Southampton- First Impressions

Definitely can say that I am not in Seattle anymore; that point was driven home rather quickly when getting off the bus with Ashley and Zack and heading into the bar located within my residence hall complex to pick up my room key. The mindset of Southampton in regards to alcohol is rather laid back compared to Seattle. The activities during freshers week really reminds me of Greek roe, but in this case all of the residence halls are Greek roe, everyone is participating in costumed balls and raves. 

First day I arrived in Southampton, I lived my dreads of how I was going to transport my luggage. I discovered that some tube stations and train stations do not have lifts while my left shoulder I think was dislocated a few times from point A to point B accompanied with beads of sweat on my forehead and marks from the straps all over my shoulders. Ashley and Zack were really amazing in meeting me at the train station and after getting situating in my room we were off to Ikea to get bedding and other supplies.

For my first dinner in England, we had Swedish meatballs at Ikea. Ok so it isn’t quite English, but we were starving! Strangely enough, the gravy used for the meatballs in England is different than the gravy in the U.S. I have to admit, I prefer the U.S. gravy. In the evening I met my second clue that I am not in Seattle; when I crossed the street at one point I guess I timed my crossing in a manner where both Zack and Ashley were amazed at how brave I was. Sadly I just forgot to look the proper way when crossing the road, briefly forgetting that traffic flows on the left lane. I hope the learning curve will improve after each incident where something like this happens!

The curry here is to die for! One of my first dinners in Southampton was at a curry house where I had the most incredible Naan bread (the best I ever had). Even the next day, I was already craving to go back again, just need to figure out which curry house it was!

My flat consists of all Chinese international post grads and one Indian international post grad. They are all quite sweet, though they are also somewhat kept to themselves. Hopefully that will soon change as we get ourselves situated. In the meantime I have been making friends outside of my flat.