A guide to life in the Halls of Residence of

a British university

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live and study in England? First & foremost start by reading the prospectus of your chosen university, either on its website or a hard copy to guide you at every step before going to study in England. I am writing extra guidelines for desis who may not get typical guidance they need in a manual written by the English. What Pakistanis call university hostels are known as “Halls of residence” or “halls” in England and U.S.  University starts in England around October. Pick a university whose prospectus states that it is a “friendly campus”. This is their way of saying ‘our university is not an intolerant one, or snobbish, or racist” You must arrive on time because even a few days delay will affect your initial performance. In England the year starts with students being put into groups by the lecturers. The group members do certain work for subjects and get a joint grade. A university lecturer & a professor may be generally referred to as “tutor” in England, however in US; this title is not used for a teacher.

You will have a prayer room for Muslims (which will have a small library), a bank and a travel agency as well as a lecture theatre on campus where classes are held. It’s advisable to read the Safar Nama (travel writings) of Altaf Shaikh or any other writer before venturing into a foreign country which in this case is England. Every European & American reads about a country before going there to avoid any cultural embarrassments.

As a rule never criticize the country or culture of the host country or say negative things about your own. The image of Pakistan overseas is that it is a country with a primitive civilization, i.e. no buildings of international standards, English will think you have just hopped off a camel and taken a plane to England.

For the last 1000 years they have been hearing only negative things about Muslims since the time of Crusades. You will never hear criticism of Christianity or Judaism on our TV but rest assured that the radio, TV and print media in England is obsessed with Islam Bashing.

After moving into your room (which may be an en suite room with your own bathroom or a room with only a  wash basin and a communal washroom; depending on the cost you are willing to pay) the first thing you should do is to go and buy some food for the week. In addition to the University fee, it costs approximately £700 per month for a student to live in England (cost includes living expenses, food, clothes, books, socializing, taking a trip or two and the occasional takeaway order). British fast food is fish & chips. Public transport is good and you will get a bus every few minutes.

 Halls of residence buildings     students arriving   Halls of residence

       A typical student room in the halls, carpeted & fully furnished

 You will be sharing a kitchen with at least 10-11 other students who will be roughly same age as you. In the en suite rooms the halls are such that one room will be a given to a guy and there might be a girl living in the next room, i.e. you will have a mixture of guys and girls in your kitchen. You will eat your meals in the kitchen with some guys sitting there as well.  It may be a shock to the system of a desi (South Asian) who has never lived in a non Muslim country. But there is no need to worry. Girls are safer in European and American countries than in our country, no one will harass you in any shape, form or description. Flats on campus are only given to either girls or boys as a whole, not shared of course.

 Your shared kitchen will have at least four fridges and four full length freezers to keep frozen food in. Most people in the West buy ready made food and just warm it up in the microwave so freezers are necessary. Your kitchen will have all the necessary furniture, the dinning tables along with at least 12-13 stools, a microwave, a toaster, an oven as well as an ironing board and an iron.  

The room will be fully furnished, a bed, side table, study table, lamp, shower with all the amenities like shower curtains etc. English students bring a TV from home; you can buy a little TV or watch TV in the Common Room. It’s a mixed common room so be prepared for that. Nefarious programming is shown on TV only after 9 pm in England when the children are all asleep. Cable TV of course doesn’t follow this rule.

Any electronics including clocks are better bought from catalogue stores such as Argos if you wish to save money. Some universities out of London also provide a phone in each room. Bed linen will be provided also by the university which the cleaning ladies will take away every week and bring you new ones. There is going to be laundry room usually on the ground floor which will have all the washing machines and dryers so your clothes will come out dry ready to wear. Then you can fix a day to iron them in the kitchen or your room.                      

  A ttypical kitchen in the halls of a university, equipped with oven, microwave, toaster, cabinets (two per student), kitchen tables, four fridges, four freezers and an iron board as well as an iron. It is here you will sit and eat while at university.   

Your post will arrive and will be kept in the pigeon holes of the Common Room of your particular hall of residence, and you must check it every morning. Royal Mail delivers post within a single day if you use a first class stamp, if you write a letter, it will be at its destination the next morning within Britain.

