First Couple of Days - Meetings and Events
I was just now watching Netflix in bed with my laptop facing the wall. I was tired and focused on the storyline, so when I heard footsteps I had a weird reaction. I thought that I would turn around, see my old room and one of my family members in the hall. It only took a second or so for my mind to catch up but within that second, I felt a heaviness settle on me. I've lived with my family for this long and for a quick moment there, I thought I would turn around to find them. I wouldn't and I won't for a long time. I'm still not sure I've fully accepted this.
It's my second full day at my host university and I've decided to have an afternoon and evening in, catching up on YouTube, Netflix series and sleep. Yesterday was a lot and it really took a toll on me, even though I really liked it and am proud of myself for going to the meetings and events.
I'll start where I stopped last time. I was just about to head out the door for the first time since I arrived and luckily, I did run into someone outside. I asked for directions to the nearest supermarket and was given them.
What I didn't know at the time was that the woman who gave me directions told me to head away from the city centre and to a petrol station Sainsbury. It might technically have been slightly shorter than heading to the bigger Sainsbury near the train station in the city centre but it couldn't have been much.
However, I did manage to find it, buy a couple of sandwiches and two packs of Digestives. I headed back and really regretted putting on my big winter coat because the sun was out and it was actually kind of hot. I dumped the bags in my room and ate one of the sandwiches before heading out the door again. I asked the same lady about the bus times and frankly, she wasn't very helpful and just told me that yes, the busses ran on Sundays.
While walking back and forth between the two small busstops on the road outside my accommodation, I had a moment where I felt that tightness in my chest and wanted to either cry or violently stamp into the ground. I choose neither and decided to follow the map that I was given last night when I was picking up my key, to where it said there was a bus station.
It was ten minute walk to the main bus and train station but I felt much happier walking rather than staring in frustration on bus timetables, which didn't clearly state when the bus would arrive. When I arrived at the bus station, I found flyers with Uni Bus on them and promptly grabbed anything I thought might be helpful. In the flyers I could easily see the departure times and happily waited along side a big group of students also heading to the university.
The bus fare for a day ticket was 2 pound and I paid with the coins my mother had given me before I left. It was a fairly quick drive and soon I was back on campus but only now, I could properly explore. I headed down the main road of the campus and when I spotted the library, I ducked into it as I wanted to pick up my student ID. Unfortunately, a lot of people were queuing up for that same reason and I sighed and left because I had an information session to attend.
Because it was arrival weekend, I had no problem finding the right place because I was offered help numerous times. Maybe, I might have looked a little lost or stared at the campus map for a beat too long. The information session was held by three Chinese students who'd only been here for five weeks but they did a fairly good job and were all so nice. I got the chat with someone from Brazil and someone from France, who sat next to me on either side.
Afterwards, we ventured out for a quick campus tour. Thankfully, the names of the building is built in a very logical way, which made me feel comfortable because it reminded me of my home university. We were taken all around campus and although, they didn't speak in very specifics about what buildings were for what, I still felt better informed by the end of it. Additionally, they encouraged us to ask questions and were very helpful even when they didn't know the answers.
Afterwards, I had a lot of time to kill as in about 4 hours before the next event, which was a Culture Carnival. I could take the bus home but I knew that if I got back to my accommodation and got under the covers I would never leave. So I made it my mission to kill the time.
Firstly, I went back to the library to get my ID and I didn't have to queue for even a moment as it wasn't busy anymore. However, that also meant that I didn't spend a lot of time doing that. I headed back to the campus supermarket we had passed on our tour and got coach hangers, kitchen towels and a bowl of chopped fruits. All in all that hadn't taken very long, so I headed back to the library and sat in the corner.
I had left my Mac at home because my shoulders seemed to be hypersensitive to the weight of my bag. I don't know if it was because I travelled for a long time yesterday and carried it around all day but I figured I wouldn't need my computer that day but that also meant I couldn't go on it now when I was sat in the library. However, I did have my mini iPad with me and a charger for it and my phone, so I used that instead. I read stories on Wattpad and watched YouTube and Netflix and before long, it was time to my next event.
The Culture Carnival was fun as they had set up different tables with different themes like "British People", "Entertainment", "Health", "Sightseeing", etc. and they made us switch around which meant we got to talk to a lot of different people and I interacted with so many lovely people and also learnt interesting facts about the city I'm living in.
