So, I've made it. I'm writing this from the desk of my temporary room in Y Borth hall at Bangor. It's kind of noisy at the moment, the other abroad students, who I'm sharing the flat with, are all chatting with each other, and chatting with friends and family back home. Thank God for laptops, outlet converters, and ethernet cables.
The flight over was okay. I cried at the terminal, I cried in the car, and I cried at takeoff. But, no major meltdowns. Just some tears. Goodbyes are hard for me. The actual flight was kind of boring. Most of it was overnight, so you couldn't see out the window and it was really small. The food was okay, I just with I could have differentiated between mushroom and beef BEFORE it was in my mouth. DX
But I got in at 7:15, 2 1/2 hours before anyone else. I feel asleep in the terminal. I'm sure that looked amazing to the other people waiting. But, when I woke up, I realized that I was at Terminal 3 when I needed to meet everyone at Terminal 2. Not a big deal right? Wrong. Cue me having to haul my 50lbs. suitcase, duffle, and heavy laptop bag to the OTHER SIDE OF THE AIRPORT! So freaking tired by the end of it all. Luckily, when everyone got together we found a place where we could keep our big suitcases overnight at the airport for £5 a bag. It was worth every penny.
Then, we all took the train from Manchester Airport over to Manchester-Piccadilly. Piccadilly station is awesome. If anyone remembers Sodor station from Thomas the Tank Engine, I'm pretty sure that's the station it's modeled after. We ate in the station too, and watched some adventurous pigeons get in and scope out the restaurant next to our tables. From the station we wandered about and got some directions from a couple of very helpful businessmen to our hostel. Thankfully, they let us check in early and we all got to crash until about 5.
At 6, Tecwyn came to the hostel and collected the 8 of us to go eat supper. We ended up going to this really cool Italian place called Pizza Express. I got the American pizza. Funny, I know. First meal in a foreign country and I eat pepperoni pizza...
After our lovely supper, Tecwyn left and we wandered about our area of Manchester. It was very cool. It's almost overwhelming to walk around though, because it's the small differences that get you. Everyone sounds different from you, everyone tries to pass you on the sidewalk on what you perceive as the wrong side... And you're trying so hard not to be impolite, that you get a little frustrated. But we soon got it figured out and were snaking our way through crowds like pros. Another interesting tidbit- There's no trash bins anywhere. You have to leave your trash for staff to pick up. As someone who tries their hardest to clean up after themselves in public, it's hard to leave my junk for someone else to pick up. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough for the bins.
The rest of the night in Manchester was spent hanging out in the pub around the corner from the hostel, which I unfortunately have no pictures or know the name of. But it was really cozy and nice to get a celebratory drink for making it successfully to the UK. Once we were done with our drinks we headed back to the hostel and sat around in the room chatting until we all dropped off.
Friday morning dawned and we all scrambled to shower, eat some toast in the kitchen, and race back to Piccadilly station to catch the train back to Manchester International to meet the other 3 abroad students and Tecwyn. When we had all arrived, collected our luggage from either the arrival area or the baggage storage place, and congregated, we hauled everything to the bus and drove off for Wales! Two hours later, and we were standing outside the dorm. It's a nice place, fire exits and fire doors everywhere, and plenty of room for everyone.
The rest of the day was spent touring Upper Bangor and the Arts and History building of campus. I have to actually walk through town to get to school, which is interesting. But the main building... It's simply gorgeous. I absolutely adore it already. I just hope I don't get lost on my way to class! After the tour we made our first stop at Morrison's, the main grocery store for the Ffriddoedd site and walked to the first orientation session with Tecwyn. There's so much to take in, I just hope I can remember it all! I don't want to forget a single thing while I'm here. This place is so amazing, I barely have the words to describe it.
I'm so glad I came.
Until next time,
Cynical Pie
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