Arrived in the UK!

Yes, now it finally happened: I arrived to spend a year in the UK as a Masters student of Social Anthropology in Manchester!

After a wonderful month with family, friends, donkeys and mountains in Switzerland, I boarded a plane together with Dean to London. In my first few days in Manchester I got a phone number (email me and I will tell you :-) and I got to know my accomodation and the university.

My accomodation is very small and ugly - the bed wouldn't fit in twice, the build is from around the 1960s and there are many 19 year olds who left home for the first time and party like crazy, so I woke up last night to a firework in front of my window! I pay around 670 Swiss francs.

Besides the accomodation, the impression I got from the university so far is great: They take really good care of us internationals, and everything seems well organized and striving for excellence.

It looks as though the masters will be more challenging than I thought: I was in an information session today, and they told us we'd be working around 35 hours a week if we didn't take any holidays all year round! Now, let's see if this is just the usual university scarer at the beginning or if it is actually true. I like to be challenged at university (one reason for choosing the UK and Manchester) and it seems this university will challenge me.

Everyday feels like an adventure, because you don't know who you are going to meet and what you are going to learn. For example, today I found out that my course lasts till September, and not just till June, I meet a really nice Canadian woman and I am going to a Barbecue organised by the international society. Overall, I like it here and I am happy to go through something which looks like a unique learning experience, meeting lots of English and international people and exploring a new (more academic) side of myself!