Week One 16/9/08~20/9/08

Hi again peeps!

This is yet another very outdated post, I'm sorry. Been trying to collect the pictures before posting about the first week at Nottingham.

For international students, we were provided free accommodation and breakfast from the 16th to the 20th of September which was really great. Well, anything free is great haha. Its called the Welcome Week and we needed to attend it to settle our registration, set up a bank account, do our medical checkup, go for talks etc etc. Didn't go for all of the talks cause some were of no importance and the biggest factor of all is......the long walk from Sherwood Hall (the place where we were staying) to the talk venues. Hehe. Instead, a group of us went to explore different places in Notts. Definitely more fun and worthwhile. =)

The Downs

University Halls

Mini apples outside Sherwood Hall (there's an apple tree!)

Cripps Hall


Some tall tower building

Trent Clocktower

On the first day since we arrived, Poyi, Darrick, Chern Hong, Kai Xin and I decided to pay a visit to the lake. It was hugee! If you thought the one in Notts Malaysia was big, it is miniscule compared to the one here. The weather was nice (it was still summer then), the trees are still green, beautiful colourful flowers everywhere, the air was fresh and so, it was a very nice walk. I mean, I hardly went for all these walks back in Malaysia. Can't even recall when was the last time I took a nature walk. Snapped loads of pictures of the scenery which was really quite breathtaking. Some of the trees were exceptionally tall I must say. I ain't good in describing it so just take a look at the pictures =)

Very tall willow tree

Control boat

Us with Trent Building in the background

Trent Building

Entrance to the lake


Was definitely a long walk. We walked from afternoon till late evening but I didn't feel tired. Ok, just a little...but it was a big improvement ohkay! =D We saw so many squirrels! Sooooooo cute! Just the way they stand (refer to pic) can make me go "AWWWWW". Chern Hong tried to tempt them to come closer to us so we could take a nearer shot by throwing crackers on the grass..annnndddd IT WORKED! Ok, I'm really trying to control my usage of the word cute but I really have to say that THE WAY THEY NIBBLED THE CRACKERS IS JUST BEYOND CUTE! *reminds self to check the dictionary for synonyms of cute* I have loads of pictures of the adorable (there you are! no more cute!) lil thing but I guess I can't expect everyone to be as obsessed with squirrels as I am. So, I can't be so selfish to post all those squirrel pictures. These are a few of my favourites =)

SQUIRREL UR SO CUTE! =p

Looking at us before pouncing on the biscuit

Ok so if you are not a fan of squirrels, how bout geese, ducks and swans? Saw plenty of those too and I love the swan the most. So white and pure. There were some ducks (or was it geese?) that were on land seemed to like to follow humans around. I was a little afraid of them (so was Poyi haha. I mean, look at those beaks..) so we let Chern Hong take the lead hehe. On our way back, we passed a Croquet field and watched two elderly men playing it. They chatted with us for awhile and were quite nice. =) We also saw people playing with a mini speed boat which looked cool. Finally we reached the campus and headed back to Sherwood to get ready for dinner. We passed by a small garden on the way back and it was very well kept. The flowers there looked amazing. And again, we took out our camera's =p

Geese

Beautiful snowy swan

Duckies

Smart dog returning the stick to it's owner

Another place we visited during the welcome week was Beeston, this nearby small town. There wasn't much there but it does have a huge Sainsbury supermarket and a Fresh Asia shop selling asian food. There were a few clothes and shoes shop too but nothing much to shout about.There's also charity shops. Had lunch at Subway and we then had to rush back for some important thing in uni which I've also forgotten but its boring so there's no need to mention.

Malaysia car!!! hahahaha

Too happy see Malaysia car so jakun abit hehe


On Thursday night, (I think it was the 18th) we went to a club called Oceana located in the city centre. The event was organised by the ISB for us international students and it costed us 5pounds for entrance fee and transportation. I think its worth it cause it includes transportation. A whole day bus pass costs 3pounds here and cab ain't cheap either..so yeah..5pounds is reasonable. The club looked wayyy cool from the outside. Inside, it was awesome! There are 5 rooms (from what I heard) but I think I only went 3 of it..or maybe 2. Not too sure cause it was really crowded and I don't know which are the different rooms. Anyways, the first room we entered had a really cool dance floor (I find it cool cause I've never seen it in the clubs I went in Malaysia) and I find the DJ quite good at mixing the songs. There was another room which had great atmosphere! The dance floor was this big square and it was jammed pack with people. We didn't really hang around long in that room cause it was really too packed. But the crowd was great. I wanted to get a little tipsy..but I didn't and I have no idea why cause I did drink. The drinks at Oceana are expensive though. We left the club at around 1plus..nearly 2am. Was waiting for the bus but waited at the wrong place so we missed it and waited again. We then saw another bus 30minutes later and it was waiting at the original place where we waited at first. So we had to run and thank god, we made it. It was freezing lol. Was literally biting cold.

On the way to Oceana!

wooooo its hot! =D

Dance floor at 10pm (picture courtesy of Chern Hong)



The DJ

Packed dance floor



Before leaving the club

Our welcome week programmed ended on the 20th of September and we moved into our permanent accommodation by taking the free coach provided. Woke up really early again for breakfast(by that time, I was dead bored with the breakfast cause its the same every single day..but ah well, its free) but we didn't get to board the bus till much later. I managed to board the bus earlier to St Peters Court than some of the Raleigh Park people but due to bad luck, the bus broke down when it was about to leave the hall and we had to wait for quite awhile for another bus to come. Finally reached SPC at noon and had trouble lugging up all my heavy luggages to the first floor. Luckily, one of the guy volunteers helped me carry it up like it was feather light =.= Had a look of my room and I really like it. Had a quick check of the room to make sure it was in ok condition and I was out of the door and walking down St. Peters Street to Raleigh. We were meeting up to go to the city centre as we all needed duvets, pillows and stuff of that sort. Bought most of those stuff from Primarks which is really one of the cheapest stores to buy stuff. We all had so many Primarks paperbags that we looked like walking advertisments for the brand haha. After Primarks, we went to Tesco to buy some groceries and other daily necessities. Not very interesting shopping but it was an essential one haha. We passed by Market Street which looked quite fantastic and went to Broadmarsh briefly too. Tesco was located at Victoria Centre which is the most frequently visited mall since I came here. We passed by so many clothing labels but we or rather I could only stare from afar and walked grudgingly to Tesco. Zara, Topshop, Dorothy, H&M, River Island all shouted for me to enter but on that day, I could only promise them that I'll be back (which I did =p ) Went back by cab in the evening and I had to walk back to SPC from Raleigh Park cause I wanted to save 2pounds. Carrying all the Tesco and Primark shopping bags. Where the Primark paperbag was not strong enough to hold all my stuff. And the handle tore from the rest of the bag. Stuff spilling out and I desperately try to stuff it all back while struggling to hold my other stuff. All the way back to far far away SPC (ok not THAT far but far enough with those flimsy bags). I always carry a proper bag with me now to stuff my groceries in.

Me with all my luggage ( picture again courtesy of Chern Hong)

Lugging all the heavy luggages

Primarks!!

Market Square, City Centre

Hugeeeee Zara!

Walking to Asda for grocery shopping

We look like we're on a mission LOL

PHEW! This is seriously one heck of a long post. Not to worry, this will most probably be my longest post ever and it will reduce exponentially from here according to Jinn (hear hear).Im glad I got rid of the post finally hahaha. Off to do some cooking now. Update soon on Goose Fair!

x

Ling

(I realize i put alot of smileys)

=)