Arrival And The First Few Days

I will admit, I didn't expect the first days to be this tough. Saying goodbye to my parents at the airport was as sad as I thought it would be. I didn't cry until I got through the security gates though, so I consider that an accomplishment. The flight was fine but I didn't sleep at all, so I was a bit out of sorts for a good long time afterward. The train ride was cool, and I actually saw my first castle! Thanks to some very nice tourists, getting my bag off and on the train was easy. Had I been doing it by myself I'm not sure what I would have done, the baggage area was so crowded.

My first full day was done on no sleep so that didn't help my mood. I was hit with homesickness right away. I wasn't expecting that until maybe a week from now! Nope, first day and I was so homesick if I could have gotten on an airplane back home I would have done. That wasn't an option however, so I just went on with my day. I met two German girls getting off at the Chichester stop with big suitcases so I introduced myself and we ended up all taking a taxi together to the university. We got our accommodation easily but while they were on campus, my housing is about a 10 minute walk from the campus so I had to lug my suitcase to my place. No one else is in this block of housing yet so I'm alone and rather far away from anyone. It makes me nervous to be honest. The room itself is nice but the bed is really awful. You can feel every spring in the darned mattress. Nothing I can do about it though, a bed is a bed. I have a sink in my room and the bathroom is about five steps from my door. I have to share the (small) kitchen and (even smaller) bathroom with the three other people when they move in, but that won't be until the 22nd.

I pretty much dropped my bag in my room and then headed back out. I had to find some kind of internet to tell my parents and TRU that I arrived. It took a bit but I was able to sign up for internet early. They were going to make me wait until today but when I explained why I needed it the support services was really nice and walked me through the process early.

After I sent my emails I bumped into the two German girls again and we all decided to try to find the grocery store together because we needed food and things to make the food. We were joined by two other girls they had met in residence and the five of us spent the next four hours walking around trying to find a grocery store. We did located Sainsbury's in the end but the blisters on my feet hate me for the walking. I still need quite a few kitchen basics but for the most part I have food for the next few days.

After I got back to my place I found out I had been locked out by maintenance. Joy of joys. So I'm stuck with groceries in a block of housing with no other people and no cell phone to call for help. I was lucky and ten minutes later a man riding his bike home helped me call for help.

I wish I could say my night improved from there but it really didn't. I was so stressed over my inability to communicate with people that when I found out the campus wifi didn't cover the housing I live in I just broke down. I took a nap (bad idea) and then tried to figure out the housing internet I was given instructions for. It took a bit, and 92 pounds to set up but it works! It's money I didn't have in my budget though so that scares me.

Today wasn't much better. I went out with the same girls from yesterday to locate a phone, and while I did get one, it hasn't connected to any signal yet, and it should have connected in an hour. It's been nine. So I'm still without a phone. Greaaat. I'm going in tomorrow to see what the problem is.

Orientation was fine for the most part. A lot of information overload but that's to be expected. The annoying part was I have paid for five courses per semester at TRU and a full semester here is four. The English adviser told me to drop two of the five courses I had signed up for. So now I have to figure out how to get the credit back from TRU for the two courses I dropped. Oh and I was informed classes start on the 9th, not the 23rd. So now I need to get notebooks in a hurry for class.

I'm tired. I'm homesick. It'll get better.

Next time I'll give you guys photos of my place.