Afterwards, was the event I dreaded a bit. Okay, not a bit. A lot. A bliming lot. It was a welcome event for international students and when I had arrived I had overheard the team planning a few things. There would be a name game and it sounded scary because they were explicitly told to keep us talking. Gulp. As if the Carnival wasn't enough of an overwhelming experience.
I walked in with an Australian girl and a German girl, whom I had chatted with when we were ushered upstairs to the café. Turned out that they both lived in the same accommodation building as me which was a weird yet comforting thing. Even more so when we all had the same feeling of the halls being empty and lonely and hadn't really met any of our neighbours.
We got our biscuits and tea and headed down to sit next to two girls sitting by themselves, another Aussie and a Chinese. It was really lovely to chat as a fivesome but then somehow more and more people wanted to join our table and before long we had stowed three whole tables together. I actually didn't mind as people seemed so lovely and friendly.
Then the name game began.
We were handed a piece of paper with ten different statements (like "... didn't sleep well last night" or "... likes cooking") and where then to walk around and fill in the names of people who fit the the statement. I had a slow start but actually, it turned out that it wasn't so hard when you got going. I purposely turned off all my worry and my anxiousness and just went for it, within reason of course - I'm still me. People all seemed to have the same attitude and approached each other with smiles and the statements seemed like an easy starting off point to spin into conversation.
All too soon (which was never something I would have imagined that I would say about an event like this) it was time to announce the winners. I hadn't actually tired to win but by the end I had gotten nine out of ten names down and probably talked to over two dozen people. The only one I couldn't manage to find someone to match was "... took a gap year", which was odd because it's such a common thing in Denmark but a lot of people had trouble with that one.
However, the evening wasn't quite over and I found myself drifting back to a familiar face, the German girl I had walked in with and an Aussie boy who where to study in the same department as me. A lovely French girl were sitting alongside them. We talked for quite a while until the co-cordinatior came by to let us know the place would be closing in five minutes. Even more hilarious was the fact he returned to say the same thing to us a minute or two later. We all thought this was a very funny and continued to say "We close in five minutes" in funny voices before we actually had to leave.
During the welcome event, I kept hearing rumours of a party going on tonight, although I hadn't realised before going to the event. Turned out it was a pre-Freshers Week thing and as to my promise about saying yes to every event or opportunity, I was game. In reality, I was tired from a long day and was dragging around my bag, which was massive thanks to the kitchen towels.
The party didn't start right away but myself, the German girl and the French girl, just followed the stream of people. We waited inside the reception of the Student's Union as the party was supposedly going on up the stairs. While waiting, we also met an Indian guy and a Chinese girl.
One of the welcome team then told us to follow along to another party going on in a different place and we followed as we didn't have much to loose since the other party didn't seem to be opening the doors yet. However, the place she took us was pretty dead and suddenly we were the only ones there and we decided to leave. On our way out, we bumped into the lineup for another party and got in line. We said goodnight to the French girl as she didn't want to go the to party. We showed our student IDs and got stamped on the wrist.
The place we got to was absolutely packed, like jam-packed. The worst kind of club scene ever with way too many people but this was an event and I was going to power through it. The German and I ordered beer and cider respectively and the Indian guy downed four shots before disappearing. It had been a hassle to get the drinks and because there were no places to sit, the two of us just slowly got pushed out to the dance floor.
It was actually good dance music but because strangers kept bumping into us and we could hardly move, it wasn't very nice and when we finished our drinks we decided to leave. I had given the party a chance but it was too loud to hear what anyone were saying anyway. We took the bus home together and walked back to our building. We seemed to have similar interests and got on really well and I was so excited to have made a potential friend living in the same accommodation.
Because we were both Erasmus Students and we both had the same meeting the following morning, we decided to meet up by the lift and travel there together. I was so knackered from everything that I almost went straight to sleep. I did remember to accept the friend requests I had gotten on Facebook first though.
Waking up in the morning was absolute hell. I so badly wanted to roll over and stay under the duvet but that would be disastrous. Not only because I had agreed to meet someone but the meeting was labelled Essential and seemed extremely important. So I got my butt out of bed, met my new friend, got on the bus and found the right building.
