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argurotoxosHee.
After a strange network glitch not related to my laptop that required two IT assistants to fix, my wireless is finally working. It feels so good to have reliable wireless internet again; it's something I've not enjoyed since the beginning of September.
Between IT assistants - one was on lunch break - I went to the Waterstone's on campus and took a look at their Classics section. I immediately found the book for Beginning Greek - Introduction to Attic Greek by Donald J. Mastronarde - and decided to buy it then. The check-out clerk was very nice and told me about a 10% off student special they were currently hosting along with a Waterstone's loyalty card. At first, I was sceptical, though I think the fact that the loyalty card looked exactly like a credit card threw me more than anything. However, after assurances that it was completely free and worked exactly like my Borders Rewards card (which, incidentally, only works in the US; I've no idea why I didn't take it out of my wallet before leaving), I signed up for it; it saved me over £2.
Of course, the Republic was not one of the Plato books I brought with me, though I think I have at least two paperback copies of it at home. I also didn't bring my notebook from Ancient Philosophy, though I can't remember if there were any blank pages left. However, I do have the Gutenberg Project's version of the Republic; Waterstone's looked like it had one copy of the Republic for each of three different publishers.
There's one thing I have to say for Swansea -- almost all of the staff I've met has been very kind and incredibly helpful. It never feels like they're talking down to you, either, though I expect that as an exchange student, some of the questions I ask must be patiently obvious to others. Curiously, the few people who have asked about my nationality were rather happy to learn that I'm from the US and usually had connections there themselves. They also said that I don't sound American; I suppose my time in London affected me more than I realized.
That's all for right now; there's more information I have, but I left it in my room. (I brought my laptop to the library; the IT service is here and I didn't want to leave until I was sure everything worked.) Below is the post I typed up in notepad on Saturday evening; I think you'll find that the atmosphere is decidedly more morose than in this one:
[Originally typed my first evening at Swansea]
My first impression of Swansea was that it had Ohio's landscape with a weak Maine ocean scent, only with more hills.
The bus ride lasted about four and a half hours; we would have arrived earlier, but hit horrible traffic going into Swansea and there's a regulation that bus drivers can't drive over four hours without a half-hour break. However, the break did allow us time to buy some fish and chips for lunch/dinner, which was about half the price it would have been in London.
In the bus ride, I came up with my personal top ten places to visit in London:
1. Tower Bridge
(Even if you don't pay to climb the steps up the tower, just seeing it is amazing. I think it's the most beautiful architecture in all of London, clean arcs and blue highlights. If you hang around long enough, you'll probably see it raise, too; I happened to see it go up to let a large sailing boat through right after I finished the Tower of London.)
2. Natural History Museum
(The best museum in all of London, both in regards to setup and theme, though your milage will vary depending on your interests. In any case, it's free except for the one current special exhibit, so why not go? Remember, there are dinosaurs.)
3. Westminster Abbey
(Specifically, go for services. You can experience traditional Anglican religion, see the magnificent church, read the names of the buried on the floor, and perhaps hear their famous boys' choir. Of course, if you'd like to spend more time in the Abbey or have an adversion to Christianity [though I have the feeling that more tourists probably attend service than locals], you can pay to enter between services.)
4. Regent's Park
(This is probably the loveliest park of all of London, and there are a number to choose from. You're also only a stone's throw away from Baker Street down on the south end with the London Zoo on the north.)
5. The British Museum
(A huge museum with a wide selection, particularly in the ancient civilizations department -- Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Persian . . . Just make sure the Greek section is actually open first. [It probably was only a one-day project, but still disappointing.])
6. Charing Cross Road
(Again, your milage will vary, but if you like books at all, you should definitely wander around Leicester Square for an hour or more. There's also some cheap barber shops around [£5-6] and the official half-price tkts booth is less than a minute away, though I'd recommend buying your tickets directly from the theatres. Incidently, if you keep walking north on Charing Cross, you'll reach the British Museum.)
