United Kingdom

Almost a week since I last blogged already! Time is going too fast. In some ways it feels like I've been here for months already, but in other ways like no time at all.

The crepes party was fun and yummy - even though due to the french (and I'm told, correct) pronunciation of 'crepe' there was running joke about the 'crap' party.

I bought some posters to decorate my room, since I wasn't feeling very at home in it before but now its personalised its a lot better. I bought 4 posters: 2 of Escher drawings, one of a Dali painting and also 'The Great Wave' by Katsushika Hokusai.

Escher - "Drawing Hands"

Escher - "High and Low"

Dali - "the Elephants"

I also bought a little pot of Gerberas that sits in the window now. (I'll keep you updated as to whether I manage to keep them alive the whole time I'm here or not!)

Here are some pictures of my room:

What else have I been doing? Nothing in particular travel-wise. (I'll have more of that next week after I've been to London and on my day trips.

I've been to the movies and seen Little Miss Sunshine - which by the way is an amazing movie and I recommend you go see it!

I also went to the Fresher's ball on Saturday which is a big party at the university union with about 4000 people. Most of the girls dress up sort of formally but I didn't have anything like that with me so I think I was the only girl in the whole place wearing pants. Oh well. It still had fun. The sugababes were performing - even though I'm not particularly in love with them I had a look anyway and took a few videos (or Bjorn did for me) just to prove that I've seen them.

Ok, so for those of you who don't know, there someone who merits an introduction here I think - that's Bjorn. I told myself I wouldn't meet anyone over here but here I am just 3 weeks in and I already have! He was too good to pass up just for the sake of avoiding any complications an international relationship might have. He is Dutch, but has been living in China for the past 4 years. So I'm trying to learn some Dutch. Hoi! Hoe gaat het? ('hi, how are you' is about as far as my skills go so far!) He is studying Communication Studies and doing his whole 3 yr degree in Leeds, and wants to be a film maker. So thats Bjorn in a nut shell, and now you know who I'm talking about when I mention him, since I'm sure I will :p

Anyway, not much else to mention right now - I finally bought an oven tray and some containers today, and did a thorough food shop, so I can now start to cook properly for myself. I shudder to think at the lack of fruit and vegetables in my diet these past few weeks but don't worry mum, I'm changing that!

I'm going to see Babyshambles tonight at the Union (who I don't know much about but have been told they're good.)

I'll write again and put up some pictures after next weekends trip.

tot ziens, ik spreek je gauw weer! (anyone tell me what that means & I'll give you a prize )

My sleep patterns may have recovered from Jetlag, but my brain doesn't seem to have yet. I haven't been able to keep track of days since I got here - it takes me a while to remember what day of the week it is or to remember what day certain things happened on in the last couple of weeks. The whole lot seems to blur together. (I'm mostly over the flu though which is good.)

It seems like a month ago that I left Australia, and the airports seem like a dream.

I had my first lecture today, and now already have an assignment due on Sunday, and a whole lot of reading to do. So the holiday is over. Maybe now if I get into some sort of routine my brain will be able to keep track of everything. Up til now it probably hasn't really mattered what day it is - it's all just been like a weekend.

And so I can't remember what has happened since I last blogged and what I've already written about. In the last week or so its been quiter on the social front as everyone succumbs to exhaustion, and we get ready for the start of classes. We've had a few housewarming parties and a chilli con carne night, and this Thursday is a crepes party. We've been gradually getting around to see everyone's accomodation - some have plenty of space, (like ridiculously big 4 roomed living areas!!) which is handy for parties, but most have small kitchens with 5 chairs so its hard to have people over.

We think each nationality should have our own night with typical food. If I had an australian night I could have a bbq, vegemite, pavlova and lamingtons. I've discovered that most people don't know lamingtons or pavlova, but to have them would mean I would have to make them...and very few people like vegemite... and I don't have a bbq either...hmmmm.

Anyway, we'll see.

