I received an email from the financial aid lady telling me to email someone with my particulars, being, when I am going to arrive, do I have a UK bank account and am I living on campus. I emailed him yesterday saying, arrived, no and no... though in not so few words. That email also said that funds could be received as early as yesterday.
So yesterday Mark and I worked on making a shopping list of things we need to get and do. One of the most important items on that list was real coffee. My dearest has been living off of instant coffee and while he'll drink it, he doesn't really like it.
This was our plan for the day: Go to the school and get my reimbursement check-which will be in pounds sterling and bless the financial aid lady she hoped that was okay with me... uh yeah! :) And then we were going to go to staples, get me some school supplies, head to the post office, mail off stuff that people are going to be needing (such as mom's ATM card), return home, pick up Mark's hand held shopping cart and then head to Tescos (sorta like a super wal-mart) and buy food, diet coke, real coffee and everything else that was on our list. I had planned on getting up at 8 to do all of this.
Instead I wake up at 4 and my brain begins to work. Mark wakes up and bless him, he adds the item I had just thought of to the list and sits and chats with me, suggesting I take some benadryl to get some sleep. I do and while I am waiting for it to kick in I decide to check facebook where my loved ones are still awake and ending their day. I was back asleep by 5 and didn't wake up until 10:30 at which point Mark comes in with a cup of coffee and a DC. he had gone to the tescos express across the street and had bought me 2 6-packs. It must be love.
We were soon out the door and went to the campus. I don't have pictures yet because his camera holds about 4 pictures and that isn't very much. Once we have a better SD card, I shall do what I do and bombard you with them. :) We see a sign that said International Office and hey, we decided to go inside and have a look. Good thing we did. They were glad to see me and told me I needed to fill out this yellow form so they know I have arrived. And no, I had no idea this was needed. They were quite relieved when I said, no I am not living on campus, yes I do have housing and no I don't need help getting settled in. I have a Marcos. :) They also had a bag for me with nasty fruit cake biscuits, "milk" in pack, instant coffee in a similar pack, tea and a schedule for the international office welcome week. And no, I did not know they were going to have that, so I am glad we decided to stop in and have a look.
We then went to the campus itself and went to the Financial Office in the Venn building and, after waiting in line for half an hour, were told to go to the student union, second floor. And after standing in line for half an hour or so we are told the computers are down but I'll check. We are told then to go to the top floor of the Cohen Building (right next to the Venn building-same building) and ask for Robert. We go there and we walk to the top of the building-these people don't seem to believe in elevators. We are then told Robert is at the International Office. Great, so we go back and are then told he's not in but to leave a message and he'll call back. So we decide to pop off to a pub for some fish and chips.
And here is my take on the Grey Mare. No diet coke, just pepsi, diet pepsi and what they call clear lemonade which is just like sprite without the lime. So I had that. I wasn't impressed and with such limited choices in caffeine, I have decided I am not interested in returning. The fish was more like a whale on a plate but quite good, the fish was obviously fresh, though the fries were obviously cooked from frozen and not really good at all, a bit cold in the middle to be exact. The peas were untasted by me as I don't eat peas. Mark does and was not impressed with them. We then get a call from Robert telling us to talk to the financial aid lady. So we go back to the financial aid office and talk to her. She said all was clear and good and that I can get my letter of introduction tomorrow for the banks and that it's possible I'll get my check tomorrow but it's also possible it won't come through until the 3rd. So I am going to assume that I am getting it on the third but by then I should have a bank account and I can email the guy, give him the particulars and it will be automatically deposited into my account.
There is also welcome week for post-grad students next week and each department has a day for their welcome, for which I don't the date. The financial aid lady suggested we go to the Larkin building (humanities) and ask a certain person about it. I decided that I'd rather go home, email my master prof. as they are doing construction on some of the buildings and I really didn't want to bother with it.
We took a different route home and stopped by a different grocery store called Lidle and bought a chicken, potatoes and some olive oil. I cut up the chicken into its separate parts, cooked a pot of rice (we so need a rice cooker), chopped up a single chicken breast, added some soy sauce and poured that and a thin bit of "sauce" over the rice for dinner. It was the worst thing I think I have cooked in ages but Mark seemed to think it was good. He ate everything I put into his bowl at least. And yes Elizabeth, one can buy a bag of frozen chicken breast, which I will most likely do from now on.
It is now getting quite late and the bank reps are going to be at the office at 10 tomorrow and I want to get an early start. We still need to go the post office and we need to figure out where I am going to bank so I shall bid you all a fond goodnight and goodmorrow.
