laughter in the dark

the parents will have to call before they come round too!
March 25, 2003 | 1:07 a.m.

(I found that entry on my home computer, so here it is in al its glory. I'm still pissed about the dearth of that disk though. Stupid computers.)

So, I finally went down to Greenwich Uni to find out a bit more about the course and accomadation and so on, and generally have a look at it. I liked it. I mean, I was pretty sure I was going there anyway, but I think it's a good idea to actually see the place you're going to live for three years before you actually move there.

Uni and random London thoughts:

  • the uni itself is incredible. The buildings are huge, and I don't know anything about architecture whatsoever, so I can only say that they're really imposing and grand, with pillars and fountains and things going on. Lots of pillars. It's all built of a kind of chalky white stone too, which is beautiful. Except that I leant against the wall at one point and the back of my coat got all chalky, and that wasn't so beautiful. But still.

  • I was surprised at how easily I got the hang of the Tube. Once you get the idea of the zones and the lines, it's straightforward, a lot more so than I was expecting.

  • I think I may have inadvertently blagged it at one point though, because at first I thought that if you didn't come out of the station you didn't have to pay any more to carry on, so I went from Oxford Circus (I think) all the way to Canary Wharf on a single zone 1 ticket. It wouldn't work in the barriers on the way out, but the guy just let me go. Maybe they don't want to be bothered taking penalties from people, it's probably enough that you have some sort of ticket. That said I won't be attempting anything like that again, it probably only worked because I didn't realise what I was doing. I'm not exactly good with the poker face.

  • What's all this about the pigeons? I saw, like, three. Though I was underground most of the time.

  • It kind of smells. Is that a city thing? I suppose it must be. Wherever I went there was a different (bad) smell. I suppose I'll get used to it.

  • Canary Wharf - wow! I did the cliched thing of standing and staring at the sky like an idiot, getting in everyone's way. I think it'll take a while before I can walk past there without having a bit of a look.

  • We went on a tour of the accomadation - I thought it was really nice of the people who are actually living there to let us crowd into their rooms and poke about. The rooms are fine. Not huge, but I wasn't expecting that. A reasonable size. It was mentioned that students with unconditional offers get priority for rooms, so that should mean I get my first choice - I don't really mind which building it's in, but I do want my own bathroom. The "bathrooms" are basically cupboards with a shower and a toilet, but it's the exclusivity that I'm interested in. I have this thing where if I'm sharing a bathroom I have to clean the shower or bath myself each time I use it (even if it's obviously perfectly clean, that's not really the point) and it would be nice not to have to do that. Does that make me obsessive-compulsive or something?

  • I liked Greenwich town itself too, not that I saw that much of it. I didn't actually see the Dome (aka The Big Mofo-ing Mushroom Of Pointlessness) but I guess it's around there somewhere.

  • I wanted to keep the "X place is fucking huge!!" comments to a minimum, but one more - Euston station! Holy crap! There's about three Whsmiths in there, and I'm sure I only saw a bit of it.

I think there was more, but I'm falling asleep. Later.

<3
gf

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