Discovery!

I don't share a room. That's good. I wouldn't be able to handle it.

That said, despite having a single room, I've had to get used to neighbours and - you guessed it - thin walls. No, not them. I'm the one who makes all the noise. And i've become very conscious of it.

Today I ventured to the music center and found - practice rooms. Acoustics were shit and they weren't very soundproof at all. But I managed to record Izzy's birthday video which was a mash-up of our two "songs." Because I love you all, I'll share it with just you guys because i'm so self-conscious since I can't sing. Or play piano.

Like i said. Acoustics suck. Turn your volume DOWN. Opening might kill your speakers. Not a joke.

5 Main (Notable) Differences Between Now and Not-Now

Very vague title. Not-now refers to anytime that is not now. 'Now,' as in not exactly-this-moment, but this period of time. Yes, all my article-type things of the moment all concern university. it's a big change - girl in the city plopped down in the middle of the countryside; it's very Mike, Lu & Og (anyone?) -esque except I'm not on an Island and they didn't appear to do anything except for throw coconuts at each other, and I kinda had a choice in my coming here to be honest. It's not really very Mike, Lu & Og is it?

(1) The lack of common everyday household objects.
When you do your own grocery shopping for the first time, you will of course, forget things. You will go out and buy those things and forget more things and inevitably this just builds up in a big ball of forgotten things and you'll never fully be complete. Restocking things is a pain in the ass too. Lemme just grab a tiss- fuck.

You will remember that pack of hair pins or your apple juice just as you're halfway back from the supermarket and you will pause. You will hover on the spot as you face a metaphorical fork in the road; do you shamefully turn back and face the humiliation as you meekly slide over your box of pads or condoms or contagious foot fungus cream* - it's always the awkward thing, isn't it? "Can't forget those, can we now?" Winks the cashier and you want to crawl in a hole and die. Or, do you just say, Fuck it, and continue on knowing very well that you'll be hating yourself later. Or making your friends hate you as you scrounge off them yet again.

(*Just an example that I used in trying to be funny. I swear I don't have contagious foot fungus. Ew.)

(2) Leaves. And walking on grass in general.
We don't get the cute Autumn leaves in Hong Kong. And even if we do, they are promptly swept away by the many road cleaners or they fall on the grass which we don't walk on. If, in the urban jungle that is Hong Kong, there is nice grass, it will be decoratively accompanied by a "Please Do Not Walk On The Grass" sign.

Walking over grass still feels funny. Why, I ponder, are there none of them cute little fences that discourage you from mingling with nature here? Why is it so soft and dense and not yellow and um, I can't even see the Earth. Like, as in soil. Not the world. I clearly think far too much about grass.

(3) Transport.
I haven't been missing "home" too much, (asides from my one desperate 'FUCK I NEED A 7-11 SO BAD RIGHT NOW,) but I'm really missing the convenience. My first trip to Leamington, I dared to step on a proper England bus, and the following exchange took place:

Me: Hi. How do I um, pay?
Driver: Where are you going? Me: (wtf why is he asking where I'm going?) Um, Leamington.
Driver: Single or return?
Me: Um, no.
Driver: What?
Me: What?
Driver: Are you coming back?
Me: I hope so.
Driver: Do you want a return then?
Me: Um...nah it's okay.
Driver: ... okay. That'll be £2.10, just grab a ticket.
Me: oh my god a ticket.

Whilst it looks lengthy, I assure you it was less than a minute of one of the most awkward exchanges i'd ever had. Thank god.
The simple dump-your-money-in approach is way more down my street. Plus the flagging down mini-buses when you see one, (and when they can stop.) There are, luckily, a lot more buses than I'd thought, although not as frequent. I haven't even ventured into, or looked at, a train station.

(4) Self-Checkouts.
My actual favourite thing about this Country. Not going to lie; everytime I walk past them, I cannot stop a fond smile creeping across my face as I glance at the machines that I consider to be amongst my dearest of friends here. They allow me to avoid human interaction when doing my shopping. Real live friends don't do that.

For someone who just occasionally falls into a mood where I don't want to talk to anyone, these are a blessing. I don't have to awkwardly fumble around with money or accidentally attempt to pay with other currencies. I don't have to be judged by my weird-ass shopping lists. (This is someone who had a post-it shopping list consisting solely of 'Pliers' and 'Ice Cream.')

I could go on forever about how lovely they are. I'll spare you; I won't.

