In which I am introduced to the English University.

Whelp. If the past couple of weeks have taught me anything it's that New Zealand universities will have a lot to live up to when I return. Having come from a university which was conveniently located across a very busy road, with halls of residence about as charming as a central city parking lot, you can imagine I was excited to experience a good old-fashioned campus university. Before heading to my eventual destination, the University of Nottingham, I got to visit Cambridge University and the surrounding town. Let's just say the standard was set high.

I was lucky enough to be accompanied by my aunt and uncle, who both work at colleges at Cambridge, so I got to have close-up look at one of the colleges (equivalent to a hall of residence if anyone was unclear), called Selwyn. Anyone who is familiar with the universities in New Zealand will recognise that shares a name with one of the halls of residence at Otago University, and I could definitely see how Otago's residences were an imitation of the UK college system, but without the impressive 700 or so years of history. All of the buildings, at least in the older colleges, were very beautiful, all made of brick with large central courtyards. As well as Selwyn, we had a look at Trinity College, one of the most prestigious and wealthy colleges at Cambridge, which has a number of well known alumni such as Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon (on a side note, whenever someone mentions Francis Bacon I think about this story a lot http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/dxosj/what_word_or_phrase_did_you_totally_misunderstand/c13pbyc). Given the reputation of Cambridge, the more well known colleges require a fee for visitors to walk through their grounds. I feel like this must be so strange for the students who actually live there, that other people are willing to pay to see their homes. Still, the colleges were certainly impressive, and the history behind them even more so, so I suppose it is understandable.

 After seeing the university, we wandered through the rest of Cambridge. The town itself was also lovely, located across the river Cam. I was most struck by the number of bicycles in the town and university. In most of New Zealand it would be unthinkable for the majority of people to cycle, but here it was commonplace, and definitely seemed like the best way to get around. We stopped at the Round Church, which had an information centre inside detailing the history of the town and university, in particular in relation to religion. Learning about Cambridge University reminded me very much just how young New Zealand is. Here I was visiting a university that was founded just as the first humans were discovering New Zealand. Most of the buildings I was visiting were older than my country. Now that certainly puts things into perspective. I think that the students who study at Cambridge University are so privileged to get to learn in a place with so much history and prestige. I'm sure if I'd had the opportunity to go to a comparable university I would have tried much harder in school.

Just one week after my exploration of Cambridge I headed off on a bus from Heathrow to the University of Nottingham. Somehow the unseen forces of attraction between those from 'Down Under' were at work, and I found myself at the back of the bus with another New Zealander and three Australians. Typical. The bus I took was an organised coach for international students staying on campus, which was a great idea because everyone on the bus was in the same metaphorical boat and keen to make friends amongst all the unfamiliar faces. I arrived at my own hall of residence with two Americans (apparently the unseen forces weren't THAT strong), and immediately knew I had made a great choice. The campus (called University Park) was beautiful, with green fields, ambling pathways and even a lake. 

My hall, Florence Boot (known as FloBo by the residents) is the oldest hall of residence in Nottingham, and as such it is one of the best. The building is red brick, U-shaped, with a grassy courtyard round the back which my room looks out onto. The rooms are pretty big (especially compared with my room in first year) and even include a sink and minifridge. As far as student accommodation goes it's practically luxury. Even the food isn't dire, and there are plenty of vegetarian options. After our first dinner myself and two other international students decided we would explore Nottingham. Not having looked at a map we boldly set off in the general direction of the city centre. Our hall of residence is located at the West entrance, and we managed to walk all the way round the University to the other opposite East entrance, which took about 20 minutes. From there we saw some lights leading to what we could only assume was the city. We found a road with a few takeaway shops and a pub. Needless to say we were a little confused/disappointed before looking at Google maps and realising we were nowhere near the city centre and it would take a good 30 minute walk to get there. We wisely chose to turn back. Still, it was good to get a sense of our location on the first night.

From the next day onwards it was all go-go-go. We got up on Monday morning to collect our Welcome Packs and had an introduction to enrolling in our Modules. Oh that's right, I'm actually expected to study on this trip! (Just kidding parents, of course I'm going to study). In the afternoon we had a two hour meet and greet in the International Cafe in the Portland Building (pretty much the main building, containing the Student Union, Food Court and most importantly Student Bar). The afternoon tea was a great way to meet all of the other exchange students. Everyone was eager to meet as many people as possible, and we quickly made friends. It was definitely a little overwhelming by the end of the two hours though, with so many new faces to keep track of. That evening a couple of us headed out to the clubs with some people from FloBo. Given that it was a Monday night we weren't expecting much, but apparently Nottingham students know how to party every night of the week and the club was packed. It wasn't a great place, and aside from the size (this place was massive), it wasn't that different from NZ, but it was a great opportunity to get to know some of the local students. There are so many events organised for international students, so it's easy to make friends that way, but it's much harder to associate with the students who've already been in Nottingham for a whole semester, and this definitely helped.

The rest of the week went by very quickly, and I was kept very busy. Firstly, I had to start attending classes. This was a good reminder that I was actually attending university, not just taking a holiday. It was also nice to settle in and have something else to do amongst the socialising. On the whole the classes are pretty similar to back home, although they do seem to be a little stricter on attendance to lectures, and only one of my classes has extra tutorials on top of lectures. They also have much less contact time with usually only 2 hours of class a week, and fewer assignments during the semester, if any. This means there's a lot more independent study involved, but it does suit the study abroad lifestyle better as it gives me more freedom to travel during the term time, without worrying about deadlines. We'll see how happy I am about this when I'm about to sit an exam worth 100% of my mark I guess.

During the week we had one more afternoon organised in the International Cafe, and from there we pretty much had enough connections to start our own activities independently. This mostly seemed to involve going to the student bar, called Mooch (or, as we ironically renamed it, Smooch). We also went out clubbing a couple more times, but it really wasn't anything special. All of the English students like to go out during the week, apparently in order to avoid "mingling with the locals" on the weekend, with meant Monday to Thursday was much busier in town that it would ever be in New Zealand. On Wednesday night we found ourselves standing in line for a club for an hour before giving up because it was so cold. And we were in winter coats. Meanwhile the English students were braving the weather in t-shirts and shorts. Fools. We did manage to visit a few different clubs throughout the week though, and got a feel for the nightlife in Nottingham, which was very much geared towards students. On the whole the most popular clubs all seemed pretty similar, to the point where there were two clubs called Ocean and Oceana which resulted in a lot of confusion for everyone involved. I'm not sure I would be racing out to any of these again, as they were all just very busy and cost to get into, but I certainly hope to explore the rest of the city nightlife. There are a few good music venues so I'm sure I'll get to a couple of gigs before too long.

Stay tuned for when I actually explore Nottingham during the daytime! And here's a picture of the Portland Building. Can you believe I actually get to study here?!

Byeeeeee!