More informative lectures! o.o;

Got up early again, all stiff and tired… We gathered at the tree again (Iman was the first today!) and had to wait a little longer for Flora. Then we walked to the Turner Sims Concert Hall, where we had almost all our lectures of the day. We had lectures about extra English courses, learning how to learn (which I already had in TTO…) and a question and answer section of an hour where we could ask questions and learnt a lot on money, fees, security and healthcare.

We had a big lunch and asked AGAIN if our rooms were ready. Guess what, they were NOT, of course! Had tea with Verena and rested for about 1-2 hours (I wrote a few blogs, which I couldn’t put up on the internet yet, ‘cause I have no internet or phone yet, ‘cause I have not got my permanent room yet……

Anyway, I’m going to have fish an’ chips tonight (I hope I like it) and afterwards we’re going to the international karaoke! Sounds fun! I’ll tell you about it later, cause I’m going to relax for a bit now, before we have diner and a late night XD

Love you all!
~xxx~ Fleury

Later entry:
The fish an’ chips was horrible! It didn’t taste like anything but the thick greasy layer around the fish. We did eat some though (with lots of ketchup) because we were quite hungry and we paid 5 pounds for it!! O.O way too much!

But anyway, after the fish an’ chips me and Verena waited outside for the others (we met some German people, so Verena was very happy and a French girl as well). When Iman came we decided to go inside, but they wouldn’t let me because I’m not 18! Apparently you can’t enter ANY pub if you’re not 18 yet O.O! I hate this country’s stupid “you’re still legally a child” rules…

Luckily I got really good friends who decided not to go without me, so we played cards at Iman’s place and ate chocolate XD

The First Introduction

I slept alright, but kept waking up every few minutes starting at 6 am. So I decided to simply get up earlier than I planned.

After a long morning, me and Verena walked to the big tree and waited there for Peter and Iman. Iman was late, but whilst waiting for her we met a really nice lady from Tanzania, called Flora. She is 42, but seemed to be more like 36 years old to us. She has a husband and 2 children aged 15 and 9.

When Iman arrived we went to the welcome lecture, which gave us loads of information, but mainly the advices to ask for help, eat well, sleep well and make friends. Then we went to the student services and got our welcome packs which contained even more information, but also a SIMcard! So I don’t have to buy that anymore XD. We almost immediately bought top-up cards and exchanged phone numbers. Then we went to check again if our rooms were ready, which they were (of course) NOT….O.o;

We decided to go to Tesco’s next, so we looked on the internet (at Iman’s place, ‘cause she already has hers with internet connection!) where the nearest Tesco was. It turned out to be 1.9 miles walk, which we thought was not that long, but we were proven wrong by rain and sore feet…. Thus, halfway we decided to take the bus, but had to wait for it for 40 minutes (!) At the bus stop, though, we met Christie who works at a pub in Southampton, she said she’d show us the city later (yeey!). With her help and directions we got off at a bus stop right in front of Sainsbury’s where we did quite some shopping and afterwards (after loads of I-told-you-so’s from Verena) we took a taxi back to campus for only ₤6,40! (Thank god for taxi’s!)

When we got home and put away our shopping’s (it was now almost 8 pm) we checked at the reception again, whether our rooms were ready, but no cigar. Then I went to the food co-op down the road with Peter and Verena and ate a sandwich for dinner with some tea (peter had a kettle).

Then Verena said she wanted to take a shower and I told her that the shower only gave water for like 2 seconds, so she tried and I was right…. She told me that she found fruits in the toilet that morning, she first thought it was poo so it scared the hell out of her, so she showed me and there were like tiny pears in the toilet. The only other person in our hall was a Chinese guy, so we guessed he’d put them there, but we didn’t know him and were afraid to ask.

Then we did the shower experiment: she tried the other shower by turning it on really hard! It did not stop giving water, so the floor got all wet ^-^ and when she wanted to turn it off, the water had gotten so hot that she almost couldn’t turn it off! She did, though, but got really wet as well, I laughed my socks off! XD. Then we showered together (both in a different shower) and went to bed.

