Jan 2009

the first week has been good. it isnt actually as cold as i thought it would be and you get used to it pretty quickly. hope everyone is enjoying the 'hottest week in history' back in melbourne / ballarat. i can say id prefer to be here.

so ive managed to get out a few times already. the first few nights were hard as i kept dying from jet lag, but ive picked up the pace lately. been to a few clubs. ones called oceana, some big f-off club in the middle of leeds. while it has different rooms with different themes and tunes, it is pretty much your standard house club with that kind of crowd associated to it, but you get good bottles of beers and cruisers for 80p on a thursday, which is about $1.80. so thats reason enough to keep going there on a thursday for the time being.

been to a couple of indie clubs as well, both were good, one of them was amazing, played goood tunes that arent quite so well known but heaps better to go off to.

went to some pub for a quiz night on sunday, its a weird part of the student culture here that we dont have. a pub full of young people for a quiz on a sunday night. kinda sounds gay but it was actually really laid back and fun.

went to a walkabout pub for australia day. i wasnt sure what to expect there, if it was some cheesy aussie pub or not, but its actually pretty cool. its a pretty big place and we got there at about 5. there isnt a massive aussie population in leeds, but it was good to hear some familiar accents again and there was a nice replay of the lovely 2008 grand final on tv to top the evening off. later on the dance floor was pumpin with some barnes and farnham. dont tell me that isnt what you want.

i think coming here will almost always make you better at drinking beer.
the beers are bigger and in most cases cheaper.
if you're at a pub on a weeknight, a pint of beer is about ₤1-₤2 depending on the brand, and the cans of beer you buy here at shops, (most people buy cans not bottles) are the size of a pint.
so while you're still measuring and timing your drinks in pot size, you're having pints. its real good.

anyway this mightn't make any sense but i cant be bothered fixing it now.
ill add some pictures from the last few days later.

I woke up today and looked out the window... fully overcast. now i'm in England.

here's a couple of pics of the room i'll be using for the next (x) months. got my own en suite which is good. the aussie flag will be up in no time dont you worry. my accomodation is sugarwell court, leeds.

The flights weren't as bad as i imagined, but still are up there alongside one other travel experience (mum) as one of the longest, most boring things i have ever experienced. there were couple of hour periods where it looked like the plane on the map never moved, more so going over china. but in all it was ok, i was fortunate to be seated alongside a couple of good people who were easy to get along with. the thing i saw on the way that stood out most was just after we left Hong Kong, the number of high rises crammed into the space was amazing, dots of dense population in between mountainous areas. so i though that's what 1 billion people looks like.

the sky was suprisingly clear as we came close to london, which gave me a good view of it from the air and i saw a couple of places i knew.

after arriving i had a couple of hours to kill before my connection, so i went about getting used to some of the money, i bought some food and looked around for a bit. after noticing the extent of my stench i went to the cologne section and asked a very, very....kind lady to cover me in the best sample they had.

by this stage i was bloody tired as i hardly slept on the plane. i got on a BA flight to manchester which was delayed for an hour as passengers wong, chong, dong, li, chau, long, (no lie) and their 20 other friends decided to check their luggage in but not make the flight. this had to be removed. needless to say i was pissed as i couldnt stay awake and just wanted to get somewhere to sleep. once we were in the air we got some decent food and drink and by the time id eaten it we were nearly there. the flight only takes about 45 minutes.

after telling wayne rooney where to go, i caught a train out of manchester to leeds. luckily i woke up just before the stop and eventually caught a taxi to my accomodation by about 10.30pm on sunday night uk time.

so after about 35 hours of traveling i had made it. time for a long sleep.

why did i choose to do this?
well i did primarily it to take myself out of my comfort zone, as it is something i don't normally do. I have also wanted to travel here for a while and saw exchange as a good vehicle to use to get here.
hopefully i can use this to get some life experience under my belt and make myself a more open person back in oz.