I lived here for three years while I was at university, though if you take away the long university holidays (which I mostly spent at home) it was probably slightly less then two years in total.
During my first year, I lived in catered halls on the university campus.
When I'd visited the university on an open day, I'd been shown student halls that looked like something out of Harry Potter, but the one I ended up getting placed in was an ugly 1960s or 1970s building that was certainly no Hogwarts! My room was on the lower ground floor and felt a bit like a basement, and the food could be a bit grim. On the whole, I didn't especially enjoy the experience.
In my second year, I moved into a shared house in the Dunkirk neighbourhood of the city. This was my first experience of sharing accommodation, and while I was fortunate enough that the house itself was alright, I really did not have a good time there. I've realised that I'm the sort of person who can't properly relax and feel at home in a place if I'm living with people who aren't either my partner or my family. I did try to make the best of things, but I quickly got frustrated, as I found that 9 times out of 10, I was the one who was taking the bins out, or I'd buy communal things like kitchen roll, and find that everyone else was happy to use it but would never bother replacing it. And while I wouldn't call myself a neat freak, I do like to keep things clean and tidy, which can cause issues in shared accommodation.
So it was a total relief to move into my own studio flat in my fourth and final year at university.
It was a more expensive option, but so worth it. Just to be able to come home after a long day of classes and to have a space all to myself, and to not have to share a kitchen or a bathroom, made such a difference. It was small - the bathroom was basically an airplane bathroom - but I'd choose the tiniest studio flat over sharing a big house with acquaintances/strangers any day.
The studio flat was located in a private student residence in the small town of Beeston, which is very close to the university. Beeston is not the most beautiful town and has this sort of vibe of being stuck in the 1970s, but for some reason, I actually liked it quite a lot.
I also liked the student residence much more than I'd liked the university hall I'd lived in during first year. There was quite a lot to get involved with - during my first semester there, I attended a free weekly singing group, and during my second semester, I went to a free salsa dancing course every Thursday. Often free food would be given out, and I remember that for Chinese New Year, they put on a special event with a Chinese buffet and traditional dances performed by students of Chinese heritage, which was a really nice experience.
Overall, despite the fact that my workload in final year was absolutely insane, it was definitely the year that I was the happiest, and I think having that little flat had a lot to do with that.
A lot of people, including a lot of my peers from Nottingham, absolutely fall in love with their university city and say that their student years were the best years of their life. That wasn't really the case for me. While I was delighted to get into the University of Nottingham, I was a very socially anxious person at the time, and I felt quite overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new people I was meeting and the fact that I was living away from home for the first time. Although I did make an effort to get out of my comfort zone, socialise and get involved with different societies, nothing really worked out that well.
On top of that, my course (Spanish, French and German ab initio) had far more contact hours and a much heavier workload than the average degree, and I struggled to maintain a work-life balance. While I really enjoyed most of my classes, and actually loved studying, I hated essays and exams. (I actually find being in full-time work much less stressful than being a student.)
Having said that, I now feel some nostalgia for certain aspects of my life there, and would really like to go back for a visit sometime soon. I think I was unlucky to not have such an amazing time there, and I'd say that overall, it's probably a pretty good place to be a student.
Feldkirchen in Kärnten, Austria
Pros
- A beautiful part of the world filled with lakes, mountains and castles
- High standard of living
- Good public transport
- Easy to travel to several other countries by train
- Austria is said to have a nice combination of the efficiency and punctuality of
Germany with the more relaxed attitude of
ItalyCons
- High cost of living (but higher salaries too)
- Feldkirchen is a fairly sleepy, quiet sort of place, and the region of Kärnten is quite rural with no big cities
- Very cold in winter (but snowy, which is nice!)
- Landlocked, so no beaches (though places like
Italy,
Slovenia and
Croatia are only a train ride away)
My Experience Living Here
They say that your life begins at university, but for me, it began with my Year Abroad! I spent four months of the year teaching English at two secondary schools in Feldkirchen, and had a great time. I travelled so much, both around Austria and to nearby countries, and I still miss being able to travel abroad with such ease.
