Hello from Warwick :)
Oct 2nd, 2007 by Soph
Well here I am, all settled in at Warwick. I’ve already had two lectures and lots and lots of introductory meetings and it’s all going fairly smoothly. I arrived with my parents on Saturday at about two o’clock, and they stayed for a couple of hours to help me unpack some of my things and have a wander over to the Arts Centre. There are nine people in our house, all of whom are very nice. Normally in my accommodation block there are twelve to a house but we have a residential tutor person who has three of the upstairs rooms. I was a bit worried that it might be weird with a tutor in the house, but we never really see her and she’s very nice anyway – she’s called Mingmin and is in the first year of her Economics PhD. There are lots of asian folk around here, English people are the minority in our house! A few of them tend to stick to their own set a bit, but the last couple of nights we’ve all made and eaten dinner together, which was fun. Here is a photo of some of us eating Sophie’s (yes the only other English girl in my house is also a Sophie!) chicken, risotto and salad meal:
It was yummy. Beans for the lose, chicken for the win! Tonight we’re having a stir fry I think. :happy:
What else have I been up to? At the weekend we went to a couple of different nights out at the Union – on Saturday there was a bar tour which was supposed to have seven stops but I think we only went to about three and after that just danced the night away in the extremely packed clubbing area type thing. On Sunday they had what’s called ‘The Sunday Showcase’, which was a taster of all the fresher’s events coming up in the next two weeks. That was also packed but fun. :] Last night there was an event called ‘Top Banana’ which we didn’t go to, instead we stayed in and played some crazy card games (I have a couple of new ones to teach you all 
) and then me and Sophie went to the flat next door for a bit and met some other Whitefields peeps.
What a ramble this is turning into! I have more though, so brace yourselves. Today I had my first ‘Medieval to Renaissance English Literature’ lecture which was pretty snazzy. Most of it was her telling us about how the module is structured and what we’d be doing, but we also learnt some basic historical background, and we’ve been given our first bit of homework (is it called homework at uni?). We have to translate a section of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ from Middle English into Modern English, which should be interesting…next week we have a seminar where we’ll look at our translations and possibly read them out, so I better get working on it.
I’ve also signed up to audition for the chamber choir and symphony orchestra. The chamber choir audition is tomorrow, so that’s going to be fairly nerve-wracking, especially as I have just started to develop a cold. My throat has been sore for the past two days but hopefully tomorrow it might move on to the nose area, which is less crucial for singing. Wish me luck. :happy:
Btw, I just want to say that you should never worry about your blogs getting ‘too long’ (and that goes for the rest of you) as I just love hearing about all the fun you’re having!! Sophie looks like a really good cook and I hope you will get on really well with her in the years to come. I hope you the best of luck with the choir. It’s so typical you have a cold but I’m sure they’ll see a glimmer of what your voice is like at your best and be amazed! Anyway, all the best with that.
I’m so pleased you seem to be at home already! And that you’re making loads of new friends. Can’t wait to be taught all those new card games!
So are you on the list to cook anything? Is there some sort of a rota
I can’t imagine doing work for ‘lessons’ anymore. It’s really strange how much work has become my daily life. Having said that I’m totally jealous of all the wonderful new things you’ll be learning!! But please keep us up to date with all the things you’re studying.
Anyway, I should do some work now…I’m not slacking but taking a much deserved break
Ooo…I’ve also just been offered the chance to watch an extraction next week which should be fun- I’m taking any opportunity I get to be in the surgery!
Thanks muchly for a fab blog!
Take care
Robyn
xxx
Wow PhD students must be really interesting to be around. I wouldn’t worry about that at all. That meal looks great, well done indeed. Looks like your house-mates are very friendly. Sounds like the socialising is going very smoothly indeed.
Good luck for your audition tomorrow! Glad you found where you had to sign up for it. And I’m sure if you tell them you’re feeling coldy then they’ll be forgiving.
All the best! :happy:
Robyn – hehe, thanks for a fab comment in return! Yes we’ve all been taking turns to cook so I suppose it is a bit like a rota – I haven’t had my turn yet but it’ll probably be me cooking in the next few days. It’s great, I haven’t had to spend a penny on food yet! Have fun watching that extraction! I’m glad everything is going well for you in the world of work :happy:
John – looks like they were indeed forgiving of my cold :] Although I hope they don’t now expect me always to be able to sing really low as an alto because my husky voice will be gone soon!