Books, bicycles, and buddies

This is going to be a post all about my first couple of weeks at university. Deal with it.

This isn't my first time being a first-year student at this university, so much could potentially have looked like a re-run of my first fortnight at university ever. But it hasn't. There have been different activities and different people, and, since I already know the town, and also some people, pretty well from before, it has definitely been different.

So I want to tell you about some of the new things that I've been doing. For instance, I have bought my first university textbooks in chemistry and biology. I know, buying books. Nothing new. But these are HEAVY books. I mean they were almost killing me when I carried them home. I wondered whether I would ever get the feeling back in my little finger (I did...I mean, I knew I would, but I was quite amazed at how mutilated my fingers looked when I got home). I haven't really gotten started on reading them yet (shame on me), so I can't say whether they're actually heavy to read, too.

Another interesting thing that has happened, is that I have bought my first bicycle, and I am cycling back and forth to the university campus. This is the first time I can say I have been cycling to school (that's what people call uni here...school. I guess they just like to linger in the past, or make it seem less scary. 'I'm going to school' definitely does sound less scary than 'I'm going to uni'. Back to the story!) It has been going quite well, apart from a few minor glitches, and I'm getting over my fear of speed. I love my bicycle, it's a silver ladies' model with raised handlebars that make it possible for me to sit (almost) upright. (I'm sorry I can't show you a picture - computer problems.)

As a first year student at this university, I have been assigned some buddies or mentors who have studied a while in a similar programme, and they have been organising activities for the first-year students. Yesterday, I jumped into a lake in my underwear three times and had a good mud-bath/romp afterwards, among other more and less embarrassing things. All this was on a trip organised by the mentors for the first-year students to a student 'cottage' in the woods outside the town. I had a lot of fun, and I was very happy when I could wash off the mud and sit in the sauna for a while.

Now I'm looking forward to daily life starting and getting into new routines. I'm looking forward to read and learn new things, as well as re-reading the Harry Potter series (I've lost count of how many times I've read it already, but I love re-reading it), and reading the rest of John Green's books. And, of course, I am looking forward to getting to know my new friends better, and in general having fun.

Books read: 41
Pages read: 11535