Two months… already?

I just saw on my friend’s blog, my blog link with the words “2 months ago” referring to the date of my last post. Wow, it’s been almost two months since I’ve first arrived in Nottingham.

So many things to talk about, but I shall do this post in a “First time I’ve..” style.

So, here goes.

First time I’ve…

1. Worn 3 layers of clothing and not die from overheating. When I first got here in mid September, the weather was lovely, summerish weather and you could venture outdoors without much warm clothing. Then came October, and instead of wearing just a cardigan or my thin zipper hoodie with a shirt, I actually had to wear both cardigan and hoodie with the shirt when going out. Just this week, temperatures have finally started to dip below 10C during the day and my 60% wool coat has finally made its appearance. And yes, the people here love talking about the weather, and associated matters, it’s caught on.
2. Spent what equates to almost RM60 for a normal Chinese meal. After church one day, my friend and I ended up following some other people to go for a meal, and we ended up at a Chinese restaurant nearby. Sure, it was a decent enough restaurant and 10 pounds a Chinese restaurant meal is actually quite cheap by standards here, but it didn’t make it any less painful on the wallet. But ok, that was the one and only time we ever ate Chinese food outside. After that, no more.
3. Packed lunch. Throughout my entire life, I’ve never ever had to pack lunch for myself. When younger, school ends just before lunch time. At uni in Malaysia, going to the cafeteria or going out to eat was convenient and affordable. Now… Say hello to the sandwich culture. I started off with a lot of ham, cheese and salad sandwiches. My current favourite is pan-fried mushrooms, onions, ham/salami/chorizo with eggs in pita bread that is lined with lettuce. Roast chicken sandwiches with mustard is nice as well. And no lunchbox is complete without fruit of some sort, and chocolate and/or dried fruit.
4. Walked half an hour one way to do groceries. Now this I really still cannot believe I still do from time to time. The nearest Sainsbury to my house is a good 30 minutes walk away in Beeston. Beeston’s a really nice little shopping area with one main street where there are some decent shops that come in miniaturised forms. It has the only Iceland within decent t ravelling distance, Iceland, home of cheap milk, cured meat, frozen food. And then, it has Sainsbury. Which we can easily end up spending more than an hour in, choosing fresh food, looking out for offers. Best offer so far was the 2 for 3.99 pounds Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream. Until Asda did a 2 for 3 pounds offer. That is cheap for a 500g tub, compared to in Malaysia. Ok, point is, we have on two occasions so far, bought groceeries and actually carried all that crazy amount of groceries we bought to walk 30 minutes back home. I still find it unbelievable. After that, I could barely feel my fingers. I swore to myself, never again. But.. hmm, we’ll see.
5. Seen buses and trains arrive as stated by the timetable. Now this I find impressive, being able to go to a website, type in your location and the place you want to go, put in the date, time you want to depart from or arrive at and voila, it gives you clearly stated options of how to get to where you want to go, what buses to take and how long it is estimated to be. Even factors in the walking time. Although yes, there are the few odd occasions when the bus would be late especially on some routes and at night or weekends, but I’m still amazed by this public transport system. And I love how at many bus stops, there is a digitised display showing what buses are coming in at what time. And the buses I’ve sat in so far are never too full, I’ve only had to stand once I think, and that was because it was busier on a Sunday.

Gosh I really want to write more, but there is so much to write and not that much time. Like how I went to Birmingham, and loved it. Or about English food.  Or about class, yes the reason why I came here, to study.

Really don’t know when’s the next time I’ll be blogging. May be winter by that time. Brr..