Erin on Exchange

Welcome to week two. Theme of this week is me trying to get my life actually in order over here. I think that is the one critique I’ve had of the timing of this exchange – I’ve struggled trying to organise admin and life (e.g. buying pots) whilst simultaneously trying to fit in study and going to classes, etc. I would’ve loved to have an o-week of sorts (or at least move in the week before) to avoid jumping straight into classes.

On Monday I was up until 3 in the morning, and I have now added ‘fix my sleep schedule’ to my goals list. The flat across from me still has their Christmas tree up in their common room and I can see it through the gap in my window. Woke up for 8:30 to get the bus in for a 10am lecture, and finally sat with neuroscience friends in Motor Systems. I’m a little torn as to whether to change the class or not. I have friends in it, and it is incredibly easy (“this is the structure of a muscle” easy (Year 11 PE Studies kind of easy)) so likely won’t actually cover what I need for my 3rd year Neuro unit at UWA (but hey, they approved it so). But the benefit to easy is I have that hour to focus on my Drugs & the Brain unit, which is both interesting and incredibly difficult.

After the lecture, I followed the group into a Coffee & Chat with the neuroscience lecturers which was interesting until they started talking about improvements for their practical classes (I don’t have any), and so I anxiously left with some of them at 11:45.

Tuesday came with yet another morning of rain and lack of sleep (who’s surprised anymore). I had a 12-1:30 tutorial, and then sat in the Museum Café for the 2 and a half hours before my sociology lecture at 4pm. Not terrible coffee – it’s surprisingly drinkable, if I get a cappuccino and forget they asked me yet again whether I want cocoa powder on the top. Yes. I do. It is also $8.85 a coffee, so not sustainable.

I sat with a friend (?) that I’ve made in sociology and we struggled through the full two hours together. Definitely made harder by the time (6pm is way too late to finish a lecture). The content would be interesting if the lecturer wasn’t the slowest and most over-explaining lecturer in the world (it took them 20 minutes to get through 5 slides, and got through 20 of 55 total in the 2 hrs). This week is about the impact of global contexts (e.g. Covid) on the temporality of life trajectories (in a simple version – how things such as covid has influenced our ‘delayed’ adulthood like leaving home later, as well as changing relationship dynamics + timings). It’s been interesting to take a class so completely outside of what I’d normally do at home, but I’m so glad the 100% exam is pass-fail at 40% pass mark, because in no way am I prepared to do very well lol.

Showered and was therefore late to travel planning (seemingly every second day currently), but have now booked trips for Feb 13-15th, Feb 27th – Mar 1st, Mar 14-15th. I will keep locations secret until I write about them properly.

I’ve been thinking about my birthday in a week and a half, and will probably hold a pres at my flat (flatmates approval and a “you don’t have to ask, you know that right??” was received). They seem pretty keen to come out with us so we’ll see whether they do. Not sure of who to invite from neuro, it’s a big group so probably wouldn’t want them all. Maybe I’m doing a little better than I thought I was. I think the only thing I regret is putting Unsworth down instead of Woolton first because all three of the Woolton girls are within five doors of each other and it seems a lot more social (although loud like Fresher wing Cats – Julie has a guy across the corridor from her who is a DJ).

Mary’s kitchen in her Unsworth flat is disgusting (unlike my clean 2nd/3rd yr flatmates, she was stuck with a friend group of freshers who fight over who needs to unclog both of the kitchen sinks again this week), and so I’ve told her to come over tomorrow night for a big batch of bolognese I’ll finally make. Apparently she’s been living off cheese she’s stashed in a desktop fridge, apples, and peanut M&Ms. Bless her heart.

Wednesday was a good day :) Didn’t do much again until 10:30am when I finally paid for my accomodation (my bank account is crying), and left for a single tutorial at uni (12-1:30). Came home and called mum until 3pm, and gave myself phone time before starting to cook my bolognese at 4pm. I watched some winter olympics on the tv while stirring and bored, and met Laelia another of my flatmates, who’s doing dentistry. Mary then came over and witnessed my crashout over attempting to cook and serve pasta without a spaghetti spoon/server.

I then met Hannah, another flatmate (lives next to me) who had been locked out of her room and had to use my phone to call the RAs.

So the flatmates I’ve currently met: Nilly, Jack, Eric, Hannah, Hayley, Laelia.
Yet to meet – Cassidy, Zane.

Me and Mary were supposed to join Yoojin, Julie and Georgia for a games night at Woolton Hall, but it fell through last minute so we just watched more Olympics before going back to our own rooms.

I then set up my posters and photos, and then promptly ordered more to come in about a week or two. Did some prep for tutorials tomorrow, and then went to bed.

