food

The words "student" and "starvation" have often been associated with a hand-in-hand relationship.  It seems that the mere role of a student dictates that he or she is destined to be poor until graduation and finding a job in the real world.  Countless individuals have accepted this fate while suffering in relative silence.  Barring positions which might place a train upon your studies such as a part-time position at a local fast food restaurant, are there any other ways in which you can earn a substantial income without sacrificing grades?  You will be pleased to know that there are a number of worthwhile options at your disposal.  Let's take a look at some choices that could very well suit your current or future academic lifestyle.

Changing Times Call for Changing Approaches

One of the best ways to earn an additional form of income is to use the power of the Internet and combine this reach with your inherent talents.  Speaking on a strictly university level, why not become a paid online tutor?  Students will pay a significant amount of money in order to you to aid them in their studies.  Selling used books is another alternative, as this is often much cheaper than heading out to the local store.  Still, we are just scratching the surface.

The life of a student has two sides. On the one hand, there is this new level of independence, the huge number of possibilities to have new experiences and so on. And yet, on the other, scarier hand, a list of new and unprecedented problems and questions seem to wait just for you.

How can I save money without having the feeling of living a beggar's life? Which recipes suit both my (low) budget and my taste? What are the best ways to comfortably earn some extra money? And, after having resolved the financial challenges, how can I socialise and make some lovely new friends?

Having got through all these problems myself, I can provide you with some quick, handy and useful tips to make your everyday life much more comfortable.

1) Keep calm and enjoy your meal

I know that probably 80% of you come to university not having any further cooking experience than how to ‘cook' instant pizzas and noodles (I'm not blaming you, Mum's dishes tasted too good). Am I right? If yes, try this super-quick, super-budget and super-lovely curry.

Chicken and Vegetable Curry (from this recipe):

I had just finished my shift and was looking for some quick lunch in the shopping centre. Walking past the grocery stalls, I spotted fresh strawberries. Having a pot of Greek-style yogurt in my bag, it would be a perfect match. What's more, the low calorie fruit allayed all my concerns about the healthy, but fatty Greek yogurt. Plus, strawberries remind me of my parent's garden in Slovakia.

All around me were people feeding on fast-food or overpriced sandwiches. Reading a paper newspaper did not help my image of the rebel against the establishment.

It got me thinking. We have sugar-free sweets, caffeine-free coffee, fat-free yogurt...why shouldn't we have bookless libraries. Although books should be cherished because they conserve the wisdom of the previous generation, they take up too much space in the modern lifestyle.

Maybe it is the devil of commercial culture, to have everything digital, but it is much more convenient to have the service at the library done from a desk computer. Less storage space will be reflected in lower costs.

I've been living in London since last September and, trust me, the food did not bother me at first. I had my first ever Nandos, and occasionally went to Pizza Hut and Pizza Express (I am not even mentioning the numerous take-aways we have had in my flat but I still get daily promotional emails from many of them). And I am soon to pay a visit to Jamie's Oliver.

However, I like French food; I have realized it now. It is so tasty, expertly prepared and requires an expert knowledge for presentation.

I have heard many critiques of French cooking. First and foremost, every time I mention that I am French, people automatically assume that I come from Paris (wrong guess France is not limited to Paris), and that I eat snails and frog legs (many of my friends even call me frog legs or French-fries knowing that fries are not even French and that English people refer to them as ‘chips'). 

For your information, these are only stereotypes- just as I am aware that English people do not eat fish and chips on a daily basis! However, the cliché I heard about beans on toast was correct (I am afraid), as was the one about tea. I am going to refrain from negative comments, though I have to mention that I mostly buy a sandwich at my university as I am not a fan of English food.

A recent report has revealed that people in London are eating more and more unhealthily as living costs continue to increase. Here Erik gives his view on this growing problem.

"Better quality foods are often more expensive, as well as often the healthier options. For example, a box of chips with two spicy chicken wings costs £1.50 at my local fast-food place, but when I asked for rice, which is healthier than chips, they wanted to charge me £4. No wonder many people do not have any other option than to just to live unhealthily.

Or bring their own food, which is often impractical, and unusual in the eyes of the consumer society. Recently, I saw a man open a sachet of instant soup and add to it hot water from a flask, right in one of the London's shopping malls. Way to go, but I thought him weird and would not like to be viewed as such. No one would. And therefore we choose rather to be the victims of fast-food than public disdain.