Hello everybody :)

Today was my first day at the University of Sheffield, and it started out pretty bad. Haha.

Tricia, my mom's best friend from nursing school, drove me up to the school (thanks again if you're reading this!) which was very helpful. I spent the first few hours in orientation, which consisted of some boring but necessary discussions about the university as well as campus tours. I got to meet one of my roommates in person finally, who I've been talking to over facebook for quite a while. But as soon as I left for lunch, Tricia picked me up as planned and we were supposed to head to the hostel I booked a room at to drop off my things, since I can't move in to my residence building until Saturday morning.

BUT THE HOSTEL WAS SO SKETCHY.

First of all, the roads in Sheffield are f***ed - pardon my language, but seriously. There's roundabouts every 2 seconds, everything is divided, and if you miss your turn, good luck trying to get back around. Sounds kind of like Hamilton, minus the roundabouts. But yeah, we finally made it to the hostel, walked up the steepest hill ever, and went inside. I knocked on the door and there was some girl with a sleeping guy on a mattress on the floor which was apparently the check-in room, and she told me it was closed... But I called the day before to make sure I could come at that time. Awkward. Then she said we could go through check-in in the kitchen. THEN she said she bumped me out of a private single room into a double room with somebody else, which means all my things would be accessible to some random person I don't know. I felt so uncomfortable I just decided to leave and stay at a hotel nearby instead, which was double the price, but oh well.

Trying to get to the hotel was a nightmare again because of the Sheffield roads, and the GPS wasn't giving us the right directions. After 45 minutes of driving in circles, Trish and I decided it'd be best for me to take a cab to the hotel. And, apparently, taxi cab drivers don't give a f*** if you're travelling, because as I carried two large suitcases, a backpack, a purse, umbrella, two big pillows and a duvet out of the car and into the hotel, HE SAT IN THE FRONT SEAT AND WATCHED ME. Thanks man.

I finally got to the hotel and settled in and I was late for the second part of orientation, so I took another cab back to the university, cause I had no idea where I was. It was a good start to the day.

The rest of the day was awesome though, I can't even tell you all the different countries I met people from! (but I'll try): Austria, Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, USA, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Croatia, Ireland, Singapore, etc... So crazy!

The University of Sheffield has an event every thursday called "One World Cafe" where all the exchange students meet up at one of the bars and get free tea & coffee, where you can play games and talk. We did that for a bit which was really fun, it felt like welcome week at McMaster all over again :) After that we had some drinks, ate dinner, and took part in traditional Gaelic dancing (Scottish dancing). It was hilarious, nobody knew what they were doing, and we all felt so ridiculous but it was great.

I've met so many amazing people already on my first day, learned lots of new foreign phrases, especially Dutch, which I've always wanted to learn because of my Oma and Opa! Hoe gaat het means how are you, in case you wanted to know ;)

I'm so excited for the rest of this semester!!!

Bye guys :)