and now some old things.

Cambridge is a small university town north of London, and the international liasion office had organised a tour for this Monday just gone for us international students. There were/are a few other activities for the international students, but this one appealed to me the most.

Since it was a Monday a lot of things were closed (the museum, the art gallery, the veg-restaurant that I wanted to go to for lunch) so I felt a little limited in where I could go. As a result I ended up in the (stunning!) Kings College Chapel (above). Look at that vaulted ceiling! Quite pleased I didn't burst into flames on entering as it would have been a bit of a waste of an entrance fee if I had (haha).

I spent the afternoon in the Botanical Gardens. I was in a pretty grumpy mood for most of the morning, and strolling around the grounds really helped me reset myself. 

I've been feeling quite... flat the last few days and to be honest I think I'm starting to feel homesick/lonely. I would say I'm suprised but really I should have known because in the past if I've been vehemently denying something that's generally when it's actually true. I've been telling friends and family it's all good, that homesickness is a long way off yet and blah blah blah... and to be honest, I believed what I was saying. I've only been here a few weeks, I've been having a good time and keeping in touch with people back home pretty well. But... I don't know. I'm in a bit of a lull I guess. I've settled down in my new home and starting to feel 'at home' in London as a whole. But: I'm limited in my social interactions HERE. Uni hasn't properly started yet. I'm yet to meet my classmates which is something I really really want to do as I feel I'm clinging on to Perth a bit too much. Mornings are good because when I wake up it's afternoon in Perth and I can chat to people and catch up which is important and I don't won't that to stop... but then on the flip side once it's afternoon here no one is online, my day has come to an end and I don't really have anything to do... and that's when I start to feel kind of lonely. I want friends HERE to do things with. I spent my day in Cambridge on my own and then when I got back on the bus at the end of the day the liasion officer asked me (in a concerned tone) if I'd spent the day alone. I said 'Yeah! It's fine, though!', 'cause it was to me: I went on the tour because I wanted to see Cambridge. I was on first name terms with a few of the girls on the tour (one also an exchange student from my uni back in Perth) but when it came for us head off at the start of the day I just went off on my own. And then when I was sitting on the bus heading back to London it occoured to me that the reason the liasion officer had asked me that question in such a tone was because that maybe the purpose of the trip wasn't actually to see Cambridge... but to make friends with the other international students? It seems to obvious now... but that just wasn't my thinking then. I feel a bit stupid now. I can't go on exchange then close myself off to people. I told myself I'd be outgoing; be friendly to everyone and then friendships would naturally develop... and I thought I was (I chatting openly with the girls on the bus on the way there) but I suppose I need to carry that through and persistantly interact with people, not just react when they talk to me. I can't be lonely. I don't want to look back on my time in this exchange and only be able to remember how lonely and sad I was when wondering around all these beautiful and exciting places.

Anyway today I didn't want to mope around so I wrapped myself up in two jumpers (:P) and went to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. It was awesome! The exhibits seemed to be oriented at school-aged children but that's ok because I'm no science whizz: I enjoy the shit out of learning about how continents are formed and how palaeontologists figured out that certian species of ___ are related to each other by studying their wrist bones... but the knittygritty details (see, I couldn't even remember what species it was!) of such science is a bit lost on me so I happily (not really) relied on diagrams and 'blurb' style info bubbles.

I looooove the front facade of the Natural History Museum. Being in London is really giving me a taste for historical architecture.

I found this in the toilet at the cafe in Cambridge where I had lunch (hello suprise vegan options!):

"You are only ever ONE thought away from PEACE <3"

It was a nice reminder that I can be my own worst enemy at times, and to reconsider my perspective :)

New things...

Last Thursday I bought a bike.

It's a retro (built in the 1960's) folding bike. I looked specifically for folding bikes because full size bikes pretty much aren't allowed on any tube trains here. I found this one for 60 pounds in a place called Hillingdon, which ended up being a 1 hour train (tube AND overground) one way. Even though it's a folding bike it's cumbersome as hell to lugg around on trains so hopefully I won't be doing much of that... but just having the option if I need it is good. Other than that I really like it. It's funky lookin' and I enjoy riding it immensley. I've been riding on the footpath because I don't feel comfortable negotiating the traffic here so I'm constantly expecting someone to yell at me: 'GET OFF THE FOOTPATH!', haha. I rode it to uni and back the other day for induction and I've worked out if I want it to 'pay of itself'' then I'd need to ride it to uni and back about 20-30 times, instead of taking the bus. Totally doable!