However, it turned out that we had gone through the wrong entrance and had missed the welcome with tea, coffee and muffin as well as registration. When we realised our mistake, we hurried down into the hall and managed to just get everything done and back to our seats before the presentation.
It was nice to put faces to the International Office people and the people from my department whose names I had seen so many times in e-mail. Even more importantly, turns out I needed to manually sign up for my history and literature courses because that wasn't strictly with my department. The German and I also signed up to go to the Roman Baths Tour on Friday, although I've already forgotten when and where we need to meet but hopefully, she can remember or we can ask someone.
I said goodbye to my friend and went onto my next mission; figuring out what was going on with my non-existent timetable. I know as an exchange student that I would have a very peculiar timetable, especially because I'm taking courses from two different departments. I went to the building where my main department should be placed and went up to the third floor as instructed by signs.
I just found a long corridor of offices and awkwardly waddled through them knowing I was clearly in the wrong area but hoping there'd be a light (or in my case a huge sign) at the end of the corridor. A man stepped out from one of the offices and kindly asked if I was looking for the reception to which I nodded enthusiastically. He told me I wasn't the only one that got lost and to tell off the ladies in the reception and have them put up better signs, I didn't do this of course as it would be extremely rude but I was very thankful for his help. The reception lady then directed me to the office of a woman whose name I had heard a lot of as well.
I found her office (with trouble because when to I ever find something on the first go?) and she informed me that all would be clear in the meeting on Thursday. Apparently, I was just being over-eager again as the time when I tried to sign up for accommodation before I was actually officially accepted. I mentally face palmed and hurried out her office. She was lovely but I felt stupid for causing so much stir over something that were set to be resolved later.
With that mission sort of completed, I jumped on the bus and headed back home. I got out at the station and went into the big Sainsbury to pick up a few more things; milk, Cheerios, a bowl, a pack of small spoons, a wine glass, two bowls of chopped fruit and a heat-up pizza. I'm not sure when I'll actually be getting all the kitchen things I need but I'm still crossing my fingers that there's some sort of resident meeting or introduction with the kitchen groups. A few more of the cupboards have been filled with stuff, so there are definitely people here.
With that, I'll finish off this massive post but it's only this long because it's been a very eventful two days. I'm hoping the evening will be less eventful, although I wouldn't mind running into someone from my kitchen group. I have nothing scheduled at the university tomorrow so if the weather allows it, I'm planning on taking a stroll around the city centre and familiarise myself with my new city.
It's my second full day at my host university and I've decided to have an afternoon and evening in, catching up on YouTube, Netflix series and sleep. Yesterday was a lot and it really took a toll on me, even though I really liked it and am proud of myself for going to the meetings and events.
I'll start where I stopped last time. I was just about to head out the door for the first time since I arrived and luckily, I did run into someone outside. I asked for directions to the nearest supermarket and was given them.
What I didn't know at the time was that the woman who gave me directions told me to head away from the city centre and to a petrol station Sainsbury. It might technically have been slightly shorter than heading to the bigger Sainsbury near the train station in the city centre but it couldn't have been much.
However, I did manage to find it, buy a couple of sandwiches and two packs of Digestives. I headed back and really regretted putting on my big winter coat because the sun was out and it was actually kind of hot. I dumped the bags in my room and ate one of the sandwiches before heading out the door again. I asked the same lady about the bus times and frankly, she wasn't very helpful and just told me that yes, the busses ran on Sundays.
While walking back and forth between the two small busstops on the road outside my accommodation, I had a moment where I felt that tightness in my chest and wanted to either cry or violently stamp into the ground. I choose neither and decided to follow the map that I was given last night when I was picking up my key, to where it said there was a bus station.
It was ten minute walk to the main bus and train station but I felt much happier walking rather than staring in frustration on bus timetables, which didn't clearly state when the bus would arrive. When I arrived at the bus station, I found flyers with Uni Bus on them and promptly grabbed anything I thought might be helpful. In the flyers I could easily see the departure times and happily waited along side a big group of students also heading to the university.
The bus fare for a day ticket was 2 pound and I paid with the coins my mother had given me before I left. It was a fairly quick drive and soon I was back on campus but only now, I could properly explore. I headed down the main road of the campus and when I spotted the library, I ducked into it as I wanted to pick up my student ID. Unfortunately, a lot of people were queuing up for that same reason and I sighed and left because I had an information session to attend.
