Fesher’s week is over! Thank goodness! As fun as it was not having to do anything and just partying, I’m EXHAUSTED. Even so, there are still loud parties going on in our building, and I’m hoping everyone will chill out soon!

I had my first day of lectures today, Monday. Which was more like lecture (singular) because one I have every other Monday (not this week), and the other has slated the intro lecture for Thursday instead. It was a pretty standard as far as lectures go. The typical warnings: “all the information will not be on the lecture slides, you have to come to lectures,” and “keep up with the material.” Aside from the fact that it was in a building called Roger Stevens a picture of which is below.

 

And the inside (as shown by one of my flatmates):

This building is lovely in that it has 28 (I think?) lecture halls, and the hall numbers tend not to resemble a logical, sequential order. It’s wonderful.

I’ve found that the lecture halls in the US tend to have individual chairs with their own little attached/fold out desk top. Here, all the lecture theaters I’ve been in have individual chairs, but just one long bench-desk in front of the whole row.

Few other interesting points I’ve picked up on over the past week…

Here, the grades they get in first year don’t count toward their final grade for their degree. They just have to pass. Talk about unfair!

A language thing I’ve noticed is that in casual greeting, instead of saying “hey” or “what’s up?” as in the US, they say “you all right?” The first few times (okay, multiple times) people have said “you all right?” to me, I’ve been a bit taken aback, as I hear it as more of a concerned statement than a casual greeting. This has really been throwing me for a while, and I’m just getting used to it.

At PSU, it’s rare to see someone walking around campus who’s not either talking, texting, or listening to their iPod. Here, it’s very rare to see that. I’ve put audio books on my iPod for the 30 minute walk to/from campus, and honestly I feel sort of self conscious listening to it.

In terms of nightlife, people actually seem to go out more on the weeknights than the weekends. I’ve gathered that’s because the good offers are during week, and they jack up all the prices on the weekends.

One last weird note before I head to bed…In the US we drive on the right side of the road, and if you think about it, when you walk on the sidewalk, you generally have a natural inclination to walk on the right side as well. Strangely enough, here I’ve noticed that it matches up with their driving patterns too. People generally walk on the left side of the sidewalk. Strange huh? And for that matter, I’m getting better with which way to look when crossing streets, but I think it’s still going to be a while before it’s natural.

Location: Leeds, UK