London General Tips by Manyana

Favorite Thing: Before you arrive, you should ensure that you have done your assignment of getting around.
Please do the following:
- if you're not an EU national, have your visa ready for inspection at customs. Check (on your visa) if you need to register with the police in London, which you should do within one week of your arrival.
- Have a route map of London. You'll be walking A LOT. it's very handy to tell your way around.
- make your own search for accommodation beforehand. You have three options: Either look for a student accommodation office which is expensive if you're a budget student; arrange with a friend to stay with them temporarily; or stay at a budget hotel. there's a wide variety of budget hotel in king's cross, victoria and paddington and they're all within easy access to central london.
- check the address you want to arrive at on TfL, that will save you time asking people around even though it's handy to ask
- good to have some cash with you for transportation, one-week supply of food and pocket money. make sure your credit card can be used internationally. i've met few students who had no clue that their cards didn't work at international stores! better to have either MasterCard or Visa, or check with your bank. you may use traveller's cheque though i don't recommend it, as you need to look for an exchange bureau to use them.
- check your passport to be valid for 3 months at least. some embassies require 6 months.

i know this should come from common knowledge, but i'm stunned when i find out that many students are travel virgin. that's ok...why VT is here;^)

Fondest Memory: when my friend picked me up from the airport and my two big 'arab' suitcases was my fondest memory of arrival. we hugged tightly! then he dropped me off at another friend's house that evening.

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Favorite Thing: you may feel overwhelmed first time in london as a student, with not so much in the pocket. to save you time:
- take the tube to central london or whatever you'd like to go. make sure to get an oyster card instead of paper travel card, as your travel ticket within London. it's much cheaper and handy, though i don't agree much with it, with all the routes monitored,lol. if you have a company and lots of luggage, better to take a taxi, as it will cost you up £80 as max, against £14 ticket of the Express train per person.
- if you need to go to only to central london and don't intend to travel on your first day, just ask the tube officer for a) one-single way from zone 6 to zone 1, b) one-day travel card for zone 1 only.

Fondest Memory: i remember once the TfL officer tried to get me buy one-day travel card for zone 1-6 which would have costed me a fortune for not using it. not my fondest;) so be warned!

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Favorite Thing: i hope you don't feel quite overwhelmed on your first day of arrival in London. you'll get used to walking around so quickly even if you're not interested in walking (talking about myself by the way,lol).
of course you need to know your way around for meals, contact numbers for accommodation agencies or offices, pharmacies and so on. Almost in every area you step in, you'll find two popular grocery giant-brand stores, ie, Sainsbury's and Tesco. They offer ready meals, microwave stuff and all at student prices, especially if they are the products with the label 'basics' or 'reduced' for approaching their expiry date. Trust me, it took me one year to grasp all this budget-lifestyle thing,lol. i used to eat outside everyday for both lunch and dinner. Junk-food brands can still offer you reasonable meals.
browse website like www.gumtree.com if you're looking to share accommodation, though i went up to a student accommodation office Britannia off Oxford Street. You can try www.kfproperties.co.uk if you're looking for more luxurious accommodation.
obviously, you may need linen and sheets and plates and utensils. you can ask students-to-leave-soon to get their second-hand stuff at a very cheap price of course, 10 quid for the whole package;) well, my japanese friend told me so though i had my own way of getting these things, the saudi way of course. i recommend Argos store for bed sheets and pillows and it's reasonable. You can get plastic plates and spoons from those grocery stores temporarily. For cosmetics and skin-care products, you can go to Boots and SuperDrug which are everywhere.
You should get yourself a UK phone handset. By that i mean, the best phoning plan is the contract-based. you get the cheapest rate on all the domestic calls against a fixed rate you pay monthly over a 12-month contract or 18. All of the UK phone companies offer you this and it's far more affordable and money-saving than pay-and-go credit-based plans. the plus you get a free handset too.

Fondest Memory: I had my japanese and chinese friends teach me all about food, saving and cooking. they started making their own meals from the second day of their arrival and i was like eating kebab and pasta everyday out,lol. that was something to learn, getting independent when it comes to food-making,lol.

oh wait, when i started to make my first meals, it would still remain somehow ready-made...like just mixing cans and pouring ready-made pasta on the plate. God bless the microwave,lol

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Favorite Thing: I haven't seen such vividness in weather as much as in London,well at least compared to Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore in India! Although it's polluted and very cosmopolitan and sometimes disgusting because of the traffic but it has such distinctive seaons.

London is sunny bright, freaking hot in summer; Rainy and orange and christmasy in autumn; Grey and sometimes white in winter; and full of pink and green and rainbows in spring. My favourite season is definitely the autumn, where London's streets dress up their Christmas lights and trees take off their orange skirts and green bras. Awesome!

If you're coming from Saudi Arabia, you'll know what I'm talking about. The whole year is hot, sunny and flat!

London is seasonally unique and I love it.

Fondest Memory: oh i found out that i am allergic to pollen, and so had hay fever too in spring,lol. well, how could i tell if i never experienced spring in its fullest pinky weather?;^)

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