7. Hyde Park
(Hyde Park is another nice park, and it's huge. On the south-east corner stands a statue of Achilles, while on the north-east stands Speaker's Corner. If you keep walking south, you'll merge into Kensington Gardens.)
8. National Maritime Museum
(The Maritime Museum itself isn't especially impressive, but it's free and worth taking a look in. Even if you're not interested in the navy, visiting Greenwich is nice, but go early in the day to avoid the crowds of tourists.)
9. Sherlock Holmes Museum
(You might not want to pay the admission to see the actual museum unless you're a real Sherlock Holmes fan, but just weeding through the gift shop and seeing all the Sherlock Holmes memorabilia along Baker Street is fun. However, don't expect anything to be cheap.)
10. Old Royal Naval College
(I debated about this one, but the college is worth seeing. There's some beautiful architecture there, it's free, and when there aren't many other tourists around it a quiet that borders on sacrosanct hangs over the place. Also, it's another chance to visit Greenwich, to which I'd recommend taking a boat one way and a train the other.)
The list of places I wouldn't recommend seeing is shorter: TATE Modern, St. Paul's Cathedral, Clink Prison Museum, The Royal Observatory, The National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square.
Moving in to a new place is always the hardest part, I find. Only three of our group of thirteen from London, including myself, are living on campus; the rest are in the student village that's about twenty minutes away by foot. (Downtown Swansea is also about twenty minutes away by foot from campus.) After getting dropped off, we left our large luggage by the steps of . . . whatever building we got dropped off at and then tried to find our way to check-in.
I got pulled aside because of housing contract issues that I'd been trying to settle this past week. First, the contract they gave me was for a whole year instead of just one semester [or one 'term'; instead of Fall Semester, this is actually Michaelmas Term]. Then, their online acceptance server malfunctioned. Finally, they emailed me the forms that I needed to fill out, which I emailed back to them on Wednesday. Today, I find out that yes, the contract date was changed, but no, they hadn't received my signed contract via email. I filled it out there, making sure that I wouldn't accidently be billed twice first.
Once that was done, there was a little dance about misplaced keys. After that, I wandered around trying to find the residence building; in the end, I had to ask some students if I was in the right place because nothing was labeled. Computer safe in the room, I hurried back to collect my other bags; I hate leaving items unattended in public.
I'm not quite sure what set it off - a combination of yet another frustrated move-in, or my first look at the university itself, or the associations I have of moving into dorms with my parents beside me - but it was the first time that I felt homesick since arriving way back at the beginning of September. A locked door and a minor breakdown later, I set to unpacking and reading through the large bundle of informational panphlets with The Crüxshadows' 'DreamCypher' album playing in my ear; most of the coach ride has us subjected to bad radio music and The Crüxshadows' 'Windbringer' has never yet failed to lift me up.
Even though the rooms are bigger, they're not as nice as the ones in London. In particular, the bed is one of the most uncomfortable I've been subjected to with equally uncomfortable sheets. On the other hand, there is a sink and a mini-refridgerator free of charge. The rooms also came with a phone and - surprisingly - a copy of the Bible.
Unlike SUNY or our London flats, there aren't any common rooms; our rooms are all singles which lead directly into the hallway. On the other side of the hallway, there's one shower and one toilet meant to be shared by about six students, as well as a (not-fully supplied) kitchen area.
Connecting to the internet is more complicated than at SUNY or London, partly due to the system Swansea uses; I can't even use the wireless until I check something on a campus PC first. However, it does exist and hopefully works. (I'll probably know by the time this is posted; I'm typing this up in Notepad Saturday night.)
After I finished unpacking, I was originally going to make my way to the library to get my student card and use the computers, but the library was closed. Actually, almost everything was closed; I've never seen a university look so much like a ghost town the weekend of move-in.
