How to survive the first couple of days - House Mates and Getting Lost

So here I was, fresh as a fresher could be, sweating under the sheer amount of clothes and coats and scarves that I had wrapped myself in and nearly buried under my luggage and my violin case. Taking way too much luggage with me and wearing too many clothes that I didn´t want to leave behind was obviously my first mistake. But never mind! The friendly bunch in the deep purple jumpers from the meet-and-greet service of Durham University was already waiting for me with snacks and water bottles. How thoughtful of them! I honestly advise you to book the meet-and-greet service since it will save you a lot of trouble and time. It´s free and they will drop you off wherever you like. Believe me, you really don't want to go looking for your accommodation with all your luggage in a city where EVERY HOUSE looks the same and if you are one of the many ERASMUS students who live in Gilesgate, you will have to drag it all the way up the hill.

I knew from the pictures that my accommodation wasn´t a very luxurious one but considering that it was only 260 pounds a month I was quite satisfied with it. The room was tiny and there wasn´t any bed, only a raised mattress I was supposed to sleep on. I shared the house with three Chinese girls who were all nice and all, the only problem was that they tended to speak Chinese regardless of whether I was there or not, which wouldn´t be a problem in itself if only I spoke one word of Chinese. Durham University runs a website which facilitates finding accommodation as it only lists trustworthy accommodation that has been checked and approved. Even though you can see the properties on Google Maps I advise you to carefully check the bus timetables. I made the mistake of renting a property, thinking it was only a five minutes´ walk away from a bus stop, however, it turned out that this bus only stopped there every Sunday, which wasn´t very useful to me. In the end, I had to cycle to university, regardless of the weather. This included heavy rainfall and wind. I wasn't as daring as to cycle when it was snowing, however I did nearly die several times falling off my bike when I was cycling downhill. (To buy a bike: join the Durham students´ buy, sell and swap items group on facebook or post an ad on Gumtree)

I arrived two weeks before the official start of term, so I had plenty of time to explore the city, get familiar with it and get horribly lost. If you are blessed with a non-existent sense of direction as I am, then you probably use Google Maps a lot. My worst experience of getting lost was when I got back from a party for international students and blindly trusted Google Maps to get me home. According to Google Maps, the shortest way home was keeping along the river and this is possibly the worst thing you can do after dark since there was no lighting whatsoever and although I am not one to get frightened very easily this really creeped me out! Not only was I afraid of falling into the river because I couldn´t see where I was putting my feet but also, after hearing how many a student had drowned in the river, I was getting paranoid thinking that someone might creep up on me and push me into the river when I was expecting it the least. After ten minutes I wasn´t walking anymore but running for my life from some imaginary stranger who likes pushing students into the river. The next day I bought a torch which I then carried with me wherever I went. Looking back now, I probably shouldn´t have worried all that much since Durham is one of the safest cities in England.

I didn´t do that much on my first day. I remember buying a SIM card, tons of household items at Tesco´s, holding up the queue at Tesco´s because I hadn´t sorted out my euros and making a first negative impression on my new house mates because I obliged them to help me carry my stuff home. In my defence, I have to say, that it didn´t look all that much when it was still in the shopping trolley. It is a bonus if your accommodation is close to Sainsbury´s or Tesco´s but if it isn´t, don´t despair, since, at least at Tesco´s, you can order online and they will deliver the groceries to you at the appointed time.

My first impression of Durham was a bleak one.

Of course, I adored the towering cathedral and the pretty castle but the cloudy weather, the icy wind and the lack of sunlight didn´t make me feel like this was going to be the best year of my life. To be honest, it reminded me a bit of my home university back in Germany. Like Heidelberg University, Durham is known for its castle, river, tourists and students. The city centre itself was quite small but there were many cute shops and cafes, many of them hidden in narrow alleyways so that only people living in Durham would know of them. The people, however, were very friendly. I loved it how the locals and shop assistants always called you love, flower, honey, angel, pet etc. And although I did feel a kind of cultural barrier, everyone was always very kind and polite to me. No one ever hesitated to point me into the right direction when I got lost and more than once people helped me carry my suitcase up the stairs, even though they were in a hurry themselves.

"Oh well, term hasn´t started yet", I told myself. "It will be exciting. And if it isn´t, I will do everything in my power to make it exiting!"

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