At Nottingham

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.