Because it was arrival weekend, I had no problem finding the right place because I was offered help numerous times. Maybe, I might have looked a little lost or stared at the campus map for a beat too long. The information session was held by three Chinese students who'd only been here for five weeks but they did a fairly good job and were all so nice. I got the chat with someone from Brazil and someone from France, who sat next to me on either side.
Afterwards, we ventured out for a quick campus tour. Thankfully, the names of the building is built in a very logical way, which made me feel comfortable because it reminded me of my home university. We were taken all around campus and although, they didn't speak in very specifics about what buildings were for what, I still felt better informed by the end of it. Additionally, they encouraged us to ask questions and were very helpful even when they didn't know the answers.
Afterwards, I had a lot of time to kill as in about 4 hours before the next event, which was a Culture Carnival. I could take the bus home but I knew that if I got back to my accommodation and got under the covers I would never leave. So I made it my mission to kill the time.
Firstly, I went back to the library to get my ID and I didn't have to queue for even a moment as it wasn't busy anymore. However, that also meant that I didn't spend a lot of time doing that. I headed back to the campus supermarket we had passed on our tour and got coach hangers, kitchen towels and a bowl of chopped fruits. All in all that hadn't taken very long, so I headed back to the library and sat in the corner.
I had left my Mac at home because my shoulders seemed to be hypersensitive to the weight of my bag. I don't know if it was because I travelled for a long time yesterday and carried it around all day but I figured I wouldn't need my computer that day but that also meant I couldn't go on it now when I was sat in the library. However, I did have my mini iPad with me and a charger for it and my phone, so I used that instead. I read stories on Wattpad and watched YouTube and Netflix and before long, it was time to my next event.
The Culture Carnival was fun as they had set up different tables with different themes like "British People", "Entertainment", "Health", "Sightseeing", etc. and they made us switch around which meant we got to talk to a lot of different people and I interacted with so many lovely people and also learnt interesting facts about the city I'm living in.
Afterwards, was the event I dreaded a bit. Okay, not a bit. A lot. A bliming lot. It was a welcome event for international students and when I had arrived I had overheard the team planning a few things. There would be a name game and it sounded scary because they were explicitly told to keep us talking. Gulp. As if the Carnival wasn't enough of an overwhelming experience.
I walked in with an Australian girl and a German girl, whom I had chatted with when we were ushered upstairs to the café. Turned out that they both lived in the same accommodation building as me which was a weird yet comforting thing. Even more so when we all had the same feeling of the halls being empty and lonely and hadn't really met any of our neighbours.
We got our biscuits and tea and headed down to sit next to two girls sitting by themselves, another Aussie and a Chinese. It was really lovely to chat as a fivesome but then somehow more and more people wanted to join our table and before long we had stowed three whole tables together. I actually didn't mind as people seemed so lovely and friendly.
Then the name game began.
We were handed a piece of paper with ten different statements (like "... didn't sleep well last night" or "... likes cooking") and where then to walk around and fill in the names of people who fit the the statement. I had a slow start but actually, it turned out that it wasn't so hard when you got going. I purposely turned off all my worry and my anxiousness and just went for it, within reason of course - I'm still me. People all seemed to have the same attitude and approached each other with smiles and the statements seemed like an easy starting off point to spin into conversation.
All too soon (which was never something I would have imagined that I would say about an event like this) it was time to announce the winners. I hadn't actually tired to win but by the end I had gotten nine out of ten names down and probably talked to over two dozen people. The only one I couldn't manage to find someone to match was "... took a gap year", which was odd because it's such a common thing in Denmark but a lot of people had trouble with that one.
However, the evening wasn't quite over and I found myself drifting back to a familiar face, the German girl I had walked in with and an Aussie boy who where to study in the same department as me. A lovely French girl were sitting alongside them. We talked for quite a while until the co-cordinatior came by to let us know the place would be closing in five minutes. Even more hilarious was the fact he returned to say the same thing to us a minute or two later. We all thought this was a very funny and continued to say "We close in five minutes" in funny voices before we actually had to leave.
During the welcome event, I kept hearing rumours of a party going on tonight, although I hadn't realised before going to the event. Turned out it was a pre-Freshers Week thing and as to my promise about saying yes to every event or opportunity, I was game. In reality, I was tired from a long day and was dragging around my bag, which was massive thanks to the kitchen towels.
