Days 5 & 6: I’m not sure which side of the sidewalk I’m supposed to be walking on, and my fellow pedestrians haven’t made it any clearer

Sunday January 15th & Monday January 16th.

Late Saturday night, I started getting that itchy feeling at the back of my throat that I always get before I get a cold; I woke up Sunday morning feeling a lot worse.  I luckily brought a bit of cold medicine with me, but I needed to buy some–and soon, before I get too sick to do stuff.  (The combination of chronic illness and being a bit immunocompromised means that I get pretty sick from even fairly mild colds.)  I also needed to get dishes.  Two of my hallmates said I could borrow theirs, but I still managed to mix up which ones were which, and I used the wrong ones.  Ali’s Cave is closed on Sundays, so I couldn’t get cold meds or dishes there; I ended up just staying in on Sunday, because I needed to take a break.

On Monday, I got to test out my new hairdryer–it was, for the record, very good.  There weren’t any plugs in the bathroom, though, and I don’t know if that’s a U.K. thing or just a quirk of the room I’m living in.  But now that I’ve gone searching for plugs, it looks like the only ones are next to my desk?  This was pretty inconvenient, since it meant that I had to stay near my desk to blow-dry my hair; I used the webcam on my computer as a mirror.

Monday was also the first day of classes.  This would’ve been much more exciting if it wasn’t for the fact that my personal tutor (basically my advisor) hadn’t emailed me back about switching my class schedule around, and so I didn’t know if I had class at 10:00 am or 12:10 pm.  I felt that this was a rather important distinction to make, so I emailed him again.  He hadn’t responded by 9:30 am, which was the time I’d decided I would need to get going for the first day of my 10:00 am class.

A large part of me wanted to go “screw it” and stay home–I had no intention of staying in the 10 am class, even if the class I wanted to switch into to replace it didn’t work out.  But alas, I am an anxious overachiever, and I geared up to go.  Unfortunately, once I got there, the 10 am class sounded really interesting, and I kind of wanted to stay in it, even though I knew it really didn’t work with my schedule.  We got out early, so I walked over to the Disability Services office to see what I needed to do next in the accommodations–here they’re called adjustments–process.  I did most of the work over a Skype interview in December, which I would recommend, as it made my life a lot easier; all I had to do on Monday was sign a form.  Then I ate lunch and walked back home to grab some stuff.  When I checked my email at my computer, I still hadn’t gotten a response about my class schedule.  I know I have no room to judge people for being slow emailers, because I am the slowest emailer, but it was starting to stress me out.

I went back over to campus and went to the class I wanted to switch into–unlike the 10 am one, which was a lecture, this one was a more Hampshire-sized class.  I was a few minutes early, so I checked my email on the phone and saw that right when I was leaving my room, my personal tutor had emailed me back and I was now in the class that I was currently sitting in.  Thank goodness!  I had been worried there was some problem with enrolling me in this class and he hadn’t emailed back because he was trying to figure out what was wrong or something like that.  But now my schedule should be all worked out.  Even though the 10 am class was interesting, taking it meant I would have classes every day of the week (something I make a point to avoid no matter what school I’m at) and I would have to walk for 15 minutes a bit too early in the morning.

My deep, insightful notes from the second class I went to.  (Technically it should be ‘the cat’ with quote marks, as the person was talking about specific words, but it’s funnier this way.)  I snorted when the person said this in class and I worry they thought I was laughing at them because I thought their question was bad and ignorant.  I was actually just laughing because it was a hilarious sentence.

[Image description: one photo of some notes handwritten on lined paper.  They say, “‘Why can’t you delete the cat?’ is the funniest sentence I’ve heard all day”.]

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is my quest for a place to take photos.  You see, I have a fashion blog.  (No, I’m not linking it here.)  It’s the kind where I take photos of my outfits; normally I do it behind my mod in Enfield.  But it’s much harder to find a place in the city, because there aren’t any places that are out of the way–or if they are, they’re either creepy or private property.  I’ve been taking photos in the mirror in my room, but they’re awful and I really wanted to find a better place.  Yesterday I noticed that there was a beautiful park in the middle of campus, so I decided to try taking photos there.  One of the things I got between the two classes was my tripod, and yes, I did bring it to the second class with me.  (I have a carrying case.)  After that class, I went into the park and took photos.  They turned out okay, but one rando did try to talk to me, plus taking them on campus is just inconvenient.  (Although at least it’s somewhere I was already headed.)  I’m going to try to scout out a better place.

After the photo adventure, I walked back over to the uni’s Health Services and nervously mumbled at them about whether or not they took my insurance.  The receptionist looked at me strangely and told me that as a student at the University of Edinburgh, I was automatically covered under the NHS.

I love socialized healthcare.

So I have to go back with proof of my residence at Portsburgh Court, and they’ll only take new patients between (I think) 2 and 4 pm but I’m pretty excited and I’ll probably try to start getting that worked out on Tuesday.

I also got dishes at a more-fancy-than-was-necessary place that’s around the corner from where I live.  It was convenient, and I cook enough that having decent equipment is important, but it still cost more than I wanted to spend.  And I didn’t even get everything!  Oh well–at least I made a good dinner.  And I bought some cold medicine while I was picking up a few more groceries.