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 :)