As I was really tired from the previous weeks, I slept late on Saturday and used my weekend to work on my subjects and relax. On Monday 11 October, I went to the BURACS meeting in the evening, but in contrast to the first weeks I did not stay very long as I wanted to make a good start of the week. On Tuesday, I attended the first tutorial for Understanding Strategic Management and in contrast to the lectures, these tutorials are very interactive and challenging. We were told to form groups of three and prepare a presentation for one of the future tutorials. I joined two Chinese students and we decided to make a presentation about steel companies for the next session. In the evening, I went to the General Meeting of the radio station of Bradford University, called RamAir. It was interesting to see the differences between this meeting and the ones of my study association (Asset | Econometrics) back in the Netherlands. Although the RamAir meeting was more fun, it was less to-the-point and afterward I had the feeling we did not discuss anything at all. Besides, I decided that a radio station is not really my cup of tea.
Wednesday afternoon is usually my shopping day, so I went to the supermarket and bought some pasta and pesto to cook for my flatmates. As I was a bit afraid of my Italian flatmate’s reaction, I tried to make this the best pesto-pasta ever. Luckily, he liked it except for one missing ingredient: salt. Honestly, I was flabbergasted. My pesto pasta does not need any salt, only better ingredients (for instance, the mozzarella I used was only thirty pence). After dinner, we went to the sports bar and played a few games of pool. I think I am becoming a good pool player, so if you ever want to challenge me… then please pay me a game, because I have already spent over ten pounds on the tables!
Thursday is sometimes a busy day and sometimes not. On the 14th, it wasn’t. Nonetheless, we went to Leeds in the evening and had a great time in some of the better pubs in this area. This time, there was definitely no need to get back to Bradford for a good party! On Friday, I was a bit tired but that did not keep me from participating in the seminars. We always have a group discussion from 16:00 till 17:00 for the module ‘World Economy since 1945’ and even though this is a first year module, the level of these discussions is very high. At 18:00, I met with my Chinese colleagues in order to prepare our presentation. My Chinese flatmate and I promised to cook for the Chinese girl and we ended up serving her pasta. She probably already knew we were incapable of making a good meal, so she brought some nice Chinese food with her. She called it Chinese barbecue, but it is incomparable to the burnt meat we eat both in terms of preparation and taste. We started working on the assignment at 20:30 and because of efficiency considerations we worked until 22:30. The teamwork was very good and I think these were the most productive hours up till now.
On Saturday, I worked on my part of the group assignment and took some rest. Unfortunately - wrong word – Luckily, I made an appointment with my friends of BURACS at 17:00 to go to a real ale festival in Huddersfield, which is a town fifteen miles south of Bradford. It was very quiet at the festival, because most of the people already came there in the afternoon. Nonetheless, we bought a curry dish and ale, which eventually led to a great evening for most of us. Before you get me wrong, it was in fact the curry that caused this, since everybody was entertained by me trying to eat the extremely spicy food. Upon return in Bradford, we went to our president’s flat to taste “the best Scotch whisky” (according to him) and play on the Xbox.
On Sunday morning, I went running with my French flatmate and in the afternoon, we saw a film in the Student Cinema. I also met a new guy in the kitchen that day and to my surprise, he told me that he would be our new flatmate. He is not a fresher at Bradford University like the rest of us, but he does come from another country, namely Eritrea. In the evening, I met with some friends in the pub and we listened to a jazz band, which had this amazing lead singer. Afterward, I walked home with my flatmate and on our way we noticed someone playing the piano in the main building. Our Chinese flatmate was playing and we stopped by to listen to a great performance. All in all, this had been a night full of music.
