Wolverhampton in Victoria Halls

Hi everyone,

So here I am, in Wolverhampton since 23rd of January. That’s  7 weeks now. Not much has happened but I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks.

We were allowed in Victoria Halls from the 29th and the time before that was spent in the hall above the one that would be ours, with our friends from last year. I stayed there together with Lizette, on one couch. While it was a pretty nice couch, (we have the same one, see below for pictures) and for once I was glad that I am not that tall. After a few days one of the girls gave us her room, so we could finally sleep in a bed again. It felt real nice to be back.

It felt even better to have our own rooms on Tuesday. I wasn’t to happy with the cleaning people. Victoria halls told us that we could go into our rooms if they were clean on monday, but they weren’t, so the cleaning people cleaned it and we could go in on Tuesday. But the kitchen couldn’t be cleaned untill Friday. We said we didn’t mind, we would do the kitchen, as long as they did the oven and the microwave. When we came into our rooms after the “deep cleaning” we saw it was still dirty as hell. I dunno what they understand with the words deep cleaning, but it’s not the same as my understanding. If they worked in a hotel, they would have been fired. So we cleaned the rooms, picked up our stuff from the storage. Which took 3 times going back and forth, since we had a small car. So not doing this again in September. We went on a food hunt in ASDA’s and relaxed in our own hall 😀

The classes are alright, but the timing sucks. At first I didn’t really like any of the classes, but now I like 2 out of 3. First one is on Monday from 2 to 5, The Realist novel. Reading list: Robinson Crusoe, Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Jude the Obscure and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. So far we’ve read the first three. I know the teacher from last year, where I thought he was really good. But we’ve been so spoiled by Paul, that this teacher is so boring! He has no reading voice and just goes on and on and on about stuff I don’t really care about. But it has become better with Great Expectations. Frank, the teacher, teaches some weeks and other weeks we have Nicola, a very young and seemingly unexperienced teacher. She has a doctor’s degree, so I’m sure she knows her stuff, but she doesn’t know how to teach it. She keeps saying “You know…” and the end of every sentence and has this annoying giggle. it is very distracting and all I want to do is shut her up. She’s very sweet and all, but not what I need in a literature teacher, and the rest of the group agrees with me.

Then on Wednesday is the next lesson, in Walsall, which is a 40 min drive by bus. The class starts at 6 and lasts till 8, but we have to take the bus at 4 since we will be late when we take the bus at 5, because of traffic. This class is Research Methods, here we are taught different research methods and ways of dealing with research and everything else connected to it. While I didn’t like the first lesson, because I didn’t understand most of it. I love this class now and the teacher, perhaps because his name is Paul. Somehow I seem to always like teachers with the name Paul. My research is going to be about secondary school students with dyslexia, taught a foreign language. Paul is really helpful and is willing to discuss our title and questions anytime. This can be a set up for our research we need to do for our Thesis for next year. And he is taking us step by step, and guiding us through it. We don’t have to write an essay for this class, but just the proposal.

Then on the Thursday, another lesson in Walsall, with a not so nice lady. The class is called Power, Language and Education, sounds interesting, well it would be if she wasn’t so annoying. She doesn’t listen to us, it’s what she thinks it is and nothing else. Let me ask you something, what do you think Irony and Sarcasm means? Well, according to her Irony is where you say something what you don’t really mean, so someone with ugly hair walks by and you say, Oh what lovely hair that person has, never seen anything so beautiful, or something along those lines. and Sarcasm is writing with a pencil on a piece of paper. those were the examples that she gave. When we say something that she doesn’t agree with, she ignores us and goes on with what she was saying. We have to write and essay for her about our literacies. Literacies are the things you read and write and where you do that and what kind of language you use there. So for Digital literacies, Twitter, Facebook enz. Here you use different language than you would in class, or talking to your mother. Anyways, it’s not really an essay it’s more of a project, really sometimes I feel I’m back in third grade ~.~

So that’s it for my classes, they may not be many, but I can tell you it’s plenty! Got so much stuff to read and write that sometimes I have hardly any time to do anything else. Of course this has also something to do with the fact that we sport so much.

From the second week of teaching, Liz, Dan, Rosa, Derval and I started our contract (abbo) at the gym.

Got Aerobics on monday from 12 to 1, here we jump for 30 min and train our muscles and stretch for 30 min.

Pilates on Wednesday from 12 to 1, more of the second half of Aerobics. Didn’t know that I had any back muscles, but I do feel them now XD

Zumba on friday from 12 to 1, Zumba is a mix of dances and jumping up and down. It’s really nice, a lot of latin dance in there.

And then to the gym on sunday, here we just workout for about 2 – 3 hours.

It’s really nice, but it is a busy schedule, and I am tired most of the time. Dunno who invented that you get energy from working out, but not me. I did get my flexibility back and I am happy with that. After I quit ballet I lost that.

Saturday is our going out night. Going out in England is different than in The Netherlands, the people are different, music is different, but it is fun. We always go out with the boys, cuz they will always protect us from the rest of the guys and give us drinks 😀

Now for my room, it’s bigger than last time 😀 I got a double bed instead of a single and a huge desk and more space to storage stuff.

