First Week in England :)

I arrived in England last Tuesday and I have been adjusting to life there. I spent about three and a half days in London.  I did make one mistake before coming here which was not unlocking my phone so I bought another phone.  There are a bunch of different phone bundles and carriers which was overwhelming. I am the worst with technology so it took me forever to figure out this new phone which was not working at first. There are a lot of these companies and people who sell phones which can be confusing and try to rip you off. However, I did learn a lesson maybe the hard way because I did get ripped off buying a mobile phone. Life is about learning from your mistakes so the next time I deal with something similar hopefully I will be better equipped. Though it is crazy to believe that when my parents came to Europe mobile phones weren’t even a thing.

Besides the mistake I made with my phone everything else in England has been going quite well. When I was in London I walked through different areas of the city, saw the guard change ceremony at Buckingham Palace, went to the British museum, saw the Big Ben, and Parliament Buildings in Westminster. Also I went to the tower of London Museum, visited the Borough Market, and walked over different bridges that go over the river.  I stayed at a bed and breakfast type place for the first two days and then went to stay with family that just moved to London. It was nice seeing my family because I hadn’t seen them in a while and they taught me new things about life in England.  I cannot forget to say that I did have fish and chips which were very good and filling.

This past Saturday I moved into my accommodations at the University of Huddersfield. I took the train from the Kings Cross Station in London to the train station in Huddersfield. I only had to change trains once in Leeds, which is a city about a twenty minute train ride away from Huddersfield. I arrived at my flat in the afternoon and settled in. My flatmates are all very nice and I have enjoyed getting to know them these past couple of days. There are two other girls from New Paltz that live in my flat, one boy from Wisconsin, another boy from Tennessee, a boy from Germany and someone else from Leeds is supposed to move in soon.

The academic calendar at the University of Huddersfield is different than SUNY New Paltz’s academic calendar. Before I came, I knew that classes would start later but I didn’t realize that there would be two weeks of orientation. This week is international welcome week and so far I have received a tour of campus, registered as a student and talked to advisers about enrolling for classes which will be done this week. Also I have spent a lot of time around town with my flat mates. This afternoon I went on a walk to this tower, on the top of the hill I live on, with my flat mate from Germany. I enjoyed the walk and the weather was beautiful. Tomorrow I’m going on the international students’ trip to Ikea and there are some other events going on the rest of the week including a tour of Yorkshire. Our living accommodations do not come with cooking supplies or bedding so my flat mates and I need to invest in those items.

Over the next couple of days I will be completing more registration steps at the university and going to different events. Next week is Freshers’ Week which is catered towards first years specifically, but International students are encouraged to go. There are fairs that encourage involvement on campus where free stuff is given and events to meet new people are held. I am looking forward to getting to know the area better, meeting new people and traveling to different areas in the coming weeks.

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