PAUL

Becoming Loiners (People from Leeds apparently)

These entries may be slightly out of chronological order now but not to worry. I'm sure you'll all figure it out. I think that as we travel around a bit the journal entries will become slightly mixed up as it arranges entries by place name. However, if you click on the orange RSS Feed icon in the top right corner you will see all the entries listed in the order in which they were added with the most recent first. Also, anyone wanting to receive an email notification each time we add to the journal, let us know using the contact tab on this site. So, now to bring you all up to speed.

Having arrived on the Wednesday we spent the next couple of days finding our way around Leeds University and the City Centre. We booked ourselves in for a tour of each through the international students office and were pleased we did, finding out many helpful and interesting facts, although we really had no idea where we had just been at the end of each tour. We also had some important "firsts" in those couple of days. We had our first meal at a fish and chips shop (though we actually chose the sausages and chips as the fish was too expensive there) and we caught the Free City Bus for the first time and managed to accidentally got off at the right stop (as we were on our way to get bus maps and timetables). On our second journey on the free bus Lisa managed to get off the bus but I was stuck behind some older people whom I'd been polite enough to let get out in front of me, but then they didn't get off until the next stop and I was trapped in the bus as the doors closed and left Lisa standing at the bus stop on her own. We also bought of first umbrellas from, what we felt at the time, was a city that should be experts on the topic as it hadn't stopped raining for more than 10 minutes since we got off the plane (this assumption turned out to be actually quite wrong as it took a grand total of 10.2 seconds for my umbrella to blow inside out). We also discovered our new favourite shop, Primark, selling clothes and manchester (as in bedding, not the city, though I think they would if they could - historical rivalry between counties) at very cheap prices. We also bought mobile phones for £7 plus £20 for credit, however, the phones are rather… basic (Motorola F3 for anyone interested) and can't fit more than about 6 characters on the screen at any one time. Not to worry, they'll do the job. Thursday and Friday nights also involved some welcome briefings at the uni which gave us a chance to meet some fellow exchange students (from both Australia and other countries).

Saturday was our first day without rain (in the morning at least), and we made the most of it by going for a walk through Hyde Park and around Headingley (this day and the next were when we took most of our "Exploring Leeds" photos).

Before we knew it the weekend was over, we had spent our last night in our temporary accommodation and uni had begun. Lisa and I have a number of lectures in the Roger Steven's Building which is a building containing something like 24 lecture theatres which are kind of "stacked" on top of each other. For anyone who's been to the lyric theatre and thought you were lost finding the right door, try finding your lecture theatre on your first day in this building.

We also moved into our permanent residences, Lupton which is right in Headingley and directly behind the shops we discovered on our first day. Unbeknown to us, the train lines had become flooded with all the recent rain and so getting a taxi to take you 800m was almost impossible. After two and a half hours we eventually got a taxi and were able to move in to Block A, Lupton Residences. We are in a 5 bedroom unit on the second level of the building sharing the bathroom and kitchen with three other people, Hannah, Tom and Ian.

Having barely unpacked our bags, we welcomed Mum and Jane to Leeds on the last leg of their European trip through Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Holland and finally England. My rather hectic timetable meant Lisa spent more time with them than I did while they were here. On Wednesday night (23rd) we went ice skating at the outdoor ice rink set up for a couple of months after Christmas in Millennium Square in the city centre. Much fun was had by Lisa, Jane and I despite the cheapo one-shape-fits-all ice skates while Mum relaxed in the warmth of the adjacent café. We farewelled Mum and Jane on Thursday night as they left the next day on a train for Manchester where they would fly out of on Saturday on their way home.

Well this has brought us to the end of the first week. We just thought we'd give you a short list of some of the things we first noticed about Leeds, so here it is…

The streets are narrow and have no nature strip.

There are identical looking houses everywhere, both old and new.

The hot and cold taps have been separate in every bathroom so far forcing you to choose between freezing and scalding your hands.

The recent trend of fining people for jaywalking in Brisbane has not extended to here and people cross wherever and whenever they like.

The traffic lights are also into the disco theme, going through orange/amber before turning green as well as before red.

Street names are hard to find and might be painted on the road, on a fence, on a building, turned around or missing all together.

When you do find the street name you are thoroughly disappointed at the creativity of the town planers. As an example we have: moor road, moor park avenue, moor park road, moor lane and there's moor…

Everything at the University has a name (such as the Roger Stevens Building, Brotherton Library, Edward Boyle Library, Michael Saddler Building, Edward Baines Wing and the Bragg Computer Cluster where I am now).

There are many fashionistas here who are oblivious to the cold walking around in miniskirts and fishnets when it struggles to push 5°C at midday.

Yes, meat is expensive here

And finally, the weather is so much nicer on the days it doesn't rain.

PS: For Dave, read: In Leeds, Uni has started, having fun.