Bought a new canvas, of a ballerina and I love it 😀

My TV still works, and it’s real nice to watch some at night in my bed 😀

This is my view of the train station from my window. I’ll tell the story of how we got from Amsterdam to Wolverhampton next time, but although Victoria Halls is next to the station it was hell to get from the train station to here. It was snowing, we were cold, we had heavy luggage and we were very tired from our 18 hour journey. We had to walk down the subway alley and cross he road, and then walk around Victoria Halls to get to the reception. We were with the 3 of us and Rosa was wearing slippery shoes, so I had to drag her suitcase as well as mine, going back and forth between ours. It was hell! My muscles were sore for a week.

Anyways on with the tour.

My Room number is A50.2 😀

Got a long corridor with 5 rooms. The phone we can use to call the other halls, the reception and the maintenance dudes.

Our Kitchen, we have 2 fridges, 1 freezer and a lot of space to put all our stuff, but somehow it feels like we do not have enough space. There is an oven, and a microwave, which have finally been cleaned about a week ago by the cleaning people, after a lot of nagging from us 😀 there is a toaster and a water boiler, and that’s about it. Of course we brought a lot more stuff 😀 oh and the breakfast bar, although I never really eat there, I prefer the couch 😀

Our livingroom area, with our awesome couch, I almost always sit in the corner. Derval brought her PS2, So besides watching tv, we can also watch dvd’s and play games 😀 and the view is good, better at night, I’ll put a picture up later, it has a lot of lights 😀

That was basically the tour.

Saturday the 16th of March I saw The Script 😀

It was sooo Awesome! The Original Rude Boys, another Irish band, opened the show and later on The Script came. The concert lasted for about 3 hours. We were in the standing area, pretty close to the stage.

They played songs from all their 3 albums and I was hoarse at the end of the evening.

When they started to play Nothing, one of the band members said: You know when you get drunk, and you text and tweet way too much, and you start calling your ex just because you can. I want you all to call your ex now, Danny (lead vocalist) will come and take one of your phones and call your ex and sing this song to him. And he really did it 😀 even when the guy hang up, Danny called back 😀 really cool. I’d never hang up if The Script called me.

The stage was amazing, one time I had this flame and set he whole stage on fire and with the last song, Hall of Fame, confetti came down on us.

And that was the end of it, we were really tired, but it was  amazing 😀

When we walked back, we saw people outside selling shirts, hoodies and posters, the posters were only 2 pounds, so I bought one, I gave the guy 5 pounds, and he gave me back 8, so not only do I have a free poster, but also 3 pounds back 😀

I also went to Oxford again yesterday, but I’ll tell you about it tomorrow!

Bye

Hina~

Almost January!

Hey everyone,

it’s been a while since I posted anything on here, but I’m almost going to Wolverhampton again, so here I am again 😀

I am really excited to go again. It will be different this time, since I’m in a different building, but I am there with the same people I was l last year, so guaranteed it will be loads of fun 😀 I can’t wait.

This time I will be going away for a year, and I’ve got mix feelings about this. Yes I am loving the fact that I will be there again and we can just have fun, but I will miss everyone here. Even more so than last year. But a lot of friends and family will visit, so I think I will manage.

Just 6 more weeks before we go to Wolverhampton! If Victoria halls lets us in of course ~.~ They are being mean and lazy! But Mathew is doing his best, so I’ll just be patient.

A whole year of being there is 42 weeks, but since we are there for the second half of the semester, they split the weeks in half. so we get 21 weeks of being there. and the ones before us as well. That means that they can be there until February and our classes start at the 25 of January, which means that we will miss a week and a half of classes. oh well, we’ll figure something out.

Right now I am more focused on the 3 essays I need to finish before next Thursday, the 2 due for January and the Grammar/Phonetics exam in January T.T I just wanna be in Wolves, cuz that means that we are past all of this already.

I do have some fun Christmas parties to look forward to though 😀

This was me for this time.

Hina~

My last week in the UK

Hello everyone!

This will be the last time I write from the UK next week this time around I will be boarding the plane that will take me back to the Netherlands.  I have mixed feelings about going back. I really want to see everyone again and just be home, I even miss having school almost every day. Well I’ve been missing that for a few weeks now. Anyhow, I’m gonna miss everyone here, I’ve made some great friends, which I’ll see next year in Victoria Halls. 😀 It will be an upgrade going to Victoria Halls, for less money I have more space, a double bed, great kitchen and a living room with tv XD. I think I’m also going to miss the freedom I have here. I’m gonna do my best the rest of the year too and make sure I get back here next year.

The past weeks I’ve been working on my essays, but they are done now! Thank god, it shouldn’t have lasted any longer, because we were all at our wits end. All you could see this week were people going to school to hand their essays in and coming out to go back home to work on yet another essay. As you could guess, all the faces were terrible. Bags under our eyes, shoulders hanging low, we were all sooooo tired.

We had to hand in 3 essays, one on monday, one on Wednesday and one on thursday. And I, doing another course too, had to hand in a portfolio on monday as well. The portfolio wasn’t such a problem, because I had done my assignments throughout the weeks, so all I had to do was put them together and put the finishing touch on my short story.

The essay for monday was a whole different story. I had been working on collecting info for a few weeks, but I got stuck. I had 1000 words written, but they needed to be 2000. Talking to mom and others gave me some ideas, but the words just wouldn’t come to me. I started to read more and more and then on monday, I think something clicked, cuz I was done! Thankfully just in time. I handed it in 4.30 pm. We had until 5 we thought. Then there was a bit of a panic attack with San, but she managed to hand it in on time, since the Here2Help, where we had to hand it in, closed at 6 instead of 5. First one done.