I lived in a little apartment on the top floor of a house owned by a friend of one of the teachers at the school and her husband. There were also two lovely cats living there, who liked to pop upstairs to visit me (though sadly one of them died on the road). I was paying a great price for renting the apartment (even paying twice as much would still have been a pretty good deal) and my earnings were actually not much lower than what I'm earning now after tax - despite the fact that I was only working in the schools four mornings a week and doing some lesson prep outside of those hours. Honestly, I've never been better off financially, and possibly never will be again.
Would I Recommend It?
Absolutely! While I don't see myself ever living somewhere like Feldkirchen in the long-term - I'd prefer a big, international city like Vienna - I think Austria is undoubtedly one of the best countries in the world to live in.
Santiago, Chile
Pros
- Big city with some beautiful parks and amazing mountain views
- The Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains are both short distances away, meaning there are loads of great day trips you can take - in the winter, you can even go skiing!
- Chile is a beautiful country with almost every landscape you can imagine, and it's all either a short flight or a long road trip away
- Long, hot summers and mild winters (though lack of central heating can make winter difficult)
- Low cost of living compared to the UK (though it has greatly increased in recent years)
- Relatively good public transport
Cons
- Low salaries
- Limited job opportunities compared to Europe
- Visas for British citizens are hugely expensive
- High crime rate
- Very unequal society - the difference between the west and the east of the city is extreme
- Much more expensive than other Latin American countries, especially since 2020
- Very bureaucratic - you have to spend entire mornings waiting in line to complete processes that we can easily do online in the UK
- Very difficult to rent a decent apartment if you aren't an employee - I was classed as self-employed during my second time living in Chile, and we had to actually rent our apartment in Claudio's mum's name
My Experiences Living Here
My first time living in Santiago was when I did a semester there as part of my Year Abroad.
I lived in a shared apartment in a student residence located in the city centre - this is one of the few nice places to rent that doesn't require loads of documents, and so there were several other international students from my university living there. I had my own en suite room with a desk and shared with one other girl. Again, sharing was a bit of a challenge at times, as I am not the sort of person who appreciates being woken up at 5am on a weeknight to the sounds of a house party going on outside my door, and then emerging the next morning to find the place trashed!
But it was definitely the biggest and one of the nicest apartments I've ever lived in - I can't imagine ever living somewhere as spacious and modern in the UK. Having said that, I'm not quite sure about the standards to which the building was constructed. At one point, a pipe from my flatmate's bathroom started leaking into my wardrobe, causing a mould problem, which meant that I actually moved to a different apartment in the same building for my last month there.
In terms of the neighbourhood, Santiago Centro is considered to be one of the areas of the city with the highest crime rates, and certain parts of it are very run down, which is a shame, as it's the area with the most historic buildings and monuments. Despite its problems, I actually really liked living there and walking past the old churches, colonial houses and grand palaces on my way to the metro station or the supermarket. But having said that, Santiago Centro is definitely less safe now than it was in 2018, so I wouldn't live there now.
Then in 2022, I moved back to Santiago, this time to work as an English teacher. After about six weeks living in a youth hostel and then with Claudio's family, we moved into our first apartment together in the Ñuñoa area, which is one of the safer parts of the city.
Our apartment was smaller than the ones I'd lived in in Santiago Centro, but just as new and modern - in fact, I think we were the first people to live in it. The building had lots of facilities (the swimming pool was my favourite!) and our apartment had a balcony and walk-in wardrobe, which was really cool! Although it was a little small for us, given that I was always working from home and Claudio was working from home 3 or 4 days a week, I do really miss it. We had to furnish it ourselves, which I loved doing, and we felt very proud of it.
One downside is that it was on a very noisy main road, where construction work was always being done, but the streets further back from that road were quite attractive and peaceful. There were also various nice cafés, restaurants and parks in the vicinity.
But the main downside is the cost of living compared to salaries. Chile has always been one of the more expensive countries in South America, but back in 2018, it was noticeably cheaper than the UK. But since the political crisis in 2019 and then the pandemic, costs have massively risen, and while rent is still much cheaper than in Britain, groceries are now pretty much the same price there as they are here. And it's important to note that salaries are much lower over there: minimum wage is about £400 a month, the average wage is £600, and £1000 is considered a very good amount to earn.