So yeah: induction! It was last Friday and I got some pretty valuable info, but I feel a lot of it was aimed at the people who'd only JUST arrived in the UK. One thing I probably would have benefitted from knowing on my arrival was that I'm supposed to have registered with the police within 7 days of my arrival here? And it costs 34 pounds... they don't know why we have to do it, just that were supposed to. I'm kind of reluctant to just do something because we're told to, without being told why, so I'd say it's likely I'm gonna be putting that off for even longer. ANYWAY. Tomorrow I go on a day tour of Cambridge with other international students as part of the induction activities, which I'm really looking forward to. It JUST occoured to me right now as I write this that I should check out my Lonely Planet guide to see what there might be to do around the place... perhaps some vegan places to eat? I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing a different English town and perhaps some decent English countryside on the way there.

Today I went to the farmers markets in Islington to stock up on some veggies. I got all this for under 10 pounds:

 I'm super excited about that big bag of kale! I'm gonna make a massaged kale and avo salad... then maybe make a stew out of the other bag of organic greens. And see that dark brown loaf to the left? Yeah, vegan chocolate soda bread. It's super dense and chocolatey. I bought the whole loaf because I wanted to share with Caroline, my landlady. I've cut it up into portions and frozen it so I can keep it for longer.

So yeah, one thing I wanna talk about: money. I started this blog about my exchange because I thought maybe other people would be interested in the logtistics of it all. When I was trying to get this exchange together I felt a little frustrated because there did not seem to be a great deal of info or first-hand experience available to me... I didn't know where to look, basically. I knew other people who had or were on exchange, but like... no one talked about the money side of it, which is something I really wanted to know. How much should I save? Is it ok to be supported by family? Does everyone apply for a loan (fyi: I didn't.). I suppose that's because it's quite passe to discuss financial issues publicly, but I'm going to now with as much discretion as I can partly in the hopes that someone who's thinking of doing something similiar may find this blog and find it helpful, but mostly because I want this blog to paint as much of the picture as possible - not just my cultural and academic experiences, but the nuts and bolts too. Basically, on leaving Australia, I did not feel I had enough of my own money to support myself here. I'd saved up as much as I could, but I honestly just didn't feel it was enough. I'm lucky enough though to have a very supportive family, and I received some money from close family members, which was purely out of their own generousity. My mum is definitely my biggest backer, and she's paying for my accomodation while I'm away and then when I get back to Australia and start working again I'm going to pay her back a portion that we've both agreed on. She's quite keen on me not being too frugal, and travelling/experiencing as much as possible while I'm here regardless of money, which is nice to have that support but at the same time I like to feel that I am a person who doesn't live above my means. Things have changed slightly this week though as I have found out I'll be receiving a travel loan from DEEWR in Australia (department of educartion and something workplace relations... I've forgotten the middle E, haha). Knowing that I'll be getting a boost finiacially was not necessaryily relieving but exciting. I knew with my mums help I could have done this exchange with my/our money, but this grant will definitely be helpful in that I can now travel a bit more widely once I've finished with school here (on my own money) because the grant will be supporting me while I study. Ah, yeah... that's pretty much all I wanted to say :)

Found this on entering Angel station on my way home from the farmers market :)

The Worst Bike in Amsterdam

So I went to Amsterdam last weekend to visit my friend Ella who has just finished up her exchange over there. I came back with a whole extra bag of stuff that she gave me in an effort to clear out her room - win for me! It was really nice to catch up with her and spending that four days there really reminded me that even though I generally ony see her once every 6 months or so, her friendship is still really important to me. It's nice to know that dispite long periods of time and distance genuine friendships still flourish.

I did a fair bit of museum and gallery hoping in A'dam, much to the horror of my wallet. Every museum had an entry charge which was suprising coming from Perth were it's all pretty much free entry or a small fee for special exhibitions. Anyway, in Amsterdam I went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was really, really good. Info next to every painting, a whole floor dedicated to artists that were influential to him and then another floor all about the restoration of his works where you could see infrared an x-ray scans showing the different layers of his paintings. I went to Rembrandt house too. And the Anne Frank Huis, which was good but since a lot of it had been restored to the point of looking new I had a bit of trouble kind of... connecting with the space in the way I feel I should have. One bit that did get me was a section of wall that has been preserved by a glass box where Anne and her sister had kept track of their heights, and they were both around my height.

Anyway, Amsterdam is super pretty, so you should all see pictures of Ella and I being tourists...