Make sure when you get admitted by a British university that you are allotted a room in the halls, it would be difficult to convince them that you need a room once you have arrived in England because they will pretend that they don’t have any rooms left. If you insist they will be harsh. English are among the rudest people on Earth; don’t think you are living in desi lands any more. Also know the law. Any kind of staring or teasing (verbally or in written form) aimed at the womenfolk by guys will land them in serious trouble.

List of things to do:

 Now that you have unpacked your suitcases and hung all the clothes in the wardrobe; open a bank account in a local bank such as Nat West. Your campus will have a branch so you can always withdraw money when need be from the ATMs. If you have never operated an ATM then either ask someone before you leave for England or ask some relative or friend in England. Do not get a credit card but always ask the bank for a debit card. If you run out of cash sometimes, just use your debit card at a super market and ask the sales person to give you cash, the money will be automatically deducted from your bank account. Never tell your pin number to anyone, even friends. Never leave your door unlocked even when you go into the kitchen, or while doing your laundry or watching TV in the Common Room; people outside Sindh are not honest even in small and simple matters. If you have time, read the book “Prince” by Machiavelli. It’s going to come in handy. 

Ask someone to tell you where the supermarkets are located; pick up a map of the tube (underground rail system) from a local tube station, get a bus schedule & a city guide. Usually it’s called A-Z. Once you arrive in the shopping area, you can always drop in the office that would read “Tourist Information Centre”. It’s usually located in the town centre. It’s there to provide guidance to any tourist or lost person as to location of things round the city or town. In London buy a monthly pass for the tube to save money in case you travel a lot. You may get a weekly one or day one also, it’s usable on buses & trains.

The Westerners do not use water in their washrooms; make sure you have an empty water bottle hidden away in the washroom cupboard, so that the cleaning ladies don’t throw it away thinking its rubbish!

 Stuff to buy:

1) Some suitable clothes for the winter, don’t ever wear clothes or jeans bought from Pakistan, the stitching is of poor quality. Try to buy new clothes for every semester.

 2) A Long black over coat to last you during the winter, colored one is not recommended.

3) At least one pair of black winter boots.

4) Thermal wear for protection against the winter. You will need to wear at least three layers of clothing and a long coat with boots to cover your feet completely before stepping outside. This includes gloves, woolen hat and a woolen scarf.

(Girls: girls cannot wear shalvar kameez, you will need to get a few pair full length winter skirts and jeans with some “jumpers” (sweater tops). To be on the safe side buy a lot of black tops, black goes with everything. Thermal wear, for top & for covering the legs is essential. This should always be worn underneath the regular clothing in the winter. Also buy 2-3 pairs of thick black full length nylon tights. Wear the tights, on top put your thermal leg wear on and then put on the jeans or the skirt. You will need at least three layers of clothing on your legs and body to stay warm in the winter. No slippers (Champals in Sindhi) or sandals will do; you must wear ankle length boots in the winter, if your feet can’t breath, then make sure you make them get used to this.  This is the regular procedure in any European and American city, winters there are harsh and last long compared to our country. ‘Etam’ is a good ladies clothes shop, ‘Next’ is also good but hard on a person who is on a budget, ‘Marks & Spencer’ sends its profits to the Israeli army so most Muslims especially Arabs do not buy at this shop). You will have to buy new clothes every semester; there are genuine sales around December after Christmas and around March after Easter).

Guys need to know that a Sindhi cap if worn must be worn with elegance; it must match at least the shirt so buy some item of clothing that matches the Sindhi cap you brought from home. Ajrak can be worn matching one’s outfit.

 5) Make sure you have a saucepan, frying pan, a wooden spoon for stirring, a plate,  cups of tea or a few mugs, a set of forks and knives for eating. Do not use other students’ stuff.

6) Do get yourself a small clock and a radio and a small portable CD player. Listen to the Quran while walking; it will soothe your nerves in an alien environment.

