Oops

For some odd reason I believed I had recently updated this, instead of leaving it for well over a week. Though, I can say I haven't really been up to much, I've been mostly attending my lectures and preparing for two essays due in roughly two to three weeks from now, the topics being the evolution of the Global City and reasons why earthquake hazards become disasters/catastrophes. I have two other projects I need to start thinking on, though they aren't due until early December so I have plenty of time in that regard.

I've also been waiting on forms so I can receive a National Insurance number, similar to the Canadian Social Insurance number for those curious, so I can work. Those should hopefully arrive this week, and hopefully sooner rather than later as I would really like to get a job. I have lots of free time, but not a lot of disposable income to travel/go out often.

I have started to look for work, and the things that go along with it, such as preparing a CV that an employer in the UK would look at (there are differences from a resume in Canada, though they're kind of small), the HR staff at the University has been very helpful in giving me help on writing it, proofreading it and giving suggestions of how to organize it so it looks appealing. As soon as I can get to the library (thirty minute walk to the library and possibility the computers aren't working is very unappealing) so I can print off a summary for an application I'm submitting, I can submit said application. It's very tempting to  invest in a personal printer, and I've also submitted my CV for the Temp Bank at the university HR department.

I've spent some time with friends, notably Anne (either in the library, random bump intos along the way between the uni and home or going out as done tonight) or the Freeman Court Family.

And yeah, that's my exciting life. I'm currently in the market to make it more boring, but more busy at least!

I guess I could also say I've started looking at what I want to do Post-grad since it seems that the fourth year of my programme may be delayed and.. I really do not intend to give five years of my life to this BA when I could've finished it in two and a half years.

Cheers.

Thanksgiving and a day of rest and essay writing

Yesterday we three Canadians exchange students did our Thanksgiving dinner, it turned out really well, though we didn’t do turkey and I feel bad for not realizing there were a couple vegetarians who were coming (I’m really sorry you two!). Our meal was two chickens (we rubbed butter on the skin and then spiced them, it made it taste awesome), sweet potato mash (they were really hard to cut, Anne accidentally cut her finger open, we had a fun time keeping that from bleedingL), oven baked stuffing that Emma made, and for dessert we had an apple crumble type pie experiment from Jeremi and a chocolate frozen cake from Halley. Overall, it was very tasty and well done by everyone. We invited more than just us Canadians, since cooking that much food for three people is a bit on the insane side, so we had my housemates, Cameron from Wales, and two of the American girls.

We all had fun and afterwards we all helped clean up and straighten up the kitchen and then all went our separate ways. Most headed towards the Jolly Sailor, a pub in the town centre, and I headed across the street from my place after resting for a bit and hung out with Riona and the rest of the Freeman Court. I tried for the first time, Pimms, which was very interesting with all its fruit. I stuck around until I was exhausted (which was only around midnight but late enough all considering what I’d done all day) and went home to bed.

Earlier though, yesterday, I had to go to Augustine House because my student card had finally come through. As I was waiting in line to ask for the international office at the i-zone, Jane-Anne Kilvington actually ended up calling me and asking me to come in because I had been talking with her assistant and mentioned I hadn’t been having a good time so far in dealing with the university, getting everything sorted and getting in touch with the people I needed to speak to. She asked me what was going on and I discussed some of the problems I’ve been having since I got here, and how frustrating and stressful some of them had been since no one really knew how to help me or who to speak to about it. She told me, should anything else come up I should come speak with her first, which was nice, and that way she could help send me to the right people if she wasn’t able to help me herself. Things seem to be finally sorting themselves out, the dinner (or maybe it was getting my student card) seemed to be the point where things started turning for the best.

I went afterwards to get my CV checked out, since the university here is doing a careers and employability week in order to talk about many of the things needed to gain experience, skills and to be aware of them and boost your confidence in the job search and interview process. My CV is almost finished, apparently what I had was on the right road to being a good one, I just needed to finish filling out sections, and we spoke about how best to present my visa working limits, since the word Limitations isn’t very nice. CV’s here are really nice though, you don’t have to attach information like birthdays because the businesses here are not allowed to discriminate against age except in certain industries (serving alcohol comes to mind). Just about finished it, but had to leave my room and go out because I was getting too distracted, and my bed too appealing.

Now I just need to continue writing my essay, and find that map of Germany I'm supposed to be doing a poster with. Yay history and evolution of Global Cities!


As and aside and an edit, have I mentioned just how awesome aero hot chocolate is? I swear to god I am going to miss it when I go home. Also, eggy bread (french toast without vanilla/cinnamon/syrup) is awesome when you feel crummy.

Uh.. been awhile!

It’s been awhile, and I haven’t been updating really. There’s a reason, if I haven’t been feeling a bit on the ill side, I’ve been stressed out and frustrated, and I really didn’t want to write posts like that, or.. really do anything.

My biggest complaint in the last little while is Christ Church really doesn’t seem to know anything about me, this has been like this pretty much since I arrived. I had been put in with the American history groups that are here, sent to a history lecturer in order to choose my classes and Geography having no idea I existed, let alone that I was supposed to be in the Geography modules. Going to pay for my accommodation, or at least finding out information about it? I don’t show up on the system because I’m classified as a group, I’d already been here a month when they told me that.

Getting my money transferred here, oh that was fun! I went in to a shop that does Western Union Transfers, called the Money Shop, and filled out the forms and handed them in only to be told that there was no account by the number I had been given, not only that, when I called to find out what was going on, I was told my account had already been paid. I went in to ask about it, to find out that when they say that, it means that someone has gone and picked up the transfer already. Yes, they told me someone had picked up my money transfer, which requires identification such as a passport, a specific code and details regarding who it was sent by, who is receiving and how much is expected. I had already been having a few shitty days at this point (because of Blizzard shutting my account down for suspicious behaviour and being a pain in the ass to contact thanks to lovely time differences), I was stressed out and trying to control myself in order to get back to a normal calm, this really did not help and in fact, it made it a great deal worse. I burst out in tears in the shop, which I had pretty much been told someone had stolen my money (around 1600 pounds). I had to make an emergency call to my mother about it, and thank god for her patience in this because she had to put up with my own panic, her own panic and Western Union.

What happened to my money? They deemed it was a suspicious account and returned it. The bank gave the wrong contact number, so we were never notified about it. My mum had to go back to Western Union, retrieve the money and send it again, and send me all the information. The next day, I went to go print off the information, only to find out the computer system at the university was down, only a few students could sign on, PDFs and various other documents couldn’t be saved or opened from the university computers. I don’t have a printer in my dorm, I have to rely on the university printers, I was kind of screwed at this point. So I had to email my mum again stating I couldn’t get the document to open, and needed her to email me the details in plain text. After that, I had to go back to the Money Shop, fill out forms again, and finally, I had my money.

So, this Thanksgiving weekend, I’m very thankful, for my mum and all her patience in putting up with me, my friends and flatmates for being wonderful and understanding, the school staff for helping get everything sorted out finally, and the ability to honestly just go out and walk around and find something new (well, old) and just get lost in the history of it.

Also, we Canadians of Parham Road are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner since the University is hosting one for the Americans in November, but not us. We get to bring our new friends in to something of our culture, while they add bits of their own. Sounds like a normal Thanksgiving dinner to me!

Cheers.