The party didn't start right away but myself, the German girl and the French girl, just followed the stream of people. We waited inside the reception of the Student's Union as the party was supposedly going on up the stairs. While waiting, we also met an Indian guy and a Chinese girl.
One of the welcome team then told us to follow along to another party going on in a different place and we followed as we didn't have much to loose since the other party didn't seem to be opening the doors yet. However, the place she took us was pretty dead and suddenly we were the only ones there and we decided to leave. On our way out, we bumped into the lineup for another party and got in line. We said goodnight to the French girl as she didn't want to go the to party. We showed our student IDs and got stamped on the wrist.
The place we got to was absolutely packed, like jam-packed. The worst kind of club scene ever with way too many people but this was an event and I was going to power through it. The German and I ordered beer and cider respectively and the Indian guy downed four shots before disappearing. It had been a hassle to get the drinks and because there were no places to sit, the two of us just slowly got pushed out to the dance floor.
It was actually good dance music but because strangers kept bumping into us and we could hardly move, it wasn't very nice and when we finished our drinks we decided to leave. I had given the party a chance but it was too loud to hear what anyone were saying anyway. We took the bus home together and walked back to our building. We seemed to have similar interests and got on really well and I was so excited to have made a potential friend living in the same accommodation.
Because we were both Erasmus Students and we both had the same meeting the following morning, we decided to meet up by the lift and travel there together. I was so knackered from everything that I almost went straight to sleep. I did remember to accept the friend requests I had gotten on Facebook first though.
Waking up in the morning was absolute hell. I so badly wanted to roll over and stay under the duvet but that would be disastrous. Not only because I had agreed to meet someone but the meeting was labelled Essential and seemed extremely important. So I got my butt out of bed, met my new friend, got on the bus and found the right building.
However, it turned out that we had gone through the wrong entrance and had missed the welcome with tea, coffee and muffin as well as registration. When we realised our mistake, we hurried down into the hall and managed to just get everything done and back to our seats before the presentation.
It was nice to put faces to the International Office people and the people from my department whose names I had seen so many times in e-mail. Even more importantly, turns out I needed to manually sign up for my history and literature courses because that wasn't strictly with my department. The German and I also signed up to go to the Roman Baths Tour on Friday, although I've already forgotten when and where we need to meet but hopefully, she can remember or we can ask someone.
I said goodbye to my friend and went onto my next mission; figuring out what was going on with my non-existent timetable. I know as an exchange student that I would have a very peculiar timetable, especially because I'm taking courses from two different departments. I went to the building where my main department should be placed and went up to the third floor as instructed by signs.
I just found a long corridor of offices and awkwardly waddled through them knowing I was clearly in the wrong area but hoping there'd be a light (or in my case a huge sign) at the end of the corridor. A man stepped out from one of the offices and kindly asked if I was looking for the reception to which I nodded enthusiastically. He told me I wasn't the only one that got lost and to tell off the ladies in the reception and have them put up better signs, I didn't do this of course as it would be extremely rude but I was very thankful for his help. The reception lady then directed me to the office of a woman whose name I had heard a lot of as well.
I found her office (with trouble because when to I ever find something on the first go?) and she informed me that all would be clear in the meeting on Thursday. Apparently, I was just being over-eager again as the time when I tried to sign up for accommodation before I was actually officially accepted. I mentally face palmed and hurried out her office. She was lovely but I felt stupid for causing so much stir over something that were set to be resolved later.
With that mission sort of completed, I jumped on the bus and headed back home. I got out at the station and went into the big Sainsbury to pick up a few more things; milk, Cheerios, a bowl, a pack of small spoons, a wine glass, two bowls of chopped fruit and a heat-up pizza. I'm not sure when I'll actually be getting all the kitchen things I need but I'm still crossing my fingers that there's some sort of resident meeting or introduction with the kitchen groups. A few more of the cupboards have been filled with stuff, so there are definitely people here.
With that, I'll finish off this massive post but it's only this long because it's been a very eventful two days. I'm hoping the evening will be less eventful, although I wouldn't mind running into someone from my kitchen group. I have nothing scheduled at the university tomorrow so if the weather allows it, I'm planning on taking a stroll around the city centre and familiarise myself with my new city.
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