There are so many bikes in Amsterdam! I was so keen to buy a bike when I got back to London, and I'm still looking now but I'll admit my entusiasm has waned since coming back and noticing London isn't as bike-friendly as Holland.

Swan on the canal! I died!

There was an ice-skating rink at Museumplein so we went and mucked around in the snow that had collected around the edge:

We sorta got chased out by a kid throwing snowballst us, haha.

I'm back in London now. I've booked a trip to Cambridge for this weekend, which is part of orientation at uni here. And I also bought tickets to see The Black Keys in February, which was a little above my budget but I'm excited and glad I'm going nonetheless. I've settled into my new flat, my landlord is lovely and I'm starting to get my room in order:

My orientation starts on the 20th (not the18th, sorry Gyps!) and then uni starts officially next week sometime, around the 25th I think.

Much love!

-Cathryn.

Ps. The story behind the title of this post: on my first morning in Amsterdam, Ella and I were walking to her uni and this guy came up to us with this incredibly shabby, brown bike that looked like it was about to fall apart and tried to sell it to us. Over the next few days I saw A LOT of bikes around Amsterdam and have since concluded that the bike he was trying to sell us was perhaps the worst bike in the whole of Amsterdam. I am so funny sometimes! (Not.)

Moving on...

I move into my new room on Tuesday/Wednesday this week! I had a viewing on Saturday morning for a place in Colindale and the house/room/arrangement was very good. The live-in landlady was super friendly and seemed very keen to have me rent the room (so much so that when I called her up the next day to ask for the room she said she'd been saving it for me). I'm so looking forward to having my own space. I'm very used to hostels but I'm already over the one I'm staying in now. I think knowing I have my own space sitting a suburb away is possibly the reason for getting restless in this hostel arrangement so quickly.

This morning I have a minor enrolment-based freakout. I've been given two starts dates: 9th Jan (today) and the 25th, so I called up this morning to check. I know the morning that you may be expected to show up is very late to be doing that sort of thing but to be honest the thought didn't really occour to me until last night when I was trying to enrol online (a failure, btw - I'll have to do it when I get there in person) and the earlier start date started popping up. So I called up this morning and after being told I wasn't even on the system was given over to an arts admin who said I WAS set to study and that I should come in on Thursday morning to be given a space a shown around. Phew! Still not sure about classes though... not actually sure when I start but suffice to say it's not this week as they're still doing assesments.

Outside of uni-related stuff I'm planning an last-minute trip to Amsterdam this weekend to see a friend (Ella) who's just finishing up her exchange over there. Yay for suprise international travel! I will probably update with photos and such from that adventure when I get back. In the mean time have some photos from the past few days:

This is the view from my hostel, looking down Queens parade.

On Saturday Lydia (a friend from uni who's here on holiday) and I went to the Tate Britain. 

I love this photo, but it's kind of blurry which makes me all sorts of sad. It could have been so good! But alas, stealth photography seldom yields flawless results.

I saw this and thought of my friend Molly, who always complains that I use words that are much to big and that I don't know the meaning of (partly true).

Tiny boats, made of leaves!

Lydia and I out the front of Tate Britain. Lydia kindly lent me her Art in London book because she won't be needing it anymore and it's sure as hell gonna come in handy for me over the next few months here :)

Also yesterday I had some super delicious vegan noms at Inspiral Cafe in Camden Town after browsing the busy markets. I waddled out of the cafe having eaten a lasange with 3 sides (I picked sweet potato, roasted tomato and kale/broccoli/cabbage salad) and a raw banoffee pie for dessert. I really need to lay off the raw desserts: they always make me feel uncomfortably full and to be honest I'm not sure I like them enough to justify that. However, I think I'll definitely be heading back to try their other menu items and maybe their vegan icecream in the future. Today I have plans to visit Loving Hut in Camden for lunch, hit up Tate Modern and maybe go to a charity shop and get myself some mittens and long-sleeve undershirts. Might even splurge on a cosy big jumper if I find one I like :)

Anyway, that's all for now. Much love!

-Cathyrn.

Saying goodbye (and then hello)

Hello from London!

So, I've been here about two days now, and I'm well into room hunting. I had a 'viewing' today and the room/ensuite was nice but I'm not sure if the arrangement is exactly what I want (living with family - not students-, no access to kitchen facilites but a small fridge and microwave in room, not permitted access to living room and such) so I'm going to keep looking and I have two viewings set up for tomorrow, one which I'm really excited about (Mum, Aunty Gypsy - it's the one you guys picked out for me, it's still available so I'm seeing it tomorrow - fingers crossed!).

