School stuff

Still no mail. Weird. I really want my bank card! And no e-mails either. Except from teachers, which is kinda unsettling. Friends don’t send me e-mails, but teachers do.. o_O;; Then again, I do talk to them on MSN Msgr so I can’t really complain. Except when they’re not there.. like now.

Yesterday.. didn’t do much. Went into town, bought a sweater (B.wise is a really cheap store!), sat by the seaside and wrote haikus (gonna put them up here later tonight probably), came back, had lunch outside and then wrote a letter to Jaz & Jade. That’s basically it. No classes.. Today I’ve only got one seminar which doesn’t start until 4 p.m. So I gotta figure out how to while away the hours before it’s time to go there.. It’s at times like these when I really wish that I had my own computer. Then I wouldn’t be so bored. I’ve already started the tasks on Dr. Faustus which don’t need to be done until like next week! I think today’s when they actually tell us when the tasks are due. I’m just a bit nervous about the essays that we have to write. Well, at least we don’t have any exams. ^-^ French listening is most likely being moved to Tuesday morning. So that means I could (in theory) make it to the 1:30 train. o/ I timed myself yesterday; I left the Porter’s Lodge at about 11:05 and I was on the platform next to the train at 11:24. I didn’t run, but I did walk a bit faster than I usually do. So especially if I run down the hill (could be dangerous), I’ll have a pretty good chance of making it. Which means (that if the train isn’t delayed and I make it to the connecting train at Birmigham) I should be in Sheffield at about 6 p.m. Not bad.. I wasn’t expecting to get there until like midnight if I’d’ve had to take the 5:15 train. So that’s like 3 hrs off the train journey. ^-^

I’m probably now gonna go back to looking up recipied on LHJ. Got loads of different pancake ones yesterday.

English, university, Dr Faustus

Okay. First Monday is done. Had a two hour Writer’s Art seminar. The teacher for that was about 20 mins late. Sort of a weird guy. But hey, he’s an American. We have to write three haiku poems for him by Friday midnight. Yech. I hate writing poetry. But I’ll deal. I’ve written haiku and tanka stuff earlier so I should be able to churn out something. As part of our class, we had to go outside and just observe things. No talking allowed. Loads of students who were passing us by gave us strange looks. We just ignored them. It was actually sort of like spying. I saw two men in suits talking and one of them almost tripped. Loads of students on cell phones. Groups of 2 & 3 going by.

Then, French writing for two hours! Yay. -_- Since it’s Basic French, I’m the most advanced one over there. Which is totally what I expected. It’s just soooooo boring in that class. Like today, we spent most of the time reviewing and teaching some of the students the verbs avoir and etre. On the plus side, the teacher is gorgeous. And his accent.. both in French and English.. Well, eye-candy is always good. And he isn’t this stuffy lecturer that I thought that we might get. ^-^

The English lecture.. well, not bad. Pretty obvious stuff. But I did learn that I have to get a module booklet thingy tomorrow. Costs just £1. Not too pricey. Of course, I’d prefer it if it were free, but I understand that they need money to pay for the paper.

During the weekend, something really funny happened. It’s 1 a.m. or so and Meilyr’s hungry so he’s having a pizza in the kitchen. This guy with a vodka bottle taped to his right hand staggers in and starts talking about how he’s looking for another party since the one he was at ended and everyone was crying. Then he starts going on about bin bags and how he doesn’t have any. So when this guy sticks his head inside our fridge, Meilyr pulls him away from there, shoves a bin bag into his hand and basically throws him out the flat. And from then on, we’ve begun to keep out flat door locked. Not wedged open like before, but locked. No one can get into our fridge during the night while we sleep. ^-^

Then yesterday, when we were preparing our roast dinner (only £1,30 per person!) we found out that the baking tray we had put the chicken on was too big. We had no other baking trays so we took the handle off of one of my frying pans and stuck that in the oven. So now we sort of have a baking tray.. o_O Well, at least I won’t have to go out and buy one. Just use my “frying pan”. Didn’t really use that frying pan anyway. Too big.

