Exchange Report University of Sussex

Exchange Report

University of Sussex

Wan Cho Kin Wilson Professional Accounting and Management Spring, 2020

Monthly Activity LogJanuary My flight landed in LHR on 22 Jan, when is the orientation started. The first breath of air in the UK was 6 degree, surprisingly it is not that freezing.

Sussex provided orientation activities a week before the school term commenced, which allowed me to make friends from other countries. Example of social activities included pub light, city tour, indoor picnic and refresher fair, which introduced the student clubs and societies.

Right after the orientation was the term started, I enrolled to 4 courses in total, 3 MGMT courses, and 1 trading strategies courses.

There was basically nothing to study in January, so I went to London to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and to Brighton seafront daily to take pictures.

Rainy Brighton with the murky clouds stayed until the mid of March, too late for us to enjoy the vibrant of the city.

Lyric Theatre: When does the show finish? When the fat lady sings.

A more genuine Chinese New Year experience than in HKClock tower in Royal Tunbridge WellSunset in LewesLondon Eye

FebruaryFor student club, I joined the MMA training and multiple new sports trail classes back then. I went to London again with friends again in Feb given its convenient location.

My dormitory was located in a historical town, Lewes. Together with the nearby small towns, it gave me an authentic British experience, from the ancient buildings to the British afternoon tea.

There was an add-drop period which you could switch courses or withdraw from courses you applied few months ago. I believe exchange students have the prerequisite on switching courses and time slots.

Aside from the neighbouring towns, I visited Cambridge, Liverpool, Manchester and Windermere in this month. As the coronavirus outbreak started in Feb, I postponed all the travel plans outside of the UK. In Cambridge, you may want to visit Trinity College, King’s College, and the Great St Mary’s Church, where you could have a glimpse of the whole Cambridge city. In Liverpool, the must-visit includes Liverpool Cathedral, to appreciate the world’s highest Gothic arches; as well as the Albert Dock, where you can visit Beatles status, Museum or simply walk along the dockyard and listen to the birds chirping. For Windermere, you can expect hiking along the lake.Some claimed the food and leisure in the UK is exorbitant. However, it can be reasonable if you spend wisely. For example, there are some decent restaurants near Waterloo station serving high quality Western cuisine which costs only around £15. For transportation, if you register Railcard and link it to your Oyster card, and buying monthly bus ticket instead of single one (which could cost £3-5 for a single short bus trip.), it could greatly reduce your monthly expense.

Albert Dock Love Locks in Liverpool

Liverpool Cathedral

Cambridge is the place where you will regret not being hardworking enough when you were young.

The good fortune landed from the sky, found in Windermere

Last MMA Training

MarchMarch was a leisure month to me. Since the coronavirus started to go viral, all my international trips were cancelled, I stayed in the UK and only went to hike and picnic. While some Asian students were panicking in evacuating back to their home countries when they heard the herd immunity proposed by BJ, I chose to live a retired life in Lewes. I minimized the outing and maintained social interaction with the hall mates only. My cooking skills improved a lot therefore.

The physical lessons were suspended in the mid of March. They used online platform to deliver classes also. As my courses didn’t require written exam but projects-based, the workload was relatively light.

In March, I went to Seven Sisters Cliff twice; The first time with the ASEAN students society, and then with the hall mates. My life in March (actually April as well) was fairly like a retired old man;Visiting the supermarket for a week of food, trading stocks at midnight, running to the nearby towns to maintain my cardio performance. In the meantime, I had some essay assignments also, but thanks to the P/F options, it was chill to me.

Stay home, stay safe

Sunset in the Seven Sisters Cliff

Some said the cliffs look like a Matcha Cake

April was fairly similar to me, I grasped the time to fully visit every single place in the small town I lived in, from the lewes Castle to the Lewes Priory: From the Lewes golf club to the field next to River Ouse.

In the Easter, we the exchange students who stayed in our dorm held an Easter egg hunt. Finding the hidden eggs and guessing the riddles inside and doing missions. It was super fun and I am so glad to meet all of them who are from different continents. Although the coronavirus stopped us from travelling to different countries during the holiday, we had more time to sit together and sharing our hobbies, insight on our special area, and talking about our great plans on our future. We held different social activities within our dorm, including cooking night, dress code night, drinking night, and of cuz, Netflix night. (but no chill sadly huh) The retired life ended in the end of April, but not about my exchange journey. We still chat frequently with my friends there.