Personally, I worked for two language schools during my time there, and really did not have a good experience with the first one. They expected me to do a lot of unpaid work outside of classes, so despite working long hours, I was only earning on average around £600 a month. I was topping up my income working on Verbling and Cambly, but eventually got burned out and quit the job. The second language school was a much nicer company to work for - they held lots of fun meet-ups and offered a lot of professional development courses. But unfortunately, they just didn't have much work for me, so I had to rely mostly on Verbling and Cambly, which wasn't bringing in much money.
Fortunately, Claudio found a good job shortly after we arrived in our apartment, so we managed alright after that, though I did dip into my savings at times, just to be able to travel and do nice things together. I definitely spent more money than I earned in the process of getting the visa, travelling out there, setting ourselves up in the apartment and then living there for over a year. But I did see my time there as a Gap Year of sorts and an opportunity to explore more of
South America, so I certainly didn't expect to get rich from it, and overall, I felt happy with how things turned out.
Would I Recommend It?
Chile is a beautiful country to visit, and there's a lot to love about the lifestyle in Santiago: sunny weather most of the year, lots of beautiful parks to hang out in, nearby mountains for hiking and skiing, and stunning beaches within a couple of hours. And there's also the food and drink: completos italianos, sopaipillas con pebre, alfajores, mote con huesillos and pisco sour, to name a few!
I think it's a great place to spend a few months or a semester abroad.
But if you fancy going out there for longer, to teach English for example, I wouldn't recommend it, just because of the sheer costs involved. If you're interested in TEFL, East and Southeast Asia generally offer far better job opportunities - some even pay for your visa and your flights, and set you up in your own apartment. And if you really want to go out to South America, countries like Peru, Ecuador and Colombia offer interesting volunteer opportunities in TEFL and other areas, and have a far lower cost of living then Chile does.
Having said that though, I really did love our life in Chile, and haven't been happier anywhere else!
Malta
Pros
- Sunny and warm most of the year
- Lots of beaches
- Amazing historical cities, buildings and monuments
- Good job opportunities
- Cheaper cost of living than in the UK
- Pay around 17€ to get (mostly) free public transport for life, if you have an address in Malta
Cons
- Heatwaves in summer
- Over populated and over touristed
- Insufficient infrastructure, e.g., near-constant power outages during heatwaves and rubbish not being regularly collected
- Overly built up
- Terrible traffic as the narrow twisty roads are not designed for the volume of vehicles using them
- Buses are generally unreliable and overcrowded, and there is no other public transport
My Experience Living Here
Last summer, I spent three months in Malta completing an internship in digital marketing. The internship was organised by the UK government, which meant that flights, accommodation, travel insurance and a monthly stipend were all provided. I went out there with 11 other interns and we were put up in a rather run-down hostel on the border of the towns of Gżira and Msida.
The swimming pool was definitely the best thing about it! To be honest, I was quite lucky with my room, as I was one of the few of us who didn't have problems with cockroaches. The worst I had to deal with was a persistent mould problem in my bathroom.
The accommodation wasn't the best, but on the plus side, my internship was the best job I've ever had. I worked for one of the top marketing agencies in the country, and took on a lot of the copywriting tasks, which I really enjoyed. I hope to have a job like that again at some point in the future!
There were definitely things about Malta that made life a pain at times, such as the unreliable and crowded buses, and the heatwaves - there was a week in July where the temperature was passing 40 degrees every day, and the hostel was without power (and therefore air conditioning) for pretty much all of that time, which was not easy to deal with! But there was also a lot that I liked about life there. I got on really well with the other interns, and we spent a lot of evenings hanging out by the pool or in local bars. I also really enjoyed popping into Valletta after work on a regular basis, and spending evenings and weekends visiting beaches and historic sites.
Would I Recommend It?
A big reason that I applied for the internship in Malta is because my mum and uncle lived there as children in the 1960s and absolutely loved it. The idea of living on a Mediterranean island is very enticing, and I wanted to experience it for myself!
However, Malta has changed a lot in the last few decades, and not necessarily for the better. There are plenty of other islands, such as Gozo, which are a lot more unspoilt and peaceful.
But overall, I had a really memorable and fun time out there, and while I wouldn't choose to live there again, I'd definitely go back there on holiday.