(5) "You alright?"
Apparently, "You alright?" (Or "yalright/alright/alrigh" etc.) is just a greeting in England. I hear it everyday. I smile and sometimes I say, "Yeah, you?" for reciprocity's sake. There was once, however, a time when I was not as suave and well-versed in English greetings. The very first time someone casually said that, (here I mean, not in general,) I stared at them with a look of pure confusion on my face - says they - and said something along the lines of, "Um yeah. Why, should I not be?"

Cause, for me, inquiring on someone's well-being - whilst polite - in this particular way, just sounded bizarre. I'm used to "How are you?s," and as a casual conversation starter. I'm making way too big a deal of these two words, I know. It still catches me off a little though.

Now on Twitter +++

If, for some reason, anyone cares to find out more about my life which I already blog extensively about here, you can read up on my little ~anecdotes~ and rare thoughts here.

Warning: I overtweet.

The First Week Of College To-Do Checklist (For Girls)*

*May vary.

The Big Things.

1) Move in. Pile up your boxes and bags and suitcases and your bits and pieces into the car. Drive x many miles until you finally arrive. Be anxious or excited or a bit of both and maybe you don’t want to go anymore or maybe you’re incredibly eager. Your parents anxiously hover around in your room, they check: the bed/ storage space/ will you be warm enough/ will you be cool enough/ how far are you from the kitchen/ how far are you from the laundry room.

You say to them: yes I’ll be careful/ I’ll go introduce myself to others in a bit/ No don’t go knock on next door please/I will remember to lock my door/ No seriously don’t go next door. Maybe you want some time to yourself to unpack anyway, but the minute you go you’ll probably feel bad. Until you get a text saying ‘Met the girl next door – go say hi!’

2) Meet people. University students all moving in are probably some of the friendliest people I’ve come across – not specifically, but generally. Everyone is in the same situation and thus you all just want to make friends – anyone and anything will suffice when you know no one and are in unfamiliar territory. Even I, a self-proclaimed people-hater, find myself friendly and trying to meet as many people as possible.

You collect names and numbers like crack to give yourself a ton of options because you don’t know who you’re going to be good friends with. Go everywhere with different people all the time and tag along and turn up randomly at other people’s gatherings – but that’s okay, it’s just more people to add to your First Week Social Web.

Alternatives: Stay in your room and refuse to meet people, come out once and never be seen again, (there’s one in every hall.)

3) Go Party. University is prime time for crazy partying because LOL at Higher Level education, um, we can binge drink and study at the same time by this point okay? No, that was a joke. But Fresher’s Week or Fortnight or Forever is again, a time to party. Why? Perhaps it’s just to fill the quota of a “college student,” or, referring to (2) an easier way to meet people.

Pre-drink in fun kitchen and room and common room parties. Maybe you won’t even end up leaving the kitchen. Be drunk by the time you’re lining up to get in and then suddenly, oops, 9AM lecture WHAT’S UP!

Optional: Pass out, get into a fight, sleep with someone, be too drunk to go back to your own room and have to do a walk of shame, post-drink back at your halls.

4) Have a cute in-night. Once you get sick of partying – or are just not up to it anymore, - you will have a cute night staying in. You will round up some of your friends and have a cute movie night. One of you will cook a meal and you will sit in a room and have a nice sleepover. You will watch a sweet movie and just have a nice time. You will feel adorable and twee and your perfect night shall not even be ruined by the drunkards stumbling around outside throwing up in their bins.

5) Join clubs or societies. Universities always have loads of societies and clubs, from the most common everyday clubs, such as the standard sports ones, or the Food society, to the obscure ones such as the Glass Juggling Society or the Cow Appreciation Society. You will be overloaded with enough flyers to paper your modestly-sized room and accidentally find yourself promising yourself to every single society because you’re just too nice to say no, and then you find yourself juggling glass every Thursday – hey, at least you now have a cool trick to show your friends back home.

6) Have your first lectures and seminars. You will be late. Hey – we all get lost, it’s cool. You will open the squeaky door and peer in and faces like sunflowers will turn to stare at you. You will ‘excuse me’ and ‘sorry’ your way down an aisle because of course, the only available seat is at the front. At the end of the aisle.

Maybe they’ll be vastly different than what you’re used to. Maybe you’ll show up hungover (likely) or still drunk (also likely) in freshers’s week. Maybe you will have so much work already that you already want to drop out. Maybe you’ll adore them and your coursemates and you’ll never want to leave the lecture hall or let go of your coursemates because you’re all so passionate about what you’ve chosen to study, aren’t you?

The Little Things.

(7) Eat ice cream in your room. Alone. Maybe it’s whilst you’re doing homework or whilst you’re lonely and sad and drunk. Maybe you just fucking want some good ice cream because um, Tesco brand value ice cream is a pretty good deal and it tastes good. Maybe you will even find a friend and you can eat your ice cream alone together. Ice cream is so a staple college student food, get over it.