Instead, the library visit turned into a quick tour around campus, though I don't think it helped much. You would think I'd be adjusted to the lack of labeling in the UK, but it's still confusing. Even when something is labeled, the sign doesn't say anything about what it's used for or what departments it contains. SUNY Albany might not have a very appealing design, but it's imminently practical; everything is close together and labeled with obvious names (e.g., the mathematics department is in the Mathematics building), and if you get lost, all you have to do is walk in a square.
Two of the London Swansea students who had visited Swansea before had warned me that the university was pretty ugly, but I thought the same of SUNY's.
Swansea's campus is more run-down than SUNY's, as if it would crumble and be taken over by forest. The phrase that keeps coming to my mind is one of Clive's lines from Maurice: 'Why is my house falling down around me?' It's a look that might be almost quaint in a weathered, old country mansion like Clive's, but it looks very out of place for my notion of a university. However, there are some nice garden areas around the campus and you can see the ocean from parts.
Most of the university places seem to close between 3:30 and 5 PM. However, I did find one place that was still open and ended up seeing the movie Mr. Bean's Holiday for free; it was a good perspective of how much more troublesome my traveling abroad experiences could have been and a nice, light-hearted movie.
[End of Saturday post]
Reading the above now, I'm reminded of a Garak line from A Stitch in Time: "It is so curious how we can learn to live with just about any condition or situation if we believe we have no choice." I've already found myself adjusting to the campus and even the bed, though I've still half a mind to go out and buy a new comforter and sheets; I've not been sleeping well since I arrived at Swansea, but I think that's as much to being woken up by drunk students pounding up the stairs at 3 AM - which will hopefully not carry oven into classes - as anything else.
One thing that I've found particularly ironic throughout all of this is my reaction to the environment around me. I came expecting to be immediately struck by differences in a foreign land; instead, the one thing that has been perceived most is how similar people are, no matter where they're living. As human animals, the internal divisions seem arbitrary and mostly insignificant, which leads to Marx and Spinoza, though perhaps not Aristotle.
After a strange network glitch not related to my laptop that required two IT assistants to fix, my wireless is finally working. It feels so good to have reliable wireless internet again; it's something I've not enjoyed since the beginning of September.
Between IT assistants - one was on lunch break - I went to the Waterstone's on campus and took a look at their Classics section. I immediately found the book for Beginning Greek - Introduction to Attic Greek by Donald J. Mastronarde - and decided to buy it then. The check-out clerk was very nice and told me about a 10% off student special they were currently hosting along with a Waterstone's loyalty card. At first, I was sceptical, though I think the fact that the loyalty card looked exactly like a credit card threw me more than anything. However, after assurances that it was completely free and worked exactly like my Borders Rewards card (which, incidentally, only works in the US; I've no idea why I didn't take it out of my wallet before leaving), I signed up for it; it saved me over £2.
Of course, the Republic was not one of the Plato books I brought with me, though I think I have at least two paperback copies of it at home. I also didn't bring my notebook from Ancient Philosophy, though I can't remember if there were any blank pages left. However, I do have the Gutenberg Project's version of the Republic; Waterstone's looked like it had one copy of the Republic for each of three different publishers.
There's one thing I have to say for Swansea -- almost all of the staff I've met has been very kind and incredibly helpful. It never feels like they're talking down to you, either, though I expect that as an exchange student, some of the questions I ask must be patiently obvious to others. Curiously, the few people who have asked about my nationality were rather happy to learn that I'm from the US and usually had connections there themselves. They also said that I don't sound American; I suppose my time in London affected me more than I realized.
That's all for right now; there's more information I have, but I left it in my room. (I brought my laptop to the library; the IT service is here and I didn't want to leave until I was sure everything worked.) Below is the post I typed up in notepad on Saturday evening; I think you'll find that the atmosphere is decidedly more morose than in this one:
[Originally typed my first evening at Swansea]
My first impression of Swansea was that it had Ohio's landscape with a weak Maine ocean scent, only with more hills.
