Here I am, settled at University with my own (incredibly slow) internet connection. I would have posted here on Wednesday, but for some reason I decided to plug the modem cable into the ethernet socket (the fact it fitted is slightly worrying). I only discovered this on Friday morning as I was going out to buy a new modem cable.
So, what have I been doing? Going out a lot, getting slightly tipsy and watching my next door neighbour get hypnotised by a random Canadian bloke. And catching up on all of the emails I’ve missed.
I was hoping to write some entries to put in here but I only really got the first entry done, so here it is:
Got up and packed final stuff (music, razor etc.) into the car almost filling it (we had to abandon the stereo box and just take the parts in plastic bags – actually I think we took more stuff then we do when we go on holiday, but then usually cooking utensils are provided and we don’t need to take much food. Or pillows.
We set off at about 10:30am, and arrived at the hall just under an hour later. Me and my mum (unintentionally) left Dad with the car while we jetted off to the main building to collect my keys – all 4 of them, plus an access swipe card. The room is on the fifth floor – the building is 10 floors high I think. 5th isn’t bad, I guess, and there are 2 good lifts, plus two staircases.
The room itself is much larger than I expected – you could easily swing a cat in it, if you really wanted to. There’s a good sized desk, and adequate storage, though I wish the chest of draws were larger – I ended up hanging up some of my jumpers on coat hangers. Which reminds me – next time I’m home (October if all goes to plan) I’ll bring some more back… There’s also a washbasin in the room, which is handy – the showers are separate, and are okay. The toilets do leave something to be desired though – ah well, you can’t have everything.
The kitchen is better than I was expecting too – looks like it has been recently refurbished, and although there’s only one cooker there seems to be adequate storage space (although some stuff is staying in my room since I don’t want it getting nicked). The view is also good – it was built in the 1960′s so the windows are huge (and it’s okay to leave them open as I don’t think people are going to climb in and take stuff) – I get a nice view across to the centre of Bradford.
Although I seem to be on a mostly male floor (damn!) the guys that I’ve met so far all seem quite cool, especially the guy next to me (hi Anthony!). For dinner we went down to a local curry restaurant (oh come on, it’s Bradford for gawd’s sake!) called ‘Posh Spice’ (and yes it was quite posh, but cheap too) and got a takeaway which we ate back at the kitchen (there’s a dining area too).
From what I gather, I’m the only one out of my peer group at Bradford – a few of my friends have gone to Manchester, but most are spread around the country – so I’ll obviously have to make some new friends. Which isn’t too bad because everyone seems quite friendly – although I haven’t spent much time in the union bar I did go to play pool (I lost, btw). But hey, there’s a whole week to get stuff done.
The area is a little bizarre – whereas in York you hardly ever see people of other ethnic groups (bar the odd Japanese tourist), here whites are an ethnic minority. The bulk of people are of Asian or West Indian origin – usually the only white people are students. It’s not that I have a problem with that, it’s just… strange. Well, for me at least. They all seem friendly though, and I haven’t seen any threatening gangs of youths.
The hall is a 5-10 minute walk from the main campus where everything happens, which is good since it’ll give me some exercise and won’t be as noisy (in theory).
Overall? Yeah, I like it. I was certainly expecting much worse. Now if I could just get internet access….
