Learning to drive on the left.

Finally! I can warn you now already that this is going to be a long one. It has been nearly two weeks since my last post and that was when I was still in Switzerland. Hard to believe...

I arrived in Liverpool last Monday evening and was planning on staying a few days and then going to Nottingham for a day as you might remember. Plans changed: I ended up staying in Liverpool until Friday and then driving down with my uncle Dan, Andy and my very lovely cousin Flora to the wedding in Cheltenham. I had a wonderful time exploring Liverpool. One of the most enjoyable facts was that nearly all museums are free so I made good use of this and looked at St. George's Hall, which was very impressive and well done. I was most astounded by the fact that the court joined onto the huge and stunning concert room through stained glass doors. Imagine being put in prison for stealing blankets while others are pigging themselves on some wonderful buffet and dancing in their dresses in the new fashion from Paris. (I'm sure this didn't really happen at the same time though...). I then went into the World Museum where I was particularly interested in the new "The Beat goes on" exhibition about music from Liverpool (not only the beatles) and was astounded by the number of bands that originate in Liverpool (I am a generally easily astounded person as you may have already noticed). After that I decided that it was time for something to eat and to buy a Lonely Planet of Great Britain. These occupations took up the rest of my day. Wednesday I went down to Alberts Dock, home of the Tate Liverpool. I spent the morning looking at the fixed exhibitions there (the only ones open due to preparations for the Biennial (the International Festival for Contemporary Art). I was happy to find a Magritte and various artists familiar from the Beyeler in Riehen (e.g. Giacometti). In the afternoon I visited the Maritime and the Slavery museum. Latter was especially interesting although fighting my way through groups of English school kids was not so. Thursday I visited the two large and very different cathedrals. The Liverpool Cathedral is neogothic and very much as one expects a cathedral to be: Very big, a huge organ, beautiful glass windows, etc. The metropolitan Cathedral I was not so impressed by. It is a more modern building i.e. a lot of concrete and metal. In the evening we went to the preview the John Moore Contemporary Painting Prize where I particularly enjoyed peoplewatching! Friday morning I wandered over to Sudley House about a 5 minute walk from Dan and Andy's. Sudley House is the house of a Victorian merchant and still has his original collection of painting and so the ground floor is made up in the original style. The second floor has exhibitions of toys and clothing - I though the dresses were actually rather nice! Friday afternoon we left for the wedding.

The wedding: It was lovely and very classical. Maybe not the style of my choice but tastes differ so no surprises there. Us Nevills stayed in an inn that had been completely emptied by the previous managers of anything worth a few quid (I am practicing saying quid not pounds), which was interesting. The rest of the family stayed in a different inn just over the hill. The so called Cotswolds are amazing! Very pretty but everything looks the same! All the house are made out of large limestone bricks in this sort of greyish colour and are all built in the same style. Very odd. I am not going to go into detail on the wedding but will add a picture or two asap. On Sunday we dropped Mark off at the bus stop and started making our way to Nottingham - or so we thought! The whole M5 motorway was closed so we ended up circling back to Cheltenham and going cross-country to Nottingham. Instead of a two-hour drive it was a 4-hour drive! We quickly checked in and had a look at my room before heading off to IKEA to get some basics. After that trip, a trip to Sainsburys the following day and a trip into town on Wednesday I think I more or less have everything I need (except for: salt, pepper, herbs, tissues and "Mäppli").

This week was induction week so I have had a load of information on things like the institute (I am at the institute for work, health and organisation), plagiarism, library use, my course and have also met my tutor who seems very nice and chosen my modules. I have also registered for a bank account, health and dental service and been to freshers fayre where you get lots of freebies and can sign up for societies. I am thinking about joining the swimming and the sub aqua (i.e. diving) societies. The sub aqua society does a week-long trip diving in Scotland at Easter, which sounds cold but very interesting. And then yesterday, the highlight of my week, I bought a bicycle! (picture coming soon) I love it already and rode to school today!

As you can tell, I am settling in. I get on well with my flatmates who are all very nice and come from different backgrounds and do different things. I have also seen Jenny's flat and met her flatmates so with all them and people on my course I am slowly but surely getting to know people. I have not been out yet so far as I am always completely exhausted by the evening but this will change soon, I am sure. I will write a more detailed post on people and my social life soon.

I am going to leave you with this for the moment as I think it is a fair amount of info already. I must now find something to eat and the register for the University fitness center/swimming pool, etc. I am enjoying registering for things and have even already registered for a two-hour workshop on leadership skills. I also plan to register to do volunteer work in the community. There you go.

xxxxx