Yesterday, I went to mass for the first time in many, many years. After mass, which was held in a lecture room, we walked over to the village church where the ladies in the church fed us with pizza, salads and the yummiest apple and berry crumbles and pies with hot custard sauce and cream. My Iranian neighbour accused me of going only for the food. Hee Hee...

I signed up for the mailing list for the Islamic society during freshers' fair. Actually, I signed up for so many mailing lists that I can't remember what I signed up for. So, I got an email saying that there was a meeting at 5.30pm for muslims and non-muslims of the Islamic society. It seemed a bit wrong to go to church in the morning, then to an Islamic meeting in the evening. I was also afraid that they might be the pushy sort who would try to get me to wear a tudong. So, I decided not to go.

Today, I had my first lecture. It was quite good but the lecturer flashed the slides really fast. I don't think he meant for us to copy down everything but most of us, including me, did.

I forgot to tell you a bit about the location of my course. My course is situated in King's manor which is a medieval building in York city, near York Minster. I live in the university campus which is outside of the city. To get to King's manor, I can take an hour-long walk, ride a bike or take a bus. Because my bike remains broken for the time being, I had to take the bus. A return tickets costs £2.30 (that's about S$6.90). How fun.

I also met my supervisor today. Every student has a personal supervisor who performs a role not unlike that of a form teacher. Mine's an Aussie woman. She had 2 dogs in her office. When I stepped in and sat down, the dogs came over and tried to lick me. Just to be polite, I patted them in a friendly, non-aggressive manner. I imagined that I was patting Grace the Dog.

My lecture ended at 11.30am and my meeting with my supervisor was at 3.30pm. In the four hours in between, I wandered the city aimlessly. Normally, I enjoy wandering aimlessly in new cities (like I did in Perth) but this time it wasn't very fun. I think I'm still homesick.

I bought some microwave meal thing for dinner. Just pop it in for 3 minutes and it's ready to eat. Haha, never thought I'd be eating this sort of crap.

And now, after my microwaved meal of mushroom rice, I sit in my room and try to decipher my lecture notes of the day. I can't really understand my writing so I give up and stare at blue bear-bear. Yes, he appears to still be homesick. Come on, blue bear-bear, I bet a nice shower will cure everything.