Contact: lenaalbers@gmx.de Experience Report.pdf

Preparations

Once I’d made contact with my supervising professor in Cardiff and had received confirmation of my placement, the major preparations lay ahead. First of all, I got myself a credit card. I compared several offers from banks and came to the conclusion that Comdirect Bank offered the best value for money. You get a current account with a debit card and can withdraw money free of charge from any ATM abroad displaying the Visa logo using the accompanying Visa card. However, Deutsche Bank is also a good option, as it has many partner branches and, here in the UK for example, you can withdraw money free of charge at all Barclays branches.

The next item on my list was insurance cover. I decided against taking out additional international health and third-party liability insurance, as my statutory public health insurance and my third-party liability insurance provide cover throughout Europe. You should find out in advance whether your own insurance policies cover you and, if so, what they cover. However, the DAAD also offers a combined health and personal liability insurance policy. I think anyone who wants to be on the safe side should find out more from them.

Getting there

It’s very easy and affordable to get to Cardiff by plane. If you plan early enough, there are very cheap flights to London with Ryanair. British Airways also offers affordable fares. So I flew from Bremen to London Stansted Airport and from there took the National Express bus to London Victoria Station. Two services (National Express and Terravision) run to Victoria Station every 20 minutes. Tickets for the train from Stansted to central London were also on sale on the plane. Although this is the faster option, it’s also the more expensive one. You can easily travel from London Victoria Station to Cardiff Central Station in just around 3 hours with National Express or Megabus. If you book early enough, tickets are available from £1.

Accommodation

As I didn’t have a flat or room yet, I booked a bed in advance at Riverhouse Backpackers. I can highly recommend this hostel to everyone. Compared to others, the price of just £17 per night includes a wonderful breakfast, coffee and tea all day, bed linen, internet access, clean bathrooms and a very friendly atmosphere. The next day, I set out to look for available rooms. You can find plenty of these on various websites, such as www.cardiff.gumtree.com, www.easyroommate.com, www.spareroom.com or www.accommodationforstudents.com. However, you really do need to be quick off the mark here too, as Fresher’s Week – the orientation week for first-year students – begins in late September/early October, and the selection of accommodation is drastically reduced from then on. A major problem for me was the short period of time I only intended to stay in Cardiff. Most landlords (property owners, letting agents) only let their flats or houses for 10 to 12 months – or, if you’re lucky, for 6 months. Unlike in Germany, fixed-term tenancy agreements are signed here. It’s also often the case that a landlord or their agent shows you a room, but you don’t get to meet your future flatmates. In that situation, I’d ask for the flatmates’ phone numbers and get to know them before signing a contract. A good place to turn to for tenancy matters is the Student Union. They offer to go through tenancy agreements and check for any potential pitfalls. You should also always view the rooms in person. They usually look very nice and spacious in the photos on the websites, but the reality is often quite different. In the end, though, I still managed to find a lovely place to live. I lived in a large house with six other students from all over the world. It was always lovely to sit together in the evenings or cook together.

Life in Cardiff

Cardiff is a very friendly and peaceful city. With a population of around 317,000, it’s still a manageable size, yet you can already get a real sense of being in a capital city. Basically, everything you need for day-to-day life is within walking distance. On the one hand, the pedestrianised area has large shopping centres as well as small, quaint shops in the arcades; on the other hand, the many parks are great for relaxing or going for a jog – whether a short or a long one. The cost of living in Cardiff is quite reasonable compared to other cities in the UK, although it is still more expensive than here in Germany. For shopping, it’s worth heading to the Lidl near the university, but Tesco and Sainsbury’s also sometimes have good offers. A trip down ‘City Road’ is definitely worth it too. As well as the small Turkish or Pakistani supermarkets with their local produce, there are plenty of takeaways and restaurants serving cuisine from a wide variety of countries (Pakistan, India, Iran, China, Japan, and many more). To make sure we didn’t get bored, my friends and I spent quite a few weekends travelling around Wales. The train connections here are quite good and affordable. I’d recommend buying a rail pass at the start of your stay, which gives you a discount of around 30 per cent on fares. Cardiff Central Station provides excellent connections to all corners of North-West Wales. Highly recommended destinations include Tenby, Swansea, Llantwit Major and the Gower Peninsula with its incredible coastlines and beaches. The historic castles are also well worth a visit; Cardiff Castle, Caerfilly Castle and Castle Coch are just three of many in the area around Cardiff. How about a visit to Brecon Beacons National Park with its mountains and waterfalls? A trip to Bristol and the medieval city of Bath is also well worth it. What’s more, a trip to London is quick and easy to organise. You can get there in three hours via National Express or Megabus. My highlight of our weekend trips was Dublin – a wonderful and exciting city that’s easy to reach by plane from Bristol. Cardiff also has plenty to offer party-goers, with its numerous clubs catering to every taste. Personally, I can recommend the “Old Library” and the “Live Lounge”. Live concerts are often held here, featuring small, lesser-known bands or excellent cover bands playing the music of well-known acts such as Amy Winehouse, Madonna, The Police, The Killers, Kings of Leon and many more. If you’re more into nightclubs (e.g. Tiger Tiger, Buffalo’s, Glam, Solus), you’ll also find plenty to enjoy. However, you should be prepared for the very revealing style of dress among the local girls. You’ll often feel a bit ‘underdressed’; but this makes it easy to tell the locals apart from the foreigners. If you’re not so keen on dancing, you can also relax in one of the many pubs (e.g. Pen & Wig, Wetherspoon) and enjoy a ‘beer and burger’.

Work placement

During my first week in Cardiff, I met my professor in person; he showed me round the laboratories and gave me a brief overview of the research group and the university. So Monday was the first day of my work placement. I was allocated a workstation and we discussed the chemical reactions I was to investigate over the coming weeks. For my placement, I was to contribute to the research group’s current work. First, I had to synthesise, purify and analyse my starting materials myself based on reactions described in the literature. Using these starting materials, I then carried out my first literature-reported rearrangements to ‘get to know’ the reactions. After that, I ventured into as yet unknown reactions and experiments. Once I’d familiarised myself with the reaction class, my professor essentially gave me free rein with my ideas. Following a brief discussion, he usually agreed with my plans for the next set of experiments. The staff and doctoral candidates were all very

helpful and keen to assist wherever they could. I didn’t have a doctoral candidate supervising me; instead, I was supervised directly by the professor, as I was working on a completely new topic. He, too, was very helpful, and I could go to him with any question. I was fully accepted into the research group and, after a brief introduction, was allowed to use all the equipment and software independently.

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed this placement and learnt a great deal. Not only in chemistry, but also in interacting with people from other countries and using a foreign language. I think this experience has boosted my self-confidence and made me much more independent. It was great to see how my English kept improving and how open-minded all the young people from such a wide variety of countries are. I’d like to help anyone who’s still thinking about whether to spend some time abroad to make their decision and say, ‘Go!’. Nobody can take this wonderful time away from you, and the experiences and memories will stay with you for a long time.