I flew back
to the UK on the 5th of September, after being away for over a year.
It was a bizarre feeling; moving yet again but this time to a place I was
already familiar with, no anxiety of the unknown save for the fact that I
hadn’t visited my flat yet. The trip went fine. I was a bit uncomfortable and
it was long and tiring, as most of my trips generally are. Fortunately, when I
arrived in Bath it was at least sunny, despite the traces of rain on the cobble
stones. I took a cab from the bus stop to my new flat and Amélie greeted me briefly
before leaving for her shift at work. I went out to Primark and Waitrose to
pick up a few necessities before they closed and happened to bump into Enrico
near the Abbey! It was great to see him again although I must’ve looking pretty
rough… I spent the rest of the night chilling at home: dinner, shower and tuck
myself into bed for a very much needed sleep.
The next
morning I had to wake up early to go to the housing agency to sign the physical
papers and get my keys for the flat. It was quicker than I thought, despite
having a bit of trouble finding the office since it’s actually a private house.
I then came back home and waited for Jason to arrive with his van. He’s the one
who’s helped me move my stuff in-between years. He arrived with his dog Raff, which
would not stop barking until it eventually calmed down and settled onto my lap.
The drive to the storage space in Stroud was spent updating each other on the
past year (as per) and debating Brexit. Picking up my things and terminating
the contract was quite fast and straightforward, so I will definitely store
with them again in the future if need be. Jason drove me back and – thankfully-
carried my boxes up the many flights of stairs up to my flat and spared me the
effort. I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and sorting out my things –
I was amazed by the amount of stuff I had actually stored in there! A lot more
than I remembered, particularly concerning clothes… My wardrobe is now full to
the top. I then joined Amélie and Liam to go to Lidl and ASDA on Liam’s car (so
convenient to have a car omg) and do my massive first shop. The price different
is considerable so I will be going there from time to time to pick up my
groceries… Once back home, Liam cooked a massive and tasty roast dinner and we
all watched Moana while eating. Not a bad way to end my first full day back in
British soil.
The next
few days I had the house to myself. I ran a few errands in town and met V to
catch up over Indian dinner. It was lovely to see her again and hear about what
she’d been up to. Everybody seems to know what I’ve been doing thanks to the
blog (honestly, it always catches me off guard when someone I didn’t expect
randomly says they read it from time to time, even though it shouldn’t!), so it
was nice to know what she’d been
doing. Plus, this year we only live a couple of streets away so hopefully we’ll
be seeing a lot more of each other!
On Friday
after lunch I met up with Megs. It was a lovely sunny day and she had her dog
Finley to take care of so she brought him along and I accompanied them on a
couple of errands (Finley got all the attention at Lush, I must say). We then
went to the Royal Crescent and sunbathed for a bit on the grass. It was lovely
to see her again and catch up, even though we hadn’t been apart for long!
#erasmus
On Saturday
I spent the day lazily at home. I did some cooking and watched half of the
rugby from the windows in my flat. I’m by the Rugby Rec so I’ll have to go to a
match this year for sure! Sunday wasn’t much different. I slept in and made
pancakes for breakfast. I phoned Erin to see how her first week had gone and I
attempted to review some Arabic and realized it was impossible. I’ve decided to
take German this year instead, as lower intermediate Arabic is a bit far from
my abilities right now… But hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up again in the
future at some point! I have my timetable now and it looks pretty good, ngl. I
have a few full days on campus but I have Wednesdays off which is fantastic!
Looking forward to getting back to the routine!
Then
rehearsals for In The Heights started.
The first week was absolutely intense and I have barely had any free time out
of rehearsals. We started with a little language workshop on Spanish which I
actually found really interesting. I’ve never taught Spanish before and hadn’t
realized how hard it is for English people to pronounce certain letters.
Attempting to explain the position of the tongue is not as hard as it sounds
either… But they are getting there! This whole week I’ve pretty much spent up
on campus. Arriving the first time again after a whole year away was weird –
it’s changed but not, both at the same time. I had to familiarize myself with
the location of the buildings and rooms again, and how Lime Tree works now.
Aside from that, rehearsals have been intense and tiring but a lot of fun.
