Sheffield, Home Sweet Home

M Marin Lacarta, Spain

When I first arrived I thought three things: it is warmer than I thought it would be, there are lots of students everywhere and it is not as ugly and industrial as people had told me. I felt like a typical foreigner, looking at the map they gave me at university, asking people how to get to the closest supermarket and taking pictures of the cathedral. My room was empty and cold, and so was my wardrobe for the first week, as the airline had lost my luggage. All of a sudden, after a two hour flight I was in a completely different country, trying to make myself understood, shocked by how early they ate, how punctual they were and how quickly the traffic lights changed. I felt the way you feel when you go on holiday, but I knew this was going to be my home for nine months, so I thought: I hope I will feel at home. I have just been in Spain for Christmas and when I went into my room it just wasn't my room any more, I thought, my bedroom is in 50, Victoria Street, Sheffield. So I know now that I am happy in Sheffield and that I am going to miss it.

I will miss eating kebabs at three in the morning after going to a club in the Union, I will miss my flatmates and how excited they get when we go out. I will definitely miss the University, too. Not only the activities in the Union and the societies and clubs, but also my teachers who are always there when I need help with my homework. Oh, I will miss curry and, of course, fish and chips!

Before coming to Sheffield I never thought I would learn so much in just nine months, I am not just talking about the language, which has obviously improved lots and I even dream in English, but also from a different culture, from lots of different cultures I should say, because I love being able to go down the street with my German friend and eat in an Indian restaurant, served by an Italian waiter listening to my neighbour talk to her boyfriend in Spanish. I have friends from all around the world now, and we all like Sheffield and we definitely feel at home.

Sometimes if I get bored of Sheffield because now I feel I have been everywhere here, then I just take a coach and go to another city in England. As the coach is cheap and youth hostels are not expensive, there is no excuse to get bored. However, it is hard to get bored in a city where you can do so many things and in a university where there are so many things to do, from going to the cinema to snowboarding, fencing, boxing, dancing and who knows how many other millions of things you can do in Sheffield. Nine months are definitely not enough time to get bored, I feel I need more time to enjoy this city, time goes too quickly, so let's enjoy the present.

M Marin Lacarta, Spain