Eating with hands is looked down upon unless it’s a sandwich. Maani or flat breads must be eaten as a rolled sandwich if you are eating it with hands (maani sandwich or pita bread sandwiches are made by making a roll with some bhaji or eggs). The whole roll is taken to one’s mouth to take a bite and then brought  back, breaking it into small bites with your hands and eating it like desis will be tolerated  in the student halls but not in formal occasions. In formal occasions you must eat maani or flat bread sandwiches with fork and knife also. Train yourself to hold the fork in your right hand and knife in your left so you don’t have to switch when putting food into your mouth otherwise you will be eating with your left hand!! The best way to eat breakfast is to toast a slice of bread, frying an egg. Then put the egg on top of the toast and eat it with fork and knife, this daily exercise will give you practice to break bread with knife in the left hand. (Note: eating with cutlery is forbidden by the hadith, so I am not advising the use of cutlery just informing of the situation you will face)

 Food to buy for the week:

Keep a budget of £30 for food per week. As a rule, never go & buy food when you are hungry otherwise you will end up buying unnecessary stuff. Do not eat cakes or biscuits or any other food items unless you know the ingredients fully well. Most people from Pakistan won’t know that “kirsch” used in cakes is an alcohol.

 1) Buy a package of frozen oven chips

2) A packet of frozen fish fingers

3) A packet of frozen potato waffles

4) A tin or two of baked beans

5) Pita bread (its Greek bread, looks like a small naan, forget about making maani yourself)

6) Tea, sugar and milk, orange juice

7) Toiletries e.g. Shampoos, hair mousse/hair gel, liquid or bar soaps, deodorants, washing detergent, fabric softener

8) Buy some onions, tomatoes and spices or any of the vegetables which will help you cook once and a while if you feel like eating desi food.  

Buy yourself a small fridge with a tiny freezer to store food during Ramadan in your room. Get a black colored one which is silent so it’s unnoticeable; fridges aren’t officially allowed in student rooms. But the English cleaning ladies won’t tell on you unless you have ticked them off in a major way. 

You will have many fire alarms; most of them false because students often put a cigarette butt on the smoke detector just to see the fire truck come to campus. Hang your coat at the back of the door always so that in case of a fire alarm in the middle of the night you can grab it before rushing outside, it’s freezing outside as soon as winter sets in around November. Keep the boots handy also. Heating is provided in the form of a radiator in each room, so the rooms will be comfortably warm even in freezing weather. They run on electricity which makes oil flow around the inside of the radiator, so they need to be bled every year or so, don’t worry about this, the cleaning ladies will take care of it.

Arguments among the White people tend not to be verbal only; people start physical fights after a couple of sentences, so stay away from arguments. For them it’s an actual improvement because in the past they would fight a dual until death over trivial matters. But for a civilized desi, physical fights never happen, arguments always remain verbal.

Tips for female students:

Do not get desi mendi for your hair; get an auburn color henna packet from Body Shop. Desi mendi (henna) tends to make hair dull; Body shop henna gives a shine to your hair. Henna should only be used in the summer, using it in the winter and going outside with wet hair may cause paralysis, henna is a coolant.

Make sure you own a strand of pearls to wear to fancy occasions, pearls are considered classy piece of jewelry among the Westerners. Sindhi jewelry such as a gold hassu or baanheen can be worn at a formal desi wedding reception at your friends’ family home to make everyone including the goras go wow. Sindhi gold jewelry is rather exquisite.  Sindhis take their gold jewelry for granted but to others its world class.

 List of things not to do:

 1) Do not discuss religion, there is no concept of lakum deenakum wal yadeen in a non Muslim society hence they will assume you are trying to convert them to Islam & be hostile. Do not be over inquisitive about Jews; you will have many teachers that are Jews. Also some students from the local Jewish community or Israel itself will interact with you. London city has an entire area for the Jewish community called Golders Green. They will light a candle every Friday evening outside their window and put it on the window sill. They observe Sabbath from Friday sun down till Saturday afternoon (they are not allowed to any work during this time period which includes switching the light bulb on and off). Know that Greeks have a major problem with Muslims due to border dispute between Turkey & Greece over Cyprus. 

