Our new neighbours: Muhammad Zeeshan Lari from Pakistan Dublin is very backwards compared to Karachi, where I am from. We have everything in Karachi - big buildings, big population, big businesses.

When you feel bored, there are lots of places to go: we have coffee bars like big clubs, where we watch matches and cricket, and where there are all kinds of places to eat, and ice-cream bars and places to smoke flavoured tobacco, and these buildings are always so glamorous. There is nothing here except bars. I used to drink, but I gave it up.

I have been in Dublin for four years. I came here to study because some of my mates were here already. They were all studying at the time. Now they're working. Some are restaurant managers in Burger King, some work in IT. All the Pakistani people I know from home are male. Women rarely travel - although my younger sister went to Canada to study. It's a cultural thing.

My father is a businessman and works for a Belgian company, so I had been to Europe a lot before I came to Ireland; Belgium, France. I knew nothing at all about Ireland before I came here, apart from what I looked up on websites - but they always only tell you one side of the picture, the nice side. I already had fluent English when I came here: English is compulsory in Pakistani schools.

When I arrived first, I stayed with Pakistani friends for a while. Now I have my own apartment in the city centre - rent is very expensive in Dublin.

While here, I have done diplomas in marketing and PR. This year, I am finishing my course in international marketing at the Dublin Business School. When I get back to Karachi next year, I will look for a job in marketing, in the banking sector.

I have been working at the AM-PM shop at Harold's Cross Bridge ever since I arrived in Ireland. The job was passed on to me by another Pakistani friend who had been working there and who introduced me to the owner.

During college, I'll get up about eight. Classes start at 9.30am, and are spread over four days. When I am at college, I work in the shop mostly weekends only, but right now, as college isn't back yet, I'm working here a lot.

I cook a lot of curries at home; Pakistani food. I like cooking: half an hour and that's it - go, go!

I'm a Muslim and I go to Friday prayers at a mosque every week. I move round the mosques. I don't have just one mosque. I prefer it that way.

I have a big circle of friends here, 80 or 90 people. I had two girlfriends - not at the same time - but now I'm not going out with anybody. I met my friends through college and work and connections through other friends. Half are Irish, and half Pakistani and other nationalities; Chinese, Nigerian. Last year for my birthday I threw a party. My apartment is tiny: it is really packed if there are 15 people in it, but there is a yard nearby. There were 60 people there, and only 10 of them were Pakistani - the rest were mostly Irish.

Everywhere in the world, nobody is equal with everyone in that country, including in Pakistan. But I believe in one thing: if you are good with everybody, people will be good with you.

I am very shocked a lot about the guards here in Ireland. If I got a chance, I'd fire them all. I would say to them: if you can't protect people and do your job, then stay at home. I have been attacked twice on the street when walking at night, and now I am very careful always.

The worst about the guards was when my [ Pakistani] friend got a car a while ago. Three of us went for a drive, and were stopped waiting at a traffic light on Harcourt Street. Something hit the car, so my friend got out to see what it was. Then glass bottles started coming at us in every direction. There was a gang of about 20 people - all Irish. They trashed the car and stole everything we had. This was on Harcourt Street! Where there is a big police station! It took the guards 20 minutes to arrive after they were phoned.

The first question they asked us was: what country are you from? When the car you are in has been wrecked and you've been beaten up, why was that the first question you would ask someone? Have some respect! You need to do something about your guards.

My nose was broken that night. I didn't want to go to hospital and wait 20, 30 hours to be seen to - because I know it takes that long to get seen to - so I self-medicated myself. It still looks broken.

• Muhammad Zeeshan Lari from Pakistan (27), a marketing student at Dublin Business School, in conversation with Rosita Boland