The university's cafeteria. A meal costs around €5 there, without drinks.

The park with the castle, where the university is housed, in the background

I live just across the palace park next to the university. It is a 10 minutes walk and, this time of the year, quite nice. It is quite chilly in the morning, though, but sunny, at least. But I am curious to see if we will have snow again, like, surprisingly, yesterday.

Yes, it really is snowing. In the beginning I thought it would be that disappointing sleet so common in late autumn, beginning of winter. But my expectations were exceeded, and now we have a couple or a bit more centimeters of fresh snow on the grass.

I like the snow. Actually I love it! It is not by chance that my favourite sport now is snowboarding, I just hope that I will be able to do some in Canada, but this is not very probable. But I had a lot of fun tonight, already.

It is nice to see grown up adult "mature" students turning into kids, going out on the court yard and starting snowball fights with strangers they would otherwise ignore during their routine on campus residence. But it is such an important event for many of us, who had never seen snow before. I caught some of them on video. For people from Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Mexico, this is really something special.

Now I just hope that the snow will still be there in the morning.

More pictures on Picasa, of course.

071118 Snow on Campus

This is how the weather looked like today beofre class from my window. Pretty nice, don't you think? Yeah, that's what I think too, I can't complain. Dry, nice sun, a bit cold but not too much. Really, really fine weather.

But then I heard that it was snowing in Trossingen and I can't help but feeling jealous. I just love it when it snows! Well, I enjoy it at least for some time.

This is how good it is:


I mean, that is pretty good, wouldn't you say so? Anyway, I am happy with it.
But don't think of using P2P (peer to peer) networks over here. They are not allowed here. And I have the impression that the guys running this network know what they are doing and would catch you quite quickly.

Update

The first test was on the 3rd of November. Today, I got another result, rather disappointing:

Lots of things to do, lots of thoughts in my head, I'll jot something down here quickly before going to the "Stress management" session.

The campus was not cold at all at 6:20 in the morning. Surprisingly the temperature was quite nice. I had the impression that it got a bit colder when I got back home at around 7:30, but we still didn't have a real winter day yet. Walking around campus so early in the morning was a pleasant experience. Especially because of the company.

I need a place to stay in New York for 2 or 3 nights around the 20th of December. Anyone has friends there who could help me?
I am doing an experiment on this one: looking how my virtual network will respond to this request. Have so far published it on Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and this blog. Hope to see many answers soon.

Costcutter is selling 6 cans of Coke for only 2 pounds. Good price, take advantage of that. Tough will be carrying the heavy cans back to Lakeside.

Still more photos online. Take a look at my public albums over at Picasa.

Let's go take a shower.

After Nicholas' Workshop and some OB reading, some of us went to the LatinNight in the Students' Union building. The music was good, there was a guy to show us some steps and all the tiredness that we thought we felt was forgotten. If the day started well, it surely couldn't end better.

Or so I thought. I wasn't, really. But I only found that out when it was already too late: I was walking with hundreds of half naked, bleary eyed, wet, scraggy, grumpy, dazzled, dizzy, uncombed, barefoot, cold students towards the Scarmann House parking lot, wearing nothing more than my nice, long, warm, woolen overcoat. And my keys in the pocket.
I was in the middle of my morning shower, having woken up bravely at 7, when the alarm went off. I almost didn't hear it because of the noise in the bathroom, but it was for real. The alarm had gone off and it was coming directly from the inside of my room.
Great! I had been trying to figure out how to regulate the temperature of my shower, which generated more steam than usual. Although my bathroom door was closed as instructed, I also suspect that the exhaust in the bathroom wasn't working, and got really scared that I had caused a fire alarm which would upset many people and bring direct consequences to me (big brother is watching you, the induction talk in the Arts Centre was scary enough).
Anyway, out of the shower, grabbed the towel, started to dry myself while opening the curtains to be able to open the window to let the steam which I wasn't seeing but was sure to be there to get out of the room and make the alarm stop. Outside my room, which lies exactly beside the dorm's entrance, people watching my struggle with the two layers of curtains, towel and window lock. I don't mind people seeing me naked, have nothing to hide. And if somebody doesn't like, shouldn't be looking into one honest guy's window.
Dropped the towel, opened the closet, grabbed my long, warm, woollen overcoat, tried to slip into my leather shoes. No way, feet too wet. Dump the shoes, opened the door and locked it open (for the suspected steam to go out the room), out! Forgot my keys, back inside; there, on the table!
Everything less hectic now, everybody directed to walk the path to Scarmann Road. Scarmann Road?? Yeah, the fucking Scarmann House parking lot, just opposite the Business School, almost 10 minutes away. And the frigging pathway is covered with small and sharp gravel, reminding that I haven't walked barefoot in years. Very sensitive soles, I should be ashamed.
But I wasn't. Things around were too interesting for me to be ashamed, and I wasn't even in the worst state. There were girls who were barefoot, in shorts and tops, hurting their feet and shivering. And another guy had only his pyjama pants on, also feeling quite cold, it seemed. Ah, my long, warm, woollen overcoat.
Back to the room, into the hot shower as quickly as possible. I was (and am) afraid of making my flue get even worse.
Out of the shower, alarm again. But faint, in the distance. Lakeside 3 and 4, this time. But they don't have to walk all the way to Scarmann House. Oh, this unfair world! I dressed myself properly this time, took my camera and went out in plunder mode; I wanted to document the misery I was subjected to in other people's faces. But it seems I am too nice a guy and didn't take any pictures. Or maybe I was afraid of the possibility of being lynched by a furious mob of half naked students.
At least the whole operation secured me a nice breakfast. Not a bad way to start the day at all.

P.S.: Chirs has also written about it, of course. But he wasn't that positive about the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

Yes, I am happy with my day. It was a good day. I did wake up at 7:30, bought tickets for 5 concerts at the Arts Centre, registered for the Health Centre, bought my Meal Card and found out that the laundry near the Rootes Building is also closed.
By chance I found the main Mail Room and asked for the box with the contents of my second suitcase I was expecting from Germany. And, against many odds, it had arrived and was there! So I am well equiped now.
After some salad with risotto I went to Coventry to buy a push scooter (patinete), without luck. But I did buy other small things and had the opportunity to see a bit of the city. Next time I'll get a map.
I got back in time to meet with other 3 colleagues and go back to Coventry to buy some traditional fish & chips we ate back at Cristiano's place, it was very pleasant. But I don't want to see crisps or chips for a long time now.
Now some more minutes to wind down and go to sleep. Will wake up early tomorrow again, I guess this is a good habit to keep.

From 070929 Univer...

From 070929 Coventry

Two new albums for you if you click on the pics above.