I'm not feeling homesick yet at all, despite being on my own and half way across the world. I know it'll set in eventually but hopefully I will be able to deal with it as best I can. Saying goodbye to my friends and family on Wednesday was hard, but knowing they all love me and support me helps me while I'm here. It's like, even if I'm not home, I know it's still there and so are the people who love me. Below are some photos of us all at the airport:

My mum and I, and my bags which basically contain my life for the next 6 months.

L-R: My step-mum Cherly, my dad Ron, me, Caroline, my mum Colleen, and Henry.

It took me about 10 minutues to say goodbye to everyone, because I gave everyone multiple hugs, stopped to take the photo... then giaave everyone another round of hugs. I was so glad to have those people there to see me off :)

The flight/s were good. Food was suprisingly good for vegan aeroplane food, and I managed to sleep for a fair bit on the 13 hour haul from KL to Heathrow.didn't get jetlag too badly, but I was pretty exhausted by 8pm on the day I got here so I had an early one. Thank god for my eye mask! It lets my body thing it's dark while my room mates can go about their business with the light on. Also, my laptop is still set to Perth time, which sometimes confuses me because I think, 'oh, it's late arvo? ok' and then I walk around for a bit before it clicks that it's not afternoon AT ALL.

The past few days I've done a bit of site-seeing ('scuse the dark photos):

 

Today I went to the National Gallery. I only walked through a few rooms, so I'll be going back but I saw The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (!!!). You had to pay to get up close but I stood 20metres back and was still able to get a decent look. I feel very proud of myself for seeing an iconic piece of art on my second day here. It reminded me why I'm here, and that I've got so much more amazing art (both traditonal and contemporary) and culture ahead of me.

I think I need to buy some good, proper English clothing. Walking around in the cold has been wearing me out a bit and I find my feet and hands are taking the brunt of it. I found some generic brand Berocca in Boots and I'm trying to have one of those a day just to keep my immune system strong (B and C vitamins, bring it on!). Other than the coldness of it, the weather here over the past few days has been good - clear skies, no rain, so I'm thankful for that. I was thinking of heading up to Scotland sometime between now and when uni starts but apparently they've been having terrible storms up there over the past few weeks so maybe I'll give Scotland a miss for now.

I've some good and suprising vegan stuffs around. In Camden Town Markets today for example I came across Cookies and Skream food stall which sells only vegan and gluten frees sweets, so I helped myself to a giant PB choc chip cookie (seriously, it was like twice the size of Subway cookies - I was well impressed). I will definitely be heading back to Camden Town in the future, if not for the delicious vegan food but also for the awesome market stalls. [In fact I've already had a quick look at rooms for rent in Camden 'cause I liked it so much, but the area as a whole is a bit out of my budget, which isn't suprising - I think it's a pretty trendy area.] One thing I haven't been able to locate, food-wise, is tofu! Maybe I'm looking in the wrong section of the supermarket, I don't know...

Hoping all is well over in Perth-town :)

- Cathryn.

22 hours to go!

Hi all!

Right now I am sitting on my couch at home (in Australia), with a yummy vegan lasagne in the oven, a bottle of sparkling wine in front of me and two of the people I love most in the world at either side. I can't believe that in less than a day I will be on a plane to London (via Koala Lumpor).

As you can see from the picture below, I'm barely half-packed.

That red bag at the bottom is one of the two bags I'm bringing... the other still needs filling. I've got a lot of freshly washed clothes hanging outside on the line, which are to be packed tomorrow morning.

I've started organising 'viewings' for flats for when I get there. Looking at the available rooms on the university's housing site got me quite excited yesterday, daydreaming about having my own room in a far-off city. It also made me feel a bit more 'secure' in my plans, as up until now I only have one weeks worth of accomodation at a hostel for when I get there... but knowing that I will eventually have my own 'home' there settlings my nerves a bit.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I am fully mentally prepared. Packing is hard, because the longest I've ever been away from home was the month I was in New Zealand. So... I can't fully comprehend that I'll be away for 6 months. I'm picking up stuff around my room and thinking 'do I need this? Will I need this?' Then I realise I won't be in my room for a rather long time and I wonder if I should give it a good clean out. Although right now it's cleaner than it's been in weeks though so I'm sure it'll be fine. Hopefully I won't come back to a small colony of small creatures living under my bed, living off of clothing tags and old magazines.

Anyway, next time I update I will be in London.

Much love to my friends and family reading :)

-Cathryn