(no subject)
Things are going rather well so far.
Finished packing the remaining items into the car early Saturday morning, and finally left the house at about 2pm, aiming to get to the university before 4. Made it to London in an hour and a half - the last five miles took us another half an hour.
Since apparently everybody else had had exactly the same schedule for arriving at halls, there was a wee bit of a queue for registration - luckily I had a book with me to read while I shifted between chairs for the next two and a half hours. (The student helpers were lovely and offered chocolates and drinks round to those waiting.) Eventually got a room key, and went to have a look at my new home.
It's a bit good, I think. Ground floor flat again, which I consider to be an advantage (definitely an advantage for unloading the very full car), good-enough sized room, with a trump card in the form of en-suite toilet and shower. We're right by the Metropolitan tube line as well, and I find the regular quiet chunder of trains rolling past the kitchen quite soothing.
The flats are organised in back-to-back pairs - while in Hatfield there were the six of us to a flat separate from the others, here our flat is separated from the next one only by an internal fire door. At first my heart sank when I saw the extra rooms, thinking how crowded twelve to a kitchen would be, but as it is a whole other flat it works out rather well since there's simply an extra group people to meet and see on a daily basis.
On which note, the people I live with all seem very amicable - the two double rooms are both occupied by foreign students who we never see, but apart from that it looks like (so far) everybody is doing the washing up, willing to make dinner for each other and keep things tidy. None of them are especially manic partiers, which I suspect is a good thing. At some point I will hopefully be able to get them to teach me to cook...
Saturday night we stayed in having a quiet chat and getting to know each other a bit - Sunday night we decided to go and see what the University bar was like. Didn't actually get to see much of it as it was too packed to stand, and after about an hour everybody decided to leave and go home.
But after getting back to the flat, I thought "Sod this" and determined to go out and meet some random acquaintances. The bar was no longer serving by the time I arrived however, and things were winding down... so it's a bit lucky that on the way back, a random gent beckoned me to climb in his window and drink with them. Obviously I did (I was amazed at how many people didn't think this was clearly a good idea), and by the end of a few hours' drinking I had made a number of minor acquaintances and talked in depth to a couple of others.
Monday my day was free, so I finished unmessifying and personalising my room. In the evening as we sat in the kitchen eating dinner, the phone rang - "Hello?" says I uncertainly. "Hello! Come to our flat and drink!" says an excited female voice. "Alright then, perhaps I will!" says I, and so later on we did. More minor acquaintances and the contributions of an amazing gent who bought £48 worth of assorted alcohol and snacks made for another enjoyable night.
Tuesday I had introductions, inductions and enrolments, all of which went as expected (apart from the realisation that I don't have a tuition fee loan, and that my savings are therefore drained even further than expected). Not a huge number of people on my course, but a few that seem worth talking to. By Tuesday night I was shattered, and forswore any more random parties - I was literally seconds away from bed when girls wandering past our kitchen demanded we attend a pyjama party, so I semi-reluctantly went along. I'm not sure if I was surprised or not that several of the people there I'd already met or seen around at the previous two parties, but in any case I left after a short while as I was starting to feel very wobbly from tiredness.
This morning I discovered the names of the modules I must choose between for the first year of my course, and in the afternoon I walked around the (paltry) Fresher's Fayre. No tennis, alternative or Go societies, but I did sign up for the gym, a local pool hall and put my name down to possibly write some articles for the student newspaper. Planning to go to another campus' Fayre on Friday as I will have a number of my lectures there, and I'm hoping it will be better stocked (there wasn't even a single place to purchase posters at ours).
In general, things are going really well so far. It is odd hearing people talk about being at university and leaving home and realising that this is all new for everybody else; I am always forgetting that I'm the odd one out, having done this before. But I've bumped into enough people now to see them while walking around and get to know them better outside of parties, and getting comfortable enough around the people I live with to joke in a relaxed and thoroughly uncivilized manner. A good number of people I've met already know about this (ha), and in general have found a lot of common ground despite the fact that almost everybody else on this campus is studying something with at least one of the words 'photography', 'art' or 'media' in them.
No real potentials for girlfriends so far (apart from very possibly a gorgeous tiny poi-spinning girl, though probably not), which I consider another good thing, as I don't need the hassle and distraction of relationships and inevitable breakups right now. I've also been amazingly busy considering I haven't started my course proper yet - every moment seems to be taken up with induction activities or some manner of socialising. For example, I started writing this entry up yesterday and have only just now had time to finish it.
