My story continues on Saturday 25 September. On this day, the International Office organised a trip to York, which is famous for its medieval sites and city walls. Together with my Chinese flatmate, I discovered the city with a camera in one hand and at the end of the day a German Bockwurst in the other hand. On my way back home, I met some other friends and found out that exploring the city with the two of us had been a wise decision, since most of the people stayed in the city centre to do some shopping, whereas we visited many of the medieval sites including a tower with great panorama view of the city of York.
On Sunday, I joined a trip to Haworth, which is a rural village in West Yorkshire mainly known as the hometown of the Brontë sisters. Apart from a church, the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and some magnificent views of the English countryside, there was not much to do in this small village. Therefore, we looked for a nice restaurant and enjoyed a great British meal. In other words, we ordered roasted meat, roast potato, Yorkshire pudding, vegetables, and gravy, or in short, Sunday roast. It was a rather good meal to be honest.
As my timetable told me that I would have no lectures on Monday, I decided to wash my clothes. This was not an easy task, as I found out that I had to buy detergent first, before I could start the washing machine. Eventually, my socks were hanging on a clothes rack, my shirts on clothes hangers, and my boxers on the radiator. In the evening, I went to Delius pub, where I met with the members of the Bradford University Real Ale and Cider Society (BURACS). After having paid the membership fee, I was ready to be introduced in the world of ales and ciders. The chairman of the society informed me about the best brands and we visited around four pubs and a fast food restaurant. It was a great night out, especially because most of the members were English students and in this way I was finally able to get into contact with the ‘locals’.
On Tuesday, I went to my first lectures and was amazed by the large number of students in the lecture room. As a matter of fact, I did no longer feel like one of the few econometrics students, but instead felt like a number among all these students. Fortunately, I was able to answer a tricky question from the lecturer and she has therefore remembered my name. I think she asked “What do you expect this lecture not to be?” and I had a rather straightforward answer “Interesting”. At least she got the joke.
The next day, I attended the first lecture for the module Supply Chain Management and afterwards we had to work in teams to describe the transformation processes in a supply chain. This is definitely my favourite module, because there is usually a lot of discussion between students and lecturer. In the afternoon, I went to the bowling centre with some people I met in the introduction week, but as I was not able to get a score of more than one hundred points during the first game, I decided to go home early. Back home, I met my Chinese flatmate and he offered to cook me a Chinese dish. Of course, I could not refuse this offer and soon we were eating chicken with soy sauce, in one word: delicious. He told me about Chinese habits and culture, while I told him about my experiences with Chinese students:
_ “Why are Chinese students always in their rooms?”
+ “They are usually gaming or working on their laptop.”
_ “But you are almost never in your room?”
+ “Not everybody is the same; it only holds for those who are ‘Dzai’, which means that they are ‘at home’.”
Well, I do certainly not want to be ‘Dzai’ in Bradford, ‘so’ that is why I joined the BURACS. My French flatmate joined us and at that moment, Mr China (as he is sometimes called) proposed to have a snack. Who does not love snacks? He offered us something called ‘chicken feet’ and as I like drumsticks, I did not refuse. But once I took the meat out of the package, I found out that he was actually talking about the FEET of the chicken and although I was a bit scared, I tried to eat it. Unfortunately, the food was very spicy and I therefore did not like it that much, which I honestly admitted to my flatmate, who was not very surprised. All in all, I discovered that in order to get to know another culture, you do not have to go to another country, you should just meet the right people, which I luckily did!
One of my flatmates is from Italy and during the week he introduced me to his Italian friends. On Thursday, one of them celebrated his birthday at a place called Kashmir at 8 pm. My lectures finished in the afternoon and I cooked dinner at 6 pm so I would be on time for the birthday party. At 7 pm, however, my flatmate walked in and asked me “what the hell I was doing”. I explained to him that I wanted to eat before going to the party, which was quite obvious in my opinion. Still shocked, he told me that the place we were going to was a RESTAURANT, so nobody would have had dinner before going there. Thus far my knowledge of the local restaurants in Bradford. Although I did not order any food in the restaurant, it was a great party and we stayed in the pub until closing time.
