Exactly one month ago, the International Office organised a trip to Chester, which is a city close to the border with Wales and was founded as a Roman fort in the year 79 (Wikipedia.org). Although everybody was still very tired because of FND, we hopped onto the bus at 9:00 am. There was no predefined programme, so we could just wander around in the streets without getting lost, since the city centre was not very big. This was indeed the case, so I wonder why we bothered to make a two-hour bus trip to visit this city in the first place. The highlights were as follows: 1) Excavation of Roman Amphitheatre, 2) City walls, 3) Second-most photographed clock in England, 4) Chester Racecourse, and 5) Chester canal. I think it took us one hour to visit and photograph each of these tourist attractions. So how did we spend the rest of our time? I bought an elephant balloon hat (see photos), we had lunch in a small restaurant (i.e. we occupied all the available seats), we visited the Chester history museum (the only free museum in town), we drank chocolate milk in a medieval coffee shop (you know what it means in English), and visited the University of Chester (which was unfortunately closed). All in all, we had a lot of fun and did not learn anything about Chester at all.
On Sunday morning, I went running up a hill close to the university. When I got on top of the hill, I had a magnificent view of not only the city of Bradford but also the surrounding moors. In the afternoon, my Chinese flatmate and I went to Dennis Bellamy Halls to have lunch with our group mate. The lunch was delicious and there was certainly enough food for everybody. I am sorry to say that I was not able to finish my rice, which frustrated the girl since “growing rice is a very difficult process”. After lunch, we worked on our assignment and we made some serious progress. Unfortunately, when we practiced the presentation, it turned out that each of us required ten minutes, whereas we were only allowed to have a presentation of fifteen minutes in total. As we had been working on the assignment the entire afternoon, we decided to edit each part individually and hopefully we would be able to give a fifteen-minute presentation on Tuesday.
The next morning, my flatmate knocked on my door asking for my help. He wanted to show a video during the presentation and asked me whether I could help him with editing this video. After one hour of basic Windows Movie Maker modifications and with a satisfied feeling, we watched our one-minute video. Indeed, a lot of work for a small reward. At 13:00, I attended an English Language course and it soon turned out that the university could indeed offer me some more help with improving my English. There were two sessions. The first one was aimed at improving our writing skills and the second was designed to improve our listening and speaking skills. The latter, however, was taught by a non-native speaker and I soon found out that I could not learn any pronunciation know-how from him. In the evening, I modified my part of the presentation and was able to cut it down to only six minutes. While I was working on this, my Chinese flat mate came in and we had a nice chat together. It is great to have friends here, who you can tell about your concerns.
On Tuesday, we had to give our presentation. In the morning, we printed handouts for the students and lecturer and during the lecture we discussed the last-minute problems, which unfortunately did occur. Nonetheless, our presentation was a great success and we got a grade of 72%. For your information, 72% is equal to a Dutch grade of 10. In the evening, I planned to go to the cinema with the Bradford International Group and I convinced my Chinese friend to go with me. When we got there, however, it turned out that we were the only ones interested apart from the guy who organised the event. Nevertheless, we watched ‘The Social Network’ and could go to bed early after a tiresome day.
I do not know how often I have said this before, but Wednesday is my shopping day. Therefore, I went to the city centre with one of my flatmates and we visited many shops to look for presents for our girlfriends. Eventually, my flatmate bought a rose in a box and I bought chocolate for Marleen. Thereafter, we went to the local supermarket, but I could not stay long as I had to go home and prepare some Dutch food for the International Erasmus Dinner, which would take place in the evening. Together with another Dutch exchange student, I made Brussels sprouts and pork sausages, which are closest to Dutch food I could think of. The dinner was a great success; there were students from many different countries, such as Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, France, Germany, and the variety of food was accordingly. I especially liked the pizza made by the Italians and the Portuguese fried sugar balls, called Bolinho de Chuva. Unfortunately, it was too busy in the living room, so I ended up in the hallway talking to some Spanish people who were not even students anymore. At that time, I realised that you do not have to be an exchange student to live in the UK, although I would personally prefer to live in another city after I finished my studies. Bradford surely is a great place to study, but apart from that the city is not attractive at all.
On Thursday, I decided it was time to wash my clothes, since I had not done this for a few weeks. After I hung up my clothes, I went over to Student Central to help the Students Union with carving pumpkins for the Halloween party. A short introduction was enough to teach me how to cut my pumpkin in the right way. Although I did my utmost to make a scary pumpkin, I ended up with two silly looking pumpkins, which would hopefully look a lot scarier with a candle inside.
On Friday morning, I again did some washing because I forgot to wash my bed linens the other day. After a relaxed day (one of my modules was cancelled because of the phenomenon ‘Reading Week’, which is in fact a holiday for students at the School of Social and International Studies), I got myself a sandwich from the Subway and hopped onto the bus for another BURACS trip. This time we were going to the Saltaire brewery to taste the ales right from the source. In contrast to my expectations, we did not get a tour through the brewery and instead just drank a few of the local specialities in the brewery pub. Upon return in Bradford, I invited my BURACS friends over to my place to ‘kill’ the time before we would go to the Halloween FND. In my opinion, this FND was the best one up till now. Many of my friends did not recognize me at first, since I was wearing a satanic mask and it was nice to see that almost everybody tried to look as scary as possible. After the party, my flatmate and I brought some of the girls home and in return we received Chinese noodles. As you can understand, I was really tired the next day and did not do anything except for playing a few games of pool in the sports bar. Nevertheless, I think the party was definitely worth all my energy.