I'm glad I'm going to London and doing the day trips to other parts of England soon, as I'm already finding myself getting blase about being on the other side of the world. I thought of it today when I was walking up my cobblestoned, tree lined english lane to my accomodation. I saw it again like I'd seen it the first time. The air was cool in the leafy shade and there was moss growing on the damp stone wall next to me, and I remembered where I was. I have to keep reminding myself to remember how special and amazing this experience is so I don't take anything forgranted. I want to keep seeing new things too, to keep the feeling I alive that I had when I first arrived, so bring on the travel. (Fitting it in around the hundreds of books I have to read won't be easy but I'll do it!)

I'm already finding myself changing as a person since I got here - mostly thanks to the great people I've met. I love them all, and they've all already contributed something to my life, whether teaching me about England, about the world, about themselves, or about myself.

They have also opened my eyes to how narrow my life experience has been. Though I've probably experienced some things they may not have, I've realised how much there is in the world, but also how relatively small it is and there is no excuse not to explore it. I've realised I'm not a particularly 'Aussie' Australian, since I don't fit the sterotype somepeople have of Australians (particularly compared to some other aussies here who do fit it). And I think the more you travel the more international you become, which I'm looking forward to because I don't want to be just a geographically and mentally isolated Australian who never wants to leave their backyard (however great a backyard it may be.)

When I go back to Australia I won't be content to just settle anymore (don't worry I will come back though!) - but I've definitely got an incurable travel bug. There is so much to see and experience, and most importantly so many wonderful people to meet and be changed by.

Here's a picture of some of the group at our Chilli Con Carne night.

I haven't really be feeling too homesick since I got here. I've had minor episodes at times, like when I first got here and was dead tired and all alone, but that passed when i met some people. And one day when I was tired and tried to go shopping and kept giving the wrong money and everything seemed hard. But that all passed pretty quickly. I'm getting used to different money, different accents, packing your own shopping in supermarkets, the different (and generally not so good) food, the changeable weather, buses....

But today has been the worst so far. It always comes on when something goes wrong or I don't feel good. Today I've got the flu and a few other things upset me, and I suddenly realised how alone I was. I've met some great people and I love them all, but you can only get so close to people in 10 days. I miss being able to just call up my friends when i need to talk about nothing in particular or just go down to the house and talk to mum. I can't exactly call up people for no particular reason when its generally the middle of the night in Australia at the time I feel like talking...

I really felt the distance today. Before I thought it wasn't a big deal since its so easy to keep in touch through email and MSN, but it is different.

Its not a sort of homesickness that makes me think 'I wish I was at home', because I love it here and I am happy and having fun in general, but it does make me feel lonely. I think I just have to ride it out, talk to people back home when I get the chance, and not let feeling sad isolate me from my new friends here.

Don't worry everyone, I'm ok really!! I know I feel a lot better once I'm over this "fresher's flu" as well!

I thought it was time for another entry. I've only been here a week and a few days but already it seems like months and I can hardly remember everything to write down.

Over the weekend Leeds and the uni exploded with British students arriving with their parents. Now the uni and all the surrounding shops are crowded every day. In a week the international students all bonded in our groups and now feel a little invaded.

But all the British students I have met so far have been great. I have been asked about three or four times about Steve Irwin and about kangaroos and other 'weird' animals. The other day I was at the house of some British people I've met and its one of those houses in the rows and redbrick. The house is weird and quiant! Door frames slope so the doors don't fit in them, I think even the floor slopes a little, there are doors to nothing and rooms that go nowhere. I love it!

I have still to meet all my flat mates - I think they are all international students as well because I've heard a lot of different languages being spoken around the place. As far as I can tell there is guy from Brazil, a girl from Italy, a girl from and Asian country, and another guy but I don't know where he is from yet.