Well.. I think that’s it for now.

uni, baking tray, Aberystwyth, lectures, haiku, poetry, spying, French

All of this is so tiring! But I have managed to get loads of stuff done. Yesterday was registration and I decided to take Basic French as an extra module this semester. I would’ve taken the Advanced French, but I only had 20 credits left and that one used up 30. So I had to down grade to Basic French. At least it’ll be an easy course. No stress really there. ^_^ Next year I might want to take Basic German or Basic Spanish. Dunno yet. I still have a year to decide. XD

I like my flatmates. There’re two quiet ones, besides me that is, two really in-your-face ones (as in loud) and the three remaining ones are from the middle. So far I’ve had the most contact with Phil, Neve (I’m not sure is that the way you spell it because she’s Irish and they’ve got some wonky spelling sometimes, just like the Welsh! XD) and Caroline. Lewis keeps inviting me to join the rest of them when they do stuff, but I think it’s mainly because he’s like this go-between. Anyway, last night there was a houseparty that our flat hosted. Really noisy. A few wardens came round to complain at everyone around midnight I think. I didn’t go cause believe it or not, it’s been a very tiring few days. Especially with all the running up and down hills to get to everywhere where I wanted to go to. In the rain. Like right now, I’m soaking wet. I’m in the Llandinam building in the computer room. Outside.. nasty. I was about to go into town with three of my flatmates (to buy a sweater) but the weather.. nuh uh. It’s pouring rain and really windy. :-S Soooo looking forward to getting back to my room. Hopefully it’ll let up soon. And that I get my laptop soon so I won’t have to brave this kind of weather whenever I want to use a computer.

In other news, the bank has been sorted out, I should have my account by Friday and they’re gonna send me the card. I’ve met loads of people while I’ve been running around trying to get everything done. Can’t remember most of their names, but I can recognize their faces. So we all just say hey and wave if we’re farther away from each other to actually say anything.

I’ve decided not to join any extracurricular activities just yet, first I need to see how much spare time I’ve got. I think I’ve got nothing on Wednesdays and Thursday but Tuesday is still open. Monday and Friday are packed. I just hope that my last class on Friday’s is the French one, which’d let me end my school day at 2 pm. I prefer morning classes anyway. More of a morning person. Just like the lecturer this morning said to me at 9 a.m.: “Anyone who’s smiling at this hour of the day is always in the right place.” I had only asked was this the right room for the IS: Network Info lesson.

I guess I should go get something to eat soon. Still not sure do I wanna make spaghetti in the kitchen or just grab something from the Rosser Bar. Haven’t had the time today to think about what I’ll eat later tonight. So tomorrow I have to go to the supermarket to get more food. Right now all I’ve got is spaghetti, quark, muesli (but no milk!), apples, chocolate, toast and marmalade. Egh. Good thing I’ve got my bus card. No way I’d be able to walk all the way up that hill again with the amount of food I’m gonna purchase.

On Tuesday, when I did go to Lidl to buy food and stuff, I decided to take a bus back up. Since I had no clue which bus goes up the hill, I asked the two guys that were nearest to me. The reply I got was: “Before I tell you which busses go there, you tell me which part of the States you’re from.” -_-;; They looked throughly confused when I said that wasn’t from there or Canada. But that wasn’t the only time people thought I’d come from the States! Two members of staff thought I was from there just today. And every time I tell them that I’m from Finland, they look surprised and apologize for calling me a Yank or American or whatever.. I guess my accent really is that strong. At least to British ears. Although some American students I’ve met also thought that I’d come from the States.. It’s a cross I’ll have to bear. Being mistaken for an American where ever I go.

university, registration, UWA, accents

Going to Aberystwyth tomorrow… sorta nervous about it. Well, less nervous now that we actually have the train tickets (boy did that take a long time to book them on the phone!) and taxi ordered for tomorrow morning. The train leaves at about 10:20 a.m. so I should be in Aberystwyth around 3:30 p.m. Oliver’s coming with me which is very nice since I’ll prolly be a nervous wreck on the trains. He’ll keep me sane and calm. Hopefully. ^_^;;; He’ll go back on Sunday though. Staying for just one night. But that’s better than nothing. I’ll be pretty busy anyway, registration and whatnot.. so it’s probably best if he does go back almost immediately. We won’t be apart for too long. I might be going to Ryan & Shaun’s house warming in Leicester in mid-October so I’ll see him there. :) Next I’ll just have to figure out what to get them. Plants? Dunno.. I’ll find something.

