:: Vela Dare ::

:: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 ::

:: A Belated Update ::

Hello everyone! Here is an update I typed up on my computer yesterday when I was still without internet. Now that I *do* have internet in my room I will hopefully be updating much more often-- particularly during this week, since I do not have class.

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Travel Blog Update October 2, 2006

6:52 PM

While I am now fairly settled, I still do not have internet, which is very frustrating! After almost two full days in Bristol I’m getting a better feel for the place. I’ve been trying to travel to/return from places by a different route every time I go out (during the day, that is) in order to familiarize myself with more of the area. My dorm is right in the middle of things and *very* convenient. But… wait I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning.

The flight over was fine. I had managed to keep my bags under the weight limit (which is a truly tremendous feat!) and thus didn’t have to pay any fees at check-in. The terminal from which I was leaving wasn’t very busy so even security didn’t take that long. The plane was a 747 (you’re right, Dad, I don’t think I *had* been on one of those before) and it was ridiculously large. I will say one thing for Virgin Atlantic… their baggage allowances might be unfair, but they do make their flights *very* comfortable. Thankfully the flight wasn’t packed, and I was sharing my row with a little old asian lady—who was generally nice but spoke hardly any English and took up the other three seats (out of a 4 seat row) so that she could sleep. Not really the end of the world though, since I don’t usually sleep very well on planes to begin with, just a little irritating. I watched a couple movies (“Hard Candy”- a very bizarre and creepy yet entertaining thriller, and “Thank You For Smoking”, which was as entertaining as everyone had said) a few episodes of scrubs, an episode of the bristish version of Super Nanny (oh my GOD were those children aaaawful) an episode of Green Wing… and I think something else that I can’t remember. Anyway, trekking through London Heathrow was less eventful than it could have been and the lines for customs were reasonable. Getting to the bus station was interesting—I had both my huge bags stacked onto a luggage cart with my carry-on luggage on top of that—the way down to the station was filled with ramps, so I had the experience of being pulled forward by all 100+ lbs of my luggage as I tried desperately to keep my cart from careening into innocent passers-by.

The buses were quite nice… except that there must have been something wrong with the toilet in the back of the one I was in because the whole backend smelled *quite* strongly of pee (ew.) Unfortunately, I was one of the last to get in the bus so I was near the back… I did my best to just ignore it, which worked for a while as I was very excited to just look out the window, but eventually I got out my perfume and put some on my wrists and spent the rest of the journey with the sleeve of my sweater over my nose. I felt justified in this as a 40 year old man to the left of me had fallen asleep with his sweater covering his face as well- clearly this was the way to go.

Upon reaching Bristol, I took a taxi to my dorm and was fortunate enough to have someone offer to help me carry my things into the building. The Orbital (a Bristol organization intended to get freshman out and about during freshers’ week) Rep who showed me around the building was kind enough to help me get my stuff up to my room. Clearly people at Bristol are much nicer than those in Philadelphia.
There was a party going on that night, but I was sooooo jet-lagged that the idea of drinking seemed rather dangerous, so I went to be at around 7:30 and managed to keep myself in bed until an almost reasonable time in the morning. On that note, let me tell you a bit about “Freshers’ Week”. For those of you that went to/currently attend Bryn Mawr, imagine customs week with less to do and a whole lot more drinking… a LOT more drinking, since there is no drinking during customs. Since (almost) everyone is legal, nearly all the events include bars/pubs/clubs. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s just different, and since I’m still a bit jetlagged I’ve hardly gone to anything because I’ve felt too jetlagged to partake in such things. However, I’m going to the event tonight—a pub night followed by a trip to a place called “Warehouse” (a club, I believe.) Tonight’s theme is “wear your house” as in.. dress up as your home town. I’ve borrowed a pair of sunglasses form a girl on my hall and that will be my “Los Angeles” hehe. We’ll see how that goes.

As for my room and the Hawthorns in generally—they’re fantastic! My room is ridiculously large. I mean HUGE. It almost seems like a joke for someone from overseas who is only going to be here for four months to have a room this big. I mean I hardly have anything to put in it! I did buy some posters today—I tried to keep them to ones I would mind terribly if they end up being left behind. I also put up all my illuminated manuscript postcards, and I tried to make the few knick-knacks I brought with me take the edge off of my mostly empty book shelf. The room still looks a bit empty but at least it looks like a room. As I mentioned, The Hawthorns are incredibly centrally located. Extremely close to where I’ll be having classes as well as to the grocery store, and Bristol’s main neighborhood of shops, clubs and bars. I’m also right around the corner from the gym and computer center, and a couple blocks from the Student Union.

So far my impression of Bristol has been great! I think I’m really going to like it here, that is, once I make a few more friends. I think that’s been the hardest part so far because (despite what I had been told by a few of my friends) it seems as though everyone starting out here (i.e. everyone I’ve met so far) is a couple years younger than I am, and even if they weren’t I’m a few years ahead of them in experience at least insofar as being on my own in college. It just makes for a different dynamic than I’m used to. Tomorrow I’ll get to meet the other abroad students, including two from Smith and one from Wellesley, I’m hoping to track them down so that we can collectively be the seven sisters contingent. If nothing else it will be fun to have someone to agree with me when I say “isn’t it bizarre to be living with boys?!” Thursday is the freshers’ fair which is where you sign up for all the societies, and hopefully where I will meet a few people with similar interests. Classes start next week and that should bring a few more people as well. So I guess the moral of this story is, all and all I think I’m up to a good start, if not a terribly social one. : )

Still to come: extended discussion of the area, and some pictures as they’re available.

:: find earth and reap :: 2:56 PM :: [+] :: | ::

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