First day at INTO

I walked a lot. And I'm exhausted. That's what I thought of today.
Here is what happened today.
All the people who is taking pre-sessional English met up in front of Duryard Hall and we walked to the INTO centre. It took probably about 20 mins. We were out of breath by the time we got to the top of the hill. It's SO steep!!!
We walked to another building and had an introduction and a test. The test was dictation, grammar, essay writing, and an interview in the afternoon. The interview was to access our speaking skills and also to get info about us. There were two tutors who were in the interview room and when my interview finished, I heard one tutor say "Exceptional" behind my back. I assume he was referring to my speaking skills. That made me a little more confident. :)
After the interview, I went back to my room to find the cleaners doing their job. So I went outside to wait for them to finish. While waiting, a guy came out of Duryard Hall (were the interview was held) so we started talking. He's from Iraq and 26 years old. Mohammad. Not sure if that's the correct spelling but whatever. It was very interesting talking to him. He's going to study post-grad bio science. He worked in Iraq for 4 years diagnosing patients by taking many kinds of samples (blood, skin, urine, etc). His work can't make any mistakes because mis-diagnosing someone and giving the wrong medication may lead to death. he also told me that he's from Baghdad and it's "safe" now but war killed 2 of his friends. I put quotation marks on safe because I don't know the standards of his safe. Not as safe as Japan, I imagine...
Anyway, it was nice to make friends with someone who isn't Chinese. There's another person who's not from China; she's from Switzerland. I think her name was Sebina of something like that but I'm not sure because we didn't talk so much. All the other people are Chinese. I'm so glad my two of my flat mates are Thai. There are 5 other people that I share the kitchen with and 2 of them are Thai. Which means 3 out of 6 are Chinese. And probably 95% of the international students are Chinese. What. The. FUCK?????!!!!???? Why are there so many CHINESE PEOPLE???????? They are EVERYWHERE!

I went back to my room after talking to Mohammad, I went back to my room, watched Youtube, went out to the city to buy some more food, came back, had the fire alarm go off TWICE!!!, had a meeting with my flat mates, and here I am now blogging about my day.

I hope the alarm doesn't go off in the near future........ You will be fined 30 pounds if you don't evacuate within 4 minutes! WTF??
My meals today:
(breakfast) muesli, banana, bread and cheese and cucumber.
(lunch) bread, cheese, cucumber, banana.
(dinner) salad, mayonnaise, CORNISH PASTY!!! yum!!

lol

Shopping & exploring.

I went to the city centre with my next door neighbor Pang (Thai girl) and 3 of her friends (1 Thai girl, 2 Chinese girls). It took 40 minutes to get there because we walked slowly but when I came back alone, it only took 20 minutes.
We went to get what we needed and met up again to have lunch (crape, not so nice to be honest). After that, we went to the cathedral that I went last year in April. Lots of people there since it was nice and sunny.
I went and got a note pad so that I can keep track on my money. Other things I bought were:

1. bath towel


2. food from Tesco (muesli, milk, bananas, cucumber,yogurt, lettuce, and jam)


3. flip flops (I've always thought flip flops were cool & everybody's wearing them)

In total, I spent 32.12 pounds and I still have 22.88 pounds. I have a tiny bit of fear of spending money because I barely spend my own money. (I like earning it though!) So I got nervous when I went to Tesco and spent 11 pounds but change of currency helped. If it was in yen and at Aeon, I would have panicked and though I'd run out of money.

Anyway, I came back on my own and rested for a while and went outside to make a video of around here. Not exciting but here it is.

I took my PC back to my room and went out for a longer walk around the buildings. There was a Chinese girl alone and her listening skills wasn't good enough to catch what the INTO staff said on the phone. (all students have to move into their accommodation either yesterday or today and if they arrive after17:30, they have to phone the INTO office.) I helped her. I met her later and her room is two houses away from my house.

After helping her, I walked down road away from the city centre. I walked this way because I thought the sea was that way. I later found oout on Google Earth that the sea is in the direction of the city centre. But one good experience was that I got to see a railroad engine.

That was basically what I did one 2nd day at Exeter. Tomorrow is when life really starts. There is going to be an induction programme tomorrow from 9:15 at the INTO building.

BTW it's nearly 10pm and it's finally getting dark! I guess I'm nearer to the North pole than when I'm in Tsukuba!

Exeter, yo!

Arrived 20 minutes ago. Exhausted. My room is on the ground floor and these are photos of my room that I took using the camera on my PC because I couldn't bring my digital camera.
My next door neighbor is a Thai girl and she told me there's another Thai person on this floor.
Coming from Heathrow was the Chineseest experience I had so far. I met the taxi driver and he told me we have to wait for another two students. They both turned out to be Chinese. On the way here, another two came in. Both Chinese. As we, 1 Japanese/British and 4 Chinese, waited for the accommodation to be sorted out, some residents passed by and most of them were Chinese. They are everywhere!!!!!!

BREAKING NEWS:
My sheets are very pink.

9 hours until I leave...

I'm going to watch Bridget Jones so that I don't cry myself to sleep tonight. But I might cry while watching the DVD. I've been having a big lump in my throat all day today and I had to press my lips together so that I don't cry during work.


My mum's going to wake me up at 5:45am just before she goes to work.
Will I:
a) wake up and burst out crying, or
b) cry after she's gone and have to wear sunglasses to go get breakfast from family mart, or
c) not cry at all until I reach Exeter?

I hate crying. I get a clogged up nose and red eyes... :'(