Coming to university for the first time is a big change for any student. You’re moving out of home for the first time, meeting new people, trying to find your way around this whole new world, all without the reassurance of your family holding your hand.

While we will all have to tackle the same student related skills, like budgeting our money, washing our clothes, and yes, actually cooking our own food, for those of us from a more rural upbringing there is also the added shock of what living in a city is actually like, and how to adapt to it.

Here are just some of the things that never really arose as a problem for those of us who came from places where there were more sheep than people…

Dressing for the weather 

Sure it rains in the country, it rains plenty. But have you ever had to perform a twenty minute walk whilst desperately juggling those paper Primark shopping bags and an umbrella at the same time, round the fields at home? Just a month in the city will teach you the true importance of a coat with a hood, that light jeans are a big no in the lashing rain, and that snood your granny got for you one Christmas but you never wore? Take it with you; Belfast is a bit on the chilly side.

The true horrors of the Translink system

Getting the bus to Belfast was fun when you were going out shopping for the day with your friends. It was a nice treat, something different than driving everywhere. Now you’re a student that bus will be the bane of your life – it’s a much different place when you’re extremely hung-over, and are squashed into a seat with some stranger who smells profusely.

The existence of “Glen’s” and other cheap alcohol substitutes

Maybe this one is more to do with student living in general, but I had no idea that off licences carried such varieties of spirits before I came here. At home the main offers were all top brand names, it was only until we graced  “Wine Mark” for the first time that the likes of Chardalusco, Vladivar and Krauter Stein became our new best friends

Meet Glen, your new housemate

The TV Licence man is not like the boogey man, he is real

I’m not suggesting that country people are ignorant to the existence of the TV licence man himself, it’s more the threat of him. In the country, it can take YEARS of sporadic, largely scattered attempts before he finally hunts you down. A few months in Belfast and you’ll be inundated with threatening letters, assuring you the police will be knocking in your door any day now.

Shops are EVERYWHERE, and that is wonderful

In the old country a walk to the shop would take anything from at least twenty minutes to two hours depending on just how far into the middle of nowhere that you lived. A walk to the shop was like an expedition, something to be done when you had literally nothing else to do. Imagine then the delight of having a wide range of Spars, Vivos, and Centras all within a stone’s throw away.

Spar, the beacon of the Holylands

Cars with only two seats can come in 3D 

Before Belfast, smart cars only existed as comedy devices in American films and in environment advertisements from the government. You had more chance of meeting a cow halfway through giving birth on the road than seeing one of them. So the first time any culchie came to Belfast and witnessed the hilarious site of a smart car bay parked into a parallel parking space was always magical.

Your culchie colloquialisms WILL be mocked

Those street-wise, city raised students in your class just aren’t used to hearing terms like “Grand jab”, “Clane aff” or “That is ket” so be warned. Also, don’t use terms like “Did yes curt” or “Go wi” when trying to describe pulling situations because everybody seems to have a different way of describing the act, and there could be some messy misunderstandings.

You will NEVER know all your neighbours

So many faces so little time. Whether you chose to live in halls or the Holylands, the same will apply. In the country you know everything from your neighbour’s general ancestry to what time they put their clothes out on the line, but in the city there will always be that shroud of mystery surrounding your neighbours. With so many people crammed into the one space and with everyone moving about every year it would be a full time job trying to keep track.

Crossing the road is a skill

In the calm and tranquillity of country roads, you would barely have to lift your head to know if anything was coming, sound alone was enough. In Belfast however, you best believe that the roads are in a whole new league. Several motorists whizzing up and down in every direction means you’ll either have to become permanently acquainted with the little red and green men, or take the bolder option and master the art of independent traffic dodging.

To traffic light or not to traffic light?

Locks on doors are there a reason, use them

One key does the job of plenty for most country homes. In the city it is likely that your door alone will have a multiple number of locks and bolts, and it makes sense. Nobody is saying that living in the country is completely safe,  but you will have to become wise as to the importance of locking your house/room during term time if you want to remain safe (free from burglaries) and, perhaps even more seriously, stopping your housemates/flatmates from playing elaborate pranks on your bedroom.

Keep your door locked and your mattress will remain untouched