Saturday, September 30, 2006

UK: Nottingham life

Building :Theatre Royal:


More notts:Taxis that I think are soo cool :P:

Just another building:

Where to go next?
On the way to the super-market:


The place where my classes will be:the business school building;


Reception:
The library:

The place with the student unions:


A college:
Clouds: it rained twice today :(

Paradise park:


Life alone is fun...so many decisions to make and only you to be accountable for them...you decide when, where, with whom, what. I feel like I'm a playground for being an adult...a real one..from having to consciously buy things like toilet paper and other necessary things...to having to decide what to eat and cook. I bought a brand new phone today..so I can be contacted and I sent the very first CV.

Life in three is fun too...(me,Marius and Dan). Feels sometimes like we're the 3 mucheteers...exploring the city together...talking Romanian and making stupid jokes. Best part is the shopping...we shop for all 3 of us...so we go for the larger quantities... 3 liters of Tesco milk, huge pack of Tesco Ham, huge Tesco or Asda bread..huge everything...huge and cheap. But our experiments do go wrong...we bought the worst juice possible from the one pound land...and had a really bad lasagna tonight :P

Today we visited our landlord...he is a really nice Indian living in a "stange neighbourhood"...so they say...We found him in a huge jewelry store...:) He was really nice to us...we signed our contracts and paid the first month rent...his Japaneese helper was really fun- a former student.

On our way back we passed a little park called the arboretum..or something like that...it was like a paradise...with benches and budgerigars and parrots in cages...amazing...unfortunately my camera's batteries died :( But that will be a really cool place for reading :)

Life with 12 people is even more fun...we had a little teambuilding laughing session with Brainiac- the Tv show...and slowly we are all coming together...today another girl from Brunei arrived as well as the girl from lithuania. The last person is a nother girl from Hong Kong. I don't mind living with so many people like I thought I might...It's fun..the Hong Kong girls are speaking their language sometimes, cooking their rice and eating it with chop sticks...they're really fun to watch...:)

I set the objective to take pictures of all the rooms in the house...to compare them..:P
Whatever the result...I still think mine is the cosyest :P

New day...new adventure...:)
Sunday I was pomissed a proper city tour :) Yupii!

Friday, September 29, 2006

The journey and the destination

I left home on a Tuesday evening to go to Budapest, to fly out to London and to drive from there by bus to Noattingham.
The characters I left with are Marius from Arad, who is now in the 3rd year and Dan from Bucharest- 2nd year. We will all be studying in the business administration school. Yet to join us is Radu, who is a photographer. All four of us will be living in the white house at 79-81 Mount Street in the heart of Nottingham together with 4 girls from Hong Kong, a lithuanian girl and a french guy. And there's two people missing since we're supposed to be 12...but that's a mistery soon to be revealed. For now our two storried house is hosting a Malaesian girl temporarily too.

The trip here was loooong..but quite exciting. It was Dan's first time on a plane and my second time. The amazing thing was flying over Great Britain...one could see all the bends and twirls of the island in the see..it was amazing. And all the land was green and brown..very neatly split and well taken care of :P

On the way to Nottingham by bus, we passed through Leicester. The first shocks were that all the houses had the exact same look...with apparent brick and brown, beige and white colours. Tones of streets with houses neatly aligned and looking the same as if the town was all born in the same second. Small shops popped out here and there but the majority were...guess what?..indian...Every third shop was an indian cloth shop or a restaurant...welcome to Bombay, Indian delight, etc.

In the evening, while dragging the luggage to the house, which is damned central, we saw I think more foreigners than brits. Welcome to the land of internationalism.

Nottingham is a medium sized city..with a lot of street names just taken out of Robin Hood...:P
It's a very interesting city, with quite a few contrasts...things I like most so far...double decker busses, taxi cars, old buildings mixing with new ones, the fact that it's on hills like San Francisco- streets going up and down. Things that scare me: I guess all the strange looking people- lots of internationals around..mobile phone shops and banks even have special offers for international students. And also the traffic...people cross even though it's red...there are tones of traffic lights and nobody seems to respect them..brrr...

Things I have done do far:
- unpacked in my little room that keeps growing on me...with a little work, it can become a really cosy den- for now there's no light :P
- enrolled in the university: the place looks really cool on the outside, but like a hospital within...people were very helpful though...next time we have to meet is next friday- so plenty of time till then...
- got a student card: this will open doors to all the buildings, including the library, will give me discounts and will allow me to save money on...
- went to the student union in search of a job...seems the competition is quite high...but the good news is that there will be a student fair on Monday so hopefully by next week I will have gotten employment..
- bought food and some needed bathroom stuffs from a really cheap and cool store. So far I only paid 4 pounds on food...and I ate sooo good...long live the oven we have in the house...
- checked out buying a sim card and found out that my phone is sim locked in the romanian network so it would be just as cheep to buy a new phone...and found a really cool offer for speaking at home...
- booked an appointment with a local bank to open an account on the 11th of October...that's when they can see us...
- booked a flight to Portugal from the 24th of October to the 31st.
That's it for now...big day today...:) ended up with a nice dinner and watching "Alexander" on our TV that has around 500 channels.
For now good night and enjoy the pictures. :)

The flight:

UK from above:

First food I ate :P
Leicester: The city with the same houses:


Our house on the corner, here in Notts:




My room:

Nottingham- first pictures:


Home

Being home was such a bitter sweet adventure for me...
I came home to find only that I have such special and ambitious people in my life...starting with my family whom I can't thank enough for all the support they have shown me..and for being there for me no matter what. Thank you to my partents, all my grandparents and Oradea family :).
...And then there's my friends...guys it was a pleasure and an honour to be a part of a festival* with you. For me it was such a natural transition from IC and so much fun...:) I wish you to have a great planning meeting in October..I'll try to support you next year as well as much as I can.

* Between 15-17 of September my friends brought to my home city one of the biggest guitar players in the world in a festival that was amazingly prepared in two months.

This is a tribute to all the people who are important in my life.












Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Post Stay: Before going home: Budapest











Post stay: Beautiful Kracow with special friends