(8) Run out of _______. It will happen. You will be overcome with an intense craving for cereal. You will go to the kitchen and pour out a generous amount of your mouth-watering grainfood-brand of choice. You will open the fridge and – wait. What the fuck. There’s no milk left? Shit.

(9) Fall In Love With Everyone. So many new people. Depending on where you came from and where you now are, you may fall in love with every attractive stranger you see and then you’ll map out various scenarios where you ~casually~ bump into each other and – then you realize you’re a creep and you never actually see them again.

(10) Have an intense congregation in the corridor. If you are staying in halls, there will be nights where you all curl up on the floor taking up room and talk deep meaningful shit. You may all end up throwing shoes at each other and having intense battles with the ‘Caution wet floor sign.’ Either way, it’s all part of the college experience in the first week and you will no doubtedly have many more fun nights like these for the rest of your time there.

Manic Pixie Dreamgirls.

Today has been a whirlwind of a day.

So, backstory: a few weeks prior to my move down to England, I'd gotten in contact with a model concerning doing some test shoots and fun for our portfolios and whatnot. Skip forwards to Wednesday, when I actually met her, and then skip again to today, when we had our shoot. I'm surprising myself here in saying that we actually went through with it; I am notorious for being absolutely awful with making plans and then following through with them.

Fresher's flu has fallen upon the University of Warwick; I was quite early in getting ill. For a recluse who generally does not go out too much, almost-every-night must have taken a toll on me and I fell victim to the bout of bloody fresher's cough going around. I'd also lost my voice which has been brilliant in my first two weeks here, because every introduction I make seems to go, "Hi, I'm Laura and I've lost my voice I don't usually sound like a troll I swear," because um, I really would not want people to think I usually sound like a troll.

There's something about being sick which makes it perfectly acceptable to curl up in bed watching Anastasia as your double-dose of sleeping pills knock you out and enable you to sleep for 10 hours.

Therefore, I've spent the last two nights chilling out. Played an intense game of risk last night after the world's most vulgar game of scrabble - how many points for 'whore,' anyone? - and then came in late and collapsed into bed after a shower - which is, for further referencing, a pain when you share. My room's the other side of the hall from the bathrooms. Trudging past the common room in a shirt and towel clutching things isn't a cute look.

Other than that, fresher's fortnight is officially over. I've gone out quite a bit and met a lot of people. A lot of their names I can't remember or get mixed up but hey, there are tons of us here. There have been a few wary moments when I've introduced myself and gotten a "Oh, you're Laura Grant!," and considering my questionable behaviour the last few days - good and bad, considering that my skittles vodkas were being talked about at another residence half an hour away - is a little worrying.


Hall wars! We hall-crawled and drank ourselves a bit stupid - whole bottle of vodka to myself here (which I did share) - before going to get even more drunk at the bar. With Alex, Sam, and some guy whose name I don't know. (This has happened so many times. So many photos with unidentified humans!)


Film crew (y)


With the lovely Lily and Rachel. We drew whiskers on in sharpie without thinking of morning consequences. Luckily the sharpie came off our faces because it sure as hell didn't come off my arm.

Our freshers's party, Moulin Rouge themed, started off on a bit of a drunk note because we found a drinking game. One of the rules was "A shot everytime a girl lifts her skirt." Needless to say, we were out of alcohol and pretty tipsy 15 minutes in.






Student U all nice and done up. Speaking of which: made up of several restaurants, some of which i've been to - The bread oven does the best baguettes ever and I had a mint hot chocolate at the tea shop so um yay - a few pubs, (okay fine, it's one.) and a club. The club's gotten a bit boring-ish already but they let me in, even if they have to give me a little underage speech every single time.

Asides from that, doing a lot of chilling and reading who am I kidding I barely read anything. Been cooking loads of pasta just because I've started to get a bit arrogant about it. Joined the warwick tv society and am already fangirling and trying to network into doing a lot; projects lined up left right and center if I had my way.

So: today, woke up at 7 and "went back to sleep for a few minutes." Woke up again at 8.30. Cue insane panicking and changing very quickly into a top and leggings and running outside to realise my leggings were actually see-through and therefore tights. Threw shorts on top and dashed out. Wet hair and a 20 minute walk then 20 minute bus wait means I'm certain icicles have grown in my brain because I feel like I have permanent brain freeze and it really is no fucking fun.

Was a bit wary on the shoot because I am a complete amateur. Luckily, the two models and the makeup artist were all lovely and I'm really happy with what we got:

(Cue picspam!)














^ my favourite shot. I've wanted to do one like that for so long!