Reading Literature was about Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth night; or, What you will, and a poem, I chose Philip Larkin’s ‘Talking in Bed’. I already had 600 words written so after knowing what I wanted to write further, I finished quite early. San and Liz still going. Wednesday we had to hand it in, I wrote my introduction and my bibliography and then handed it in. That was number two!

Then on Thursday, our last essay day, I made my Social Justice essay. I had too much information, but I made it on time and it felt for all of us as if a great weight was lifted of our shoulders. We can’t do anything about it anymore, all we can do is wait till February when we get our grades back.

I’ve almost packed all my stuff, the storage is arranged and they are picking our stuff up on monday, which means that San, Liz and I will have to live with minimum stuff for a few days, but it’ll be fine. I think I will be able to make it with my big suitcase, small trolley and my bag. We’ve bought some vacuumbags, so everything will fit.

So this was my last rant from the UK. I think I’ll continue updating things about my life even if I am in the Netherlands, but if I do not, I will certainly be back next year September.

See some of you next week, and some of you next year!

Hina~

Last few weeks of my UK adventure of 2011

Hello everyone!

So a lot has happened since my last post. ~.~ I am not a very good updater, am I? Hmm, I’ll have to change this for next year.

From the 2nd to the 7th of November I was at home in the Netherlands. It was fun and I loved being able to sit on the couch in front of the TV and zap, being able to take a bath!!!!  ahhh soo nice and warm. Sleeping in my own double bed!!! I really missed that. And of course it was nice to see everyone and hug everyone. I did miss a lot of people. Though as monday the 7th of November arrived I was ready to go back to Wolverhampton. Recharged and well 😀

On friday I had a Group Rep seminar sort of thing. As I told you I am the second Group Rep of our class. Being a group rep means, being a bridge between the students and the teachers and being able to help the students in your group anyway you can. Well, in our seminar, where I went to, they wanted to see if we knew what being a Group rep meant and why we became one. It was very interesting to see what the other group reps thought. The ones who gave us the seminar told us where we should go with the different problems our classmates had and what we could do to better the situation. Then we did a sort of test to see if we understood what was being said and that we remembered it. We got every question right, so we all got lollipops. XD Then we were paired up and they gave us a situation. I had a situation where our teacher was really boring and only read out what was put on the Powerpoint slides. Which is actually what a lot of teachers do here. We thought it would be best to say it the Course leader, because not a lot of teachers would appreciate it if his or her students would tell them they were boring and just read out what was on the slides. The others had various of other situations and all their solutions were fine. Then they asked us to think of a thing we would like to change in the schools and put on a A2 what our action plan would be. We chose the cafeteria hours. The cafeteria in Walsall is only open till 2 pm. Which is a problem because on Tuesday I have class from 1 till 8 and we always have to bring our food, because there is nothing really close to just go to for food. It’s not really a problem to bring food, but it’s annoying. So our solution was to put volunteers there from 5 to 6. So everyone could just eat something. This school is big on volunteers, so it fit with the school. We also got volunteer hours for doing this. The others wanted to change the learning center. Which is actually our library, but then really loud. Everyone is allowed to talk there. They have pod’s, which are sound proof. But that’s all. they wanted to have a whole floor to be quiet and I agree. The other group wanted to change something about the accommodation, but that wasn’t really something I could relate to, since it was only about Walsall and I live in City. So yeah it was really interesting and useful.

Saturday Danique and I went to OXFORD!!!! It was soooo awesome. It only cost us 12 pounds and that brought us to and from Oxford to Wolverhampton. The bus traveling time was 2 hours, we left at 8.15, which was a downer but it was fine. When we came to Oxford we looked around for a bit. We really wanted to Christ Church College, because……… THats where Harry Potter was filmed :DDDDDDDD So after we found it and found out that the Hall would be open from 3.30 we went back to the main roads and just shopped for a bit. From the people of the Uni we got some pages with things that would be fun to see. We made a plan to see a few things till the Hall was open. So first we went to the Oldest Museum of England, The Ashmolean museum of Art and Archaeology.

It was pretty amazing to see everything. Musea in England are free, so you can just walk in and out whenever you want to. They had stuff from all over the world. Japan, the Netherlands, Turkey, everything.

Then it was time to head to the Christ Church College. It is really big and the entrance screams HOGWARTS XD.

It was so amazing to see everything.

 our first steps into Hogwarts.

 Aren’t these just like the Hogwarts halls? 😀

 Remember their first steps into Hogwarts in the first movie? Well here we are.

 More stair-awesomeness 😀

 And all the Stair-awesomeness brings us to…… yes 😀 The Great Hall 😀

 and the teachers table :DDDDD I can just see Dumbledore sitting there 😀

 First flying lessons?

We also went into the abbey and it was really cool to see it all. We spend so much time in Christ Church College that we had about an hour left to roam around. Which we did, and a bit more shopping 😀 then we walked to the busses and then another 2 hours in the bus. It was a really awesome day. Oxford is truly beautiful. Oh and I found my car 😀

 Tada!!! 😀

The next week was just school and homework. I did make my short story, which is really cool but also depressing. XD I talked about it with my teacher and she thought it was funny while I wanted to make it sad. I have to change a lot, but I’ll get there. I really learned a lot from my Craft of Writing classes 😀 and I love them. Hope I can follow them next year as well.

