There goes week two
Again, it is slightly worrying to realise that my second week in leicester is finished.
This week has been a little busier than last week. I started hockey training, played my first match, joined a choir and finished off my first essay. All this activity means that I am most definitely settling in, and starting to resume normal behaviour - doing more things than most sane people.
I have joined the Leicester Ladies Hockey Club. I am currently in the 3rd team, but there is a possibility of playing some matches for the 2nd grade. The grades are quite a way apart in competition terms, and it shows in their training. I hope to be able to train with the 2nds on occasions as they train with more intensity than the 3rds. However my team is very nice, quite young, and very good. We won our match on Saturday 2-0. The structure of play is quite different to what I am used to, so it will take me a while to feel comfortable with it, but I played reasonably well, lack of fitness was the main problem.
I have also joined the university singers. They are a little more advanced than the general choir and do a few more concerts. We have a concert late next month, so are working on a couple of Handel pieces for that. Most of the group are quite a bit older, despite it being a uni group, but it will be fun. I am really looking forward to being part of a good choir again.
Lectures this week were all interesting, but I won't bore you with the details. We had one of three tutorials led by PhD students. For this first one we have a 1,000 word essay to write. It isn't marked, but instead the PhD students comment on it so that we have an idea of how to improve our writing before our first major essay. The department is very strict about word limits, we are not allowed to go over by even 1 word. So my essay is 995 words, all ready to hand in tomorrow. I don't think I have finished something two days before the deadline since first year, usually I am racing the clock. I doubt this will continue.
The frustrations of being an international student and dealing with inane paperwork continue. On Friday I was told by the bank that because I was an Australian they could not open an international student account for me! Apparently there is some Australian law that only this branch of Nat West know about, that prevents Australians opening bank accounts in the UK. I was quite short with the account manager when he told me my application was being refused because of this, and when he offered the usual platitudes - I hope this hasn't inconvenienced you in any way - instead of being polite I told him the truth, that yes it was incredibly inconvenient and that I would be finding another bank who were happy to open an account for me. I can't believe that they are quoting some law that no one else seems to have heard of. Every other Australian student I know in the UK has opened a bank account without any problems. I thought UK banks were meant to be better than those in Australia.
As for getting out this week, Friday night the two other rotary scholars here at Leicester and I were taken to an exhibition opening of work by the local artist, David Weston (http://www.davidweston.co.uk/). He does stunning water colours and a few oils. If I had the right sort of money available I would have been very tempted. After viewing the exhibition we went for dinner at a little pub in Ashby Folville (I think that was it), a town north east of Leicester. Dinner was wonderful, I ate more than I should have and had a wonderful evening chatting to Michael Kellet (Rotarian), his wife and the other two scholars.
I am down to my last pack of tim-tams (sob) but I believe there is a parcel from mum on the way. I am really hoping that it has more. If not I will drop lots of loud hints, or buy some when I go to London this weekend. The next post should have some photos attached as I am actually getting out of Leicester in the next week.
That is really about it for this week. For those of you who have mentioned how long the posts are, don't worry they are going to get very short and very repetitive quite quickly. Each week will be variations on the same theme, uni, hockey, uni etc. Don't despair, I will eventually learn to be more concise. Take care, B
This week has been a little busier than last week. I started hockey training, played my first match, joined a choir and finished off my first essay. All this activity means that I am most definitely settling in, and starting to resume normal behaviour - doing more things than most sane people.
I have joined the Leicester Ladies Hockey Club. I am currently in the 3rd team, but there is a possibility of playing some matches for the 2nd grade. The grades are quite a way apart in competition terms, and it shows in their training. I hope to be able to train with the 2nds on occasions as they train with more intensity than the 3rds. However my team is very nice, quite young, and very good. We won our match on Saturday 2-0. The structure of play is quite different to what I am used to, so it will take me a while to feel comfortable with it, but I played reasonably well, lack of fitness was the main problem.
I have also joined the university singers. They are a little more advanced than the general choir and do a few more concerts. We have a concert late next month, so are working on a couple of Handel pieces for that. Most of the group are quite a bit older, despite it being a uni group, but it will be fun. I am really looking forward to being part of a good choir again.
Lectures this week were all interesting, but I won't bore you with the details. We had one of three tutorials led by PhD students. For this first one we have a 1,000 word essay to write. It isn't marked, but instead the PhD students comment on it so that we have an idea of how to improve our writing before our first major essay. The department is very strict about word limits, we are not allowed to go over by even 1 word. So my essay is 995 words, all ready to hand in tomorrow. I don't think I have finished something two days before the deadline since first year, usually I am racing the clock. I doubt this will continue.
The frustrations of being an international student and dealing with inane paperwork continue. On Friday I was told by the bank that because I was an Australian they could not open an international student account for me! Apparently there is some Australian law that only this branch of Nat West know about, that prevents Australians opening bank accounts in the UK. I was quite short with the account manager when he told me my application was being refused because of this, and when he offered the usual platitudes - I hope this hasn't inconvenienced you in any way - instead of being polite I told him the truth, that yes it was incredibly inconvenient and that I would be finding another bank who were happy to open an account for me. I can't believe that they are quoting some law that no one else seems to have heard of. Every other Australian student I know in the UK has opened a bank account without any problems. I thought UK banks were meant to be better than those in Australia.
As for getting out this week, Friday night the two other rotary scholars here at Leicester and I were taken to an exhibition opening of work by the local artist, David Weston (http://www.davidweston.co.uk/). He does stunning water colours and a few oils. If I had the right sort of money available I would have been very tempted. After viewing the exhibition we went for dinner at a little pub in Ashby Folville (I think that was it), a town north east of Leicester. Dinner was wonderful, I ate more than I should have and had a wonderful evening chatting to Michael Kellet (Rotarian), his wife and the other two scholars.
I am down to my last pack of tim-tams (sob) but I believe there is a parcel from mum on the way. I am really hoping that it has more. If not I will drop lots of loud hints, or buy some when I go to London this weekend. The next post should have some photos attached as I am actually getting out of Leicester in the next week.
That is really about it for this week. For those of you who have mentioned how long the posts are, don't worry they are going to get very short and very repetitive quite quickly. Each week will be variations on the same theme, uni, hockey, uni etc. Don't despair, I will eventually learn to be more concise. Take care, B
posted by bronwyn | 10:16 PM
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