. GET YOURSELF A BANK ACCOUNT. It's incredibly useful and all of my international student friends have one. HSBC and Natwest are popular. Also phone the accommodation office for your university. EDIT: Okay, well.. what Hassy said pretty much
<3 Gotta love TL at work. "yes I'm writing an important letter here!" *shifty eyes*
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people are't really racist to germans in the uk, its usually a sporting rivalry thing or some kind of friendly jokey thing (though often not very funny lol). but if you want to find stuff to get out and do london will be AMAZING for that even if you don't have much money to do it with. what you can do is just pick up one of the free london papers, or find some of the good websites and look in the whats on section and you will usually find loads of free or cheap gigs and other fun things to do any day of the week. thats what i do whenever i'm in london and i've had some great times there.
i don't live in london though so can't really give any good advice on accomodation or broadband but hf gl etc
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You're definitely gonna need a bank account, I'm surprised its any different to open one up just because your not English. If the problems just that you're not in England maybe open one up when you get here and just take a bit of cash with you.
In terms of racism I wouldn't worry. As with every country England has assholes, it also has nice people and I'm sure you'll meet some good people. The English can be pretty bad on the racism front but its generally directed at communities other than Germans right now.
London is expensive and if I'm honest I'm not really that impressed with it but I've never actually lived there for an extended amount of time. Only real attraction I can see is it’s a big city so there’s a lot going on.
I think living in a different country is a really important and good experience that everyone should do. You become so much more aware that actually you're little city or even your little country isn't the whole world. You also learn a surprising amount about you're own country realising the differences when you live abroad. I strongly encourage the decision you’ve made to live abroad for a year.
I would encourage you to try and drink a little bit socially just because it’s a really good way of getting to know people and meeting people. However it’s not the end of the world if you don't loads of people don't drink at all and they seem to do just fine. But if you’re not going to drink try and make sure you give you’re self every opportunity to meet people and don’t just become a social recluse. Join clubs and stuff.
Edit: Do other countries have chavs or is this uniquely English. I completly forgot about the whole asshole culture of some people in England after living in korea for a year now, untill I watched a cop show on BBC I Player the other day and there where 'neighbours at war' yelling abuse at each other and just genrally been assholes for as far as I can see no reason at all. Man I don't miss that side of England.
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Oooh I'm heading to London as well - luckily I have friends I can share a flat with  I'm still paying well over 100 pound a week though - I doubt you'll get anything less.
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United Kingdom10823 Posts
On July 27 2011 00:55 lilsusie wrote:Oooh I'm heading to London as well - luckily I have friends I can share a flat with I'm still paying well over 100 pound a week though - I doubt you'll get anything less.
Recent house price falls and people just generally not wanting to buy a house in this current state sorta means everyone wants to rent, so the prices have spiked. So annoying to the worker bees of London
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Good luck getting anything a human being can live in comfortably below 120 quid pw in Zones 1-2
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Did you manage to sort something out in the end?
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EPT