The week after that we had our last Tuesday of classes. Thankfully. I went swimming and it was really nice. But I don’t like the pool. It’s really small and there were a lot of people. But I just owned my own row 😀 Just kept on pushing everyone aside. I do have to say that I was really tired after a full hour of swimming. I have to train some more XD

Wednesday was our last real Reading literature class, but unfortunately we have Gaby Steinker next week as well. For our tutorials. Every class’s tutorial you only have to go when you want, and of course Gaby made her’s mandatory ~.~ I really hate her. Did I tell you that she called me stupid? Well she did. God I hope I don’t have her next year.

For the past two days I have been at the library in Walsall working on my essays. I have to make 3 of them. One for Education in Europe, that one I’m doing about The Netherlands vs. Bulgaria, Secondary education. One for Education and Social Justice about the difference in achievement in Boys and Girls. and one for Reading literature about Shakespeare’s Twelfth night and a poem. I have to compare them.

So that’s what I’ll be doing the coming weeks. I have to hand them in on 12th of December and the 14th of December. and then I am finished with this half year, more like 3 months, in England. I’ll be coming home on the 23rd of December 😀 and our school starts in February so I’ll have a long holiday 😀

Oh and Happy B-day to my cousin she became 7 years old today 😀 Congrats Dena 😀

Lots of love,

Hina~

Half way through the first semester

Hello everyone!

So yeah, it’s been a while. I’m already halfway through the first semester. Here’s a summary of the last few weeks.

Week 38

As I thought Tuesdays are a bit hectic. We don’t have class from 1 to 4 but from 1 to 3. Leaving the last hour for questions and stuff. But that means that we have 3 hours in between classes. Not a good idea, cuz we all sort of fall asleep in those 3 hours and then have to wake up for another 2 hour class, with a not all to interesting teacher I might add. San and I made an Obento, a japanese lunch. With rice, sushi, egg, tomato, cucumber and some other stuff, it was really jummy and I was really glad that we brought food because the cantine was closed! No one told us about that, so most of the others didn’t have lunch with them. Thank god that the gift shop was open and that they have some food, cuz otherwise they would have starved XD. We were back around 9-ish. And we were really tired.

Our first literature class on Wednesday was interesting. He told us about WOLF, the online site for every subject. There the teacher post the Powerpoint, and other stuff related to the classes. Also there we have forums to post stuff or just to chat with your classmates. Through that site the teachers will let us know if something changes or is added.

Our teacher, Dr Gerry Carlin, is a very interesting man. He is hyper, forgets a lot of stuff. Doesn’t make his own Powerpoint, and goes like, oh this shouldn’t be in here. Guys just pretend that that is not on the board. XD He cracks us up every lesson. The first lesson he told us about what literature was. And certain aspects of literature and told us to buy ‘The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

The rest of the week went by very fast as there was not much to do. We went to walk around Wolverhampton for a bit just to see what there is to see. I bought ‘The Road’ and some manga. I LOVE Waterstones, they have the most amazing books. And soooooo many of them . I want them all. But I told myself I am not allowed to buy them all in one go. I’ll buy them once I have money left over. We also went to Birmingham this week it was fun, and we ate at Wagamama’s 😀 JUM!

Sunday I went running again, but this time with Jolijn and Lizette. It was really early, which was nice, cuz no one was around. But I was really tired, and not feeling so well. Did my homework the rest of the day and watched a movie that night in my bed.

Week 39

Another week of school, every thing was becoming regular. The new feeling of it all was gone and it felt as if we had always been there. Monday I send a package for Cennet home. Tuesday though, something weird happened. My energy got really low while I was in class. and it wouldn’t go up so I went home with Sandrine. She is such a sweetheart, don’t know what I would do without her sometimes.

Thursday was Jolijn’s 18th B-day! We made an Angry Birds cake and cupcakes. San got really artistic with the cake and I baked cupcakes with the help of Rosa and Danique. Then I made angry birds on the cupcakes as well.

  The cake.

 Cupcakes 😀

I had loads of fun making them 😀 And Jolijn’s B-day was a success. She love them.

Saturday San and Liz’s parents came. Also Jolijn’s family came and we ate at a restaurant with all of us. It was a really good restaurant here in Wolverhampton.

Sunday was Cen’s B-day and I got to talk to everyone and show them my room and hall. It was nice talking to everyone for a bit. I miss you all!!!!

Week 40

Tuesday my package finally arrived home. Cen loved her presents :D. That day San and Liz’s parents also went home again. 

Wednesday our lecture and seminar were about ‘The Road’. Our seminar teacher is Gaby Steinke, a weird woman. She looks down on the non-native speakers. And every time we do not understand something, she asks the Native speakers to translate for us. It’s really annoying. But not as annoying as the book itself. I think I read about 50 pages, then I put it down. I understood enough of the story to contribute to class, so it was fine. Such a weird book. At one side you think, yes, it’s a good book. On the other side, you think wtf. so weird. 

Week 41

I’m beginning to get bored with all these free days and nothing to do. I wish I could work, cuz then I actually would be able to do something. This week though we got online activities to do for that week and next week. I did most of it before we could even hand it in, because the next week Marcel and Tichon would come. And I didn’t want to do any homework with them there. We had to write a short part of as scene from ‘The Road’ It had to be something that could be in the book. So like the author would have written and how the characters would actually be. I think mine worked out just fine.  For Education we had to do a quest and another activity already for your essay a bit. The quest was confusing and we couldn’t do it till next week so I waited with that.

