Before going to Belfast we knew nothing about what it looks like, if it is possible to survive with only volunteer pocket money, what we need to take except for 2 suitcases full of clothes, in which rooms and with whom we are going to live etc. We didn’t have any problems to accustom to the new environment but if you don’t expect something you can feel upset being far from home. Different people decide to try volunteering. Some of them are very young and never lived away from their relatives and friends, some of them lead an independent life and had a lot of experience at work and as a result they are used to living in comfort and getting normal salary monthly. But, obviously, even though you didn’t have a big family or a good job you will notice there is a challenge to overcome some obstacles. We would like to tell about our experience and give some advices about living in the UK and Belfast.
Communication
Don’t worry about communication. In Ireland there are the friendliest people in the world. If your English isn’t very good it is not a disaster. Ask people a million times. They like black humour so this is the only thing you need to get used to. Don’t take offence, don’t be too serious. Just learn by heart who you are, where you are from, what your organization does, what you did before. During the next months you will need to tell people this information every day or every weekend.
The Weather
1. From the first day of the winter buy a fan heater. Although you probably have visited the UK before as a tourist it is not the same to live in a volunteer or a student house. They all are provided with gas or oil heating system but as it is quite expensive to use your housemates wouldn’t be happy to put it on 24/7. And even if the radiators are on it might happen, that the rooms don’t feel as if they get warmed up. That’s why such a heater is really helpful in the morning and before going to bed, even though it also takes a lot of electricity and shouldn’t be used the whole day. So if you are afraid that your room won’t be spacious enough, start worrying that it will be too spacious to be well-heated.
2. Don’t hesitate to take more warm clothes, especially for home for the same reason (however, in local shops there are the warmest pyjamas in the world and they are quite cheap, so decide what is better for you). Having a hot water bottle and a comfy throw for your bed is also very helpful and makes you want to stay in your bed forever.
3. Don’t panic about the cold. It can break your will. Just complain about it every day to everybody. It makes you feel much better – some people have the same situation, some will invite you to get warm or say that they are sorry to you.
4. Belfast is a damp city. It is not raining every day like you can read on the Internet; the weather is just changing very quickly, which also means that rain doesn’t have to last very long. We were happy to discover that there are a lot of sunny days with a clear sky. Wake up in the morning and use these days to walk a lot in winter.
5. Places where you can get warmed for free or cheap: - library - botanic gardens - museums with no admission fees like Ulster museum or MAC - pubs (literally if you don’t want to drink anything no one cares) - your office (just start being a workaholic!) - sometimes cinema - buses - some churches.
Safety
Belfast is a pretty safe city. THERE IS NO WAR in Northern Ireland (tell your parents). Moreover you can walk all districts yourself without guards or even local people.
Medicine
Something amazing in the UK is, that you can register in a health centre and get all medical services for free (basically, you don’t need to pay, then send your expenses to your insurance company and wait for your money).
Something not so good (but understandable) is, that you need to wait very long for your appointment, but actually you can also use the emergency time slots if you are not feeling well, you should just always phone before you go to the medical practice. Therefore you don’t have to wait very long, there are even signs that say that you should tell the receptionists in case you’re waiting more than 20 minutes already!
Money
Actually, it’s not so hard to live with your EVS money. There are a lot of free or cheap charity events, most galleries and museums have no admission fee so you won’t feel a lack of events in your life. It is more complicated if you want to go shopping very often (not for food and vital things) and if you would like to travel outside of Ireland, but let’s be honest: that’s not what the allowance is meant to cover, so you can have a nice life out of the money you get! Anyway, a piece of advice – check not only Tesco supermarket. It can be time consuming but you will save some pounds for travel tickets or something else: some things accidently can be found in Lidl, pound shops or other places. Basically, you can find everything here for only one pound (depends only on season, sales and amount). This week you can buy apples for one pound and the other week – pears. Just look at sales shelves and choose what is cheaper and try to remember prices for necessary foods in different places.
Transport
You can easily walk to a lot of places and sometimes you can even discover some new, interesting places through this. If you are not used to the left-hand traffic, you should watch out a bit more for the first few weeks until you know from which side a car might come. Anyway, even though there are a lot of traffic lights, it doesn’t mean everyone cares about it, at least not the pedestrians. People here are crossing the streets nearly all the time. A red light only means that a car might come along, but if you don’t see any, why should you wait? And even if a car is coming, they often wait patiently until everyone crossed the street. If you decide to take the bus, get a pink metro pre-paid card that you can top up with journeys to use whenever you get on the bus. This way you are only paying 95p instead of £1.90 per journey. Don’t worry if you’re waiting on the bus stop and the bus isn’t coming – it is normal that buses aren’t always on time and sometimes don’t come at all, but people here know about it, so it shouldn’t be a problem if you’re late because of that If you get off the bus: don’t forget to say “Thank you” or a usual “Cheers” to the bus driver! As we said before: people here are very friendly and polite. If you’re planning to travel outside of Belfast you don’t have to worry about a lack of transport as well: the train system is well established and there are enough Coaches to various places all over the island and a lot of them even drive regularly during the night! For travelling to Belfast it might be easier and cheaper to fly to Dublin and just getting one of the coaches from the Airport to Belfast.
Housemates
Probably you will share a house with other people, maybe students, PHDs or maybe even other volunteers. However you’ll be excited to meet them but don’t worry if they maybe don’t become your best friends during the year or if they don’t like a clean bathroom as much as you do. (Cleaning rotas might help but of course they don’t always do – take it with humour and see it as a lesson for life, because it certainly won’t be the last time that you’ll live together with others) You won’t have problems to find nice people or new friends during your EVS time, you’ll meet a lot of people through your work, through other volunteers, in your neighbourhood or simply on parties and if you can’t chum up with your housemates just befriend with other people! It is certainly nice to have a living house community but it can be nice to get to know a lot of people from ‘outside’ as well. Take things as they are and make the best out of it!
Irina&Isabel
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