(2022年黛芙妮的murmur: 當年到底在想什麼，竟然用全英文寫部落格…)
Hey, just in case I won’t scare people away, I will start with English then Mandarin later (forgive my laziness at the time I will maybe upload soon)! So friends from Taiwan please be patient (中文版請往下跳，英文不看會後悔唷)
This pre-arrival notes will be divided into two parts: food and life in Warwick, and opening a bank account！
So, let’s start with FOOD AND LIFE IN WARWICK.
(I share all the following information based on me and my friends’ experiences, and therefore some parts could be subjective.)
University of Warwick is located in Warwickshire but DO NOT tell the taxi driver that you are heading to Warwick, because Warwick is somewhere, which also in Warwickshire, but miles away from school. You will end up catching another taxi and spend extra for your trip to University of Warwick. If you arrive at Birmingham International Airport, you could either take a coach bus or taxi at the airport to approach school. If you take taxi route, it’ll cost about 35 pounds a single trip. Also, remind your driver to start the meter otherwise they could ask for a ridiculous price after you arrive.
There are 3 places that you can do grocery shopping: roots grocery store, tesco, and aldi. Roots grocery store locates beside roots building/costa/student union where provides almost every necessities from fresh fruit, vegetable, meet, frozen food, to toiletry, cookers, household products. However, what you need to know is that roots does sell at slightly higher prices than tesco and aldi, since it is situated in the main campus and convenient for student to drop by on their way to class.
Tesco is near to the post grad accommadation, Clay croft, but even though you live in Heronbank and Lakeside, it’ll take merely about 20 minutes walk only. (okay, personally I consider the trip to tesco as daily exercise haha although the distance does depend on personal perceptions.) Tesco is in the cannon park centre which you can also find post office, salon, costa, wilko, iceland, korean food plaza and subways and so on in. Always remember to bringing your trolley grocery cart because believe me, you WILL accidentally buy more goods than on your shopping list. The plastic bag from Tesco costs 50p which could also be useful when your clean ladies are slight and in turn you run out of trash can bags. Aldi is newly open next to Tesco and I haven’t been there yet. The related information about shopping in Aldi will be updated in the neat future.
文章目錄（點名稱快速前往）
✌ Daphne’s Recommendations for grocery shopping in Warwick ✌
↦ Roots:
Whenever you run out of certain items which are available in both roots and tesco. For example: soya milk, bread, or snacks.
↦ Tesco:
Plan you grocery shopping schedule ahead. Once a week will be more efficient for saving time and unnecessary money spent. Tesco has great variety on vegetables and meat and fish, but pitifully average-quality fruits. If you have specific diet preferences such as gluten-free, there are gluten free sections offering for your selection. I highly recommend the gluten-free sweet potato tortilla!
↦ Delivery:
Yes, it is delivery. Living in Warwick University could be a bit bothersome traveling to city center, and on that account delivery become extremely momentous and convenient. Sainsbury’s and ocado are my most-used online grocery options. For somehow reasons that they tend to provide higher quality fruit (apple, banana, kiwi) and more selection in berries! Additionally, if you prefer high-end grocery, then you should go to waitrose!
The nearest city centre is Coventry at which you can take bus 11/12/U17 to arrive, but different buses take different routes so make sure you jump on the one you want! Coventry centre has IKEA, argos (where you can purchase cheap yet not-bad quality products. I personally love their kitchen items!), coventry market (where you can buy fresh ingredients and some butchers and seafood stands as well.), banks (lloyds, barclays, HSBC), poundland and bubble tea shop. Return ride costs 4 pounds without a year-round bus card, or student bus card. If you like, you can travel by bike which will also a good option especially you are an outdoor person.
To eat in Warwick on campus, try fried rice in Fushion (roots building 2F), fries/Singaporean noodle/masala curry/panini/chocolate fudge cake/red velvet cake in WBS cafe, dirty duck for delicious hamburger and steaks, visit Le Gusta when you deserve a nice meal for your hard work, and last but not least definitely, drop at Varsity for beers with your friends on Friday night will beyond doubt release your stress for entire week. Visit *this website* for more detailed information of eating in university, and don’t forget to *top up* your ID card for your eating at Warwick account! You can get discount when you check the bill via student ID card!
✌ Daphne’s little tips of saving money in Warwick ✌
↦ Buy freshly baked bread selection at roots grocery store, or the handy tortilla for your breakfast, lunch and even dinner. Normally, they are the cheap and economical. You can create various dishes with them. Spread Nutella/peanut butter/favourite jam on the toasted bread and place sliced banana, umm yummy. Heat up your pan and put in your choice of tortilla without oiling your pan to give it a crispy touch. Then, crack an egg in a bowl and beat it up, use one hand to lift up the totilla and slowly pour the egg mixture in, then cover the egg with tortila. Give it a few pat or press and wait for one minute till the egg is cooked then turn the tortilla trying to roll. You will end up with mouthwatering crispy tortilla egg roll, with Taiwanese twist adding some sweet thicken soy sauce. In fact, you can change the filling to anything you like, cheese and ham, tuna and garlic mayo, cheddar cheese and Nutella (we came up with this insane idea but found the combination was actually tasty!).