Friday we, San, Danique, Jolijn, Rosa and I went to the hairdressers it was really fun. and I’m liking the result.

Week 42

Tuesday there was no class, thank god, cuz of the online activities. and I was really convenient cuz Marcel and Tichon were coming over! And we had to show them the way. We ate homemade pizza that day. They were really jummy.

Wednesday was a bit of school, it was a workshop on how to write essays. It was interesting, but most of it we already knew. It wasn’t that much different from what we had learned from Max in Amsterdam. So I was really glad. The boy’s walked around town for a bit, secretly for San’s b-day as well. Since that was the next day. In the evening we watched a movie.

San had told us, she didn’t want us to be in front of her door early her b-day, not even with coffee. So, being as we are. Liz and I sneaked her Coffee machine out of her room, with help from Marcel and made coffee the next day around 7.30 in the morning. We had helium balloons attached to it and had a sign that said Beware, Grumpy old woman. XD we put the coffee in front of her door and hung the sign on her door, we knocked and ran into my room. San opened up and looked really confused. I opened the door for a bit and saw her standing there looking back and forth between the things. Liz and I laughed and took pictures of her XD. God so much fun, san in the morning before her coffee.

I was planning to do a lot of things for San’s b-day, but she didn’t go to school so I had to cancel some stuff. Marcel made this awesome chocolate cake. It really was Death by chocolate XD San’s b-day party was sort of a Game of Thrones party, we made her an Iron throne and I had planned to make food from the books, but failed. She loved her B-day though, and that’s what it was all about.

Friday we went to Birmingham, bit of shopping and then we ate at Wagamama’s 😀 Sara joined us as well. Then with six of us we went to the Three Musketeers, it was awesome. Really good, but weird, cuz I am used to the Dutch musical. Though the casting was really good and the costumes!!! I wanted to have almost every dress shown in the movie. After the movie we went home, dressed and went out. to Indi bar. Tichon didn’t really like it so we didn’t go long, but I liked it.

Saturday was the last day for the boys to be here. We went into town for a bit cuz the boys wanted to shop for the last time. Sara would drive them to the airport, but because there was a game they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to be on time, so the went by train. And I went with them. San was not feeling so great and liz and sara went to Birmingham. I was really fun to have them here and I’m gonna miss them, but I’ll see them when we get back. Guys it was an awesome week, thanks soo much for everything! Come on over next year as well!  Danique was there aswell seeing Jord off. So I went home with her. Train’s being weird, we got home pretty late. but it didn’t matter, since we had nothing to do anyways.

Today slept until late, cuz I was really tired of this week. Watched some series and did the laundry, not too much today. I also booked a plane ticket home 😀 I’ll be home from 2 to 7 November! I’m looking forward to it. I need to be home for a bit, just to rest up and see everyone. Then I’ll be okay till December, when I come home.

And that brings me to the end of this post. Oh before I forget, here are some pictures of us.

 My hallmates from left to right: Lizette, Charlotte (Simpy as we call her), Ellie, Me, Sandrine and Jess.

 The roadblock and shopping cart that randomly ended up in our kitchen after a night out from Ellie, Simpy and Jess. XD We steal things when we go out. It has become a sort of a tradition. See the wall on the right side, where the balloon is. Right now it is filled with things we stole XD We are gonna keep it and next year we also want to be on a floor with the 6 of us and we’ll put them in our kitchen again, and adding more every year.

Nighty night!

Hina~

 

 

First week in the UK

Hello everyone!

How are you all? Everything is going okay over here. It’s been 10 days since I’ve been here, 7 days since my mom and dad left me all alone in the dorm. Here’s what happened in my first week.

When we came on the campus and I got assigned my room, I was very happy. Because I was on the same hall as my friends. Sandrine and Lizette. We came upstairs, I am on the third floor, and checked out my room.

 The window that is open, there is my room. It looked okay. I had to do an inventory of how many spots there were on my walls and sorts, so that at the end of the semester they can’t charge me for the things that were already there, and I had to report things that were broken and missing. Most of the things were fine. but I do have 123 spots on my wall XD yes I counted them all. Though there was a yellow stain on my mattress, I saw it when I flipped it over to clean it, also my mattress cover had the same yellow stain, so I didn’t put it on.    So you can see this is my room 😀

 My room 😀

 My awesome TV, Thanx to Marc!!!!

My desk, a bit messy, but it suits me, don’t you think? 😀 My bathroom isn’t that big, but it’s fine. My shower though, is small, I almost can’t move in the thing.

 The kitchen which I clean every day! every Tuesday we get kitchen inspection, me wants the golden stars!!!!

After putting everything in my room, mann I took loads of stuff with me XD we went to the ASDA to get food and stuff I needed. I think we took about 2 hours or something to go through every aisle and get the stuff.

The first night in my new bed was not as nice as my bed at home, but whatever. I was tired and was out like a light.

The next morning, mam and dad came over for breakfast with San, Liz and me. It was nice 🙂 and after breakfast we went out to shop for a bit and to find my TV :D. We went from one Tesco to another. We started at the closes one, which was a Tesco Metro, then a larger one, but not much. There we asked for a large Tesco. The one the lady directed us to was indeed large, but not the one we needed, so we went to Walsall, which is the biggest in the area. And finally yes we found it. And there on the second floor we found my TV, we also bought some additional stuff that I still needed.