April

Orrest Head Viewpoint

Tranquility, what a retired life

Is it an oil-paint? Nah, it is the Lewes’ serenity

Lewes Priory

A glimpse on the view of Lewes

Coastline in Brighton seaside

If I had worked even harder?

General InformationVisa arrangment I didn’t apply for any visa but showed my university acceptance letter in the custom counter. It is free! Be reminded you don’t have to apply for a short-term study visa beforehand. However, please be reminded that you are required to show the university acceptance letter every time you enter UK boarder afterwards.

Orientation activities The school provided compulsory talks before the start of semester. It covers general academic expectation and assistance available for international students. In the meantime, they provided some networking events and paid domestic trip for exchange students, locations including Cambridge, Oxford, and Brighton.

 International Services & Activities I didn’t use any of the international students services, but I felt like they prioritized the course swap request from exchange students.

Accommodation For exchange students, the school provided two options in general, single room in the university-managed flat in Brighton, or twin room in White Hart Hotel, which is located in Lewes. I was assigned to the Upper Lewes Road building at first. However, it was super dirty. My room was full of dirt. Also, some of the electronic appliances were broken. For example, the bathroom has no hot water. And the water supply stopped all of a sudden when I was showering twice back then. Fortunately, I found another exchange student who was willing to swap the room with me. Thereafter, I stayed in the White Hart Hotel. The Hotel accommodated for around 60 exchange students, and provided a big kitchen for us. Lewes is kinda far from the university. However, it just takes 15 minutes bus ride (28/29) to school.

SEAGULLS BEAUTY CONTEST HELD IN BRIGHTON BEACH

WOOD FIRING

I WISH I COULD DRIVE ACROSS THE WHOLE EUROPE..

General InformationCourse Registration The course modules are updated in the school website. I have to fill in an application form to register four modules beforehand (Around late October). I took three management courses and one free elective as accounting courses couldn’t replace course in UST. (Sad…)

Teaching & Assessment Methods Most modules have lectures and seminars. For seminars some require attendance check (But some said they don’t really count/ or contribute to a few on your grade only) Professors teach in lectures and TAs hold discussions/ workshops during seminars. Some said it requires 80% attendance but I seldom went to class and still passed. Exchange means escaping from UST life right? Assessment methods vary across modules, but it will be about essay, presentation, or unseen examination. I had one unseen examination but at the end, it became an essay giving us 24 hours to finish it.

 Sports & Recreation Facilities The Sport Centre opens every day (before the coronavirus outbreak). The charge is quite expensive to me, fee is similar to private fitness centre in HK. You may consider the membership package for all facilities and unlimited group exercise classes. I joined the Mixed Marital Art training, which charged £4 per training. Active US is another social sport programme and offers a variety of low-cost, drop-in activities.I joined some of their badminton matches which charged £1/2 per time.

SINKED HOUSE IN WINDERMERE?

PIGLET IN LIVERPOOL

THE WORST SUSHI I HAVE EVER TRIED, FROM TESCO

General InformationFinance and Banking I set up Santander basic bank account a week in UK. Before that, I applied the Monzo bank account to settle my transaction there. Santander is a bank and Monzo is a virtual bank with physical debit card. My humble advice would be using Santander bank to bank in the Pounds you bring to UK and then transfer to Monzo account instead of using the Monzo PayPoint to have cash deposited, which charges £1 every time.

I would also suggest bringing your Hong Kong Union Pay ATM card to directly take cash in ATM when the exchange rate is competitive. The fx spread of Union Pay is reasonably competitive. Most of the pounds I exchanged was directly taken from the ATM at the rate of GBP/HKD 8.97 on mid of March, which is almost the historical lowest point since 1985. Be reminded that HSBC ATM only allowed Union Pay card issued by HSBC, while non-HSBC bank, you will have to visit Barclays.

Health and Safety As far as I know, there was a clinic and a pharmacy inside the university, and the only time I visited the pharmacy bewildered me. They charged students £5 per a mask in mid of February.

UK is a relatively safe country, you should only expect tons of opportunists are trying to steal your valuable belongings in crowded area. Some of my friends got robbed a LV shoulder bag, stolen an iPhone and a wallet. They were so professional as in they opened your backpack and stole stuff inside.

