h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A brief bit of background here - University of Wales Lampeter students fall into two distinct camps. They either love the place or hate it, and if I'm honest most fall into the latter category. The other entry for the university has been written by one of the few loonies from the first category, who have an unfortunate habit of also holding all the union positions, due to no-one else caring.

Lampeter is a unique place. That I'm glad of as I'll never be anywhere like it again. Your university years are supposed to be the hedonistic time before you settle down for a career, awash with booze, sex and drugs. And some people have to spend them in rural Wales. I was one of these.

Lampeter is very remote. I come from a town I thought was remote, but on attending Lampeter I discovered just how remote a town can be. You will be 30 miles from a larger settlement (Lampy is little more than a village) with woefully inadequate transport links to the outside world, and if you get to Aber or Carmarthen you will find them little better. You will run out of things to do very quickly.

It's also horrendously expensive. The words 'student' and 'discount' do not appear anywhere, and a visit to any other student town with free-flowing discount beer, cheap cd's, subsidised student shop, will illustrate this painfully. Plus, it is very difficult to find student work in Lampeter, though not impossible.

Lampeter's status as the smallest university in europe provide other problems. It is virtually impossible to avoid anybody for any length of time. If you think university will mean the end of the elitism and 'in-crowds' of your schooldays you are, in general, correct. Unless you mean Lampeter. You will always have a gang of self appointed 'big men' who try and make the university their manor. It really is pathetic to behold. The lack of the economy of scale is the main reason the union is so expensive.

Then you have the people, such as the author of the alternate post, who insist that in Lampeter you make your own fun, and that you should stay away if you can't. This is lies. If you form a society with a few friends to promote a common hobby, any additional members you pick up at fresher's fair will drift away in a matter of weeks. If you decide to edit the union magazine, 1822, you will have to write the whole thing yourself due to lack of student interest. If you join a society, you will soon find yourself shut out by the clique that form the exec, unless you join their gang.

There you have it. If you want to study in tranquil surroundings, go for it. There's a lot going for the place and many people become totally enamoured with it. But I believe that a change is as good as a rest and nothing ever changes in Lampeter.

Have Fun,

Johnny