I had great plans for Monday, because earlier I heard about this Game Day on campus in which you could win loads of chocolate. Therefore, I went down to Student Central with a friend from Portugal and we ‘checked it out’. What we found over there was mere disappointment: the games were no fun at all, there were only eight people when we arrived, and all we got was this lousy chocolate bar. So, after fifteen minutes we went back home and I decided to make some useful contributions to Tilburg University’s very own discussion page called ‘Talk of Tomorrow’. It is nice to take part in the global talks posted on this website (www.talkoftomorrow.com). After dinner, I went to the weekly BURACS meeting, but everybody was still tired because of the festival, so we decided to go home after one drink. Back home, my French flatmate and I watched a very funny movie about a guy who calls himself ‘the Dude’ but is also known for his name ‘Lebowski’. Does anyone know what movie I am talking about?
On Tuesday I again met with my Chinese group mates to have dinner together and work on the assignment. I think we spent almost twice as much time eating and talking than working on the assignment (also because I cannot eat very quickly with chopsticks). But honestly, I think the first is more important in this stage of my exchange. I really enjoy learning more about other people’s background and making true friends right now. Nonetheless, we made some significant improvements in our research and planned to meet again on Friday.
Wednesday 20 October was a very busy day for me. After my lectures, I shared a pizza with one of my flatmates and I prepared myself for the afternoon programme. Indeed, my lectures were finished at 11:00 and we ate pizza at 12 noon! At 14:00, I went to the city hall and attended the Lord Mayor's Civic Reception, during which the mayor welcomed the international students and told us some interesting facts about the city of Bradford. Afterward, we got a tour through the city hall, which is extremely beautiful compared to the depressing square in front of it. Of course I also did my traditional Wednesday shopping and later that day, I joined a group of students for a football match. Although I did not play football for a while, I did score a few goals and hence gained some respect from the group. In the evening, we again visited the pool tables. No wonder one of the French girls calls me a ‘pool addict’.
The next Thursday was in fact a busy one. I helped with a cake sale organised by the Amnesty International Society. I think we sold over ten different kinds of home-baked cakes and raised over a hundred pounds. I really enjoyed the co-operation with the other Amnesty members and it was a nice way to test my English language skills as a sales person. After five hours of selling cakes, we wrote letters for several Human Right matters abroad. Unfortunately, the fire alarm went off before I could finish my letter, so I decided to go home. On my way home, however, someone told me that the Student Cinema would show a good film that evening. Together we watched the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’, which is by far the best film I have seen in Bradford up till now.
On Friday, I had to get up early for my lectures and get home immediately to work on the group assignment. What I had not expected though, was that my Chinese friends had decided to make a Chinese lunch, which meant that I had some great noodles at the expense of valuable working time. Therefore, we planned to meet again on Sunday to finish the presentation. After my final lecture, I made myself a light meal and headed over to the sports bar to join the BURACS for what would be a great night out. During the evening, we enjoyed all kinds of ales in some of our favourite pubs and after our tour, we went to a fast food restaurant. This is where I continued a family tradition. I ordered a pitta with kebab and decided to add some extra sauce. Unfortunately, the bottle of ketchup did not agree with its designated position and flung itself onto my shirt. Thank you, genes. After a quick change of clothes, I went to FND and soon I was dancing with everybody on the dance floor. Except for this one girl. She looked exactly like an old friend of mine, so I asked someone to take a photo of her. As one would guess though, she did not really like that and soon we were ‘on the run’. Furthermore, he only succeeded in taking a photo of her hair, so our stupid action was in fact a total waste of time.
As you can see, some of my days were useful and others were not. I think it is now important to find a good balance between such days, because I sometimes get really tired of my irregular way of life. Fortunately, it is all in my own hands and since the last couple of days I always take my agenda and write my plans down. It really helps, although it is sometimes still difficult to stick to my planning. On the other hand, an exchange always stays an adventure!
Yours truly,
Frans
HUDDERSFIELD
CIVIC RECEPTION
SPORTS BAR
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Hi Frans,
ReplyDeleteA very comprehensive story again!
Perhaps you can consider to peacemeal it for your audience....
I appreciate very much that continue our family tradion!!
Looking forward to your next Blog update before we will visit you.