First Autumn Experience

Since I’ve forgotten to update my days here in Chester, AS USUAL, I decided to just write about the other days that I missed out on.

Autumn.

Prior to this, I haven’t experienced this season, because where I come from it’s either sunny or raining, but mostly sunny. I used to hate the heat because it gives me terrible migraines and the sticky feeling whenever you go out for even a minute. Now, I appreciate the warmth of the Sun because it’s so rare here. People would stare at times because I FACE THE SUN AND GREET IT WITH A SMILE. They must’ve thought that I was going crazy or if I’m a mental patient that got out for the first time in a long time, but no. It reminded me of a song by Passenger, ‘Let Her Go’ and one line of its lyrics says:

You only miss the sun when it starts to snow.

So far over the past few weeks, I’ve been attending class and it’s great so far. I haven’t started on anything yet, AS USUAL. Because I’m the kind of person that gets all the ideas and organizes it at the last minute – well, to be fair at the last week, still a bad habit though. Then, I went shopping (AGAIN!!) and this time I spent three weeks worth of food budget ON CLOTHES. They’re all A NECESSITY though, right? I bought a coat, and a winter jacket (which IS a necessity). I might be telling myself this to keep myself from feeling guilty.

Oh, also I’ve joined this Entrepreneurial thing (I do not know if it’s an event, a competition, or what) and we were given £10 to maybe start-up a business or do fund raising events and our goal is to reach £700 per person to get to Milan in March. This is really exciting because I’ve never been to Milan! Plus, the experience we are gaining from this is really good.

Finally, as part of my shopping spree, I bought books as well (I’ll be updating my reading list). They’re at a reasonable price, no worries. Plus, knowledge is investment!

I guess that’s everything that I’ve been meaning to share. I know it’s not really useful information, but it’s my blog so yeah.

I’ll leave you with Jeremy Passion while I eat my carbonara pasta with smoked salmon.

I love this song just because.

Day 11 and 12: Bruises, Cuts, and First Aid Kits

The title would seem like I have been in a bad situation. However, I was not. I’ll explain it in parts.

Bruises:

I think I’ve mentioned that I joined Volleyball Society here in Chester (yey sports!) and as a result of not being in shape and of not playing the sport for years, I got slight bruises on my arm. The taster was not harsh and not really intense, but what is up with the ball? It was inflated to be like a basketball or something, and I have the type of body that bruise easily.

Cuts:

Being away from home is tough; being away from home with people who KNOWS how to cook is tougher. You might say, oh you could just buy or take out food from restaurants and grocery stores. I would love to do that, not because I do not know how to cook but I sometimes get lazy, BUT it is costly. People tell me not to convert the currency here to the currency back home, but during the first few days – and it might take me weeks – it’s like I’m doing it by habit. And boy, is it expensive here.

So while I was cutting some veggies and meat, I accidentally cut myself. Fortunately, it’s quite small and nothing serious.

First Aid Kits:

Also, I have stocked medicines, band aids, and sanitizers. It’s in my upbringing that we keep a stock of those things. Especially pain killers. Oh my, what would I do without them. Migraines are terrible, but since I’ve arrived here I rarely got them. Back home, I usually get that really really painful-one-side-of-your-brain type of migraine for at least 3 days.

I think that’s about every thing I wanted to share. I’m about to clean my room and do laundry for the rest of the day.

I’ll leave you with some..clean up music? Lol

Cheers!

1. Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend

2. Buddy Holly by Weezer

3. Stacy’s Mom by Fountains of Wayne

4. Pour Some Sugar On Me (The Maine version)

and finally,

5. She Moves In Her Own Way by The Kooks

Day 10: Trying to keep on track

Second day of classes for the week. We had business dissertation earlier, and like any other module we have, it’s at ‘100mph’ as they call it. I’m still thinking of a topic or a certain area to research on. All I have so far is this: The viability of Coffee Shops (e.g. local, Starbucks, or Costa) in the UK against the viability of Coffee Shops in the Philippines.

I chose to do a comparison for the UK and the Philippines, basically because it’s where I am from. However, I wanted to do something even more specific right now. I just can’t get on the right track or the path that I wanted. I’m still thinking though, any ideas dear friends? I usually run to my guitar for creative thinking. Sadly enough, I wasn’t really capable of bringing my guitar with me – with my huge luggage and hand-carry bag (includes my heavy laptop, camera, and the sort).

Then in the evening, it’s weird for me that they start really late too, we had a taster for Volleyball. I was thinking of joining Swimming but then again, I thought of the weather and temperature here (still not used to it). Bench-warming the bench because – haha – I did not bring my trainers (rubber shoes), not that I had any because a-duh I like wearing my converse when playing. So, I still have to buy one if I really wanted to play.

Well, that’s all I can really share for tonight or in the other parts of the world, today.

I’ll leave you again with another lovely song (maybe I’ll do this out of habit, I don’t know).

Cheers!

Day 7 to 9 (I think): First Day of Class

I keep forgetting to update this on a daily basis, and now I’ve literally forgotten how many days I have to cover, and which day I am on. Anyway, from Friday until Sunday, we obviously did nothing but to walk around the City Centre (again), and bought groceries that are good for a week.

Then, yesterday (which was Sunday), we attended a mass. It was really different from what I’m used to back in the Philippines. However, the ‘church community’ – I’m just guessing they already know each other for quite sometime now, was really friendly and they welcomed us with warm greetings and hand shakes. So overall, it does’t really matter for me how the mass was offered, as long as I was able to give thanks.

Finally, today was our first day of classes. It’s quite difficult to adjust to the method that they have here. It’s all very independent learning but I find it good and effective because it means that you really have to work hard and not expect everything to be spoon-fed to you. I quite like the library in Chester as well because they have a huge collection of useful books – which I’m afraid cannot be accessed in a Philippine Library (we have to work on that *wink*). Being the bookish person that I am, I feel so comfortable inside the Library.

Anyway, that is it for today. I only have one class tomorrow and it’s at 5PM. What am I supposed to do in the morning? Lol.

I’m still adjusting to the time here, because it feels so slow. So, when I go to sleep at 10PM, I keep waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning thinking I’ve had a good 8 hours of sleep already. It feels that long anyway.

I’ll leave you with The Narrative’s lullaby-like song Eyes Closed.

Cheers!

Days 4 – 6: More Shopping..

I got one of those trolleys now because it’s freakin’ hard to go back and forth to the city centre. Now that I got that trolley, I went on a shopping spree at Primark! Haha, impulsive buyer that I am, I bought lots of things but I really DO need them.

I haven’t taken pictures of the town and the sites here, probably because I’ve been too tired to take it all in but when we were resting at a bench, I got to see just how beautiful it is here in Chester. It’s quite old but it has a character of its own – if you know what I mean and if I’m even making sense.

Every time the sun was shining here I was really happy because it reminds me of home. Anyway, here’s what I’ve photographed so far.

Things from Primark:

Photos by: © Kashka Lantion; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS