I'm in Bristol. I flew in at a little before 9:00 am on Saturday. It's been a topsy-turvy few days, full of registration hiccups. The most notable was that I discovered that everyone else had registered for classes two weeks ago; I didn't get the email giving me thelink to the class registration form. Lucky me. This led me to spend hours on the University of Bristol website (possibly the most disorganized and labyrinthine website on the planet) trying to figure out a class schedule. This, in turn, brought me (and I'm not entirely sure how--as I said, the worst website layout ever) to the Medieval Studies department page, and their offered classes. I began to panic. These were the classes I really needed to be taking. This was the school I needed to be in. And I wasn't.
To make a very long story short, I went to the admissions office, emailed the heads of both the English and Medieval Studies departments, and am now a member of the School of Medieval Studies. The head of English was sorry to see me go. He even offered to give me Intro to Old English and make a deal on Latin, but admitted that if medieval lit prof was what I wanted to be eventually, then Medieval Studies was where I needed to be now.
My new head of department, though I've only met her briefly, seems awesome, as does the Humanities department as a whole. Apparently being part of the Humanities department gives me access to our main building, which has a common room, study rooms, seminar and meeting rooms, printers and copy machines, two kitchens with free coffee and tea, a full set of cookware, fridges to store meals in, lockers, and even a shower. And I believe it's the only graduate building on campus with full 24/7 access. I could potentially never leave.
On another side of campus (which is interspersed amongst the city--there's no true "campus") is my flat. There are five other students and myself who share a kitchen/common area. There's Simon from London, Nosherwan from Pakistan, Ana from China, Myzone from Malaysia, and Rissen from somewhere in the Middle East. "Share" is a loose term; I hardly ever see my flatmates. They tend to all hide in their rooms, and if they must scuttle into the kitchen, they just as quickly scurry out. It's very awkward. The only really social one is Nosherwan, who I believe spends most of his time with his friends in other flats. I went the entire day today only seeing one of them (Simon). I got three sentences out of him before he fled the kitchen.
The good news is that the Medieval Studies, and really all of the Humanities students I've met so far, seem very social. Apparently each school within the Humanities department does a lot of social activities together as well as reading groups, study groups, and classes.
Before I sign off for the night, I'll give you a tour of my room.
My bed, taken just to the right of my door. Down the little hallway there is my bathroom. And the wall is purple! How perfect is that?
Just beyond the foot of my bed is my HUGE desk. So big, so exciting!
I'll take a picture of my view tomorrow. It's too dark to see much of anything now, but I'm on the perfect floor. I'm on the 5th floor (6th in U.S. terms), which is right at the skyline. It's as low as I can be while still getting a great view. This is especially important, as the elevator has been broken all week. Hopefully it will be fixed by Thursday or Friday.
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