I slept away sunday, but monday found me wandering the streets of sunderland with a slew of internationals in search of the university. They knew where it was, but I still can’t find it on foot. We got there in plenty of time, although the study abroad team was late.
The orientation today was about England, the north of England, and Sunderland, town and university. During the break, I went in search of food, and found The Bridges, a mall near the City campus. I got an iced mocha in a bookstore, and ended up getting cranberry juice from a pub.
Then came registration, which didn’t work well for most of us. Apparently we were told to bring all our originals from our applications, but since I turned those in and never even saw my transcript (same for most ISEP students), I was out of luck, as was almost everyone else. Emma, the study abroad lady, said that it happens every year. I hear that it’s being worked out, although one would think that they would get this fixed.
The lunch hour consisted of me going back to the Bridges with my flatmates, where I got cash out of a cash point, bought a phone (which needs me to call the network and get it registered before it will work…), and got some supplies for crepe tuesday.
After lunch, there was a funny video about culture shock, and we had a speaker from support services (counseling, etc). He had the strangest beard… Although he looked fairly young, he had grey hair and a long, white beard. Flo (short for Florian), the German guy upstairs, thought that he should be "going around at Christmas” instead of heading up the counseling services.
We swung by Aldi, which is a cheap supermarket that all the Germans know.
Side note: there are a lot of Germans. One flat is comprised solely of them. About 35 came over in one group as part of their degree programme, and then several others came over on their own through various exchange programmes.
Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk with my roommate Jessi and her friend Kari in an attempt to find the beach. We failed, and may have seen a drug deal going down by the river. After that, I had some well earned toast with nutella for dinner.
Adam from England (you remember, the fount of all knowledge), Conor from Boston/Miami, Josie from Australia, Jessi from Frankfurt, and I went to see Change Up. Some parts of it were very funny, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. I didn’t see the rating, but it has to have been R. After that, we went to Asda, which is the English branch of walmart. Adam was actually excited about Hershey's, which shocked Conor and I.
Afterwards, we all hung out in the kitchen to chat, talk, and, for some, drink.
Drinking is a huge part of the culture here in England. As Emma put it, the British work hard and play hard. They’re serious about their work, and also take their leisure time seriously. I’m not sure whether this denotes a flaw in the life philosophy of Brits in general, or just a way of doing things. I haven’t seen any drunken grownups lately, and not many smashed students, so I’m just going to avoid making an idiot out of myself.
I kept forgetting my camera... Sorry!
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