Thursday was a morning of no rain ! but still grey skies so also no sun. Had my weekly dose of adrenaline being woken up at exactly 11am for the weekly fire alarm testing (louder and more aggressive than St Cat’s alarm) and was half asleep as I (for a second week running) dressed as if the building was truly on fire. I could’ve stayed in bed. Instead, I left the flat at 11:10 with sheet lines on my face, shaking, and running on cortisol.

I did some more prep for my History of Medicine tutorial, and then went to said tutorial for 1-3pm. It was followed by my sociology tutorial where the topic of ‘expected temporality’ was timing of motherhood and how it’s weaponised by people like JD Vance with his ‘childless cat lady’ takes.

It was then home to get ready for yet another exchange social, this time at the Courtyard. I believe there were also exchanges there from MMU because it was incredibly overwhelming with the number of people that turned up. I met Will from UWA (BPhil too) who I knew existed but hadn’t realised he was over here, and his Melburnian friend George. It was nice to meet some more Aussies. Mary and I left at 10 to pack for tomorrow’s trip.

Friday

Was late to uni, thanks to my detour back to my dorm to pick up my lock I didn’t end up needing, and so had to walk into my lecture 5 minutes late and carrying my stupidly large backpack. I left early from the second lecture I had from 4-6pm as it turned into an active learning tutorial style where we were supposed to answer exam style questions from content I had not done. I then caught the bus to the Flixbus stop after my sandwich dinner (again). I had a window seat (unfortunately), and struggled through the full four and a half hours from 7pm to 11pm. When finally in London we had to take the metro for half an hour and walk another 10 because the hostel was nowhere near the city centre.

Saturday started at 9:45 when we left the hostel en route for Buckingham Palace for 10:30. Watched the second half of Origin while waiting in the freezing cold BUT SUNSHINE !!!! Love Julie but I genuinely think she asked ChatGPT to plan this London trip as she had not looked into any of the activities herself, resulting in us staying at the gates all the way up until 11:05am when they finally believed me when I said the Change of Guard only happened Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday at Buckingham. Anyways, here’s Buckingham photos x.

After Buckingham we stopped for a brunch at a small café I had a scrambled eggs on toast at, and another disappointing Cappuccino (although I was appreciative of being able to feel my fingers again)

We then made our way to Portobello Road (Notting Hill) for the coloured houses and markets. Again, loved it, but it wasn’t so conducive to a group of six or so – I would’ve preferred to go by myself (& will probably do so when I go again alone in May/June). I was getting a little frustrated by the number of times someone wouldn’t tell people where they were going only to then ask in the group chat where we were and then we’d have to wait for 10 minutes for them to catch up to us again (just walk at ur own pace & then meet at the end is it that hard??). We bumped into the other group of exchanges who had staggered days (Saturday – Monday) resulting in the big group photo. I would’ve bought some cute trinkets and spent longer in the vintage/op shops but people wanted to move on so.

I will say, this trip has been a humiliation ritual of sorts. Travelling with people who care little for volume control, social respect or general common sense has been difficult. Because WHY on a public fucking metro, are you talking loudly (apparently without knowledge of the volume) about how me and Mary are forming a ‘triplet’ with a random stranger if I put on sunglasses, and talking about his music taste as if he can’t hear you through his headphones (newsflash, he can) while trying to convince me to put said sunglasses on so you can take a photo. Please witness in the below gallery, the series of both my increasing discomfort, and the moment the man got up to walk and sit at a different seat.

Anyway.

After finally getting off the metro, we got into the city centre to do the typical tourist rounds – Big Ben, Westminster, London Eye, etc.

Then again with the lack of survival skills, three of the group walked straight into the anti-government Iranian protest of around 4000 people that was blocking every major road in the middle of London from Trafalgar square to the Iranian Embassy near Kensington. Despite my clear refusal to walk through a protest for my own safety, the three told me “it isn’t that dangerous” (as if ‘Public protests and events that draw large crowds can turn violent. Stay away,’ isn’t the first safety precaution listed on SmartTraveller AU) and continued walking. The other three of us (Mary, Carina & I) decided to walk around (unaware of the extent of the protest), and spent time at Big Ben taking photos, and then walked through St James’ park.

After finally asking a cop which way to walk to avoid the protest, we got into Soho and up to Hamley’s, the famous five floor toy store. After some photobooth photos and banana pudding served by a brilliant woman in costume, we left to find dinner in Chinatown. Somehow, the two groups of three were split again and Mary, Carina and I ended up at New Young Cheng. We had a very good but expensive dinner (but I feel like that’s normal for London), before taking the metro back to our hostel.

