I am surprised by how many international/study abroad students are here with their partners. How did they swing that?! Maybe couples just do things like this together - but it just boggles my mind.
Today is the first day of registration, but Law does them tomorrow. So I'm just staying away from campus today, and nursing this wicked cold that has my head exploding and eyes tearing every couple minutes. It is not fun. My immune system and I need to have a talk. Classes haven't even started yet!
So everyone else (British students) have moved in now. They are very nice, but VERY YOUNG. Of course, most students in residence are first years, which makes me, like 6-7 years older than them. Anyway, it's cool.
I think I've figured out why obesity is less of a problem here - the food sucks. Well, it doesn't suck exactly, I guess. It all looks pleasant enough, until you take a bite. And then you realize there is no taste. Even a McChicken taste different. The most flavourful thing I've had yet is the instant noodle for lunch today. This may be just cafeteria food, but maybe not. Speaking of which, my hall is catered, which I thought meant 'swipe your meal card' and it'll just deduct the amount. Not so. We pay a set fee and eat in the dining hall at set times every day, but for breakfast and dinner only. Lunch they expect you to eat at school, so they don't serve it here. Brunches on weekends. The staff sit on the podium at the head of the dining hall, and the students throughout the hall. It's interesting.
So tomorrow I'll get my timetable, and figure out how much traveling I can manage to squeeze in. It's October 1st already. I'd forgotten about Thanksgiving next week until I looked at my calendar today. They don't have it here.
Little Things that Freak Me Out/Surprises Me:
1. Kleenex for Men - it seems like they are bigger sheets, or at least in a bigger box. I don't know what would happen if you used it by mistake.
2. How the cashier wait until you have bagged and carried away all your stuff before serving the next customer
3. How all the cashier have chairs in the supermarkets
4. That flavour I've been missing since I was a kid is black current.
5. How, of all things, I forgot to pack an umbrella
3 comments:
I must tell you that I also love black currant. Especially the black currant candies that are kind of jelly like and covered in sugar. Yum. Eat as much british candy as you can - my favourites are curly wurlys and toffee crisp.
I also try to hide the fact that I'm chinese (though most people would be confused as to how we hide something that's so blatantly obvious), not because I'm embarassed, but because sometimes it's just easier to fit in. I'm tired of always explaining "I'm chinese, but I was born in Canada." A friend from work is caucasian, and she's in the process of adopting a chinese baby. She and her husband are taking mandarin lessons, and learning about chinese culture (including trying moon cakes). I think it's great for her to do, and I admire her enthusiasm, but part of me thinks that she'll never really understand what it's like to look different, but not be different. How do you embrace being Chinese and Canadian at the same time?
I'm glad things in England are going well for you...I have many umbrellas from my Vancouver days - I'll send you one!
To m_whiz:
Haha, reading your "omigods" makes me remember my early days here :) The cashiers have little money boxes that flip up and not cash registers, right? Or is that only on continental Europe?
To princess_nikki:
I'm not sure if I've ever met you at one of m_whiz's gatherings, but I can very much relate to what you're saying, and what m_whiz has been saying about being Chinese-Canadian. I myself am a first generation immigrant and am very used to the smug "oh-so-you're-born-in-Hong-Kong-so-you're-not-really-Canadian" looks/comments. I've even had one Swiss guy who wouldn't believe that "Joyce" is my legal name!
But having lived in 4 countries now and endured quite a lot of this kind of reaction, I think my way is to jump in with both feet and proclaim that hey, I am different, take me as I am. And I've met a whole lot of people who are very interested in what it's like to be a part of both worlds -- or four :) I can't change how people initially react to me -- can't quite hide that Asian face and I don't want to -- but I can work on how they perceive other people who don't look like "the rest" in the future.
Joyce nog steeds in Nederland
My favourite "race" story:
Friend: "You know if you work in the middle east, they will give you great hazard pay?!? The only problem is that if you are white you become a target for terrorists".
Me: "Oh darn. It would have been great to go."
Friend: "Um.. I hate to break it to you, but you're not white. You're chinese".
Me: "Oh yeah."
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