Sharing a bathroom between five is a minor challenge - each morning I stick my head into the corridor about 3 times until I find its free and can go have a shower. And i only just got my room organised today until now I hadn't even unpacked entirely. I seem to be out all day most days, and often out late each night so I when I get home its all about sleeping. Today is the first completely free day I have had. I'll have to do some washing today since I've run out of clean clothes.

On sunday there was a trip organised to Scarborough on the coast for all the international students. It was even the perfect weather for a trip to the seaside! Not warm enough to swim of course, and there was fog all day, but the sun did shine in patches and it was warm with a cool breeze. Everything I thought an English seaside would be like.

We visited Scarborough castle. The headland it is on has been inhabited for about 3000 yrs, and the castle was built in the 12th century. Not much of the castle left due to civil war and shelling in 1914, but it was my first ruins I've seen of anything close to this old!! It was really beautiful to see and gave great views over Scarborough as well.

One well we came across we decided to drop a penny into to see how deep it was because you couldn't see the bottom. The penny took 6 seconds to reach the bottom!! (If any one is good at maths please do the calculations of speed of a penny and time it took to give me the distance!!)

It was sad to see in some places though that many people don't care at all about preserving these sites - there was rubbish in many places. It wasn't just careless littering either as in one place there was a cage over a a shallow well, but people had still gone to the trouble of squashing their plastic bottles through the openings to drop it down.

After the castle, we walked along the beach, everyone else had fish and chips for lunch but I had a pasty thing since I don't like fish (almost wish I did because fish and chips is the thing to eat in British seaside towns!) and then went to a sea life park. Pretty 'touristy' but they had some cool animals like jelly fish that looked surreal floating in the blue light, giant crabs that walked like spiders, sea turtles and a seal hospital. Got slightly lost finding our way back to bus but it was a nice day for a walk.

Since then it almost feels like I've been endlessly queing for things... food, my student card, getting into lecture theatres with weird doors, buses.... but I'm still having so much fun and my sleep routine seems to have settled down into a normal pattern.

Anyway, here are some photos from Scarborough:

The lighting wasn't the best and it was much prettier in real life but this is the first thing I saw on arriving in Scarborough.

This is a view over Scarborough from the Keep at Scarborough Castle.

My French friends

Bjorn (Holland) and CJ (Canada) in the Keep.

Another view from the Keep

And another one...(That's Sara from Morocco/France)

This is a view of the city from my window at Charles Morris (my temporary accomodation). (Taken at 5.30am when I couldn't get back to sleep.)

This is a bus in Manchester, taken while I was on the coach on my way to Leeds - when I looked at the photo later I noticed what was written on the back of the bus - so this picture of a typical British bus and 'Don't Panic' has become my motto for the trip. (I had thought I was going to miss my coach because I've flight delays and stuff and then later was feeling overwhelemed by everything, but then it all works out in the end

This is another view from Charles Morris - have a look at that smog!!

This is a pub I passed on my way through Manchester to Leeds and I took a photo of it because it just looked so English!

The first morning I was here I woke up at 4am. Yesterday morning I woke up at 3am!! I thought maybe it was because I had fallen asleep to early the night before so I tried staying up late last night to see if I could sleep in - I woke up at 6:30 and since I went to bed at 1:30am that was no better!!

Oh well, I haven't been feeling too bad during the day even if I'm running on only 5 hours sleep a night.

I've been so busy ever since I got here going on tours around the uni and the city (this uni is a maze and I still get a little lost at times - there are about 5 ways to get to one place and its like rabbit warren in some buildings!), opening my bank account, sorting out my permanent accomodation and most of all meeting lots of people. Burning through my money a bit faster than I'd like but I think that will settle down once I've sorted out pots and pans and start cooking my own food.

Today it's raining for the first time since I got here so its looking thoroughly like English weather now. It's actually quite beautiful because my residence, Lupton, is in an area with all old buildings and tree lined streets and the rain just completes the English picture! (luckily I remembered to buy an umbrella the other day.)