Bristol, UK
Pros
- Some very scenic areas, such as the Clifton Suspension Bridge (pictured above) and the Harbourside
- Near to attractive parts of the UK, like
Bath,
the Cotswolds and
Wales
- Alternative/rave culture, if you're into that kind of thing (I'm really not, haha!)
Cons
- Cost of living is pretty much as expensive as London, but unlike London, Bristol has no real commuter belt, so you can't save money by living further out
- Very poor quality housing
- Very poor public transport for a city of its size
- Lots of drugs and social issues
- Some very grim areas
My Experience Living Here
I only spent three months living in Bristol, but that was more than enough for me. My time there was one of the most depressing periods of my life, and it's definitely my least favourite place that I've lived in.
After my internship in Malta, I'd hoped to be offered a similar role somewhere like Vienna or Barcelona, but I wasn't lucky with my job search. After a few months of job hunting, I was eventually offered my current role and was given the choice of working in London or Bristol. Although I much preferred the idea of living and working in London, the infamous cost of living there scared me a lot, and so I opted for Bristol, naïvely believing that I'd have a much better quality of life there.
I just wish I'd researched the situation better beforehand, because the truth is, it's significantly cheaper to live just on the outskirts or just outside of Greater London then it is to live in Bristol. And of course, London is London, so it's worth paying a bit more to live there! Whereas Bristol has no business being as expensive as it is.
Shortly after I accepted my job, my parents heard about a room becoming available to rent in a flat in the Redlands area, and although I'd vowed never again to live in shared housing, I decided to take it, as Claudio was working in Chile at the time, and I thought it would be a good place for me to get started in the city before finding somewhere we could live together on our own.
But I was miserable there. The flat had a problem with damp and mould (which I now know is very common in Bristol housing), and the kitchen and bathroom were in such a grim state I could hardly bring myself to use them.
Also, in terms of my personal situation, having spent the previous 18 months living abroad, it felt like a bit of a failure to end up in a provincial city so close to where I grew up.
I'd known when accepting the job in Bristol that it wasn't my dream city, but I expected to like living there a lot more than I did.
Would I Recommend It?
Absolutely not. I know some people love Bristol, but no matter how much you like it, it's just not worth the cost, unless you're earning a very good salary.
Out of all the cities I've lived in, Nottingham is the most obvious comparison, and even though I never exactly loved it, it beats Bristol hands down in pretty much every category: cost of living, quality of housing and public transport.
To sum up, there are plenty of cheaper and nicer places to live in the UK.
Bonuses
I've written about my experiences living in Austria and Chile during my Year Abroad, but as I also spent part of the year in France, I want to write about my experiences there too. The French part of my Year Abroad was a bit chaotic to say the least, and I actually spent my 11 weeks there in 5 different places all over the country. But the vast majority of those weeks were spent in two cities: one in the south and one in the north. I didn't spend long enough in either place to say that I've "lived" there, but as I was either working or studying and staying with host families rather than in hotels, I can't really say I was on holiday either. So I think they deserve their bonus spot on this list!
Montpellier, France
Pros
- Beautiful architecture
- Mediterranean climate
- Very close to the beach
- Good public transport
- Off the mass tourism trail, so not crowded, and has a relaxed vibe
- All of the weather, food and culture of the south of France, without the tackiness and extravagant shows of wealth of the Côte d'Azur
- Unique Occitan culture with a strong Spanish influence
Cons
- Honestly, I'm sure there must be some, but I can't think of any!
My Experience There
I spent a few weeks in Montpellier in summer 2017, doing a French course at a language school in the historic centre, and I stayed with a lovely lady and her adorable cat in a beautiful apartment within walking distance of the school.
Lessons were only in the morning, so I had afternoons to go sightseeing, do activities organised by the school, go jogging in the park, or relax. At the weekends and some afternoons, I also went on several trips to beautiful places around the south of France.
It was definitely one of the best parts of my Year Abroad, and I'd love to go back or even live there someday in the future!
Rouen, France
Pros- Picturesque city with beautiful landmarks like Le Gros-Horloge and the cathedral
- Same weather as England (I was there in summer, and it was either humid and full of wasps or rainy and cold - just like it is here!)
- Same sorts of landscapes and even similar architecture to England - apart from the language and food, it didn't really feel like being abroad