There are a lot of harmonies and hard songs, streetstyle and salsa, so I’ve
been struggling to pick up some moves but nothing that practice won’t fix! Numbers
are already coming together which is amazing! Everybody has been working their
butts off.
On Tuesday
evening we had the ITH Welcome Social. It was literally pouring down with rain
so I was really tempted to stay at home, but I braced the cold and made it to
Spoons without ending up too drenched. We hung out with a few BUST people for a
bit and then went to Moles, which was pretty empty at the beginning, but it
gradually filled up. It was a lot of fun, Moles is great for throwback tunes so
they played many-a-hit. I lasted until around one and then quit and was in bed
by half-ish, two. Needed to get that sleep to survive the rest of the week.
Other
highlights of the week were the free food at The Edge (we were given leftovers
after a Uni event and even gave us boxes to take away #freefoodallday ) and the
Open Day on Saturday. It was chaos to get up to campus and had to get a Wessex.
There had been an accident so some roads were closed and the buses were
delayed, but I made it to rehearsals. I spent the lunch break with Megan in 1W,
where they were playing reggeatón and we chatted with other MLES about our year
abroads; it was pretty cool.
On Sunday I
had my day off so I slept in and cleaned (you know, the usual adult
responsibilities). I spoke with Moni for a bit and it was great to catch up with
her, hopefully we can organize a meet-up sometime this year. And then I did a
bit of work and got ready for dinner with Megan and Connie. Bath was pretty
empty and the sunset was really nice despite it being quite cold. We went to
Aqua and I had some stuffed chicken with pasta that was pretty good – I’ve been
spoilt in Italy, that’s for sure. It was nice to catch up and talk about the
incoming year and our expectations – I can’t believe this is our last year at
Bath! Where did time go?
This last
week of rehearsals has also been super intense, of course. I get home
absolutely knackered and all I really do is shower, cook and relax for a bit. We
usually do music in the morning and choreo after lunch, which leaves us pretty
tired at the end of the day – repeating choreo over and over again is so
exhausting! But I really enjoy it and most of the numbers just need cleaning
now. We’ve managed to put a few of them together with the scenes in between
which is amazing after only two weeks of rehearsals! I can’t believe we are
already half way through the process!
Other fun
things I’ve been doing this week include meeting up with the fencing committee.
Funnily enough, I’m literally a fencing beginner so unfortunately I can’t help
with classes and stuff but I am Social Sec, in charge of the socials, and I can
give a beginner’s insight into the club! The club has expanded a lot since I
was last in Bath so I have a lot to catch up on but for now I’m working on
organizing the Welcome Social and first SCORE night, plus getting ready for
Sports Day this Wednesday to recruit new freshers’ – should be fun!
I also met
with Elena, an Erasmus student from Siena who is here for the year with another
girl. I actually think she was in Lingua Francese with me, which is so bizarre.
We went for coffee at Society Café and she’s really nice. I gave her a few tips
on Bath, which is super different from Siena so she was quite nervous and
concerned about the first week. I reassured her because everybody here is so
helpful – I felt the same way when I first arrived so she has nothing to worry
about! I’ll probably meet up with her another day as it’s also good practice
for my Italian.
And,
finally, on Friday night we went for a pub crawl ‘Gary and Glitter’ themed with
the BUSMS bunch to celebrate Lorna’s 21st. Guys dressed as Gary,
girls with glitter all over. We hit a few pubs and had to complete challenges
like serenading or rapping to a stranger, fit all of the group in a cubicle,
make a human pyramid, find a Gary,… It was a tonne of fun and eventually it was
more about keeping the group together than completing the challenges, as a few
people drank a bit too much… I had a great time though!
So, here I
am, finishing this post on the Sunday, the only free day of the week. Tomorrow
starts Freshers’ Week 2017 in full swing. Walking around campus on Saturday and
seeing all the freshers looking lost and awkward with their parents was so cute
and a massive throwback – they are making me feel so old! It seems like it was
only yesterday that I myself was arriving for my first year…
This time,
FW has a lot of rehearsals on the agenda, as well as Sports Day and the BUSMS
returners’ social on Thursday, so it’s looking like a promising last week of ‘freedom’
before the actual start of the semester.
I will keep
you updated.
As always,
Zoe x
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.