The University of Warwick.

Salam all,

In my previous post, it may sound that I was not that ecstatic about my experience in the UK so far. That is still true, up to now, but in reality, there are a lot of things to love about the University of Warwick! 

Some basic info about Warwick Uni:

• A relatively new uni in the UK which has just celebrated its 50th birthday this year (thus having no real old-style English buildings). 

• One of the Russell Group Universities in the UK.

• located in Coventry (not Warwick), close to the Warwickshire towns, the very centre of the UK (making it easier for travels).

• 3 miles away from Coventry city centre (yes, all in miles here. Pening!)

• Two biggest cities in the UK, i.e. London & Birmingham, are just 1 hour and 20 minutes train journey away, respectively. 

and based on my experience for the past 1 month, these are particularly the things that I like about the university:

• The Islamic Prayer Hall: Wow, just wow..BIG with HEATED ablution facilities, kitchen and the all-amazing WATER HOSE in the toilets!!! which is also heated!..though the heat can 'take you by surprise' at first! So go easy ya... ;D and it is just next to the Chaplaincy. 

• Rootes Grocery Store: A very convenient university's own supermarket. A tad expensive but ok for you to grab some random snacks or quick lunch/dinner meals with quite an impressive selection of Vegetarian and Halal Indian food and sandwiches. Alhamdulillah.

• Restaurants & Cafes: Yerp, still about food. There is a WIDE selection here. But, of course being Muslims, your choice is a lot more limited than others but I think for a university in a Western country, the options for halal and vegetarian dishes are quite amazing. There are Xananas, Cafe Library, Cafe Social, Le Gusta, Costa Coffee, to name a few. Of course we can't go to these places daily (because of financial limitations), but it's wonderful to have that option on some of the days you forgot to bring some packed lunch/dinner. Another wonderful thing is that we can treat our student card as a prepaid card for food via 'Eating at Warwick' scheme. You just need to topup some money on the card and enjoy 10% discount at all these uni-based cafes/restaurants (except Costa, though). and many Malaysians flock to Cafe Library on Fridays  for its signature Fish & Chips during lunch.

• Study spaces: Warwick surely understands students' diverse learning styles. Some need to study in dead silence, in an acceptable level of quietness, or in a totally casual atmosphere. You can be sure there's a place that suits you best. As for me, I like the Postgraduate Hub which is a little noisy as I am a 'casual' learner who cannot learn in silence. Dead silence is the creepiest for me. Actually I am not a library kinda person. Rarely in the past that I studied in the university. But I need to go to the university now to 'run away' from my kids. hahaha... Can't focus much at home as there will be a couple of skinny and chunky little creatures calling out my name every 10 seconds. But my husband and I are taking turns to go to the university, to be fair and to save up on childcare services. Just make do with what we have. Alhamdulillah. 

Pg Hub

• CAL: I love my department CAL (Centre for Applied Linguistics). Very casual atmosphere! As usual, staff members in a Western university never really care about being called a Prof or a Doc. We call by our first names. CAL is super small. Which turns out to be a good thing! It is just one wing on the first floor of the Social Sciences building. but lectures for MA students may be conducted in other buildings too. and I love its positive attitude. On the first day of Induction, we were happy to be informed that almost 100% of previous PhD students in CAL managed to complete their studies within 3-4 years. Now, that's motivating! and also the fact that I have the awesomest supervisor!!! She's a German and she guides me a lot in reading. She's known for her kindness and full support for her supervisees. and it turns out that we believe in the same thing, that is to WRITE from the beginning. READ & WRITE right away. We meet once a fortnight. I would need to email what I have written with a list of biblio and reflections one day before our meeting. She would respond with detailed comments within a few hours..I would read those comments and we discuss on that during the 1-hour meeting the next day. I am not required to be constantly on campus. One disadvantage at CAL, though, is that we are not even given one room or personal workspace at CAL. It is a small department with very limited rooms. There are only shared research rooms in which you need to share. Seating is on first come first serve basis. I don't really like that (I mean sitting at a table where other people's stuff are all over the places) so I would just go to PG Hub for studying. The good thing is, the supervisor doesn't get a chance to stalk me at all! hahahaha... 

• Tesco & a small shopping place: Uuh yeah, Tesco hypermarket is just 10 mins walk away from my department. It is located within Cannon Park Shopping Centre which is quite a pathetic looking small mall, but oklaaaah. Actually, it is practically within the university area. Tesco is where our family does our grocery up to now...but we heard Aldi and Lidl are cheaper. So, we'll see! But Tesco's location is super convenient!

• Beautiful views along the way to/from the university: And personally, I think you can only truly feel it when you are walking or cycling to the university. It is worth the 40-mins walk journey from home.
  

Warwick university is slowly finding its way to my heart.. but UK, hrmmm...a long way to go. What to do, NZ has set quite high standards in my expectations of life on a foreign land in a Western country. ;)

Will share more later, Insya Allah.

Salam. Ciao.