On Friday, two French guys and I made plans for a trip to Leeds on Saturday. Nonetheless, we still went to the Friday Night Disco, which was even better than the week before. On Saturday (I think it was 12 noon by then), we got on the train to Leeds. This city is situated a mere fifteen kilometres from Bradford and is probably also fifteen times more beautiful than Bradford. We visited several museums, the town hall, and Starbucks. There was an art exposition in one of the museums, which showed objects that even a child could make; I wonder who paid the artists (hopefully their parents). In the evening, we went looking for a cheap restaurant and eventually found a bar with hamburgers for only two pounds. As soon as we entered the bar, however, it turned out to be a gay bar and we did not feel very comfortable with all the men investigating the new arrivals, so we decided to go somewhere else. After a good but more expensive meal, we went to a pub with live music and met some other friends who came to Leeds for clubbing. Unfortunately, the city was very busy and we decided to return to Bradford and have a beer in one of our own clubs. Afterward, we went to a friend’s place to have some pizza. As one of my friends is Muslim, he was quite disappointed to hear that she only had pizza with pork in the freezer (luckily, she still had a Pizza Margherita, too).
As my first lecture week had been very tiring, I slept late on Sunday and in the afternoon I went to the park with my flatmates. Bradford has some wonderful parks, but you have to know your way around to find them. Initially, I did not have any plans for Monday, but some of my friends wanted to go to Ilkley, a village in the beautiful Yorkshire moors. It took us half an hour to get there by train, but it was certainly worth it! We took many photos and drank a cup of tea while we saw the sun setting behind the hills. In the evening, I again joined the BURACS to drink some beers I had never tasted before.
On Wednesday, I made an English Language Test to check whether the university could offer me some more help with improving my English. In the evening, I went to a cocktail bar with two friends and although the music was not great, we enjoyed looking at the drunk men trying to dance with the (usually also) drunk women. Afterwards, we went to my place for a nice slice of pizza.
On Thursday, my flatmates and I went to the ice skating rink and although I forgot my student card and hence entered the ice rink half an hour later but accompanied by my Portuguese/Brazilian friend, it was great to skate on an almost empty lane. In my enthusiasm though, I fell on the ice while trying to do so-called crossovers. Nevertheless, I also learned to skate backwards, although I still need to figure out how to get any speed… At 5 pm, I went to Student Central for a meeting with the people from Amnesty International. I already met them the week before, but this time we formally decided to set up an Amnesty International Society, which will organise educational film nights, fund raising parties, and human rights events. It is great to be part of a team that tries to make other students aware of their responsibilities as a global citizen, which I think most exchange students intend to be. After the meeting, we asked the head of the Bradford Student Cinema whether it was possible to show films at the university and he told us that we can show virtually every film as long as we ask him for permission. Perhaps we can show ‘ET’ to make students aware of Extra-Terrestrial rights?
My timetable for Fridays always consists of many lectures and therefore I had to hurry in order to be on time for the International Student Get Together at Student Central at 17:30. I soon found out that I knew almost half of the people and hence I had no other choice but to talk with the people I already met before. After half an hour, we were supposed to play some games in order to ‘break the ice’. Thanks to my flatmate, I was one of the volunteers in a rather silly game. Everybody had to name a part of the body, so I chose my belly button and the person next to me chose her big toe. The rules were simple: kiss the person next to you on the spot he or she just named. No wonder the girl next to me now calls me ‘belly button boy’ (funny name though). Nice way to break the ice… At the end of the evening, everybody got the opportunity to become a member of the Bradford International Group, which is indeed a society and brings my society membership to a total of three. Later that night, I went to Friday Night Disco, but this time it was not much fun as most of my friends went clubbing in Leeds. After FND, I went over to a friend’s house and we talked until the early hours.
It looks like I wrote about nearly everything that happened the past few weeks, but as a matter of fact, these are still only the events that impressed me most. I hope that the upcoming weeks will impress me a little bit less, because I should also give my mind some rest and take time to reflect on what happened up till now. I think writing a blog is certainly a good way of doing this!
Yours truly,
Frans
YORK
HAWORTH
ILKLEY
LEEDS
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