Anywayz, still no bank account so it’ll have to wait until I get to Aberystwyth and open it over there. Annoying. But I do have a UK mobile number now. o/ And I got an early Christmas present: a Gameboy Advance. Something to keep me sorta occupied on the train at least. ^-^

Aberystwyth, house warming

This is just my luck.. I got my International Student Identity Card (ISIC) today. It’s got all the info on it correct, except my picture! It’s got some mean looking blonde girl’s picture on it! *rolls eyes* God what else can go wrong before I get there? Anywayz, I tried calling the place but since it’s a Saturday, no one’s there. So I’ll have to try it on Monday. And I’m gonna try to get a refund instead of a new card because I am not giving them another picture of me to mess up.. Grr…

And also I had to call Aberystwyth again yesterday because the paper that they sent that has my term time address on it is not accepted in banks. Just because it says “To whom it may concern” instead of it being addressed to me or the bank..

I seriously feel like banging my head against a wall or something.

ISIC, Aberystwyth, school, problems, ID mix-up

Seems like I’m not going to Belgium before I go to Aberystwyth. I kinda got the feeling that I wouldn’t when I didn’t go two weeks ago. So now I don’t know do I book train tickets to Aberystwyth from here or go to London and my dad’ll drive me.. I should know tomorrow. Possibly. Could be that I have to wait until Monday. But at least I now know my vaccinations. No need to flub them, my mom found the card where they’re recorded or something like that.. ^_^ Next on my list of things to do (besides mail the medical document), is to find out if I can get any opiskelijatuki stuff from KELA or the equivalent of it in Belgium.. I should be able to get *something*. Even if it’s just 20€/week or 20€/month, I don’t care. Any money is good. Krisi’s gonna get about 100€/month when she turns 20.. now it’s only about 50€/month. I’ll possibly get a part-time job at Aberystwyth. Work at the Union or something. Any place that is flexible concerning work hours during exam periods.

Aberystwyth, money, part-time work, vaccinations

Okay, so I went to the bank on Monday and tried to open an account. They said they needed a paper from Aberystwyth saying that I’ll be staying over there. So I come back, call Aberystwyth, explain the situation to them and they say that they’ll send me the standard letter they give whenever someone needs to open a bank account immediately (spoke to 8 people before I got the right person). The lady at the other end obviously didn’t listen to me because when I got the letter this morning, it had my Finnish address. Well, I tried it anyway today with Oliver’s dad. No luck. So I had to call Aberystwyth again. They said that they don’t know my halls of residence address yet. I told them that even just the main address of the hall I’ll be staying in is enough to open the account. So the lady said that she’ll try to send it to me as soon as she could. But really. Whose idea was it to make it so complicated for foreign students to get a DirectDebit form of paying? They won’t let me enter the halls of residence until a) I’ve paid the whole amount in full or b) given them a Direct Debit form. I don’t have the whole sum, so it’s the Direct Debit that I’ve got to use. But I can’t hand them a completed form before I have a bank account. And I can’t get an account before I have proof of residence. *rolls eyes* Whoever thought of this system… urgh.. it’s just such a pain.

And I only have 10 days before I’m supposed to be there!! O_O;;;

bank, Aberystwyth, Direct Debit

Well.. I still don’t know when I’m going to Belgium. I called my dad today and he said that he’ll call me tomorrow.. This is getting really annoying. I mean, I’m not like my parents. I’d like to know at least two weeks in advance what I’m doing. But noooooooo.. still no clue. I might be going over to Brussels on Saturday, I might not. I’ll know tomorrow. In a way, it’d be good if I didn’t go back this weekend because then I could open a bank account here before uni starts. I need to hand in a filled out DirectDebit form to a British bank account or have the whole amount to cover the costs of tuition & accommodation ready before term starts. If not, they won’t let me attend. So… if I stay here, my parents could mail me my UCAS papers where it says that I’ve confirmed my place in Aberystwyth which I’ll use to open a student account at NatWest or HSBC or something. Plus, I’d get to spend more time with Oliver. ^_^ Then again, I want to go back to Belgium so I can see what things I want to take with me to Aberystwyth. I know I want my stereo but I’m not gonna take my whole CD collection or my entire wardrobe or make-up collection. So before I go over to Wales in September, I want to go back to Brussels for at least a few days. (And that way I’d get to catch up on things with Auri..) Apparently, there’s a sports week thingy in Aberystwyth for the first year students starting on the 20th of September. A decision has to be made by the 9th.. I might go. Don’t know yet. Sounds like fun though.. we’ll see… ^-^