↦ Buy annual bus ticket if you live off campus and need transportation often, remember applying *youth railway card(16-25)* at Coventry station or online. After months, you will find these discount save you lots of money for other dozens of beers LOL How much you can save? Off-peak return train tickets from Coventry to Birmingham only need 2.85 pounds, from Coventry to London Euston around 20 pounds depending on how advance you book the tickets and the time slot you choose.
↦ If you love shopping and cannot live without shopping, London undoubtedly is the best option as it’s a fashion capital in UK whereas Birmingham is another suitable choice. It is not far off and has great quantities of brands you name it: superdry, H&M, topshop, maxmara, adias…
Lastly, opening bank accounts!
As you know, international students will normally go for these four options: Lloyds, Barcalys, HSBC, and Santander. Lloyds and Barcalys are British based banks and Santander is Spanish bank which is introduced into UK five years ago. Followings are our experiences while opening accounts as international students. We originally planned to open accounts at Baralys but they required reservations and at the time we need to wait more than two months. Therefore, we turned to Lloyds which was equally popular amongst students. Lloyds did need reservations (phone or online), and coupled with bank letters, BRP card and passport. The overall process for me was quite smooth and my commissioner assisted me in opening two (current/classic and saving) accounts along with online banking service altogether.
However, that was my lucky case. My friends had spent three weeks trying to open accounts but for unknown reasons they rejected him for three times with different yet absurd excuses. At the end, he opened accounts at Santander on campus branch and only took him three days to complete the process! = =… Hence, I’ve created the comparison chart below for your reference though it could be slightly insufficient.
After 5 to 7 working days, you will receive consecutive six letters including one debit card, one cashpoint card, two pin codes and two letters for online banking instructions. You do NOT need to activate your card to use. And Lloyds doesn’t deduct any transaction fee! I finally realize why people are addicted to debit cards or contactless payment!
These are information, in my own opinion, that will be more practical at the begingin stage of arrival. If you need further information or any help, feel free to comment below and tell me what you want to know more about! Thank you for you reading!
中文版來嚕！
黛芙妮其實自己在準備行前資料的時候上網找了很久，都沒有一些比較仔細或是針對華威的說明和分享，所以就在台灣就已經下定決心來了以後一定要努力跟大家分享這裡的食衣住行育樂！
以下會分為食 and 生活和開銀行帳戶兩個部分:
食 and 生活
其實黛芙妮在40公斤的行李裡帶了很多食物，也包含被禁止的肉鬆！
但是來了英國才發現真正需要帶的是乾燥香菇啊～倫敦的中國城可以買到很多你意想不到的食材，但是就是沒有品質好的乾香菇，所以如果你想要帶食物建議可以帶你喜歡的調味料 (烹大師是你的好朋友) 和香菇或是一些中藥材來燉湯！
畢竟出國唸書很大的部分就是要享受文化和地方特色的飲食，黛芙妮的建議就是去傳統市場和超級市場享受一下不知名的蔬菜水果吧！
不論你/妳住校內還是校外宿舍，大部分的學生都會選擇自己開火煮飯，不只因為可以省錢，而且也比較好玩和健康！
在語言課程(pre-sessional)的六個星期常常跟不同國家的人一起搭伙吃飯，吃著異國料理順便練習英文，也可以在酒酣之際和中國朋友們聊一些比較敏感的問題。
的確，有些中國人比較難以溝通，但是出國唸書的中國人也是很多有國際觀和眼界，也懂得尊重不同想法，來了這個自由國度不要害怕自己的意見會被淹沒、不被重視，只有你願不願意分享自己的想法和自身文化素養的高度;)
小小的跟大家分享一下我們的華威廚藝學校成果哈哈！
從學校到最近的市區考文垂(Coventry)可以搭校內公車11/12/U17，但是要注意他們走的路線都不盡相同，所以即使他會到車站也要注意他的路線噢！跟大家分享U17路線，千萬不要搭他如果你急著要去Coventry車站，因為他會帶你繞市區一圈最後才會到車站噢~千萬不要像黛芙妮一樣傻傻的差點錯過火車時間…
至於英國國內外旅遊這塊，跟專業部落客相比黛芙妮簡直是小弱弱一枚啊，不過唯一要強調的是我們在英國屬於低風險國家所以不需要做police registration，也不用申請申根簽證去歐洲各地旅遊~有沒有覺得身為臺灣人真的很幸福❤
開銀行帳戶
其實大概開銀行帳戶的細節都在英文版本裡面了，基本上不論開哪家銀行戶都可以，每一家的服務也都大同小異噢！
如果你有其他問題想要問我，歡迎隨時留言或是連絡黛芙妮！