Journey of a Muslim

I am not going to copy n paste the introduction from cardiff uni official website or wikipedia....because i am sure you guys have read it! =)

So, I am just going to say a thing or two about cardiff uni from my perspective:

-it is not campus style, which means faculties and accommodations are scattered around the city but in close range.

- it is very close to city centre, less than 10 mins walk from the Main building

that's it i guess...but here's a short vid about the uni..

Facilities



Cardiff Uni has total of 16 libraries and located within/ close to your designated campus. In the library, it has large IT rooms, spacious study area and many group study room for discussions or small meetings. Photocopying facilities also available.

As for sports facilities, we have Cardiff University Sports Training Village situated on the extensive halls of residence site at Talybont. It hosts the majority of indoor sports clubs and is the location of 3 floodlit artificial pitches. Also there is Fitness & Squash Centre at Park Place is located in the heart of the Cathays city centre campus and offers a friendly, personal approach to Health and Fitness.

There are prayer room available in the Main building, Bioscienes building and Humanity building. Friday prayer? need not worry as there are few mosque near campus, one being Al Manar centre (opposite Math building) and Dar Ul Isra' ( in Wyverne Road, 5 mins walk from Student Union).

Public transports such as busses and trains are available and very convenient... but good thing is, since most of the destinations you want to reach here in Cardiff are within walking distance, thus you can save up for transportation costs..



Course

As you all might have guessed, most m'sians here are taking science-related courses, that being Medicine, Pharmacy and Engineering. Also, there are quite a number of students are taking social science courses, like Law, Accounting, Business and Finance.

On the other hand, although its in small number, there are students here taking courses like Optometry, Biotech and Genetics.

So, insya-Allah, there will be lots of seniors to help out you guys here in Cardiff!




Accommodation

One of the best thing about Cardiff uni is that there are variety of choices for accommodations and most of them are within walking distance to campus.

For first years, I am sure most if not all seniors would recommend university accommodation; less hassle, very affordable and close distance to most campus.

Here are some advice in choosing uni accommodations (based on seniors experience):

- Please...Please DO NOT pick university hall, nothing serious, its just that its really really far from campus! yes, there are free shuttle busses every hour, but its rather inconvenient.... also in not-so-convenient list --- allesbank house and cartwright court.

- We really recommend Student House (Village and Colum Road), Senghenydd Court, Aberdare Hall (female only) and Senghenydd Hall.

- there are choices of self-catered, part-catered (only dinner provided) and fully catered (breakfast and dinner)...so choose wisely!

- as for private house....there are plenty...but we suggest you only worry about it for 2nd year, okay??!




Life as a Muslim

-In Cardiff Uni, we have ISOC (Islamic Society) which holds many beneficial events throughout the years, they also regularly invited some of the best speakers to talk about Islam in variety of topics and perspectives...

-By joining ISOC, it gives the opportunity to meet and make friends of muslims coming from various backgrounds..

-It is safe to say that for the duration of you living in UK, you will encounter many interesting experience and opportunities to learn more about Islam...insya-Allah




Halal Food

I'm pretty sure one of the first thing you guys worried about is "" senang x nak dpt halal food kat.....?"" we m'sians do care a lot about our food, right?!

well, in Cardiff, it is really easy to find places that sells halal meat like Masala Bazaar, Sheemal's, Zem Zem's and few others. also, There are plenty of restaurants that serves halal food. All of them are within walking distance from most student accommodations.

Dont worry, you guys will have plenty of time to try out these restaurants as you guys explore the city!

On a side note, there are few Chinese shop that sells oriental food products, right from Kicap cap Kipas Udang to Maggie (there's even ramen!!). Seriously, you guys have absolutely nothing to worry about. oh yeah, just one tiny thing, if you just love Maggie Tomyam like some of us *wink*, you might want to bring extra packs of it as they mostly just sell Curry, Chicken and Asam Laksa flavour...




Malaysian Community

We have MSSCF (Malaysian Student Society of Cardiff) which holds several events throughout the years, gathering malaysians all around Cardiff.

We also have CNN (Cardiff Nusantara Network) which holds religious activity like Kuliah Al-Quran, Qiamullail etc that involves muslim community consists of Msians, Brunei-ians and Indonesians.




What to Prepare

Dont want to lecture you about the documents...but it would be a tremendous help if you get it organized.. you dont want to scramble in the middle of the crowds, right? =)

We suggest that you brought your stationeries from m'sia, bcoz its rather expensive here in UK and not many interesting choices like what we had in Popular/MPH/Kinokuniya....

Dont trouble yourself by bringing thick fur/wool coat for winter, buying it here is cheaper and many varieties....just some autumn-appropriate clothing like cardigan or just some casual jacket like a Mac jacket would suffice to begin with...




Contact Person

Plz dont hesitate to contact if there's any queries or concerns..

nama: Aliah zulkifli
no tepon: 013-3535724 / 07821593722
email/ym/facebook: aleewonka@yahoo.com

Or you can just contact any seniors you have known here in Cardiff. cheers!