My day of travel

(written on 23rd of September, but only added on 26th, 'cause I only just got my permanent room with internet!)

Today I left The Netherlands. I woke up at my Uncle’s house, finding him already gone to the dentist. At 9:30 a.m. we left for Schiphol airport, where my parents saw me off. I really miss them now, not being able to hug them, kiss them and tell them how much I love them.

It was quite easy finding the Gate , but had to wait quite a while for the check in to start. The gate was near a conveyor belt, so I still can’t get the “mind your step……mind your step…..mind your step….etc.” out of my mind. The check-in went fine though, no trouble. It was only when we really started flying, the engines on full and the plane leaving the ground that I really felt that I was leaving and that I wouldn’t see my family for a long time. I miss you guys!

We had some plane trouble when arriving, though. The ground crew was not there, so we waited 15 minutes for them. Then we couldn’t go out through the front of the plane, so we had to leave through the back and be carried in busses across the airport, towards the arrivals and luggage collection, then had to walk for god-knows-how-long until we got to our luggage, which was waiting for us. I had to pie so bad at that time that I took all my luggage, including my big suit case that I just took off the belt, and stowed all of it (and me) into a toilet O.O Not the best idea, but hey what else could I do, I was alone O.o;

Next I walked from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, where the Southampton Uni crew was waiting. Yeez that’s quite a long way! I got to the crew and met a guy, Peter (actually Piotr) from Poland, and started making small talk ‘cause we still had to wait there for about an hour. I also met a guy from Malta doing his PHD, but I can’t remember his name.

When we were finally able to go to the bus, we stood in the cold (and temporary rain) for about 30 minutes waiting for the bus and later waiting to get in the bus…… O.o; Then we drove for about 2 hours (we got stuck in traffic of course) and finally got to the Glen Eyre Complex. Here we had to check in and get a room key…. As if I hadn’t had a long enough day already, my room was, of course, not ready yet, so I got a temporary room… yeey…… By now it was about 5:15 pm. And I got somebody to help me get my stuff (+ bedding pack) to my temporary room. Luckily I found some really nice people here to go to town with :D

I met Iman, a girl from Libanon (somewhere far away) doing her postgraduate in Artificial Intelligence and I met Verena (pronounces Wehrana) a girl from Germany doing her postgraduate in Shipping Science. With them and Peter, who we met again on our way to the bank, I went to the burger king and food co-op to have diner and buy some breakfast. They are really nice people and Verena also has a temporary room, right next to mine, which really helps against the homesickness....

Right now I hear suitcase wheels, so there are probably more people arriving right now, but tomorrow is our first real introduction, so I agreed to meet Peter, Iman and Verena at a big tree on campus to go to the first welcome lecture together in the morning. They are really nice people, but I’m still very much homesick right now. I miss everyone and of course Fudge as well. But I’ll manage, just have to get past the first few days…

(btw I figured out that the plug-box doesn’t fit into the adapter, so I can only use one socket right now…. Ohh well we decided to go to Tesco’s tomorrow anyway to get adapters, plates, cutlery and everything else anyway O.o;)

De dag voor mijn vertrek

Ik werd vandaag vroeg wakker om Lotte en Amber, Mijn zussen, uit te zwaaien. Lotte met de trein weer een end reizen naar Maastricht en Amber om 9 uur alweer een college. Wat ga ik hun missen zeg!

Verder krijg ik nog een drukke dag vandaag. Mijn koffer helemaal goed inpakken, voor de derde keer kijken welke kleren er niet perse mee hoeven (ik mag maar 20 kilo mee! O.o;) en met welke levensmiddelen ik toch echt niet zonder kan (een knuffel om in uit te huilen als ik iedereen mis en alleen op mijn kamer zit in de UK, en natuurlijk een enkele pan, bord en beker)

Mijn lijst met things-to-do ligt klaar en ik kan steeds weer wat afstrepen (blog beginnen- check). Het gaat een lange dag worden, maar ik denk als ik eenmaal in the UK zit dat het wel meevalt, ik ben immers niet de enige die daar een nieuw leven begint.

Ik zal iedereen heel erg missen, maar ik ga ook een hele leuke tijd tegemoet.