First Impressions Pt. 2

In my last post, I didn't manage to tell you everything I've seen and done so far. I wanted to update you about our trip to the Isle of Wight:

The Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is an island on England's southern coast. It is separated from the mainland by a strait called Solent (which happens to be the name of my uni). You can get there easily from the ferry port in Southampton. So the six of us (Joanna, Signe, Marvin, Mika, Matthew and me) began our journey (which happened to be longer than expected) at noon at the Speed Ferry terminal.

After a short ride across the Solent we noticed that the island was much larger than expected (as we did not really prepare, we had actually no idea how large...) and it took us about 2 hours (perceived!) to arrive at our destination: The Needles.

The busride itself was quite an adventure though, as the busdriver did not really care about the narrow roads or a speed limit.

With its diverse landscape the island is often said to be "England in miniature". It is famous for the annual "Isle of Wight Festival" (see here for more information) and I just learned that Bear Grylls was born there!!

So eventually we arrived at Alum Bay (to get to The Needles). It was pretty late already, and the first thing we saw was some kind of amusement park with only a few people, which was a bit creepy. When we came back after our hike through the beautiful landscape and barely caught the last bus, it was even creepier with no human soul...

All in all the Isle of Wight was such a wonderful experience. Too bad we didn't have enough time to see more of the island, but that is just another good argument to go there again!

You'll find some more photos of my first impressions here. 

First Impressions

The town

So, I've been to Soton (that's what "we" Sotonians call Southampton) now for about a week.

Besides the fact that most travel guides don't even mention Southampton, my guide (this one) tells the excited traveller everything about Soton on three pages ("...und so präsentiert sich Southampton heute weitgehend im Einheitsgrau der Betonarchitektur..."). You guess it, it is not everything.

Though Southampton is not known for its beauty, it is actually pretty nice. Yes, there are a few concrete buildings, but there are also a lot of these little English houses, quite a decent park right next to the uni and some cool pubs and tearooms.

You also find some old structures in some places. On High Street, for example, there are ruins of a church which was destroyed in WWII.

As Soton has quite a big harbour, you can see huge cruise ships every other day. Usually, you can see them come in at Mayflower Park, which is currently closed for public due to the Southampton Boat Show.
If anyone wants to come visit me by cruiseship, you can book a "Schnuppertour" on the Queen Mary 2 from Hamburg to Southampton (see here for more infos). :)

Plus, you have everything in walking distance. Now that I moved into halls, I need a maximum of 10 minutes to get everywhere (uni, IKEA, cinema, shopping mall, supermarket, bars...)

The people

I have met plenty of people in this week. There are a lot of international students, so it is really a cultural mix here. We have Germans (besides me Joanna and Susanna), Canadian (Matthew), Finnish (Mika), Danish (Signe, Nikolai), Greek (my flatmate Georgia), French (Quentin), Slovakian (Samuela) and of course some Brits (Nick, Scotty, my other flatmate Sam...) ... with much more to come!

As most of the students, especially the internationals, don't know anyone here, everyone is quite open to new people. We have taken trips to the New Forest, the Isle of Wight and the local pubs (which is not that of a trip considered I am living five minutes away).

The New Forest

The New Forest is a large national park west of Southampton (about 350 km²) with wild horses, donkeys, boars and cattle. We took a Scooter trip there and thought we had to look for them, but especially the horses were everywhere! Though they are pretty shy when you approach them, they just stand and walk on the streets and don't care about the cars (which have to go round them).

Besides all the animals, the New Forest has some picturesque little villages, too. We went to Beaulieu for a cup of tea. Beaulieu is what you have in mind when you hear "English village".



Sorry for the long post, but I have seen and done so much in the last seven days, it is not easy to keep up. All in all, I am having a pretty good time. I promise to write more!

The Countdown has started...

Now it's only 12 days left. A few days ago, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to write a post about preparations: What should you organise, if you're moving to another country for a year?

But then I realized that there are a lot of things I didn't even think about. Of course I considered which mobile tariff or bank account I should take. But when it came to the place of residence, one question lead to another and soon I was lost. If I quit my place of residence in Germany, I am no longer health insured. But what does the student insurance at Solent cover? Where do I insure my beloved scooter?

After some mental stress, I eventually decided to just leave everything like it is. I'm having enough fuss with my move.

But I can tell you everything I have actually organised yet.

Uni

If you've not chosen future uni yet, maybe the website Mastersportal can help you decide. The application process differs from uni to uni. But usually, you need a personal statement, some references from lecturers and, of course, your Bachelor certificate or grades. As for me, there weren't any deadlines, but I heard that some unis choose according to "first come, first serve", so the sooner, the better. 

I sent my application in march, and already 3 weeks later I received the so-called "conditional offer". After handing in my Bachelor certificate, I got another letter with my unconditional offer (as I met the expectations for the course). Together with the conditional offer, you get a form of acceptance which you have to send back in order to take your reserved place.

After accepting the offer, I only got one more letter telling you the date of your welcome meeting (mine is on 17th, I'll report!). Everything else works via e-mail/online, which is pretty modern compared to my ex-uni...
Sometimes it doesn't work 100% (when the online registration opened, the system crashed), but eventually it worked, I registered online for my course (enrolment is during Freshers week) and now I am able to pay my tuition fees via pay-to-study, which is a good option to avoid international bank transfer fees.

Accommodation

I applied for a room in student halls (in April) as I have never lived in halls before and wanted to try this. While waiting for the acceptance (until August!), I checked out some private accommodation (via Spareroom.co.uk, which is roughly the British version of WG gesucht). 

I noticed one thing which is driving me crazy: You're never told the room size! You measure a place by the bedrooms (like I care about how many bedrooms a house has!). After replying to some offers (to which I almost never got an answer due to the fact that I am not able to come to a viewing), I gave up and just waited for my acceptance from student halls. All in all, it seems to be a bit more expensive there, but basically you know what you get, the halls are perfectly central and with an extended contract (you could choose between standard and extended, extended goes until middle of August) it is even cheaper. 

Last but not least, I received my acceptance: I am going to live in Emily Davies (who was an English feminist fighting for women's rights to attend university). After also accepting this offer, you need to complete an online induction which tells you for example that they're testing the fire alarms in halls every Friday at 10:30 A.M. EVERY FRIDAY! This is just insane!

To be honest, this is not very much of organisation. But i joined quite a few Facebook groups and checked out the societies and sport clubs. I think everything else will be sorted out at my arrival in Soton (which is already in 5 days!!). Until then, I will need to pack a lot and clear my flat...

I'll keep you posted!