For my encountering, fortunately I was safe because so many mishaps happened around me already. On the other hand, UK people are generally friendly, I just encounter discrimination once, maybe because I respect their culture by not wearing masks amid the pandemic (What a culture haha). But to be honest, many British had offered me helping hands during the journey which I never expect to have if I am in Hong Kong.

SEAGULLS BEAUTY CONTEST HELD IN BRIGHTON BEACH

THE “COUPLE THIEF” WHO OPENED MY FRIEND’S BACKPACK(SO GROSS)

I WISH I COULD DRIVE ACROSS THE WHOLE EUROPE..

General InformationFood The food in supermarket was super cheap so I typically prepared simple food daily. Maybe a sirloin steak with some baked potatoes, or carbonara with shrimp could make my day a perfect one. The university has some canteens and food trucks also . I only visited the “Eat Central” when I was too busy to cook. They have pasta and rice, which charges around £5. The local students told me that food there was bad, but trust me, it is much better than our canteen already. Brighton has many high quality restaurants also. I would recommend visiting the Thai restaurants and “Magic Wok” there if you miss Asian food. Before my exchange, people told me that the food in the UK is exorbitant, and a classic carbonara costed £20 already. But this is totally a misconception. So far for most of the decent restaurants I visited , the bill was below £15 per head.

As for the meal I cook, I typically visited Aldi to prepare, cost of each meal could be minimized as £2-4 depending on what you cook.

Transportation I go to school by bus. It took 15 minutes but waiting for a bus could spend as long as 30 minutes. You may want to buy a month pass which saved transport fee significantly.

For domestic travel, I have a railcard which got one third of the train fare off. I tried the National Express (long-haul bus) once from London to Leeds. The journey was long and uncomfortable and therefore I would recommend sticking back to train option only. Do remember plan your train journey in advance because the last minute train ticket could be 10 times more expensive. Check the info in “Trainline” app.

ASIAN FOOD FOUND IN BRIGHTON

PRESTON STREET, FULL OF ASIAN FOOD

I WISH I COULD DRIVE ACROSS THE WHOLE EUROPE..

General InformationClimate When I first arrived UK in late Jan, the temperature was around 6. However, I didn’t feel really freezing. I just wore a puffer jacket normally. Brighton weather was similar to London and was relatively warm. The only thing I dislike was it rained almost every day until mid of March, which ruined my travel mood at that time.

Communication I used Lebara, and it provided first months £10 rebate on your plan. £10 package including unlimited domestic calling, 100 international calling minutes and 6 GB data. As my dorm is located in a remote area, both the Wifi signal and data coverage were terrible. In general, buying prepaid sim card like Giffgaff and Lebara is a wise and economical option.

 Cautionary measure Stay super alert when you are in crowded place. Stay away from the hooligan if you can’t beat them. You will see groups of drunk people easily on the street shouting at night. When you are travelling, avoid bringing cash and always keep your valuables in safe place (inside package is def not). When there are many people stopped to watch a street performance in tourist places, then most likely either it is a scam or some pickpocket will happen. If you go to dangerous places (Actually most places tourists go are dangerous), I recommend wearing a bum bag and cover with your clothes to keep personal belongings from being stolen.

Just one more tips is that many people don’t know how strict the luggage check is in the UK airport. They not just weighted the hand carry luggage in LHR but also my backpack… Similar to many other students I met in the airport, I was forced to upgrade my ticket to PEY in order to fit the luggage quota. Therefore, keep your luggage light when you leave UK.

LEARNING HOW TO DRINK THROUGHOUT THE DAYS IN THE UK

When supermarket ain’t super anymore

Royal Pavilion in Brighton

Some essential items you should have

Item NotesCash/Debit Card/Credit Card Contactless card is popular in

European countries; Cash isn’t that important. Don’t just bring one credit card because for some reasons your credit card may not accept in the UK (idk why also)

Backpack/hand carry suitcase

Budgeting airline is unreasonably cheap but the luggage allowance is extremely strict

Formal wear You might have video interview for the summer jobs you applied or the high table dinner

Passport and visa doc.

Always print two sets of your passports as your passport may be stolen

Essential Med You may not find what you need in the UK