Finally some time for a serious update.
The first week in Southampton is almost over; Freshers’ week is just around the corner. After arriving on Monday and paying the first possible house a visit, I arranged that I could stay the rest of the week with them. On Thursday the roommate of Neil and Ed arrived and with the meeting of Oly they decided I could indeed stay. I am actually very happy with that after hearing not so great stories from several of my fellow international students on the Halls.
With finalising the housing (though the contract still hasn’t been signed) I can start arranging a bank account and of course a British mobile phone contract. I also could finalise my enrolment with the University.
What else… Well the British are indeed a strange bunch when it comes to their drinks. I still think the Dutch way of drinking your beer (as in cooled, smaller amount and pressurised drafting) is preferable, but hey when in Rome…
The International Welcome by the University was very well arranged with an approach to everything in such a way it was interesting for postgraduate students and undergrads alike, as well as the more experienced students, such as myself. The Ship Science course I am taking has at least 5 international undergrad students and I already get along very well with the Portuguese, Estonian and Italian delegation within that small group. There are also a bunch of American master students for Ship Science and they actually are a bit of a problem since they don’t fit in to the stereotype American image… They are a real nice bunch of guys as well. And since we are all here at an engineering course talk is always fast returning to nerdy subjects: I already feel at home!
I guess that’s about it: housing is arranged, international welcome has been successful and the to-do list is much clearer now.
-Arrange a UK-banking account
-Arrange a UK-mobile account
-Hook up with a UK-Sailing Team
-Do Freshers’ Week
-Get started with Uni (as they call it here)
And then some small stuff, but that really isn’t very important…
Well, I really appreciated the messages the last week. And I’ll keep updating everyone.
Ciao,
ps. Here’s a map of the area I am.