The bus ride lasted about four and a half hours; we would have arrived earlier, but hit horrible traffic going into Swansea and there's a regulation that bus drivers can't drive over four hours without a half-hour break. However, the break did allow us time to buy some fish and chips for lunch/dinner, which was about half the price it would have been in London.
In the bus ride, I came up with my personal top ten places to visit in London:
1. Tower Bridge
(Even if you don't pay to climb the steps up the tower, just seeing it is amazing. I think it's the most beautiful architecture in all of London, clean arcs and blue highlights. If you hang around long enough, you'll probably see it raise, too; I happened to see it go up to let a large sailing boat through right after I finished the Tower of London.)
2. Natural History Museum
(The best museum in all of London, both in regards to setup and theme, though your milage will vary depending on your interests. In any case, it's free except for the one current special exhibit, so why not go? Remember, there are dinosaurs.)
3. Westminster Abbey
(Specifically, go for services. You can experience traditional Anglican religion, see the magnificent church, read the names of the buried on the floor, and perhaps hear their famous boys' choir. Of course, if you'd like to spend more time in the Abbey or have an adversion to Christianity [though I have the feeling that more tourists probably attend service than locals], you can pay to enter between services.)
4. Regent's Park
(This is probably the loveliest park of all of London, and there are a number to choose from. You're also only a stone's throw away from Baker Street down on the south end with the London Zoo on the north.)
5. The British Museum
(A huge museum with a wide selection, particularly in the ancient civilizations department -- Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Persian . . . Just make sure the Greek section is actually open first. [It probably was only a one-day project, but still disappointing.])
6. Charing Cross Road
(Again, your milage will vary, but if you like books at all, you should definitely wander around Leicester Square for an hour or more. There's also some cheap barber shops around [£5-6] and the official half-price tkts booth is less than a minute away, though I'd recommend buying your tickets directly from the theatres. Incidently, if you keep walking north on Charing Cross, you'll reach the British Museum.)
7. Hyde Park
(Hyde Park is another nice park, and it's huge. On the south-east corner stands a statue of Achilles, while on the north-east stands Speaker's Corner. If you keep walking south, you'll merge into Kensington Gardens.)
8. National Maritime Museum
(The Maritime Museum itself isn't especially impressive, but it's free and worth taking a look in. Even if you're not interested in the navy, visiting Greenwich is nice, but go early in the day to avoid the crowds of tourists.)
9. Sherlock Holmes Museum
(You might not want to pay the admission to see the actual museum unless you're a real Sherlock Holmes fan, but just weeding through the gift shop and seeing all the Sherlock Holmes memorabilia along Baker Street is fun. However, don't expect anything to be cheap.)
10. Old Royal Naval College
(I debated about this one, but the college is worth seeing. There's some beautiful architecture there, it's free, and when there aren't many other tourists around it a quiet that borders on sacrosanct hangs over the place. Also, it's another chance to visit Greenwich, to which I'd recommend taking a boat one way and a train the other.)
The list of places I wouldn't recommend seeing is shorter: TATE Modern, St. Paul's Cathedral, Clink Prison Museum, The Royal Observatory, The National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square.
Moving in to a new place is always the hardest part, I find. Only three of our group of thirteen from London, including myself, are living on campus; the rest are in the student village that's about twenty minutes away by foot. (Downtown Swansea is also about twenty minutes away by foot from campus.) After getting dropped off, we left our large luggage by the steps of . . . whatever building we got dropped off at and then tried to find our way to check-in.
I got pulled aside because of housing contract issues that I'd been trying to settle this past week. First, the contract they gave me was for a whole year instead of just one semester [or one 'term'; instead of Fall Semester, this is actually Michaelmas Term]. Then, their online acceptance server malfunctioned. Finally, they emailed me the forms that I needed to fill out, which I emailed back to them on Wednesday. Today, I find out that yes, the contract date was changed, but no, they hadn't received my signed contract via email. I filled it out there, making sure that I wouldn't accidently be billed twice first.
