I woke up this morning and started watching Netflix. I think I left my room a total of 3 times to eat other than that I watched Netflix all day. I went to bed around 23:00 so that I would be well rested for the first day of school on Monday.
Tag: Sunderland
Day 8: Beach
I got up late in the morning today. I decided that I had to do laundry and did one load of darks. Laundry here is expensive, three and a half quid or about $5.30 per load. After doing laundry, I went to CitySpace where we were meeting for a beach walk. They shuttled us to the beach which was about a 15 minute drive. We walked down the beach then had a choice between going through a park and visiting a church on the way to the fish and chip stand or continuing on the beach. I decided to go through the park. The church that we saw was built in the early 20th century. We walked for a while after the church until we reached the fish and chip stand. The fish and chips were extremely greasy. They were however, really good. After eating fish and chips, I went back to the stand for ice cream. The flavor choices were really unusual, the choices were Raspberry, Chocolate, Apple or, banana. I got the banana which was yummy. After we left the fish and chip stand we walked almost 45 minutes to the St.Peters campus which is on the North side of Sunderland. Along the way I stood on a glass roof and, saw St.Peters church (the one built in 674). From there, I rode the bus to the Park lane interchange. Sadly that’s all the farther the bus went as it was the last one for the evening. I walked back to Clanny from there and watched the new episode of Doctor Who. I socialized downstairs for a while then, I went back to my room and watch Iron Man 3 before going to sleep.
Day 7: Busy
The adviser appointment that I scheduled the previous day was scheduled for 09:15, I showed up at the bus stop at 08:49 and, the bus should have arrived at 08:57. After waiting until 09:00, it became obvious that the bus had come early (The bus is never on time when you need it to be). I ended up walking to campus so that I would be on time. In my meeting, I had my adviser drop one of my classes and add both German and Spanish into my timetable for the full year. At the end of the meeting, he sent my module choices to the people that make the timetables for analysis. After this meeting, I went to CitySpace.
For fresher’s week, there was scheduled to be free haircuts and smoothies in CitySpace. This wasn’t scheduled to start for an hour so, I sat on the sofas until it was about time. I went to the room that this was in at 11:00 because, I wanted a free haircut. When I arrived I found out that they weren’t doing free haircuts which was fairly disappointing. From there, I went back to the Forster building where we had a mandatory study abroad scavenger hunt.
In the Forster building we were divided up into teams then sent out around Sunderland to find the answers to questions and get random objects. The hunt made us walk clear to one side of the city centre, then to the other side and, finally back to campus. In all, our route made a large triangle that took an hour and a half to complete. Surprisingly the team that I was second to complete the hunt. We were told to return at 15:00 to find out who had won the hunt. This gave me time to go back to the bank.
I walked to the bank from campus where the banker was able to open my account with no problems. When I went to cash my check however, the lady at the counter was grouchy that I didn’t cash it the day that I got it. It was all sorted out though and I rode the bus back to Clanny. When it was time to go back to campus, I had planned on riding the bus. The bus wasn’t on time again and I had to walk all the way back to campus for the second time that day.
On campus, we learned who had won the hunt and surprisingly it was my team. The prize was a chocolate bar the size of a gold bar. I was disappointed that I had walked all the way back to campus for about five minutes though. I went to the bus stop where I waited 30 minutes for the bus to arrive. Back at Clanny, I watched Netflix for a couple of hours.
I went downstairs as the plan had been to go to a roller disco and then a paint party on campus. Instead my flatmate was making cookies (she makes really good cookies). Around 18:30 we decided to go to Tesco’s for some grocery shopping. Tesco’s is like the Wal-Mart of the UK except a little smaller. After everyone checked out at Tesco’s, half of us took the groceries back to Clanny and the other half walked to a pub where we would meet up to watch the Rugby World Cup. When we arrived at the pub, we had to leave as my flatmate was wearing sweatpants that didn’t meet their dress code. We ended up going to CitySpace where they had the game on. One of my flatmates went and bought pizza while we were watching the game.
After the game ended, we left CitySpace to meet up with the flatmate that bought the pizza. We ate it on a sidewalk near the city center. When we finished the pizza, we went back to Clanny where I went directly to bed.
