Well, University life has not provided me with the time to spend updating any of my sites. It is now a week since I arrived and it is only now that I have sufficient time to catch up on things not caught up on.
To summarise:
On saturday I arrived. I carted, along with family, five very large and heavy boxes containing computer, tins, clothes, books, pots, pans and cutlery up four flights of stairs to my apartment at the top of the Roots residential building. The next few minutes were spent resting, and were swiftly followed by a much needed drink of squash. Here is where I meet the “first portion” of my new compadres. They say hi. I say hi. We say stuff. Ta da! Then it’s back to unpacking, setting up the computer, designating fridge and freezer and cupboard and drawer space. In the evening, we, as a group of five, investigated the delectable offerings of the Student Union — before stopping for a drink at the Graduate Bar and having a long random chat about things I no longer remember, although one of them was about self defense.
Sunday was more of the unpacking. The preparation of my own breakfast and then the eating of it and drinking of coffee. We met and greeted the sunday arrivals, another six or so. Hello. Hello. What’s your name? Where are you from? Who are you? WHY? WHY? WHY? Is that true? What’s that on your face? And similar questions. Explored the campus and the art centre today. In the evening we visited the SU again for more drinks and getting to know people.
Monday. Day one of proper university life. Big meeting of all freshers in the big theatre hall in the big art centre where we were introduced formerly. Shortly followed by a 2 hour department introduction. All very boring and tiring and stuff. Filled in some forms, found my pigeon hole, explored the engineering department. Received week one timetable… looked moderately ok. The lecture theatre I have a large number of my lectures in does not accommodate for left handed people… I mean… WHAT!? WHY NOT? Scream: discrimination. (The bit that you lean on to write, that comes out of the right hand side of the chair, is not sufficient for a left handed user. This is poor engineering.) Tonight we all visited the union event aptly named “Top Banana”, i.e. cheese night, night full of cheese, cheese-fest, be cheesed, cheesey-cheese, no cheese leave cheese, cheese cheddar mix-athon. It was free and very crowded and the queue to get in was very distressing, especially with some drunk asshole of a latino bloke pushing you in the back trying to get forward, resulting in my face being continually shoved into some poor girl’s pony tail. Jived to the uber music of Spice Girls, Run DMC and all the wedding music you could possibly hear in one night.
The dance floor is set out in an annoying format; it is slightly lower than everything else, and you need to go down some steps to get into it. This coupled with the flow of people always trying to get in, people trying to get out, people holding beers over their head while they stumble drunk over people, make for possible bad expiriences. However if you get a good spot it is great.
Tuesday. Day two. Today I had a lecture in L3… a HUGE lecture theatre that was HUGE. One in which everyone who is lecturing fiddles with the lighting system before they start. It was another basic introduction lecture. Looked around the local shops on campus, the poster sale that was taking place, the free condoms, the free newspapers, O2 sim card, sweets, mars bars, food, pot noodles, mini cheddars, nokia photos, and the like. My lunch was sorted. I also registered with the health centre and other admin stuff. Now my mind has gone blank and I can’t remember what we did on Tuesday night. Oh well, no biggety.
Wednesday. Today I met my tutor and tutor group, in my group of seven are a nigerian, a china-man and a cyprian — the tutor himself being chinese made for a very awkward hour filled with stumble-like english speech. Today a plant was bought for our kitchen and we got some new soft comfy chairs. Hoorah. This evening I went to a christian union event entitled, “Jesus and the Matrix”. It was actually very entertaining, and the preacher pointed out lots of links I did not know about; i.e. the on screen time Neo is dead for is 72 seconds, a link to the 72 hours in which Jesus is dead — and the they both come back to life. Neo was also named “Thomas Andersson” — Andersson being swedish for “Son of Man”. There were others plus the obvious ones that I already knew about (Zion, Neo anagram, Trinity, Nebuchadnezzar). Following this I attended a production by the totally awesome REDUCED SHAKESPEARE COMPANY who were doing “All the greatest books”. This was the nadir of hilarity and I recommend everyone. Easily on a par with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam.
Thursday. Full 10 week timetable received. Fridays EEEKEKE! Too many lectures. Tonight was the Freshers Ball. But first I endured a half hour library introduction (bore) and then a Maths for Engineers revision class on functions given by a german man with bouncy red hair and the tendancy to get mixed up in his own words. On to the ball now, everyone dressed up and there was a red-black corridor colour scheme, or so it was named, along with all the other “corridor” events people have devised. Tonight I was to watch the performance of Wheatus, followed by the Scratch Perverts, followed by the Bootleg Beatles. Wheatus were not great, nor were they in fact good, but the people endorsed them as best they could and it was worth being in the dance floor during that time. Scratch perverts were very loud but came out with some high and mightily excellent mixes in their drum n bass format — which I heard while eating chips that the chip woman had suffocated in salt. The music before and during the B.Beatles was of course of the highest standard — well known classics are the way to go — and in a way of avoiding the well known overplayed wedding classics as well. Got to sleep at 3.
Friday. Eugh. Lectures. Struggled to stay awake — all boring introductories — I had three straight hour long lectures on friday afternoon — all in the same place. Had crummy food for dinner from Costcutter. Had a nice chat in the evening about movies and stuff while drinking coffee at the art centre.
Saturday: RECUPERATION.
This took too long.
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