manchester, england

The University is lined down Oxford Road, which is apparently one of the longest roads in Europe as I think it pretty much runs the whole of England. Almost all the main buildings are on either side of this road, which is called South Campus. North Campus is the engineering/mechanical bit which used to be UMIST (Univ of Manchester Institute of Science and Tech) which is where my mom went to school. UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester combined in 2004 to make what is now called The University of Manchester, but the logo still claims "Est. 1824."

I like campuses to be more situated in a clump of buildings, perhaps surrounding a quad, but at least I'll get a ton of exercise out of this, walking up and down Oxford Rd all day. (I wish we had a quad somewhere. I like quads.)

My dad and I roamed around just to see the city, take pictures, talk to the financial officer about my loans, etc. My hall is in Victoria Park, along with several other halls which are much larger than ours and also the only other single sex hall, the all-boys' hall St Anselm's (Slems). Right at the end of my hall's road begins Rusholme, the Curry Mile, a giant line of Indian/Pakistani restaurants, "halal" food markets, Arabic stores, and other such establishments of awesome. The GP (General Practitioner = Doctor) with whom we are all encouraged to register is situated on a street in Rusholme. 

In the other direction is Oxford Rd with all the main university buildings. Around the corner are some small supermarkets, cafes, and a post office which is extremely convenient. And further down the road is a dark redbrick hospital, which looks old and grimy and lovely. 

There is also a beautifully old and gothic Catholic church that I get to walk by every day to get to main campus. 


And this next picture I only took because it had the Manchester logo on it but as we kept walking to the front of the building, I realized it was Stopford building, where many of my classes and I think all of my labs will be held. 

On the sign on the short wall it says, The Medical School: Stopford Building. I feel special. This is where several of my Freshers Week lectures were held.

And above is only a small part of a giant old building that probably used to play a much bigger role in the University before it developed into the hugeness of what it is now. It's mostly official business in there now and the Manchester Museum, which of course I visited the first weekend I was here. 

This building is a giant rectangle outlining a quad of sorts. From the inside, I saw this building: 

which easily became one of my favorite buildings to look at, not only for its ancient architecture, but also for this wonderfully colorful display of fall. I love overgrown buildings. Sadly, the leaves have already begun to fall off in the prospects of winter but it was nice while it lasted.

After walking around a bit and doing some business, we stopped at University Place, which is a new building that was just completed this summer. It's big and round and silver and fancy looking and it houses some lecture theatre, several offices, and a refectory (cafeteria) plus seating area. 

While sitting in here around noon, I started succumbing to the powerful pull of jetlag and my head drooped onto the table. So after we went to our meeting with the finance guy, we went directly back to my hall and my dad left to his hotel. I decided to stay awake as long as possible so I sat in the reception and talked to the people coming in and out. There weren't too many but Alex, the warden, was there the whole time so I got to talk to her some more. I literally did not move at all from my spot on the couch and after a couple hours or so, my eyelids started feeling ridiculously heavy and I went off to bed, around 5pm. 

And I did not wake up until 7am the next morning.