My room got cleaned today while I was out, I’m happy My bin was about to overflow, partly because Nika and I ordered pizza the other day and the boxes took up a lot of space lol. We watched a DVD and ate pizza whilst most of the rest of the hall went to a wild west thing at a club. I was so tired, I’m glad I didn’t go

Last night was ’school disco’, where everyone dressed up in whatever remotely school uniform items they could find. It wasn’t until we were on the bus that the reps told us that they’d lied and it was only our hall going to the club in school uniform, which was pretty funny. They got into the spirit of it too; the guys were wearing school skirts When we got there, the DJ played loads of cheesy school choons especially for our hall – School’s out for summer, What I go to school for, etc. so that was pretty cool.

Visuals for you:

I’m the one in plaits on the right.

One of the guy reps in a skirt

Some of the guys who danced with us, and Sarah in the background wearing pink

Something pretty scary happened with one of the girls, Anna, who was really ill and it was thought that her drink was spiked, so they called an ambulance. Luckily it wasn’t spiked, but the weird thing was that her friends had had the same to drink but were fine. Weird.

There’s just time to mock some stupid people before I go lol (hey, I always find time to mock them!). Basically, we have to sign up for a few other modules in other subjects to make up the full degree course. So Sarah and I headed off to the American and Canadian Studies and Film Institute to sign up for a couple of things. Not only was in not based in its department like every other subject, but in a random room, but the queue was really long.
The reason? Well, obviously a lot of people wanted to do the modules here. But they had 2 desks, with two staff members at each. So basically, every student was seen by 2 members of staff when they didn’t need to be, and at point there was even 3 members of staff seeing one student.
Whilst we complained about this stupidity to ourselves, we slowly worked our way to the front of the huge room.

A whole hour later, we were at the front. Yay! But then…

Stupid Staff Member 1: *in a voice as if she’d just discovered gravity* Hey, I know what we could do! We could have 4 separate desks, with one staff member at each!. That would make things go faster!!
(She’d been there for 4 hours and only just realised this??)
Stupid Staff Member 2: *looks blank*
Stupid Staff Member 1: If we have four desks, then we can see four students at once!
Stupid Staff Member 2: *slowly nods, but looks confused*
Stupid Staff Member 1: *repeats idea two more times, then says:* Stupid Staff Member 3, I’ve just had an idea!!
(I’m rolling my eyes at this point)
Stupid Staff Member 1: *repeats idea again*

Luckily for my sanity, SSM 3 caught on pretty quickly. So after a 5 minute discussion about how they should arrange the desks, they then spent another 10 minutes moving the desks and telling each other where they should be sitting. By this time I wanted to kill myself. And I was also beginning to question why it was I was signing up by choice to have these people teach me.

On a happier note, pics of my rooms (they are much tider now though):




(My bathroom)

And tonight our hall is hosting some of the entertainment:

I’ve managed to sort out my Internet access finally, so yay! I’m back hehe. I still need to sort out the student network service though…:sick:

My room is much nicer than I expected although my bathroom isn’t great, but I’ll live with that I’ll post pictures of both as soon as I get some more free time.

I’ve had hardly any time over the past couple of days what with moving in and registering and stuff…I still have one or two things to go to every day this week I think, plus all the hundreds of optional activities available and getting to know people. Last night was pretty hectic; so far it’s been one big memory test and everyone’s going round basically asking the same questions: name, course, where you’re from etc. But I’ve met some really nice people

My corridor is an all-girls’ corridor, and there’s a bit of a trend of sticking your name, course and an invite to knock and say hi on a note on your door…my neighbours are all very friendly

A few entries ago I was talking about how I believe in snychronicity. I have some perfect examples:
1. The minute I arrived in my hall I met Nika, who I’d been talking to on the net and we’re great friends now yay.
2. I was standing in a queue of literally thousands of students, waiting to go into the sports hall. The girl next to me introduced me to the girl in front by saying my name, subject and city. The other girl was like, ‘Oh you’re from [insert name of my town here], aren’t you?’ I was like, OMGWTF I have a stalker already?!
Turns out she was a girl I’d spoken to on the Internet a couple of times a month or so ago (a student forum, and she lived quite near me)…weird coincidence!
3. Today I was sitting in a room of several hundred students. My new friend Sarah turned back to the girls behind to ask them something about the medical centre, and when they introduced themselves I realised that I’d been speaking to them on student forums and MSN for the past few months lol.
4. This is the weirdest one: Sarah, who I just mentioned, is only a few rooms down from me. Not only is she also studying English, but she went to a private school in the same town that I went to sixth form college, so we must have lived pretty near each other for at least the past 7 years without knowing each other lol.