Fantastic.
Finished packing the remaining items into the car early Saturday morning, and finally left the house at about 2pm, aiming to get to the university before 4. Made it to London in an hour and a half - the last five miles took us another half an hour.
Since apparently everybody else had had exactly the same schedule for arriving at halls, there was a wee bit of a queue for registration - luckily I had a book with me to read while I shifted between chairs for the next two and a half hours. (The student helpers were lovely and offered chocolates and drinks round to those waiting.) Eventually got a room key, and went to have a look at my new home.
It's a bit good, I think. Ground floor flat again, which I consider to be an advantage (definitely an advantage for unloading the very full car), good-enough sized room, with a trump card in the form of en-suite toilet and shower. We're right by the Metropolitan tube line as well, and I find the regular quiet chunder of trains rolling past the kitchen quite soothing.
The flats are organised in back-to-back pairs - while in Hatfield there were the six of us to a flat separate from the others, here our flat is separated from the next one only by an internal fire door. At first my heart sank when I saw the extra rooms, thinking how crowded twelve to a kitchen would be, but as it is a whole other flat it works out rather well since there's simply an extra group people to meet and see on a daily basis.
On which note, the people I live with all seem very amicable - the two double rooms are both occupied by foreign students who we never see, but apart from that it looks like (so far) everybody is doing the washing up, willing to make dinner for each other and keep things tidy. None of them are especially manic partiers, which I suspect is a good thing. At some point I will hopefully be able to get them to teach me to cook...
Saturday night we stayed in having a quiet chat and getting to know each other a bit - Sunday night we decided to go and see what the University bar was like. Didn't actually get to see much of it as it was too packed to stand, and after about an hour everybody decided to leave and go home.
But after getting back to the flat, I thought "Sod this" and determined to go out and meet some random acquaintances. The bar was no longer serving by the time I arrived however, and things were winding down... so it's a bit lucky that on the way back, a random gent beckoned me to climb in his window and drink with them. Obviously I did (I was amazed at how many people didn't think this was clearly a good idea), and by the end of a few hours' drinking I had made a number of minor acquaintances and talked in depth to a couple of others.
Monday my day was free, so I finished unmessifying and personalising my room. In the evening as we sat in the kitchen eating dinner, the phone rang - "Hello?" says I uncertainly. "Hello! Come to our flat and drink!" says an excited female voice. "Alright then, perhaps I will!" says I, and so later on we did. More minor acquaintances and the contributions of an amazing gent who bought £48 worth of assorted alcohol and snacks made for another enjoyable night.
Tuesday I had introductions, inductions and enrolments, all of which went as expected (apart from the realisation that I don't have a tuition fee loan, and that my savings are therefore drained even further than expected). Not a huge number of people on my course, but a few that seem worth talking to. By Tuesday night I was shattered, and forswore any more random parties - I was literally seconds away from bed when girls wandering past our kitchen demanded we attend a pyjama party, so I semi-reluctantly went along. I'm not sure if I was surprised or not that several of the people there I'd already met or seen around at the previous two parties, but in any case I left after a short while as I was starting to feel very wobbly from tiredness.
This morning I discovered the names of the modules I must choose between for the first year of my course, and in the afternoon I walked around the (paltry) Fresher's Fayre. No tennis, alternative or Go societies, but I did sign up for the gym, a local pool hall and put my name down to possibly write some articles for the student newspaper. Planning to go to another campus' Fayre on Friday as I will have a number of my lectures there, and I'm hoping it will be better stocked (there wasn't even a single place to purchase posters at ours).
In general, things are going really well so far. It is odd hearing people talk about being at university and leaving home and realising that this is all new for everybody else; I am always forgetting that I'm the odd one out, having done this before. But I've bumped into enough people now to see them while walking around and get to know them better outside of parties, and getting comfortable enough around the people I live with to joke in a relaxed and thoroughly uncivilized manner. A good number of people I've met already know about this (ha), and in general have found a lot of common ground despite the fact that almost everybody else on this campus is studying something with at least one of the words 'photography', 'art' or 'media' in them.
No real potentials for girlfriends so far (apart from very possibly a gorgeous tiny poi-spinning girl, though probably not), which I consider another good thing, as I don't need the hassle and distraction of relationships and inevitable breakups right now. I've also been amazingly busy considering I haven't started my course proper yet - every moment seems to be taken up with induction activities or some manner of socialising. For example, I started writing this entry up yesterday and have only just now had time to finish it.
Fantastic.