So yesterday Mark and I worked on making a shopping list of things we need to get and do. One of the most important items on that list was real coffee. My dearest has been living off of instant coffee and while he'll drink it, he doesn't really like it.
This was our plan for the day: Go to the school and get my reimbursement check-which will be in pounds sterling and bless the financial aid lady she hoped that was okay with me... uh yeah! :) And then we were going to go to staples, get me some school supplies, head to the post office, mail off stuff that people are going to be needing (such as mom's ATM card), return home, pick up Mark's hand held shopping cart and then head to Tescos (sorta like a super wal-mart) and buy food, diet coke, real coffee and everything else that was on our list. I had planned on getting up at 8 to do all of this.
Instead I wake up at 4 and my brain begins to work. Mark wakes up and bless him, he adds the item I had just thought of to the list and sits and chats with me, suggesting I take some benadryl to get some sleep. I do and while I am waiting for it to kick in I decide to check facebook where my loved ones are still awake and ending their day. I was back asleep by 5 and didn't wake up until 10:30 at which point Mark comes in with a cup of coffee and a DC. he had gone to the tescos express across the street and had bought me 2 6-packs. It must be love.
We were soon out the door and went to the campus. I don't have pictures yet because his camera holds about 4 pictures and that isn't very much. Once we have a better SD card, I shall do what I do and bombard you with them. :) We see a sign that said International Office and hey, we decided to go inside and have a look. Good thing we did. They were glad to see me and told me I needed to fill out this yellow form so they know I have arrived. And no, I had no idea this was needed. They were quite relieved when I said, no I am not living on campus, yes I do have housing and no I don't need help getting settled in. I have a Marcos. :) They also had a bag for me with nasty fruit cake biscuits, "milk" in pack, instant coffee in a similar pack, tea and a schedule for the international office welcome week. And no, I did not know they were going to have that, so I am glad we decided to stop in and have a look.
We then went to the campus itself and went to the Financial Office in the Venn building and, after waiting in line for half an hour, were told to go to the student union, second floor. And after standing in line for half an hour or so we are told the computers are down but I'll check. We are told then to go to the top floor of the Cohen Building (right next to the Venn building-same building) and ask for Robert. We go there and we walk to the top of the building-these people don't seem to believe in elevators. We are then told Robert is at the International Office. Great, so we go back and are then told he's not in but to leave a message and he'll call back. So we decide to pop off to a pub for some fish and chips.
And here is my take on the Grey Mare. No diet coke, just pepsi, diet pepsi and what they call clear lemonade which is just like sprite without the lime. So I had that. I wasn't impressed and with such limited choices in caffeine, I have decided I am not interested in returning. The fish was more like a whale on a plate but quite good, the fish was obviously fresh, though the fries were obviously cooked from frozen and not really good at all, a bit cold in the middle to be exact. The peas were untasted by me as I don't eat peas. Mark does and was not impressed with them. We then get a call from Robert telling us to talk to the financial aid lady. So we go back to the financial aid office and talk to her. She said all was clear and good and that I can get my letter of introduction tomorrow for the banks and that it's possible I'll get my check tomorrow but it's also possible it won't come through until the 3rd. So I am going to assume that I am getting it on the third but by then I should have a bank account and I can email the guy, give him the particulars and it will be automatically deposited into my account.
There is also welcome week for post-grad students next week and each department has a day for their welcome, for which I don't the date. The financial aid lady suggested we go to the Larkin building (humanities) and ask a certain person about it. I decided that I'd rather go home, email my master prof. as they are doing construction on some of the buildings and I really didn't want to bother with it.
We took a different route home and stopped by a different grocery store called Lidle and bought a chicken, potatoes and some olive oil. I cut up the chicken into its separate parts, cooked a pot of rice (we so need a rice cooker), chopped up a single chicken breast, added some soy sauce and poured that and a thin bit of "sauce" over the rice for dinner. It was the worst thing I think I have cooked in ages but Mark seemed to think it was good. He ate everything I put into his bowl at least. And yes Elizabeth, one can buy a bag of frozen chicken breast, which I will most likely do from now on.
It is now getting quite late and the bank reps are going to be at the office at 10 tomorrow and I want to get an early start. We still need to go the post office and we need to figure out where I am going to bank so I shall bid you all a fond goodnight and goodmorrow.
2 comments:
yes, but not the kind you're thinking of. They're doing construction on it so... there ya go.
Thanks for giving your Mom such good updates!
Post a Comment