My mom had seen some shops she wanted to look at. Because we saw it from the outside, I had no idea where we were, but as soon as we drove around and saw the other side, I knew where we were. It was the place I had gone shopping in April with Aytun and others from my class. So after a bit of Starbucks, we looked around. Mom was trying to find some things in the New yellow color, but it is as if they can’t make the things in one color. Some things were nice though and she bought it. I needed to get back to my dorm though, cuz I needed to eat and then go to a meeting.

Mom and dad dropped me off and I went upstairs, san, liz and I didn’t really feel like eating though, so we had something small. The meeting was for Freshers, they talked about the Uni itself, the RA’s, Residential assistants and other stuff. It took about 10 min. That night we went out. Freshers welcome party at Oceana’s. It was fun, but I had my high heals on and they were not so fun. San, Liz and I left around 2.30 I think. We got a taxi home and there I waited for Danique, cuz she was sleeping over in my room.

The next day I said goodbye to mum and dad and got a bus to Walsall, it says it takes 30 min, well … it takes 45 min. ones there we found Brendan, our Mentor/personal teacher. And he gave us the room number. That session with him, he wanted to know more about us and he told us things that would happen this year. and the years after that. After a short break we continued in another room. We also got usb-sticks with all sorts of info about the school and everything around it. Our class rep was chosen again, Nuno was there as the class rep from last year and no one was against it so he became the rep again. We also got our timetable. We have class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays are tough, cuz we have to go to Walsall, be in class at 1 p.m. till 4 p.m. for Education in Europe, then we have a break of 2 hours, and at 6 we have another class till 8, Education and social justice. On Wednesday we have Reading literature from 11 am to 1 pm. After that we went home. it was about 4 pm when we got home and we stayed in.

On Tuesday we had an introduction with all the English students together. It was good to hear everything, but a lot of things weren’t for us. Upon hearing that there was a Myth class, San wanted to attend and extra class. Myth XD she asked the teacher and he said that the could probably arrange something. Class was done and there was a Freshers fayre, but Danique got a call from San that there was a huge crack in her window. Danique was really shaken up, so I went with her. But it was fine, the maintaining people had done it themselves, by trying to replace the lock on the window. So everything was fine, she just couldn’t open her window, till they had replaced the thing. The we went back to the fair and got loads of free stuff. I also applied for a doctor thing. So if something goes wrong with me doctor SJ Annable will help me get better XD San and Liz and some others got a letter saying that they would have to pay the accommodation money in 14 days and everyone went like, WHAT! so we would find out what it was.

Wednesday there was a drop in with Brendan and San, liz, Jolijn and I went there for our extra classes. We found him in his office and talked with him about our extra classes, he said that it was fine. I also said to him that I wanted to be class rep as well and he said: Good for you. and wrote me down as Class rep 😀

Later there was another Freshers fayre but with societies. San found a Japanese one so we signed up. We would meet up with them the next day at 4 pm. Again we got loads of free stuff and we got to watch some Judo and another fighting sport, It was really fun to watch. I wanna do a fight sport 😀

Sara came that evening and we went to Tesco’s in Walsall for a bit to find some stuff. Someone keyed her car.

Thursday came and we came out of bed really late, we only had to got to the Japanese thing at 4 pm. Before we went to school we did our laundry XD weird things these washing machines here. Because we had nothing more to do San and I went there a bit early to the Japanese thing, we waited for about 15 min and no one came, we tried to find them and then found out that it would start at 5 pm. San and I sat down at the cafeteria and ate something till it was time. but the japanese society was gonna go bowling with 3 groups and Liz was gonna make risotto so we had to go home. It was really nice, It was risotto with brocoli.

Friday I was just bored and did nothing, San and Liz were gonna go home with Sara and I went to school to arrange my extra class, but before that we went to check what the letter s were about. Nothing apparently. at school they tried to show me how to apply for another course but apparently there is something wrong with the accounts from the IDEE students cuz we couldn’t log in to the help desk but it was fine, they arranged it in a different way.

Saturday I hang out with Danique and Jolijn I cooked for them. When they were gone, I cleaned the kitchen. I wanted to see something from the window in the staircase, but forgot my keys. I locked myself out! XD Had to happen one time, it might as well be now. I knocked on the door to see if anyone else was in, but on one answered. I went down stairs and put a block to the door so I could go in the building. I went do Danique and Jolijn but they couldn’t do anything. Then we were standing outside of my building and I saw light on in Ellie’s room, for some miracle she looked out the window and she opened the door for me. Bless her really, otherwise I’d have to sleep somewhere else or not at all.

Sunday I went running for an hour, I was really tired, but it felt good. Though, my muscles are really sore, remind me never to try running the correct way ever again. I hang out with Danique and we watched Glee, she cooked for me and then I went up to my room.

Monday, today, was my first day of Class. The craft of writing. It started at 11 am but I was at school at 10 am XD oh well, I had manga with me. The class was quite nice, my teachers, yes I have two, Jacqlyn and Candi. Jacqlyn is really hyper and really passionate about her work. They are both writers and this module was really about fiction writing. Short stories for this semester. oh well it won’t really help with my essays, well maybe it will, I’ll just have to see. It’ll be an interesting module at the least.

San and Liz will be back later tonight and tomorrow we’ve got class in Walsall, looking forward to it.

