The first week here

Well this has been quite an eventful week. The more I'm here the more I am coming to love this culture, these people and this school. Aber has it's own charm, it is just quite difficult to explain. A lot of it stems from the location, as well as the fact that 1/3 of the town is students. The school is aimed toward students, and the student body seems more vibrant than what I'm used to.

The first two full days that I was here involved getting registered for classes, orientations about the sport centre as well as getting a library card/NUS card. The main difference in registering for classes is that animal science students here have set modules/classes they take, and they take them in order. So if i"m a first year student then I would be in classes with all first year students. Thus all the classes build off of each other, as compared to US schools where it is a free for all on what classes you take and you just take classes whenever it fits into your schedule.

The NUS card is quite similar to the student ID cards at Purdue. Only slight differences such as having to get your accreditation's or induction to work out at the sports centre, and them charging you per time you work out. They also charge a sporty fee, which is basically an insurance you buy and is added onto your account which permits you do to sports club activities and it cheapens the fee to work out. There doesn't seem like much of a difference really, as Purdue places these fees onto your tuition as Aber enables you to purchase them if you'd like to use the facilities/ sports clubs offered.

During the accreditation you basically just show the trainer a few exercises and that you know what your doing. The other option is to take a induction class where they teach you the basics. After my accreditation I got to work out free, which was quite nice!

I have got registered for classes and have had my first week of classes. I'll post later about them, as this week many of the classes has been canceled, and I had to switch one of my classes. I will say that I adore the far campus, where I have all of my classes. It is a decent bus ride over there, but it has a great view, and has barn facilities next to the teaching facilities.

The night life here is quite awesome. The student union puts on a lot of activities. I went to a "talent" show this weekend. I saw one very untalented comedian, and a couple of very talented musicians. Every other weak the student union has an event called comedy works. Well the first one was the other day, and it was quite a good time. The comedians had quite a crude sense of humor aimed towards college students that reminds me quite a bit of chris rock. It was a good time, and I got quite a few good laughs.

The Pub life here is quite absurd. It seems like every other building is a pub. My favorite thus far is the Academy. It is this old beautiful church turned into Pub. Its got a few pool tables, an upper level and a bunch of comfortable seating. It has been nice going out this past week during the evenings to get to know some of my flat mates better. Going out is quite a bit more common here.

I've decided to try as many different foods as I can while I'm here. I absolutely love Fish and Chips, as well as the coffee from Wetherspoons! Welsh cakes remind me of a biscuit form of corn bread with raisins, they are quite good. I've had some crumpets now and they are really good with butter. A lot of the pastry type goodies compliment tea or coffee.

I have done quite a bit of walking around town checking out all the different shops, and of course visiting the Old college building and castle. The castle construction began 1277 and wasn't finished until 1289. It has erroded over the years, but is still quite a site.


-Jordon