It's funny how when you don't have constant access to loads of food, you get really strong, weird cravings for certain things. For instance, I really, really, really fancy some chocolate right now. Anything sweet. Just so bad. But today is of course, the one day Tesco is closed and I don't have anything. I almost bought a bag of cookies earlier today (which makes me very, very sad now,) but I was craving savoury foods like no other, which led to me trailing around Tesco in Leamington looking very sad. When I finally found a prawn sandwich, I was so overcome with the sudden surge of desire to consume it. I snatched it up like a lone vulture and celebrated my victory by rounding it off with a Mars Bar beverage which was, along with the Galaxy and Milky Way ones, perhaps the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Talk about literal chocolate milk.


Tonight shall probably be chilling. I overheard people saying (lol eavesdropping oooh~~) that everyone was in the upstairs kitchen so if i'm feeling social (probably not,) I may go up and see what's happening. Other than that, I am going to praise your higher being of choice that my classes don't start 'til 3pm tomorrow and probably celebrate that with another night curled up in bed with a good film.

Shit, I'm craving mexican food now. Quesadilla and nacho night tomorrow? I do think so.

Pasta Parties

Yes - I have not updated in a while, and I could provide a plethora of excuses, but the only valid one would be "I'm incredibly lazy." It's been a week since I've moved in and ~~~settled in~~~ at uni. General thoughts: I love it/ Fuck I miss my bathroom/ Why is this class so early / Why are all the people here crazy in a good way.

So, just for shits and giggles, general recap of the week:

• Meeting/move in day where you just meet people. We all definitely fulfilled the quota of 'social prostitutes' and just went around being nice and cute shit like that. We went down to the welcome party and, for half the people I met that night, I have literally never seen them again.
• Paint party is a funny story. Someone was very excited about this concept and this someone also made skittles vodka. This person got too drunk off said skittles vodka and only spent 10 minutes in the party before leaving for no apparent reason. This someone didn't even make it back to Westwood's Halls and had to ~walk of shame~ back in the morning.
  
  My gorgeous babies. I was literally so proud. I took photos on my phone and showed everyone because I usually mess everything up, but these were actually okay. Look at me being all accomplished.
  
  
• PJ party was fun. This time I brought my camera and went with Megan and her halls people and whoever else just turned up, which was fun. Bumped into all sorts and stayed back at Megan's, only to hear that I missed a massive hall party back at my place. Typical.
  
  
  Because, um, hello, cam-whoring with Megan is cool no matter what country you're in.
  
  
  
  
  
  The night took a surreal turn for the - better? I should say? - when we ended up in some guy we do not know's kitchen at Bluebell (Okay fine, Megan knows him but it's more dramatic if I phrase it like this because I didn't know him,) eating pasta that he'd cooked for us. He then went to bed. So we, none of us even Bluebell-ers, just sat in a Bluebell kitchen and ate pasta. Okay.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Me and a couple of others decided that after the, success, of skittles vodka, that it was time for Jello Shots. Word spread and we ended up inviting so many people, so we ended up making so many jello shots and stacked them in the fridge.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The night turned downright strange after Becky, Sarah and Megan left, (holding a bowl of un-set Jelly mix because we didn't have enough fridge space.) I went upstairs with some of the extra vodka we had left over to one of the guys' rooms (dubbed the party room already,) and we just chilled there. Events included:
• Joe jumping too high on the bed and hitting his head. So we fixed it.
  
• Rapping along to Superbass whilst dancing like idiots on said bed once he'd recovered.
• Going on his unattended computer and uploading emo poetry and adding random people.
• Plenty of mad scuffles concerning us overstaying our welcome in his room.
• Visits from more people who'd arrived.
• Party moved into another room and they played poker whilst me and Lucinda just took photos and bothered Chris(topher Robin)
• Invaded Chris's room and stuck post-it notes everywhere for shits and giggles.
  
• Asked him if we could paint his nails and do his make-up and happily did so when he surprisingly agreed.
  
• Knocked on Joe's door a hundred times trying to wake him up to get him out - because he'd woken Lucinda up - to no avail.
• Went downstairs after everyone had gone to bed to find a random group of people sitting in our common room. I had never seen them before but because I'm friendly and shit I introduced myself and they were a different hall miles away. We chilled in the kitchen and just chatted and then they left and it was all so bizarre.
  
  First break we've had from lectures, - which are fantastic so far, by the way, - and the whole place is literally silent. It's 10.40am and it's incredbily eerie. Plans for today include chilling in the afternoon and using the jello shots chilling in the fridge right now tonight.
  
  And i should probably finish that uni article I've been writing since I got here.