Oh and sometime during this week I got a new mattress, dunno what day anymore, but it sleeps terrific 😀 Next time I’ll upload a picture of my awesome hallmates 😀

Good night everyone!

Sleep tight and have some awesome dreams,

Hina~

One car, Very bad luck, and a stupid TomTom

Hello everyone!

This is me from a hotel room in the Connaught Hotel in Wolverhampton. I was actually supposed to go to the University and stay there, but we had a small problem with our traveling to here.

Where to begin this story?

I’ll ask you a question first. How many things do you think can go wrong in one day? I’ll give you the answer. Everything and more than you could possibly ever imagine. Why I ask you this question? Well… let me tell you about our journey from The Netherlands to Wolverhampton that took 22 hours.

My parents and I took off from the north of The Netherlands on 9-9-2011 at 5 a.m. GMT+ 1. I had barely slept that night, probably because I was thinking too much. My dad didn’t sleep much either and he had to drive to Wolverhampton. So after saying goodbye to my little sister and a last check, we were off. My dad driving, me next to him in the front and my mum on the back seat. Every thing went smooth in the beginning. Bit of small chat in the car and doing other things to amuse ourselves. Before we knew it we were out of the Netherlands and I had to say goodbye to my never-ending internet on my Blackberry. Then in Belgium there was a bit of congestion around Antwerpen, but other than that it was fine. A lot of roundabouts around the harbor in France and then we saw the ship. Our car was on ship very quickly. Once on the deck above I started to find my friend Danique. It didn’t take long and we just hang out with our parents and her sister for 2 hours. It was a nice ship. Big in my eyes. It had a shop and 2 restaurants of sorts. After two hours we saw Dover with its white cliffs. After just a little waiting in the car we were off again and my friend and her mom and sister and we went our separates way. Everything was still going smooth and although it was weird to drive on the left side, my dad didn’t really have a problem with it. Thanks to my history class I recognized a lot of things and I really liked it. We were making great speed on the M25 around London, but after we payed the toll all hell broke loose.

My dad was trying to go faster after stopping to pay the toll, but the car wouldn’t have it. My dad could give gass all he wanted but the car wouldn’t take it. The gear box didn’t work. We were only driving on the pedal you have to push to change the gear. and we were going straight into a tunnel. Not so fun. We were going like 20 miles an hour. All the other cars drove past us, pressing their horn as they did. My dad couldn’t do anything about it though. Thankfully they are working on the road everywhere in England. So we found a sort of parking place for work traffic. There we parked for a bit, so that we were away from the traffic. My dad tried to see what was wrong, but he couldn’t. Then we called the Netherlands, the car help troops. They wanted to know where we were. Problem… WE didn’t even know where we were. We knew we were on the M25 and we just came out of a tunnel. But the Dutch guys needed more info. Thankfully yet again to the work on the road, there was a guy from Saunders Garage who came to see what we were doing. After the explanation and dad calling the Dutch guys again, the Saunders garage guy walked away. Soon he came back to ask us what we wanted to do for now. He could tow us to a safer place and there the Dutch car guys could send someone to us. So we did that. The guy was very nice and in no time the car was strapped on his towing truck. Because of the work on the road, the towing was free of charge. While we were on the way in the towing truck we saw the signs that said that if you are stuck, free of charge towing trucks were on their way. We missed that sign, and that’s why we didn’t know that it was for free. We didn’t really understand it before when he said it was free, but then we did. The guy brought us to a construction site close to the M25, Junction 29. We wanted to give the guy money for his work, but he walked away quickly wanting nothing to do with it. He was such a nice guy, of course he was just doing his job but still.

Once on the construction site my dad called the Dutch car guys again, from ING Car Lease. They said that there would be someone coming to see our car in 30 min to an hour. So we waited. Then the company the Dutch guys called, called us, to check our location and to tell us that it would be 1 hour to 1,5 hour. So we waited again. We were in a nice location, we had everything we needed, food, drinks, toilet and a TV :D. So my mum and I watched CSI. After 1,5 hour of waiting we started to get extremely annoyed. Then finally someone came. A guy from Green…. Something. It wasn’t the smartest dude, but whatever. We told him what the car did, but he didn’t really understand us, so he drove the car for a bit, to see what we meant. He understood what the problem was and tried to fix it. Though it was a problem in the software of the car and not a mechanic problem, so he couldn’t do much. But he tried one thing, and said to us that if that wouldn’t work… then we had to find a different car to take us to Wolverhampton. We were really hoping that what he did would work. He loosened a thing from the car and said that would reboot the system. After a short while the fastened it again and took the car for a spin to see if the system worked again. The first lap everything was fine, but at the second lap it stopped working again. What we needed was a Opel or Vauxhall dealer to make the system right again, so the guy called all the nearest dealers, non of them were able to take a look that day. That was it, we really wouldn’t be able to drive the car to Wolverhampton. His first plan was to tow us to Wolverhampton and see if a Vauxhall dealer over there would be able to check it out and then we would be able to do our things. So dad called the Dutch guys again. But they said we were not allowed to do that. The next plan was to tow the car to the nearest Vauxhall dealer and rent a car to go to Wolverhampton.

