One of these things is not like the other…

Now that I’ve been here for two weeks, I think I’m a little more qualified to see the differences between home and here. Leicester is way different than Holy Cross in so many ways. The biggest difference (pun completely intended) is the size of classes. I had one lecture last week, and it was 106 people. My biggest class at home was probably 22 people! Classes are taught in a lecture format and they aren’t super mandatory, but they have things called tutorials which are like seminars for your lecture, and those apparently have ~10 people (I haven’t had one yet) and workshops where you go through problems as a class, also smaller. I’ll probably figure that out more this week- I have two classes tomorrow.

Another big difference is campus life. Students don’t hold parties as much as they go out to bars and clubs, which makes sense because everything is 18+, but it’s harder to meet the people you live with. It also gets super expensive. The residences (called accommodations) are a 20 minute bus ride from campus, which is tough, because you can’t exactly go back if you’ve forgotten something. You also don’t have to buy books because the library has them, but it means spending a lot more time in the library.

The very simple things that you take for granted are the hardest, though. I’m self-catered, which means I don’t have a meal plan but I do have a kitchen. Unfortunately, the stove is electric and I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to turn it on. I actually had to call reception, which is like the help desk, and ask them how to turn my stove on. Of course, it has a little hidden power switch! Should have known. All of the outlets actually have them. I guess that’s good, because it probably saves energy, but if you forget to flip the switch your phone doesn’t charge overnight! And then your alarm doesn’t go off… been there, done that. The sinks are different too; they have two faucets, one for hot water and one for cold, which is tough for washing dishes because the hot is too hot to touch, but the cold doesn’t get the dishes clean! I’ll be really happy to get home and have a dishwasher.

I’m think I’m adjusting pretty well, all things considered, but I’ll be happy to be home for Christmas- still have to buy my tickets!

xx Michaela

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2014 at 8:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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