January 2nd
We went to Canterbury!!!! There were cute shops and nice architecture. I didn’t go into the Cathedral since it was 18 pounds or so to go in, but I was able to look about it from the outside! Michael, his family, and I had lunch within the old castle walls. It was pretty fabulous!
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| (January 3rd- on train heading back to Southampton. London's weather seemed sad to see me go) |
January 13th
Today has been a very special day, in fact for it to be a supposedly unlucky Friday the 13th, there was nothing unfortunate that happened at all. It is a special day because it is my grandfather’s 90th birthday! In the whole chaos of finals, I found the eye of the storm by catching up with my good friend, Sam. We spent a nice two hours at the Trago Lounge. Although I was a bit cautious about taking time away from my studies, it turned out to be exactly what I needed, to not just take a break but to take a mental break from finals too. After that it was back to studies for me!
January 15th
Today I decided to go by the skatepark at Riverside Park for my run and loop back by the dirt path. While on the dirt path I was thinking: “you know I really like running on dirt paths rather than cement, the only thing is that I have to look at my feet so I won’t- hey look at those two cute dogs!” *trips*- uuuph. *Examines crumpled water bottle, bloodied knees and palm, dirt all on one side….* Yeah that’s why I don’t run often on dirt paths. I found myself running faster back home saying good morning to those I pass by. When I got back in the Montefiore Halls area, I noticed a guy was peeking over some bushes as I passed by, I guess I looked pretty darn battered.
January 25th
This morning waking up at 8am in a new room was a strange sense of peace. No longer did I have an exam I had to prepare for or take, nor did I need to be anywhere today really. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I woke up though at 8am on the nose. I had my phone alarm set for 11am, but my body had other plans. Either way it was quite nice, I got ready for whatever the day may bring.
Claire had texted me around 10am about an advert in the NOC for a desk that is ten pounds! I thought I would have to check it out sometime to possibly save myself a trip to IKEA.
After having a few grapes I decided on taking a walk to acquaint myself with the area. Trying to find the waterfront I ended up making a loop around the block on my first attempt, where I found a few pubs that might be fun to go to another day. Then I got to a bridge over the train tracks by the water. A woman was walking up a path and I asked her where that path would take me. I found out from the nice woman named Sally that the trail she just came from can take me all the way to the city centre! She then gave me an open invite to visit her whenever I feel like and have coffee or go for walks. I think I might take her up on that in the future.
Now I know where that path can take me, excitement! I could possibly find a route to the NOC that I can take this upcoming semester!
On my way down the path by the water, I went under a bridge where I saw a man sitting next to his bike drinking a coke. I said ‘Good morning’ and next thing I know he was chatting up a storm asking me what my astrological sign is and what Chinese year was I born. Luckily I knew those answers but I thought it was a bit odd to ask someone what astrological sign you are before you even ask their name. I found out this particular character was named Marcus, who is a Sagittarius and likes nature. After about a good 10-20 minute conversation I bid him adieu and off I went to continue my exploration.
Soon I found myself in the industrial area which seemed kind of sketchy. After a while though I came across the Southampton football stadium, I always wondered where it was located but never thought it would be in the heart of the industrial centre of Southampton. I continued on until I started recognizing buildings in the distance. At one point I took a picture of a church and as I looked behind me I made eye contact with this middle aged man with a suitcase. I was tempted on going through the church grounds, but ended up going around the church grounds as I was a bit indecisive on which way I should go. I ended up going on a way where I should have considered taking the path through the church grounds to save time but I wasn’t too worried. I looked behind me again and I noticed that the man with the briefcase was going on my same route. Strange I thought, since he probably knew where he was going but still ended up taking the long way like me. I figured I would keep going on my exploration but be a bit wary of my surroundings. I saw an alleyway where two guys that looked college aged were walking through. I noticed the alleyway would lead me to a park that I knew. I quickly darted in the alleyway and looked behind where I didn’t see the briefcase man, but as I made it to the park I looked behind me and there he was again. At this point I was pretty sure that he was following me since I have been going on so many oddball circuitous routes that there is no way someone could just be going the same way by chance. With that I resolved that I needed to head to the shops and find the biggest one where I could lose him. I darted into a store called Debenhams and hung out in the purse section making sure that I wasn’t near the windows. After a while of exploring the store long enough to know that they were having a 70% off sale and that a lot of their items I couldn’t buy with the 20 pound note in my pocket I decided that it was safe to continue my route to the NOC.
Once I finally made it to the NOC, there were a lot of students gathered around outside and some of them I knew. I ended up talking with Claire Marie and Simon for a while. I ended up telling Simon that I came to the NOC in hopes of finding that advert for the 10 pound desk. I quickly learned that the advert was put up by Simon!! Such a small world.
Somewhat famished, Simon joined me on a walk to the High Street Café, the café I tend to always find myself at as these nice Northern ladies always make me feel at home. After my brunch at the café, Simon showed me a safer and more direct route back to Portswood, where I was also able to check out the possible new desk. The desk looked perfect, it is small and white, which would look nice in my new room as everything is a cream or white colour in it.
On my way back to the house I made a quick stop in Aldi, where I had another older bloke start up a conversation with me about where I am from. I just found it such a great day talking up with so many strangers and possible new friends like that woman named Sally. It was also a surprisingly productive day too, as I found a desk and a chair for a total of roughly 14 quid- saving me the time and money of taking a taxi ride to IKEA. Today has been quite a quirky day!
Also during the week before the start of Semester II, I went on a lovely walk through the commons with my friend Emmeline. There we fed the ducks and explored a nature conservation place for kids and then headed back to Emmeline's house for making an Australian cake to celebrate Australia Day as well as a loaf of banana bread!
On that Saturday, I went on a hillwalk with my friends Hannah, Naomi, Matt, Joe, Rob, and Sarah. It was quite amusing as we got lost and ended up bogging most of the time jumping from one grass patch to another in hopes of reducing the amount of mud on our jeans.
