So I left you on Tuesday after we had gone to the beach in Bournemouth. Wednesday I had to get up early and to to a session on academics in the UK on campus. It was pretty useless except for the throwaway line at the end in which the guy told us that 40% is passing. So that's why the first years here can go out and party every night of the week and not flunk out of school. According to the British people we confirmed this with, you just have to pass your first year. It doesn't matter what your grades are. So wow. Then I went to an information session about immigration and students visas and such. It was slightly more useful, but also a bit confusing because the information didn't all apply to me because Americans can travel to Europe without a visa. Then I turned in all of my loan deferment paperwork so hopefully that gets completed soon so that I don't have to keep making loan payments. I'll have to check tomorrow.
Wednesday night flat 501 threw a floor party, so most people from our floor and a few others were there. It was good to get to know some more people from the building.
Thursday I didn't have anything to do. So I slept really late and then went to a few shops for some essentials such as plates, bowls, cutlery, and a cutting board. Then I came back and we hung out for awhile. Later that night we had a flat dinner of nachos and fajitas. It was pretty good. Then my flatmate Som and I tagged along with our other 3 flatmates to a Media school party in Bournemouth. We didn't really fit in there, but we heard some live music and eventually a bunch of us headed down to a club. That was fun and it was nice to spend some time with all of my flatmates. We thought that there was a free bus back from Bournemouth at 2:30, but we never saw it, so then we had to find cabs for all 11 of us that were still out. We ended up in 3 cabs and all made it home.
Friday I also had nothing to do, so I wandered down to the Quay and took pictures. Its really pretty down there. There is no beach, but the waterfront is nice and the shops along there have really cute storefronts. Then I went looking for a sharp knife. We had some knives in our flat, but when we went to cut the chicken and veg the other night, they were all terrible. I had to promise the man in the shop that I wouldn't stab anyone with it, so hopefully its sharp.
At 5 on Friday there was a postgraduate wine and cheese event that a bunch of us went to. It was alright, but we had to pay for it and then we only got 1 glass of wine each. The cheese was pretty good though. Eventually we moved that party to the campus bar and then to a bar in Bournemouth. After awhile some people left for salsa dancing and some of us went to the beach. We stopped along the way and got some alcohol from a shop and some KFC. (They don't have biscuits at KFCs here and they only have one kind of chicken. Its spicier than what we have, but not particularly crispy.) Then we went down to the beach. It was cold. I don't know what we were thinking. A couple of people ended up wading in the water. They claimed it was nice, but the rest of us were sceptical. We didn't stay for a very long time and ended up back home around 10 or 11.
Yesterday I went on a tour of the Isle of Purbeck and the Jurassic Coast. It was pretty awesome. We started by crossing Poole Harbor on a bus on a ferry. Then we were in the Durlston Country Park. We hiked down the path there and saw some amazing views of the coastline and some old quarries. When we got to the end they provided us with cake and we sat around for awhile to rest. Then we set off on the bus for Corfe Castle, which is a really old castle that is in ruins on the top of a hill. Apparently it was an excellent stronghold and was never defeated. People only got in by the betrayal of someone in the castle letting them in through a back entrance. After they had taken over the castle, they destroyed it. It was really cool to see all of the huge walls at odd angles from having been knocked down and settled further over the years. There were a few tall parts still standing, but almost nothing is left of the inside. We had lunch in the town below the castle. I got a ham and cheese baguette and it was the most ridiculously huge thing ever. And they went crazy with the cheese. It was delicious, but its going to take me weeks to work off all of those calories, despite the major hiking we did next.
After lunch we got back on the bus and went out to Durdle Door. We had to walk down a really steep path to get down there. Then if we wanted to get to the beach we had to go even further down. But there was also the option of going up to the top of a big section of rock that goes out into the water. Two of the girls that I was with and I went up to the top. It was really high and really skinny up there. Some cool pictures though. Then we came back down and went all the way down to the beach. The beach was made of various sized pebbles and you are suppose to be able to find fossils down there. We didn't find any though :( Then we had to climb back up all of the steps from the beach and up and over a huge hill to get to Lulworth Cove and the town where the bus was picking us up. That was a ridiculously long and tiring hike. We had to stop a couple of times to catch our breath. The way down wasn't that easy either since you had to be careful not to slip and go tumbling all the way down the hill. When we finally got to town I got some more water since I had drank all of mine during the hike. Some people also got ice cream, but I couldn't eat anything else after that crazy sandwich.
When I got home I wanted to just go to bed, but I knew that I couldn't as it was only about 6. So a bit later I went out for awhile with some of the other people from the floor. We just went to a bar down the street so it was nice not to have to take a bus and all that jazz. Then we wandered down to subway where my friend ordered a meatball sub. Someone else asked what was on that and I replied, just meatballs and spaghetti sauce, so which I got a blank look. Apparently they don't call it spaghetti sauce here. I think its bolognese or something. Just an odd sidenote.
So that brings us to today. I also had nothing to do so I went out shopping with Gemma and Danielle. I didn't need anything, but it was something to do for awhile. Now I'm here and just sitting around. We won't be doing anything tonight because all the Conservation Science kids have to enroll tomorrow. We don't know exactly what that entails or how long it will take, but we all have to be there at 9am. So I'll let you know how that turns out in my next post.
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