When considering which university to go to, my original mindset was “I don’t want to be mainstream and go to Manchester uni or Man Met. I’ll go to Salford, that seems nice.” How naive I was.

I originally thought that my home town of Leyland was rough, then I moved to Salford and experienced the true meaning of rough.

However, I must say that Salford is a very entertaining (if terrifying) place to live, and that is the purpose of this blog, to record all the memorable moments I’ve had in Salford so far (even if memorable for the wrong reasons.)

A few months after I confirmed my place at Salford uni and booked my accommodation, I saw the riots on the news. And of course the riots were in Salford. As soon as I saw the violence on the news, I immediately went into panic. Was this happening anywhere near the uni? Was Salford always this rough? The answers were of course yes.

The riots happened at Salford shopping city, 20 minutes walk away from my accommodation, where I do my general shopping. So fair enough, I’ve not witnessed any violence like the riots, but I now know what the “Salford youths”, as I call them, are capable of. Safe to say it’s pretty scary knowing that.

I’ve lived in Salford for about 8 months now, and the image of Salford is rubbing off on me. I’ve become more “hard”, like if I go clubbing I will be the girl who starts on a beef of a lad for coming onto my friends, or if someone barges into me in Primark I WILL barge back and you WILL get harsh evils. I’m praying to God I don’t become a Salford youth.