On Sunday, I had regained most of my strength and used it to run in the park with my flatmates. In the afternoon, I tested my nerves in the BSC Hitchcock afternoon. They showed two of his best movies, namely ‘The Birds’ and ‘Psycho’. I can tell you that even these classics can sometimes make you feel very frightened. As nobody in my flat had been worrying about dinner, we looked in the fridge and ended up making curry with Chinese dumplings. I ate dumplings before, but I have never tasted such good ones. Maybe it is a good idea to never worry about dinner ever again!
As always, the next week began with a quiet day on which I only had to attend the English Language course. I was not bored though, since I used my time to plan my girlfriend’s visit. Everything had to be perfect and I even included a social with my flatmates in the programme. In the evening, I again watched a film at the Student Cinema and went to bed early. The next Tuesday was not very exciting either. I decided to join that week’s tutorial of Understanding Strategic Management, since I would have to miss the tutorial the week after to bring Marleen to the airport. Apart from that, I spent most of my time working on my laptop and getting to know Facebook, since this network is the best way to stay in contact with both friends from the Netherlands and Bradford.
Wednesday, on the other hand, was a very busy day for me. It started with a very interesting talk with the academic quality officer, whom I told that I do not like most of the students’ attitude towards the tutorials. The problem is that many students do not read the recommended material and hence it is impossible to have an educated group discussion. At 13:30, I went to the library and took part in a very useful workshop about Excel. Thereafter, my flatmate and I ran a few laps through the park, but we had to return early as there would be a debate with the Vice Chancellor of the University of Bradford at 16:00. I expected this to be a great experience, since we were told that our questions should not be too serious. Unfortunately, nobody in the room complied with this setup and eventually we ended up discussing the rise in student tuition fees in the UK, which is not even a problem for international students. Nonetheless, it was nice to meet the man who is in charge over here.
The most important day finally arrived: November 4th. On this day, I got up early only to find out my lecture was cancelled, I bought some games at the huge Toys “R” Us store in Bradford, I attended a workshop about managing deadlines, and I went to the Amnesty International meeting at 17:00. All of this, however, is trivial compared to the fact that I welcomed Marleen at the airport that night. Although I had many plans for this night, we stayed together ‘like two pigeons’. Even if we wanted to stay up all night, we soon had to sleep on my undersized bed as I had to get up early the next morning.
On Friday, I had classes throughout the entire day and sadly spoken, Marleen was alone even though we were in the same city. At 17:00, however, we cooked dinner together and soon got onto the bus to see the bonfire and fireworks in Leeds. I would rather not write too much about this night, but it boils down to missing the fireworks, illegally entering the field, and walking back three miles to the bus station. Upon return in Bradford, we finally got the opportunity to enjoy ourselves in the FND, and so we did.
On Saturday, I took my beloved girlfriend to Bingley for a nice walk along the canals. We actually saw a five rise lock, which was really cool. I can definitely recommend everybody to visit the canals in the UK, because they are just lovely! In the evening, we joined the BURACS for a trip to Hebden Bridge and this time we actually saw some real fireworks and a really nice bonfire. This English tradition is celebrated with the whole family and I can confirm this after seeing all the children near the fire and the lack of beer at the festival. It was funny to see the disappointed faces of my BURACS comrades. Therefore, after we got back to Bradford, Marleen and I decided to have a drink with them in the pub and of course some fast food afterwards.
The next day would not be any more relaxing for Marleen, since we planned to go to the bowling centre with some friends. Luckily for her, we had to cancel the event as more people were interested in Chinese food in the evening and hence, we watched the film ‘Wall-E’ in my room. This was by far the most romantic moment during those days, so you can imagine what she must have been through meeting all my friends and stuff. Even though the Chinese restaurant did not meet my expectations, I enjoyed myself eating as much as I could possibly eat, whereas some of my friends were having an all-you-can-eat ice cream competition. Thereafter, we went over to Student Central and held a mini pool championship. Although I lost most of the games, this was a great way of spending time with friends, since each round you talk to someone else.
On Monday, we had to get up early and get onto the bus to Liverpool. After two hours, we reached the west coast and spent most of our time in the museums, shops, and restaurant. The museums were too big to explore entirely, but I was able to find a masterpiece in one of the rooms as shown in the photos below. To prepare myself and my room for Christmas, I bought a nice Santa Claus doll, which could even sing a beautiful Christmas song (only six pounds at Primark). We concluded the day with a delicious four-dish meal at an Italian restaurant.
As Marleen’s visit was turning to an end, I decided to show her the best Bradford has to offer: the National Media Museum. We went up to the floor about animation and stayed there for almost an hour. This was all I could show her though, since it was now time for her to go home. We kissed each other goodbye at the airport and I quickly got onto the bus back home, because I had to attend a lecture at 17:00. Sadly, we both have a different life these months. Nevertheless, I am still very glad I chose to study abroad. In the evening, my sister and I planned a trip to London on the 30th of December to celebrate New Year’s Eve together with our boyfriend and girlfriend. It seems like I keep pulling Marleen towards England. Perhaps this is because I am starting to like it over here?
Yours truly,
Frans
CHESTER
CHINESE LUNCH
INTERNATIONAL DINNER
PUMPKIN CARVING
SALTAIRE BREWERY
HALLOWEEN FND
VICE CHANCELLOR
LEEDS BONFIRE
HEBDEN BRIDGE
CHINESE RESTAURANT
LIVERPOOL
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Hallo Frans,
ReplyDeleteMany, many exiting events again....
Real ugly faces at Halloween!
Good to see that Marleen had a nice stay with you!
Regards
Dad