Sitting down in an attempt to write this piece has only got me begging the question of what makes communities individual, specific and important. Having moved around for a majority of my adult life, I have been able to experience many different forms of “community.”
Especially being LGBTQ+, no matter where I go, there are always individuals willing to accept me for who I am. I don’t want to go in depth into the nuanced differences within the queer community because I'm supposed to be focusing on how Cardiff University differs from UBC. I’ll simply leave it by saying that every city’s queer community has a different vibe. I guess that's just like how cities have different reputations, but I will say the thing I noticed right away about Cardiff in general is how extraordinarily nice the people here are.
Remember, that’s coming from a Canadian.
Another thing I haven’t experienced before is just how open and accepting a gay scene can be. Cardiff University has one of the most active Pride groups in Britain and because of that, they foster a sense of belonging that stretches way beyond the group itself. I ended up finding this out by timidly attending a “freshers” get-to-know-you event within my first week here and was immediately assimilated into the CU-Pride “family.”
Not to throw shade at UBC’s LGBTQ+ group, but the one here at Cardiff Uni just feels more established and organized. That may be because UBC is like twice the size of Cardiff and can only reach a certain number of people, but in my three years at UBC, I’ve never really heard about any significant events coming out of our Pride group.
In many ways, Cardiff is a very stereotypical university city. Mostly everything here is in some way focused on student life — from the many restaurants, to the pubs, to the frankly ridiculous nightlife. Unlike Vancouver, everyone here seems to understand the fact that students have basically no money and to offset this, there are always food and drink discounts if you present a student card.
Graeme Wheeler is a third-year arts student studying abroad at the University of Cardiff.