itsu - Healthy Food on the High Street

On my recent trips into Brighton I had noticed this new food place that had opened called itsu and I was quite intrigued. Usually when looking for a place to eat when I'm out shopping I go for something cheap, which most of the time means unhealthy. Probably due to habit I gravitate towards McDonalds, but fast-food never makes me feel good. I had mentioned this place to my boyfriend and he told me I should go there and try it, it's not like we can't afford it. So yesterday that's exactly what I did!

As I stepped into the store, it was very inviting - I don't know why I thought it looked slightly intimidating, although that was probably just because it was somewhere new to me. There was an area to freely browse all their chilled options, which all looked very fresh and healthy. I felt there was quite an Asian influence in their food options due to lots of things like sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, sushi etc. If you're a lover of that type of cuisine, like myself, I'm sure you would love this place. They also had hot food, snacks, desserts and drinks on the menu. There were vegetarian options within all their ranges. There slogan is "eat beautiful" and they are dedicated to creating lower fat and lower calorie but delicious food.

I was spoilt for choice, but I went for the chicken teriyaki salad. This consisted of a bed of sushi rice topped with leeks, peas, ginger, seasame seeds and teriyaki chicken. The teriyaki sauce was provided in a small pot embedded in the rice. It was absolutely delicious. So fresh, full of flavour and so satisfying!

I got mine to take away to keep things a little cheaper - they have to charge VAT if you eat in the store. I loved the way they packaged it for me; in a strong bag with a flat bottom to keep your food upright, a napkin and cutlery. Talking of which, the cutlery wasn't rubbish like most take away ones and they even offer chopsticks (if you can use them, I can't) - it's the little things that count!

I had a great first impression of itsu and will definitely be returning on my next trip into the city. It's great to see a quick and easy healthy food option on the high street - it's like healthy fast-food. itsu has most of its stores in London, but there are a few popping up elsewhere. If you've got one nearby I would highly recommend giving it a try!

Click here to find your nearest store - http://www.itsu.com/locations/shops/

University Decisions

It's come to the time when I need to make my decision as to where I would most want to go to University. I've applied for 5 courses at 4 different Universities and luckily I have received conditional offers for all 5 of these. I have applied for 3 Biomedical Science courses and Healthcare Science at Nottingham and Plymouth also.

I have been to visit all of them except The University of Nottingham. I think I have ruled this one out though. I applied there because the course looked OK and I thought it wouldn't be too bad living there as I have some family that live close by. But after thinking about it, I really don't want to live there!
Plymouth had always been pretty high on my list as I know the place fairly well, it's very close, the course looks good and I know a couple of people who have been there and enjoyed it. But I did want to keep my options open, compare them all and not just go for Plymouth because it was the easy option. So I went to visit The University of Southampton and The University of Sussex, at least so I had something to compare Plymouth University to. I am very glad I was able to do this because it has definatley affected my decisions. They are both much further away so it would be harder to come back to visit often but I don't think I would be doing that much anyway, wherever I was, as I wouldn't want to be missing out on anything at Uni. I want to go to somewhere where I am going to enjoy my time at best at; somewhere where there are good lecturers (because a good/bad teacher can completely change how much you enjoy studying a subject), somewhere where there are lots of things going on, and somewhere that's in a nice location where I would enjoy living.
After comparing them all I think I can quite easily see myself living and studying at the University of Sussex best. Although, I am thinking about whether the Healthcare Science or Biomedical Science course would be best for what I want to do after I have completed the degree. I think the course content of both is very similar but the main difference is that the Healthcare Science course is designed for those that want to be working as a Healthcare Scientist in the NHS and so the course includes a lot of work experience and practical skills. If this is what I wanted to do I was wondering if it would also be possible to do this after completing the Biomedical Science course. I have emailed The University of Sussex to find out more about this. I suppose either way, what I'm thinking of doing for my decision is to have the University of Sussex (Biomedical Science) as my firm (first) choice and Plymouth University (Healthcare Science) as my insurance choice. I have about two weeks to send my decision to UCAS, but the sooner the better.

University Visit

At the end of last week I went to visit 2 of the Universities I'd had offers from: University of Southampton and University of Sussex. I was specifically going to the admissions day I'd booked a place at at the University of Sussex, but soon as though Southampton was on the way we briefly stopped there to have a look too.
We only stayed at the University of Southampton for an hour or two. All the people we met there were nice. We wandered around the campus and had a look inside the new building which would be where the course I'd applied for would be studied. I don't know much about Southampton or what it what be like to live there, but although the Uni campus wasn't near the city centre it was very much in the city.
After staying one night in a terrible Travelodge in Brighton (which we decided not to stay another night at!) we spent the day at the University of Sussex. The campus there was completely different to the other ones I'd seen. It was outside the city of Brighton and was surrounded by countryside, right next to a national park. All the buildings were very spread out compared to other campuses.

Library Square and the Library building at the University of Sussex

The library there was the biggest one I'd ever seen, and they have enough accommodation on campus to guarantee all first years a place in them. We had a look around two different halls of residence. They had some new accommodation that had all en-suite rooms, which I really liked but is the most expensive.

Northfield accommodation at the University of Sussex

 I think it's very much a campus life university, it's like a little student village with everything you'd need.
After looking for somewhere else to stay we ended up staying in a hotel on the seafront in Brighton. There was no comparison between the two places we stayed, there was nothing to complain about at the hotel. We walked around Brighton for a while and had dinner in an Italian restaurant, before going back to the hotel.

Me outside Brighton Pavilions

I don't think Brighton would be a bad place to live if I ended up going to University there. I actually started to like the idea as I spent some time there; it's right by the sea, next to the countryside and a national park, got a lot more shops than we're used to in Cornwall and plenty of things to do.