It’s true. People in Britain arm themselves with an impenetrable shield of courtesy that simultaneously blocks out any ray of candid sincerity that may, on the off chance, escape them. With Santo, this obstacle simply wasn’t an issue. "Morning, I’m Avantika. From Varsity?" "Avantika? Oh, I thought you were going to be a boy with a name like that". No one has ever actually said that to me before. No doubt they’ve thought it, but everyone has always just been too polite (or uptight) to say it.

Where from the typical, awkward Brit such comments might have proved uncomfortable, from Santo they came out with an open warmth most welcome amidst the hungover Monday morning chill. And that’s why interviewing him was so very interesting.

Cambridge, with its gothic architecture, cobbled streets and archaic traditions, feels alien, an "experience" to all but the ascetics that spend more than a few years here. But for Commonwealth scholar Santo, here for a one-year MPhil in Development Studies, the Cambridge experience is all the more bizarre.

Santo had never left Uganda before coming to Cambridge, and his impression of British culture perfectly fits the stereotype. "I was reading an Indian philosopher and he said, ‘if you can’t avoid rape simply lie down and enjoy it’. And because I couldn’t avoid the food here, I just lay down and now I enjoy it". "Now" really is the key word. Santo "didn’t eat for almost a week" on arrival. "I only took the porridge I came with. Unlike here, where possibly everyone knows how to cook, at home our mothers and sisters cook for us". Nevertheless, the solution he has reached isn’t so different from most students here - "Now all I eat is pasta".

What else struck him? Sure, the weather came up, but most interesting was Santo’s experience of nearby villages. "I was surprised because there is electricity everywhere and every place has tarmac and you call that a village".

The Jesus student was also surprised that "people here are only mindful of their own business" - and by British music. "I like to dance," he admits. But on being taken to Cindies, Santo, again like the rest of us, found the music was just "no good".

He continued, "if there is anything I’m enjoying in the UK, it’s my course". His previous degrees include a degree in Swahili and a BA in Communication Skills and Organisational Studies. The Commonwealth scholar was "very much dissatisfied" with these courses but is clear that "the places I have been to are equally as good as Cambridge" and were important for "shaping" his "interests".

So what does the 32 year-old scholar have planned for the future? Again, his answer is not so different to most of ours. "I probably should know; but I do not"