That’s what we did, the guy towed us to the dealer and they said they would be able to check the car on monday. That was fine, but then we needed a new car. We tried to rent one there, but the atm things weren’t working, according to a very annoying woman at the rent desk. There was another dealer who rented cars nearby, we called them and reserved a car. In the mean time, dad had called the Dutch guys again and again they said we were not allowed to do something. This time it was to rent a car. We canceled the reservation on the car and waited for the next plan. The guys on the phone were really rude to dad and we was already pissed, not a good combination. I was feeling hopeless that we would be in Wolverhampton on time to go to a party of a classmate of  mine, and I was getting a headache. The ING Car Lease company reserved a car for us from Hertz, cuz my mum and dad could leave that car at the airport and then fly back to the Netherlands where a car would be waiting  for them to drive back home. And so my dad would have a car for his work again on Tuesday. It was already 6 ‘o’ clock when we finally thought that we would be on our way soon. The Vauxhall dealer called a Taxi for us and then we waited yet again. It took really long, so the dealer guys called again for us and the they said that the car was on its way. But there had been a major exident on the road and the main roads to Basildon were closed off. Just our luck.

Then finally the taxi arrived and we were on our way to the airport. We had to get to Soutsted or something and the dealer guys said it would take 15 min to get there, the taxi driver said it would take 45 min, so again we were disappointed. The taxi driver was really nice and it was quite a fun ride, we were laughing, which was something we thought we couldn’t do anymore that day. Then we arrived at the Stansted airport. The taxi driver told us where we could find the Hertz guys and in we went.

First we looked around a bit and then went to the Hertz desk. There we told the guy what he needed to know and he tried to find us in the system. Then his question came: Are you sure you are supposed to be picking the car here with us? We were like: OH NO! Not yet another thing going wrong. Yes, we were at the wrong airport. There had been a miss communication and the taxi guy brought us to the wrong airport. The Hertz guy tried to fix it for us and he said they would have a solution soon. Since it would be a 1,5 hour drive to go to the other airport and it was 7.30 p.m. and the Hertz thing at the other airport would close at nine. We took a seat and waited. Again. The guy came to us and said that they would be able to get a car here, we were relieved. But then, yes another but. We’d had it. We were tired, our day sucked and we just wanted to go to bed. They didn’t have enough information to give us the car. The ING Car Lease had arranged this so dad called them again. They said they would be able to fax the info, but they didn’t have a fax machine over there so that didn’t work. Email then? But no, the Hertz guy was through with us and just wanted to get this over with. His solution was that dad would pay and then try to get it back from the insurance. Dad complied and we also took a TomTom since we wouldn’t be able to get to Wolverhampton ourselves.

Ones in the car everything was weird. It was an English car so everything was on the other side than dad was used to. Dad was tired, it was dark, the car was strange and the TomTom wasn’t helping. It kept saying one thing and when we did that, it said recalculating. So we took a wrong turn. like a Thousand times. Have you ever noticed how many roundabouts England has? I think they really love them. But we couldn’t get it right. Everytime we drove wrong. A wrong turn here, a wrong turn there. We had to go back to the Vauxhall dealers to get our stuff out of the car and into this new car. It was supposed to be a 45 min drive, but I think we took about and hour and a half? We kept on going the wrong way! We drove through the toll house 2 times. But finally we managed to get it right and we were at the Vauxhall dealer. Thanx to mom bringing the spare keys of the car we were able to get our stuff even if the Vauxhall dealer was closed. Everything in the new car and we were off. But because the TomTom was confusing and wanted to go a different road then I had mapped out on the map we made a lot of wrong turns yet again. But ones I figured out how the thing wanted us to drive it was fine. We found our way again and there were a lot of straight roads. A problem for dad, because he was dead on his feet. We all were, but he had to drive. He had to stop for a few times and I caught him almost falling asleep behind the wheel more than once. We were going the right way. Our estimate time of arrival: 2.14 a.m. Finally we saw junction 19 and Birmingham on the boards we thought we were nearly there, but it was another long straight road,. Once we were going around Birmingham we saw Wolverhampton on the board. Then Wolver’ton, then W’ton. XD They kept shortening the name. We were nearly there. And it was about time. We found the hotel were mom and dad would be staying for 3 days and I went with them because I wouldn’t be able to go to the uni anymore.

The plan was for me to sleep in my parents room, but the guy at the reception wouldn’t let me. So we booked another hotel room just for me. It’s quite nice. You really have to go through a maze to find the room and when you walk through the door, you see 2 more doors, one for the bath room and on for the bed room. It was not that modern but everything was clean and worked and there was a bed and internet, so there were no complaints from me. I undressed and stepped in bed. I was out like a light. It was 3 a.m. by the time I was in bed. And the journey which we started on the day before at 5 a.m. was finally finished. It took us 22 hours, but we were there, in Wolverhampton, 2 minutes from the uni campus.

And with this the story of the 22 hour drive from the Netherlands to Wolverhampton, UK has ended. It was a very long journey and it took a lot out of us, but we made it. I am very proud of my daddy for making it all the way here.

Good night everyone, I pray non of you will every have this much bad luck.

Yours truly,

Hina~

Start of this blog

Okay so I am allowed to go to England, to the university of Wolverhampton! 😀 While I am there I will make pictures and post them together with updates about my life here, so hopefully you won’t forget about lil’ old me when I’m gone. Have fun and enjoy! 😀

Hello, I guess :D

so I am just starting up this blog. As soon as I completed every page I will start to update by adding posts. and then updating the pages. So have fun checking things out.

see yah!

Hello world!

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