Day 6: Bank
On Thursday morning, I had my adviser meeting where we learned about the format of our classes and what we were taking. Most people receive there time tables but, I did not. Because I had wanted to take German and Spanish, I had to wait to sign up since my adviser did not know that my first language was English. This meant that I had to schedule an appointment for Friday with him. This meeting ended around 14:00 then, I left for the bank.
I arrived about 20 minutes early for my appointment and waited for quite a while. When I was taken back, the banker took copies of my passport and proof of enrollment. Then he entered all of this information into the computer. After about 30 minutes of doing this he submitted the application. The application was flagged for further investigation for some reason and he told me that I would have to come back the next day to get my account opened. I went back to the flat after this and yet again watched Netflix.
Around 19:00 my flatmates and I went to a comedy hypnotist. The show was very entertaining and one of my flatmates was hypnotized. I won’t detail what they did as it was an R rated show but, afterwards we had to help our flatmate piece together what had exactly happened (He didn’t remember hardly any of it). Back at the flat I went to bed and got ready for Friday, the busiest day of the week.
Day 5: PLAY
Today, I didn’t have any induction or mandatory classes. I woke up and around 12:00 then, went with one of my flatmates to get our meal stipend checks. After getting the checks, we went to the Bridges where I went back to Primark for hand towels and a blanket. Next, I went to Tesco’s where I bought cleaning supplies and some food. From there, I went back to my flat and watched Netflix for a while after I put my food away. Around 21:00 I met up with my flatmates in the lounge and went to Gatsby, the first PLAY night club. Gatsby was packed shoulder to shoulder so we didn’t stay long. From there we went to the second club called Verve, this club was much better and had a fairly good DJ. After about an hour there, we were going to go to the last club, the Basement. We we got outside of Verve we saw that the line to get in was clear around the block so, we decided not to wait around. One of our flatmates that was with some of his friends was in the line though. He finally got in after waiting an hour then, left five minutes later because of how packed it was inside. After we had left Verve we ended up going to a restaurant called the Proper Roast. I had a diet coke. After we left, we went back to the flat where I went immediately to bed because, it was already about 01:00.
Day 4: Bierkeller
This morning was very similar to yesterday morning except it was really raining. After arriving at school we had more safety briefings. One thing that was kind of ironic was the part about crossing the streets. As most people know, they drive on the left hand side of the road in the UK. The only international student to have been hit crossing the road was from Australia. This is ironic because, they also drive on the left hand side of the road in Australia. After the safety lectures, we broke up into smaller groups to play trivia. The questions were about random UK and Sunderland things like who the prime minister is and who the manager of Sunderland A.F.C. is. Our team did not do well at all. The winners received Sunderland mugs. Then we had a couple of bonus questions with individual winners. The first question was what is the population of Sunderland, I guessed 179,000 while the correct answer was 250,000 (Sunderland is 9 square miles smaller than Topeka which has a population of about 100,000). The second question was what year St. Peter’s church was built. I had read about it before and answered 673, the correct answer was 674 (Yes, the church is almost 1400 years old). My answer was the closest so I won a mug. After this game it was lunch time.
I walked back to Clanny House so that I could stop at Aldi on the way and buy mayo. This was a mistake as it was still raining fairly hard. By the time I made it back to Clanny, my water resistant Under Armour sweat shirt was soaked all the way through. For lunch I ate a ham sandwich. After lunch I rode the bus back to campus for the afternoon session. I don’t remember what we did in the afternoon session but, afterwards we went to the bank where we scheduled appointments to open accounts on Thursday.
The welcome party was at a bar called revolutions. The study abroad department here provided us with sparkling wine and fountain drinks as well as food. After eating we left and headed to one of the student union’s buildings called the north shore. For fresher’s week, they were having a Bierkeller that they had imported German beer for. Admission was free with my wristband. The music that the band played was german drinking polka type music. The band is called the Bavarian Stompers. I had a stein of beer that I only drank half of. Basically everyone that was there was drunk other than 3 or 4 people from my group (I didn’t drink enough to be drunk). We stayed there dancing to the music until the band stopped at around 22:00. Then after we left we went to the after party at revolutions. There was like no one at the after party and drinks were a crazy price so we didn’t stay long. We went back to clanny where I watched Netflix then went to bed.