2) Do not get involved too much with the Muslim political groups on campus like Hizb –ut Tahrir etc. they will bog you down and your studies might get affected. Get involved in dawa but make sure you focus on the task at hand, i.e. get an education. You should go to Friday prayers arranged on campus for both girls and guys. This is a good way of staying in touch. You will find that most people in London of Pakistani origin will be from Lahore or Pahari/Punjabi speaking from Azad Kashmir in the mosques and corner shops.

 3) If you have cooked in the shared kitchen and even a drop of food has fallen on the oven, clean it up. Do not use an Urdu cookery book or its equivalent in English.

4) Do not leave water splashed on & around the wash basin after doing wuzu of a communal washroom. Always wipe it up using the tissues.

5) If you are a guy, do not smoke in the kitchen while people are eating their food, English find it most offensive. Do not go and drink every night at the Students Union bar (legal age for drinking is 18 in England) or go clubbing in the discothèque on campus. It is just plain satanic even though you may think that your parents aren’t looking!

6) Do not go outside with wet hair. It is un advisable in a cold country. Buy yourself a hair dryer from the local pharmacy called Boots.  Never put hair oil and go outside in Public.

 7) Do not put clothes that are supposed to be spin dried into the tumble dryer, there will be two kinds of dryers provided in the laundry room; check the label on the clothes. For example if you have taken a Sindhi cap from home, do not wash it, it will be dry cleaned.

Do not put whites with colored clothes in the washing machine. Be forewarned that most Western clothes are too delicate and need to be hand washed or dry cleaned e.g. coats, silk, pure woolen cardigans, pullovers, jumpers.

8) London only sees snow for a day or two in the winter and the next day it’s a mess, so watch your step, don’t slip on the thin ice called black ice. Step on the snow that has not been treaded on already by someone.

Never play loud music that is blaring outside your room, like some people do in Karachi and Islamabad. Never play any music after 10 pm or call anyone after 10 pm. Noise pollution is a serious offence in the Western world.

9) On Eid, don’t wear any cheap desi clothes, always dress in finest Shalvar Kameez, because any overseas clothing style must be of finest quality in stitching and fabric to avoid embarrassment. Go and see the main mosque in London, located at Regent’s Park & pray there. Ladies can wear the Sindhi embroidered Shalvar Kameez in silk to represent our country’s culture, remember that once you leave for overseas, you automatically become a little ambassador for your country, everything you say and do will reflect on your people as a whole. 

10) During the exam week, the a few library floors may smell like a bathroom since most Western students would have not taken a shower and since they don’t use water in the toilet so you ought to figure out the result! This is hopefully not the case every single time but still it can happen while you are there.

 11) Do not stay on campus over the holidays, because the whole campus is going to be completely empty except you. Go and do some sight seeing. See the British Museum, especially its manuscript section, London eye; Brighton is the town at the English sea side. Canterbury is the religious centre and the place from which the Crusades were launched against Salahuddin. Towns of Oxford and Cambridge are famous due to their famous Universities, their look is kept medieval, even a McDonald sign is not allowed to be displayed prominently in these two historic towns.

See the country side, you will notice that England’s villages are better than Islamabad; they have robbed other countries in the past and built theirs.

  12) If a female desi gets bad grades for any reason, don’t send your brother or any other family member or someone else to talk to the lecturer, do it yourself.

One thing you will notice is that desis in England are more religious, even the desi guys who drink alcohol will fast in Ramadan! The reason is that they live in an environment which is hostile to them and they are not accepted by the locals due to differences in skin color. Pakistanis & others with brown skin are treated as the Kolhis, Bheels and maghwaars are treated in our country & untouchables are treated in India.  The treatment is worse if you speak English with a desi accent.

Some universities may have a policy to allow you to live for one year on campus and then move you to student housing off campus. In this case, pack your things in cardboard boxes sealed with cello tape before moving. Suits can be packed straight in plastic bags tied at the bottom so as not to crease them. Empty Cardboard boxes can be obtained from any local supermarket. Westerners expect to be paid on time so arrange for the rent to avoid a nasty landlady, before the first of the month has arrived. Never un-necessarily delay going to the bank or ATM. Off campus rooms will be furnished so you won’t need any furniture.

Publishing Date May 23, 2008