I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT NOTTINGHAM! I’m sure you all have been holding your breath for this (hopefully not, or you’d be dead); sorry for the delay. Classes FINALLY began last Monday, so I have been working to get back into the good old academic swing of things, plus maintain a social life (because it’s quite a task here in the UK) PLUS I’ve had a bit of a cold so I’ve been slightly preoccupied. But here goes, a post that will probably be relatively long but for all the stuff I’m cramming into it, for me, it will be keeping it short.
International week was 2 weeks back, and it was a great time! I was totally freaked out about making friends, of course, and I may have mentioned before that it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be because everyone was, naturally, completely desperate for friends. I’m not usually the most outgoing person, but this was a dire situation. They had a coach bus that took us from Heathrow to Nottingham, and as I was getting on the bus, I distinctly remember thinking that I should choose wisely where I sit… Afterall, the person I sit by could determine what my next 3 months will be like… They could be my best friend…
And before you know it, I was frantically eyeing everyone on the bus, trying to pinpoint which one had the most best friend potential because obviously this was my only chance to pick a best friend. Then I told myself to just breathe and quit being a crazy person, and I sat down by a friendly looking girl. As it turns out, I did a good job: she was really nice, we talked the whole way there pretty much, and then we were on the same hall for international week and she made a friend who then became my friend and before you know it I had a good little group going! And they’re still the friends I hang out with pretty much every day. Basically, my crazy chick method worked.
I won’t talk about the logistics of international week, it was essentially an intro to the campus, the city, registration, etc. Mostly I just wandered campus with my new friends and went to sessions with names like “Do you need to register with the police? CHECK YOUR VISA!” and “Can you work in the UK? CHECK YOUR VISA!” etc.
At the end of international week came freshers week, which was essentially a madhouse of 18-year-olds partying 24/7 in the halls. Every night had a different dress-up theme (toga, rumble in the jungle, uniformity, rave) that you could buy a ticket for and all these students would load up on double-decker buses and sing hall pride songs that were really rather vulgar, before being dropped off at various clubs. I’m not really into the club scene… it’s very loud, which makes me feel deaf when I leave, and everyone is just mindlessly dancing on top of everyone else. No thanks. But it’s pretty huge in Nottingham. There are a lot of cool, chill bars too though so it evens out.
I learned three things during freshers week: 1) Forget clothes, bring lots and lots of costumes to England; 2) Learn which coins are which before you get in the dark cab (imagine 6 girls squished together all trying to hold money up to the window for the street lights’ faint orange glow); and 3) My immune system is just a weaksauce as it was the last time I lived in a dorm. Life lessons, people. Life lessons.
Okay, I think I’m going to head to bed now, but I’ll write again soon about classes and maybe more about campus. Thanks for reading!
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My poor baby. I wish I could make you some soup. I wish you liked soup. HAHA Made you laugh.