It was pretty weird at first, especially on the first night where I was all, I don’t know where anything is or who anyone is!! The weirdest thing was that I met so many new people (literally hundreds) that anyone I’d spoken to more than once and that I remembered the name of, felt like a best friend lol.
The first night we just stayed in the bar and talked to people, with the unspoken aim being to find someone in a room near you or doing your subject.
In my hall there’s about 300 undergrads, and over the whole campus there’s nearly 30,000 students, so people just go round randomly starting conversations and just saying hi.

Last night we went to a club called Oceania, and the older students (reps) that were taking us taught us (censored) chants about some of the other halls – very fun. Most students here are from London or at least the souh of England, so to be chanting along with others yet hearing the overall effect as being in a southern accent was very peculiar

We talked to loads more guys, because there aren’t that many in our hall and they seem a bit shy. Or maybe they’re all like that and the alcohol made them a bit more extrovert lol. I did actually dance with an archaeologist (that’s a first lol) called..Paul? I think. But he was really surprised when he asked me to dance and I agreed, in fact he asked me twice and then was like, ‘Really?’ lol. He was bloody tall, I mean I know I’m short but he was tall. It struck me how much you can tell about a person by their hair – the second I saw him, I’d already fitted him into the likes-rock-is-probably-in-a-band-smokes-and-probably-smokes-weed category. But hey, I’m not fussy about who I dace with and he seemed nice enough.

After Oceania, we went to one of the other halls for a bit before walking back to our hall at about 2am. I got up at 7:30 this morning to go to my English induction, so I was pretty worn out. But everything’s sorted now and I’ve met both my hall tutor and my subject tutor. Both seem pretty nice from what I’ve seen

Tonight there’s a Wild West themed party, but before I could decide whether I wanted to go or not, the tickets had sold out. But it’s probably a good thing because I’m very worn out right now and I don’t want to get the dreaded freshers’ flu!

Random things:
1. Everyone goes out clubbing during the week and stays in at weekends because they don’t like the ‘locals’ in the city (I think this is half snobbery and half safety).
2. The reps told us not to wander round the city at night even in groups – very different from my home city.
3. Eugene from Big Brother was at Oceania and spent part of the time getting a lap dance from a uni student onstage, and then did random impressions of himself (!!), Anthony and Craig. Although I admit his one of Craig was good
4. There is rivaly between the Halls and each has its own chants and insults for the others.
5. The warden was apparently scarred on his face by a student who purposely slashed him with a broken bottle.
6. There is a student who got scarred by a kebab skewer and is nicknamed Harry Potter (scar is in the same shape).
7. You get fined for practically everything – eating/drinking in the computer room £25, smoking cannabis £150, etc. etc.
8. I have not yet got over the urge of wanting to open my door and be nosy every time I hear people in the corridor.

Right, I need to catch up on a few things and download all my necessary programs – FTP, adaware, MSN etc. :love: I’m sure I’ll have loads more to say in a day or so lol.

Yesterday I was asleep in my bed, minding my own business, when Mr Stupid McStupidson delivery guy from the day before starts ringing the bell. Now I should probably say at this point that I haven’t been sleeping very well recently and I was in the deepest sleep I’ve had for a long time. So I eventually woke up when I heard him ringing the bell for what must have been the last time. Then the idiot started banging the door in his usual customary way, at which point I was halfway down the stairs. As before he didn’t wait for anyone to answer, and turned round and walked off before I got there – and this is the best bit – leaving the package in the porch :grr:

So if he could just leave the package, why the hell does he ring people’s doorbells and bang on their doors to wake them up and get a signature from them?? :S Of course, once I got back into bed I couldn’t go back to sleep :hmm:

I went to Nottingham with my dad yesterday, which was strangely fun. We went to have a look around the city etc., and there were various amusing moments because my dad is such a lovable idiot lol. And I bought a nice brown bag that is very soft. It took us about 2 hours to get there and back, and whichever route you take is really scenic. The Sheffield way has a river and lots of hills and stuff, and the Derbyshire way is all farmland and hills. It’s purdy

The bad thing was, however, is that it started to kick in that from Sunday I’ll be completely and utterly alone in a pretty strange city. And I have no idea where anything is, including the various university buildings that I’ll need for registration and meetings and lectures and stuff. Also, I desperately need to finish packing lol. I’m still buying stuff to take!

My next blog will most likely be once I’ve moved into my room and got Internet access sorted (which will hopefully be asap). But with the various events I might go to, like ‘Hall Olympics’, ‘Wild Wild West’, white water rafting, massage techniques, making chocolate, ice skating, street dance, beach party, masquerade ball, learning how to make cocktails, bowling, toga party, heaven and hell, films, ‘Big Day of Fun’, salsa dancing, trip to Ikea, paintballing and the rock city week one party…all in the first week as well as the Freshers Fair 10-4 for the first 3 days, I guess I could be too busy to get on the net lol.

Much love to you all and I’ll try to get on the net soon :love: