To anyone reading this (and myself) my first few days here would be a disappointment.
Or, I suppose, my first few nights.
The first two days were spent on campus, busily running around from getting my student ID to taking campus tours to having my first pint in The Old Bar in the union (which reaffirmed my belief that all beer tastes disgusting).
But my evenings have been spent in my quiet, distanced, cold dorm. Where for the first two nights my window was broken so the heavy winds went through it like a sieve and made a noise the equivalent of a shrieking tea kettle. My first night, I simply put in my headphones and blasted Coldplay's The Scientist and when I'd fall asleep the earbuds would fall out and the wailing, piercing wind would wake me. I'd just put in the headphones again and continue the process 5 more times through the night.
The second night, despite my reporting the window to the front desk (where I was told that the window had been reported broken DAYS before I'd even moved in) the window was still broken. When I was walking down the hall towards my room and with the door closed I could still hear the piercing shriek of my window, I decided to sleep on the couch in our living room.
It was stiff, and I woke up a few times from the pattering of the rain on the wall sized window, but all of that was less disturbing than the box (I shit you not) of chicken bones, completely devoid of any meat on them, that my two Chinese flatmates had stuck in the corner of the living room.
As I dozed off, I imagined the ghosts of all those angry chickens, pecking at me.
My evenings were bad because I'd become overwhelmed with homesickness. I skyped my aunt each night, sobbing about my misery. It must have been very hard on her, and my Canadian flatmate that lives beside me actually heard me and asked if I was alright. (Needless to say, I was properly embarrassed.)
But last night, for the first time, I had a good night.
I still felt the homesickness and sadness that seems to take me over in the evenings, but instead of letting myself be overwhelmed, I took out my security blanket: Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted which was my favorite book when I was a kid and has been read so many times, the binding is cracked. I got into bed, read my familiar and comforting story for a few chapters, and peacefully went off to sleep.
My days, however, have been a different experience.
Leeds is an absolutely gorgeous city and the campus is equally beautiful and lively.
I've met a lot of new people and have managed to remember most of their names (thanks to Mindy Kaling's audiobook chiding people that 'aren't good with names').
I've done the "British" things. I've had a pint at a pub. I've been called 'Love' by multiple shops people. I've had discussions about Sherlock, Harry Potter, Hugh Laurie, Doctor Who and (surprisingly) Buffy.
The homesickness takes a lot. Almost like I'm not letting myself have fun. But now, it is 10 PM (I hate those dreadful 24 hr clocks) I have eaten my 3rd PB&J sandwich of the day and am going to a night club called Halo which is in an old church (yeah...how awesome is that?) And maybe I'll come home so knackered I won't remember homesickness or skyping, but only the comfort of my springy mattress.
No comments:
Post a Comment