Hi All

Seriousely – I do speak English – but – yes, I do speak Danish as well, although not as well as I used to…

I moved to England 6 years ago, and started studying CS here at the Uni in a relative old age of 32. This will not be focussing so much on the age issues, afterall ageism is apparently illegal these days, so that shouldn't affect you too much 😉

I'll try and remember now it was being a "foreigner" in a British University. I say try as I've been working for 3 years as a researcher, so I am turning more and more British every day…

There are certain aspects of studying / living here that for Europeans – read non-Brits – are quite different. I'll try and list the differences in no particular order here:

• It is all in English. In your home country the books might have been English, but here they speak it as well. Seems obvious, but actually it isn't, as many of the lecturers are from parts of Britain with "funny" accents or even foreign as yourself. Try and focus especially in the beginning. You'll probably get extreemely tired the first couple of weeks.
• NUS is the students union – not a workers union, a place to hang out, buy your snacks, party, play sports and / or get advice if you have no clue what to do.
• Halls – students live here – it is also a part of a house, just not in this context.
• Address – The University keeps wanting your home address. This is NOT the address you live, but the address of your parents. Although you have moved away the government in the UK still believe you live home. This is actually not as bad as you think, because you don't get to pay the same rate in tax (most likely nothing), and the parents aren't here to watch you anyway. The only thing you have to make sure is, that they don't send important information to this address. The Uni thinks you will be at you parents in the holidays, which might and might not be true
• Cars drive on the left side of the road – if you try to use a bike, please do the same.
• Car drivers generally don't know how to react to bikes – so if you come from a country with many bike riders, chances are that you have to re-learn the traffic pattern of biking.
• There are many strange sports on the tv, embrace them, they are actually better than football. Football, although popular, is mostly shown on pay tv, so go to a pub, or even better go to a stadium.
• Don't say 14 o'clock -this confuses the Brits – say 2 PM
• Half 2 is the same as half past 2 – not half past one.
• Cheers is both something you say when drinking and a way to say thanks.
• British food, contrary to the rumour, is extraordinarily good. Try it – don't just eat Italian or Indian. I can recommend Sweeney and Todd's downtown for pies, and most pubs makes good decent brit food. Kebabs are best in the evening…

This is what I can think of from the top of my head. Most of all, enjoy it here!!