We got alcohol on the way home (buzzballs are disgusting but they get you drunk) and then got ready to go out. Once everyone (except me) was sufficiently drunk we left for Ministry of Sound, supposedly one of the best clubs in London. It was a $40 uber there (in which Julie calling the Tower Bridge the twin towers), $40 ENTRY with a student discount (what the fuck!!!), and $28 for a double rum and coke I didn’t even ask for (I asked for a rum & coke, and apparently the default was a double??). I really wanna forget how much I spent. The music was so horrible and everyone was hating it, and we moved upstairs to a slightly better mix (although still shit). It was packed and I was so overstimulated, nowhere near drunk enough and not very happy. I did however, stop a fight happening (between two men duh) before it got serious (over one man accidentally bumping into another’s gf) and the other girls in the group thought it was kinda cool the way I intuitively moved and separated them while five other men just stood there not knowing what to do (help ???). A few more elbows into backs later and we decided it was time to call it a night. Another $50 uber home, comprised of me trying to get a very drunk Julie to say squirrel (thank you to Ana who provided her with some calm the next morning with her own contribution). Georgia then had a crash out to me afterwards on the phone with her bf over Julie suggesting we were “big backs” for having superstitious Maccas after every night out.

Sunday morning did not include a hangover (thankfully), although again filled with some frustration as people were still sleeping at 9:30 before our checkout at 10, and we only just narrowly avoided the £8 fee. It was, however, raining constantly. I was so thankful for my choice of coats, and layered perfectly for the day – thermal, shirt, hoodie, puffer, raincoat. Although I had no umbrella, I stayed drier than the other four girls who had them.

We walked to breakfast at Café Rouge, at which it was £17 for an incredibly average eggs benny and cappuccino that may as well have been the 50p cheaper flat white. I was so glad I didn’t fall victim to the scam that was add-on avocado/hashbrowns/eggs like Julie and Georgia did (£2.50 for half an unripe avocado and £1.90 for half of a scrambled egg is insane). It led to Julie writing a review for them on Google reviews in french before she’d even touched her food (rightly so), and a thorough explanation as to how french toast is ‘poor people’s food’ and it shouldn’t be £10 in the first place.

We then headed to Borough Markets and another overwhelming crowd I was sick of, with people yelling at us to get out of the way (WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GO MAN).

Millennium Bridge was next (and what convinced me that Julie ChatGTP’d the itinerary because no-one except me knew it was in Harry Potter), and then everyone gave up walking through the rain and so we ducked into Tate Modern, the art gallery. I need to go back there by myself I think, as they had a wonderful book selection in the shop, as well as interesting exhibits that the other girls practically ran through while mocking them (“WHY IS A TOILET CONSIDERED ART??” idk girl, maybe look around at the images on the walls surrounding the toilet, and also the description and you’ll get an appreciation for why it’s there in the first place – the exhibit it was in was quite literally ‘How does the body relate to the material structures of the everyday world?’ and the surrounding photographs of men cruising in toilets when being gay was illegal added to the display quite literally questioning how the space of the public toilet questions visibility and art. Anyways.) Similarly, in the next exhibit was a wooden structure filled with normal objects and Julie went on a tangent about how her umbrella could be considered art. I felt like saying girl you brought us to a modern art museum and up to the exhibit that questions what can be considered art and now you’re mad at the exhibit??? Like yes, if you’d read the exhibit summary you’d know it’s about how religious significance can turn normal everyday objects into art??

Anyway.

We then walked across Millennium Bridge when it stopped raining (YAY!) to St Paul’s Cathedral, before getting to the nearby shopping centre we’d hoped to kill two hours at (it’s Sunday, surprise! Nothing’s open!). We gave up and took the metro back to Victoria where our bus was leaving from, and walked around the Station’s shopping centre for a little, bought lunch and then decided to walk back to Buckingham Palace for a bit. It was then finally time to board our Flixbus back to Manchester, and I finally got both an aisle seat and no-one next to me, so it was a good drive back that went more quickly than the drive down. Once back I took the digi’s off the camera, showered and finally fell into my own bed (thank fuck!)

Sorry for that lengthy recap of every thought I’ve had xx

Now here are things I’ve accomplished since my last goals list:

• bought pots and pans
• stopped being scared of the kitchen (mostly)

Things I have added to my goals list:

• buy a decent going out jacket (preferably for both winter & summer).
• get ears repierced.
• stop spending an absurd amount of money.
• go to sleep earlier (why is it 4am rn).

Things I miss list:

• sunsets with colour (especially beach sunsets)
• actually just the sun in general
• non-rainy days
• friends who know me fully

Some poetry because I need to get more comfortable sharing I think (pls don’t judge me lol). They vary as to when I wrote them, what year/month. Also idk formatting, these are three individual pieces without any titles to them.

Song of the week: