orientation

On Thursday morning, I woke up bright and early, showered (in the shower smaller than a phonebooth with a showerhead that, I swear, is actually a million little firehoses stabbing you at once), flitted around my room and then got ready to leave for International Orientation. When I got to reception, Alex was there and happy to see me since another international student had arrived last night and wanted a friend to attend orientation with. And thus, in true FSHA upbringing, my first friend was a very sweet Korean girl named Aimee. She has a Korean name too but I've no idea how to spell it. So off we went.

Orientation is a series of seminars and lectures, etc to get to know the city and the school. There was also a city tour which we took all around Manchester, and Greater Manchester, which is the surrounding region outside the city centre (yeah, 're', got a problem?). Manchester is such an industrial city that has an incredible amount of old brick factories and little roads. It's so grimy and dirty that I just want to go up to all the buildings and give them a good scrubbing but then I really wouldn't want to because that'll ruin the whole of its character.

I really enjoyed some of the seminars we had. "Getting to Know the British" was definitely a highlight. The guy was hilarious and fun and just all around awesome. For his explanation on personal space, he asked a Purple Person (the leading people of the Orientation program) to help him out. So he stood at one end of the stage and the Purple Person stood at the other end, and the guy told the Purple person to come closer and closer and for the audience to yell out 'stop' whenever we thought he was comfortably close enough for a British person. Before the Purple guy even started moving, someone in the back yells "STOP." aahahahahaha. I was amused.

Then we had a presentation on health and safety (which I then saw another 3 times for various introductory things. Yeah.) and the cop who talked to us was very kind and straight to the point while being very approachable too. And here's a gem from his talk about illegal drugs: "You'd think you can just smoke one joint and no one'll notice, turn off the smoke alarms, but you can't just sit in your back yard smoking pot, unfortunately .... *we laugh, he puts his head down embarrassed* .. uh, I didn't mean to say that, that came out wrong." So we applauded him.

And I bet you our sex education talk was better than any other uni's could have been. That woman just took it all in stride, she was great.

After all that, we used the amazing public transport to get around most of the city and if not, we just walked. After the day's seminars were over, my dad and I went to the city centre to buy me a sim card and check out the shops and hub of the city. 

Now this story is for Amanda: When we went to buy the sim card, the guy who helped us out was POLISH and he gave us all the ins and outs of contracts and phones and cards and blahblah. And then when he found out I didn't have a bank account yet, he gave us this knowing smile and started scribbling away on his notepad. He ripped off the page and gave it to us, saying, "This guys is a friend of mine, he works at Lloyds TSB (a bank). Tell him you're my friend and he'll open an account for you for free." Honestly, how much sketchier can you get in a cell (mobile) phone store? I laughed a lot in my head. We didn't go to the bank. We didn't get a sim card from that store either. 

Over the next couple days, my dad and I went to orientation seminars and bought random things I might need for my room like desklamps, a giant dresser (apparently necessary ... ?), some converters, a good pillow, sheets, and a mattress pad because I can feel every spring in my mattress. On the Monday after, my dad went on a shopping spree EXTRAVAGANZA at Ikea. And by extravaganza, I mean serious full on buy everything you can reach. He bought me pots and pans, a giant stack of napkins, a bathrobe, a full set of cutlery, a knife, cutting boards, hotplates, potholders, dishtowels, plastic cups, a tool box, plates, bowls, mugs, tupperware, hangers, storage boxes, file holder things, a bulletin board, a surge protector, other kitchen utensils, a place mat, an ICE CREAM SCOOP, batteries, ... I can't even remember what else. oh AND the BAG that all the stuff came in. I own a giant plastic blue Ikea bag now. So that's great. At least I'll have it when I need it, I guess.

Oh, I am also now the owner of a bag of assorted cheeses and some plain greek yoghurt. Always handy.