I'm Moving To England In October

[nikolai]

Amazingly I came across as an intelligent and hard-working guy at my interview, and I was offered a job at the University of Manchester. I'm coming from the US and I won't be in Manchester until October when I'm there for good, so I need a little advice for setting some things up from this side of the pond.

I've found this real estate site: http://www.thinkproperty.com

And I'm pretty sure I can find a place to rent in my price range listed on that website.

Is the area near the canal/river shown in this link an okay place to live?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=e...p;z=15&om=1

What bank should I open a savings and checking account with? What bank should I avoid? (and why)

Before I even show up, I think I want to buy a campus/city bicycle and have it waiting for me. What online retailers do you recommend for a purchase such as that? Is US and UK bicycle sizing any different?

Thanks!

Nikolai

[Tomm]

Um, the area you listed is the gay capital of Manchester. Just in case you didn't know. I wouldn't wanna live there but that's me. You won't get any peace there though. The university is about a mile south of the city centre, so there's not really any point in paying city centre prices, you might as well live in one of the suburbs around the university (Hulme, Levenshulme, Fallowfield etc), unless you particularly want to live in the city. Some suburbs are nicer than others, though.

Banks, they're all pretty much the same. You can shop around for deals and just get the best one. Don't go for a very small bank though - HSBC/Barclays/Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest are all big enough to have a branch in every town.

There's plenty of bike shops in Manchester now so you could just choose a bike when you get here. There's a branch of EVANS' in the city centre. For online places for road bikes I'm not really sure. Sizing is the same, but for road bikes you might have to learn how to use the metric system

[Fish-Finger-er]

as tomm said, doesnt look like the ideal place to live, blatanly going to have people walking past shouting and screaming at 5am in the morning.its the kind of place a 2nd year student would aspire to live in.

if your just starting out and aint a total oldie, may be an idea to come over a couple of months early for a week or summit, and go trawling the shop windows etc, looking for either 3rd year(if your 25 or under should be able to pull it) or mature students with an extra room to let, that way itll be a cheaper, and chances are theyll be friendly to speak too, wont be loud and totally up for partying as theyll have work to do, but will be able to show you decent nights out in the city centre.

money wise and quietness wise, go for the suburbs, as tomm said theres studenty areas and less studenty areas, which tend to vary in noise greatly(find a house to rent in timperley, sale,alty etc, itll be pretty quiet and town will be accessible easy enough using the metrolink(tram) system). othewise you got the total student areas, although my friends have just moved in too levenshume aftr moving out of fallowfield, which i thought was a step down(With levenshume being a student area, but also havin a total rudeboi/crime spree area reputation). but theyve got a house on a street in levenshume, which is so unstudenty and family orientated its unbelievable, i walked back down there about 3.45am last night, which would normally mean id be met by a load of similarly intoxicated idiots, but as it happened, i was the only one on the whole street and not a single house had any noise coming from it, or any lights on). basically go for a look round before you move in, knock on a couple of neighbours doors and ask how the area is as your thinking about moving there, if your met by a bunch of drunken student types, i suggest you avoid, unless your looking for the party atmosphere, but if your met by families etc, then i suggest its a lot bettr, although you have to make sure it isnt a walk way for drunk people between town and student digs)