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A few questions from a foreigner

I'll be starting at Cardiff in September under the archaeology course, and I'm very excited. I've studied in Britain once before, but it was in a smaller city so I know it'll be completely different than what I'm used to. Anyway, I have a few questions about looking for flats and the transportation and all that jazz.

1. Is there a student bus pass? Where I last studied, you paid £160 at the start of term and that gave you a year-long bus pass for that half of the county. I was hoping there'd e something similar, but poking around the 'Cardiff bus' site they offer an 'iff card' that doesn't seem to be exactly what I'm looking for.

2. I plan on living off-campus with my boyfriend who works full time. We've done this last year and it worked out incredibly well, but again the city was much smaller. Right now I'm looking in Cathays, Roath, Llanedeyrn, Whitchurch, Heath, and Pen-y-lan. I know they're not all "student areas" but I'm not keen on those places since they tend to be trashy and loud, and I like clean, quiet, and green. Also, this is off the assumption that there's a student bus pass that I can get. Anyway, are there specific parts of these suburbs that I should avoid? We're in contact with a letting agent over a flat on Richmond Road which seems lovely, however I don't know if that is too "student-y" and therefore too loud. Any opinions?

3. We are huge gamers and I download a lot of stuff. What internet provider should we go for? We're still on an 18-month BT contract, as we had BT Infinity at our last flat, but we looked up their speeds for that flat that we might get and it's 5mb. That's 1/15th what we're paying for, and we're worried they won't reduce our rate. We'll probably go with Virgin since they seem more promising, but who knows. Are there areas that do have BT Infinity that we should put our attention towards?

4. What is there for nerds to do in Cardiff? My boyfriend is big into 40k, military history, sci fi/fantasy everything, and video games, whilst I'm considering getting into 40k or D&D, and I love sci fi/fantasy everything and video games as well. Are there any cinemas that do sci fi showings? Or a really good 40k club that we could join? I have been researching, but it's nice to hear from people about it as well.

5. Any good butchers or fishmongers? We'll be going up to the Waitrose in Pontprennau once a week for our shopping as that's what we used in our last city and we get the best deals and quality with them, but I love a good local butcher and fishmonger. On the same line, any good farmer's markets? By this I probably mean the American definition, which is local farms and butchers setting up stands where you buy organic produce, and I'm aware I'm probably out of luck on that front, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

6. Any other suggestions or recommendations? Especially if you're an American who is currently or has recently studied there, that would be a big help to me!

And thanks for taking the time to read all this :smile:
Reply 1
So I'm really not going to be of any help...but I'm an American, whose going to be studying Archaeology at Cardiff this fall (my first year) and I'm a huge nerd/gamer...so we should be friends XD
Studying at Cardiff University
Cardiff University
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Reply 2
Sure, that sounds great :biggrin:
Reply 3
Do you happen to have a Facebook?
Reply 4
Original post by mjevin
So I'm really not going to be of any help...but I'm an American, whose going to be studying Archaeology at Cardiff this fall (my first year) and I'm a huge nerd/gamer...so we should be friends XD


This is off topic from the first post but I always used to be an archaeologist as a kid :tongue:

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