The first day of Intro Week is over!
I started it by getting up at about 10am (that’s early to me, shut up!). I had to drop by The Edge to get my Eat with US card upgraded. When I went to pick it up on Saturday they couldn’t find it and had to order a new one. The new one only had a £30/week allowance when it was supposed to be £50. I was told to come back at 5pm which I did.
After that I went to Elmfield to get my qualifications and passport verified. The line was really long and I spent most of it talking to mom on the phone and listening to some British guy showing off his Chinese skills to some much younger Chinese kids. He irritated me a bit, but I guess I can’t be too judgmental seeing as I don’t speak a word of Chinese myself. In my defense I do realize that technically there is no such thing as Chinese.
After that was over I walked outside and pulled out my umbrella. On my walk over to the Students’ Union parts of my brain waged a war over whether I should pity or laugh at the poor souls who had no umbrellas and were very very wet.
I meant to go on one of the Union Tours at 2pm. I had ordered my free ticket online yesterday and I was kind of looking forward to it. I was supposed to pick up my ticket at the box office only when I got there the line was so long it probably would’ve taken me an hour to actually get the ticket. Since I hadn’t actually paid any money for it I decided to just skip it. Instead I had cupcakes from the new Fancie outlet. They were yummy.
I spent some time online and ordered a printer on Amazon. I know I don’t technically need it but I hate reading texts on my computer screen. I like to print out articles to read them so I can scribble notes and stuff. It’s not a very expensive printer so I feel justified.
At around 3pm I went home and watched one episode of Doctor Who (the one about Vincent Van Gogh) and then went back to the Edge to get that upgrade. There was some trouble with the upgrading and lots of people who were there to buy tickets to various Endcliffe Village events had to wait behind me forever. I was really sorry.
After dinner I went to the Interval where Progress, the postgraduate students’ forum, had a sort of welcome party. I arrived alone and felt a bit awkward for a bit. I met two Chinese girls who are getting their Masters in Public Health and since I’ve been here for a month already and have taken the time to read up on pretty much everything, most of the conversation was just them asking me questions about how everything works. Maybe I should become some kind of guide for the department or something.
Shortly after that I met a German girl who’s getting her Masters in Management in Culture, or something like that. When I told her what I’m studying she told me her roommate is studying the same thing so we went over to talk to her. Not long after that another girl wandered over who is also getting her Masters in Public Health in International Development. It was fantastic. The first girl is from San Francisco and she has a BA in Philosophy and something and the other one is from Kenya and she’s a pharmacist. I have a feeling we’re all going to be from very different backgrounds. I think it’s fascinating. It’s funny that the pharmacist is from Kenya because that’s where we’re going on our field trip. We laughed about that quite a lot.
Apart from them I met a Canadian Political Scientist, a Pakistani economist, an Iranian girl studying International Communication (or something like that), a History teacher from New Jersey, a girl from Chicago who’s studying Music Management, as well as this perfectly adorable Scottish Mathematician. It was fantastic fun and everyone was so very friendly and funny.
The funniest part of the evening though was when I had just been talking to two English people about the obvious things people ask me about when they hear I’m from Iceland. They asked me whether anyone had asked me about the volcano or the banks. I told them that so far no one had. Then we talked about how due to my accent people tend to think I’m American.
A few minutes later a guy came over and introduced himself. After a few minutes of conversation he said to me: “…and you must be American.” We laughed. Then when I told him I’m actually from Iceland he said: “Oh wow, with the big volcano.” We laughed more.
But yes, it was a fantastic evening and I’m hoping that tomorrow will be just as fun. I have a feeling I’m going to be very tired at the end of the week.
Dora's Thunderblog 