Once that was done, there was a little dance about misplaced keys. After that, I wandered around trying to find the residence building; in the end, I had to ask some students if I was in the right place because nothing was labeled. Computer safe in the room, I hurried back to collect my other bags; I hate leaving items unattended in public.
I'm not quite sure what set it off - a combination of yet another frustrated move-in, or my first look at the university itself, or the associations I have of moving into dorms with my parents beside me - but it was the first time that I felt homesick since arriving way back at the beginning of September. A locked door and a minor breakdown later, I set to unpacking and reading through the large bundle of informational panphlets with The Crüxshadows' 'DreamCypher' album playing in my ear; most of the coach ride has us subjected to bad radio music and The Crüxshadows' 'Windbringer' has never yet failed to lift me up.
Even though the rooms are bigger, they're not as nice as the ones in London. In particular, the bed is one of the most uncomfortable I've been subjected to with equally uncomfortable sheets. On the other hand, there is a sink and a mini-refridgerator free of charge. The rooms also came with a phone and - surprisingly - a copy of the Bible.
Unlike SUNY or our London flats, there aren't any common rooms; our rooms are all singles which lead directly into the hallway. On the other side of the hallway, there's one shower and one toilet meant to be shared by about six students, as well as a (not-fully supplied) kitchen area.
Connecting to the internet is more complicated than at SUNY or London, partly due to the system Swansea uses; I can't even use the wireless until I check something on a campus PC first. However, it does exist and hopefully works. (I'll probably know by the time this is posted; I'm typing this up in Notepad Saturday night.)
After I finished unpacking, I was originally going to make my way to the library to get my student card and use the computers, but the library was closed. Actually, almost everything was closed; I've never seen a university look so much like a ghost town the weekend of move-in.
Instead, the library visit turned into a quick tour around campus, though I don't think it helped much. You would think I'd be adjusted to the lack of labeling in the UK, but it's still confusing. Even when something is labeled, the sign doesn't say anything about what it's used for or what departments it contains. SUNY Albany might not have a very appealing design, but it's imminently practical; everything is close together and labeled with obvious names (e.g., the mathematics department is in the Mathematics building), and if you get lost, all you have to do is walk in a square.
Two of the London Swansea students who had visited Swansea before had warned me that the university was pretty ugly, but I thought the same of SUNY's.
Swansea's campus is more run-down than SUNY's, as if it would crumble and be taken over by forest. The phrase that keeps coming to my mind is one of Clive's lines from Maurice: 'Why is my house falling down around me?' It's a look that might be almost quaint in a weathered, old country mansion like Clive's, but it looks very out of place for my notion of a university. However, there are some nice garden areas around the campus and you can see the ocean from parts.
Most of the university places seem to close between 3:30 and 5 PM. However, I did find one place that was still open and ended up seeing the movie Mr. Bean's Holiday for free; it was a good perspective of how much more troublesome my traveling abroad experiences could have been and a nice, light-hearted movie.
[End of Saturday post]
Reading the above now, I'm reminded of a Garak line from A Stitch in Time: "It is so curious how we can learn to live with just about any condition or situation if we believe we have no choice." I've already found myself adjusting to the campus and even the bed, though I've still half a mind to go out and buy a new comforter and sheets; I've not been sleeping well since I arrived at Swansea, but I think that's as much to being woken up by drunk students pounding up the stairs at 3 AM - which will hopefully not carry oven into classes - as anything else.
One thing that I've found particularly ironic throughout all of this is my reaction to the environment around me. I came expecting to be immediately struck by differences in a foreign land; instead, the one thing that has been perceived most is how similar people are, no matter where they're living. As human animals, the internal divisions seem arbitrary and mostly insignificant, which leads to Marx and Spinoza, though perhaps not Aristotle.