Day 3: Induction
Today I woke up and went to campus for induction. In the morning session, we played an icebreaker game and registered with the university so that we would be current students. Then it was lunch time.
For lunch a group of us went to Greggs in the Bridges. I had a slice of cold barbecue chicken pizza and a bottle of water. All together, the meal only cost me £2.50. After lunch we went back for the afternoon session of induction.
In the afternoon session we heard from a police officer, a sports and, a health official about safety and well-being while in the UK. My flatmates and I were in a hurry to get out of this meeting to get to bowling though.
I had purchased a wristband earlier in the day that would allow me free access to fresher’s week activities. For bowling only the first 60 people got in for free. Because we were 30 minutes late getting to the bowling I expected to pay the £5 fee. Surprisingly the place was not busy at all and I got in free. Entrance also included a free drink. Everyone around me has a pint but, I just had a diet Pepsi. We bowled two games which was fun but, bowling shoes weren’t provided. I still managed two games over a hindered though. After the games we went to a pub for dinner.
Bar food in the UK isn’t very different from the US except for possibly the fish and chips. I ordered a BBQ hog Burger which was a hamburger with pulled pork on it. When the waiter brought out the food though, I received a hotdog. I decided it would be fine as it was huge like, over a foot long. After dinner we went back to the flat and I went to bed.
The date that my posts show that they were posted is the day that the post is about NOT the day that they were actually posted.
Day 1: Arrival
After arriving at Clanny house, I waited in line to receive my key. After getting my key and other arrival goodies, I was led to my room. My room is what they consider to be a large room which is about a 15’x15′. In the room there is a bed, wardrobe, sink, desk and, a dresser. One thing to note about the UK faucets is that there are two separate spouts. One provides cold water while, the other provides hot. They are also on opposite sides of the sink so there is no way to mix the water. Next I made my bed, charged my phone for a short time then left to do some shopping as towels are not provided.
Navigating a new town is difficult. In Sunderland as students we receive free access to the 700 and the 701 bus routes. The maps that the uni and the bus company provide however do not include the actual names of the stops that the bus makes. After riding 45 minutes on the bus while trying to figure out where I was, I disembarked near the city centre. In the city centre, there is a large shopping center not unlike a mall called the Bridges. My first stop in the Bridges was at Carphone Warehouse for a prepaid SIM card. I had planned on getting the iD plan that they provide themselves however, they were out of stock of their own SIM cards. I decided not to get a SIM card immediately because, the other plans cost so much more. I left Carphone Warehouse in search of someplace that sold towels. After walking for a while, I found a department store called Primark. I went inside and bought the first towel I found which was navy blue and not badly priced. My next stop was the Post Office. I asked in Primark for the directions to the Post Office and, surprisingly nobody knew where it was located. I wandered around for a while after this trying to find the Post Office myself. I got terribly lost and it began to pour rain. I began to give up hope and walked back toward the bus station. Then I decided I did not want to give up. I walked past the bus stop and went into the Sunderland Winter gardens and asked the person at the front counter where the post office was. I think she must have thought that I was blind since it was straight across the street and down a block from the gardens. I went in, waited about 15 minutes then, left with my Biometric Residence Pass (BRP). I then went back to the bus station waited 15 minutes since I had just barely missed my bus and, went back to my flat (It was easy to get to on the return). I then planned on watching Netflix for a while before I went to bed.
Shortly after beginning to watch Netflix, I heard a knock at my door. It was my first flatmate that I met. She was from Canada and asked if I would like to go grocery shopping at the local Aldi (Pronounced Al-Dee not All-Dee by everyone else in the world). I said sure and made the walk to Aldi with her. At Aldi, I purchased almost everything that I would need for making tortilla pizzas, spaghetti and, ham sandwiches. I had planned on making dinner after I returned to my flat however, all I did was put my food away. I then went up to my room, put my pajamas on and, went to bed. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow around 18:30 because, I had been up for over 30 hours straight at that point.