Last night there were salsa dancing lessons at the uni but I unfortunately my shoes have given me a blister on the bottom of my foot from the miles and miles of walking I've been doing since I got here, so I could hardly walk let alone salsa dance! But it was funnier to watch everybody else trying anyway

Well got to go and find something to eat for breakfast, then go shopping for food, pots and pans, phone credit, new shoes (so I can actually walk), bus tickets........ and right now I can't remember what else but so much to do!

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These are two friends I was out with last night - Quentin from France (who has the best hair :p) and Maisie from the US

Well, I made it. I’m here and all in one piece.

There was a bit of a fiasco with my flight from Amsterdam to Manchester yesterday after I wrote the last blog. I did find my gate ok but was then informed that the flight had been cancelled! Everyone was booked on to the next flight which was due to leave an hour later. But when I got to the new gate I looked out the window to see construction work going outside and it didn’t look like there was any way a plane could get up to the gate.

Turns out there was no way a plane could get to that gate, and we had to get on buses to go out to the plane out in the airfield somewhere. More waiting and confusion, and finally, half an hour after scheduled departure time, everyone was on the flight and we took off. So I was 1 and a half hours late.

Fortunately Amsterdam to Manchester only takes an hour, because I was thoroughly sick of airports and airplanes by this stage and I think I would have gone crazy if I had to sit on another plane any longer than that.

I was sure I would never make it to my bus on time, but when I booked the ticket I left a couple of hours leeway because I had no idea how long immigration and customs might take. But immigration and customs took about 10 minutes and I ended up making it to the bus with 20 minutes to spare! Thank you God!

He’s really been looking after me ever since I got here.

When I got to the uni I was given my temporary accommodation – Room 703 in the Chalres Morris building (which is actually three buildings and it took me getting lost in the wrong building to find this out.) When I finally did fid level 7 in the right building I went looking for room 703. I walked along the corridor, 701, 702, through another door, 704...hang on what happened to 703? I searched for a while and checked every room on the floor but there was no 703 to be found. Once I’d convinced myself that it really wasn’t there and I wasn’t just jetlagged and hallucinating, I went back to change rooms and now have 605 (which fortunately exists). It’s got a great view over Leeds from the window, but I’m glad I’m not staying here permanently. There is a common room at the end of the hallway which is the most filthy, disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. The cushions on the chairs are all stained, one is missing, there is an iron burn on the carpet..... Also, you share a bathroom between two rooms – but it really couldn’t be classified as a bathroom. It’s like the ones you get in caravans with the shower over the toilet and it opens on to two rooms, so if you didn’t realise the person in the room next to you was in there you could just open the door and get a surprise. There is no way to shut the other person’s door from the inside so potentially the only thing between you and embarrassment is a sliding frosted glass screen.

Apart from that, its been ok. I met some girls and a guy from France not long after I got here (by accident because they knocked on my door looking for a friends room). So we went down and had tea together. Again, thankyou God – just as I was thinking about whether I could face going down to tea alone to face hundreds of people I didn’t know, the girls knocked on my door. So far I’ve met 4 French people, 2 Finnish people and an American girl. Strangely enough I’ve come to England and haven’t really met on English person yet!

Well it’s about 7am while I’m writing this. I’ve been up since 4am. I watched the sun rise, though you can’t see it through the clouds – or perhaps its just smog, hard to tell!! That’s something I’ve noticed – on the horizon is a permanent haziness. Right now I’m looking out my window and anything further than 10km away is barely visible!! And I don’t know if its because of that, or something else, but the sky here isn’t as blue as at home. It’s a lot paler. But the weather has been good. It was actually hot yesterday. (And I only brought two t-shirts – the rest of my stuff is for cold weather!)

I’m quite tried right now and wish I could go back to bed, but even if I could sleep (which I don’t seem to be able to do hence waking at 4am) , I’m trying to ignore it and stick to the time zone. Going to have breakfast with my new French friends soon