„We used to make friends so easily“
Remember when I said, that I had a hard time making friends? Turns out that was not so true. Given the right moment, I was able to make it through the first day of university life meeting maybe the nicest of people.
My experience yesterday was helping a lot; I was full of that positive mindset. Like I said, I went out with the girls out of my accommodation for some shopping. After a while some of the girls went back home since they had other engagements, but I stayed in the city with a girl from the Czech Republic. We tried to find some cheap plants – but in the small tescos we didn't find a lot of greens. We went back to her place, a studio like mine but with a different set up; plus she prettied it up real nice. She had some really nice ideas of how to make the space look comfortable.
I went back to her place this afternoon and she had found even more ways to make it look homey. She found some plants in Ikea, and I think I might go there for some plants soon as well. I have this spacey window pane (that I was missing in my old apartment in Germany) which I want to fill up with plants. If necessary I am prepared to steal some branches from the trees outside and grow my own roots, 'cause I need plants!
But back to my successful social time at the university:
I went to university this morning in the estimated time – it is just a thirty minutes walk from my place through the city. I was a bit nervous whether I would be able to find the room, but it was a lot easier than I thought. Walking into the lecture theatre, I directly noticed one of the guys from my home university, so I sat down next to him. I wondered whether that was such a good idea, 'cause how am I supposed to meet new people, if I sit down next to people I already know? I did it anyway, because I didn't want to ignore him after I had seen him. In that room everyone seemed to had come with someone anyway.
A guy in front of us was German as well, but he was alone, so he came up to us and we had a good talk. My fellow student from Germany left after the introduction to go home, but I talked to the new guy for an hour or so to bypass the time between the different introductions. We study something completely different, so we probably won't see each other again, but still it was nice to talk to someone rather than walking around alone. It made me feel like I would be able to socialize.
When we parted, my introduction for the Faculty of Humanities started. There I met a French and an Italian girl. Luckily the French girl has all the same classes as I do, so when I'll go to university next Monday I will know someone already. Plus we can talk about assignments and such.
She had to leave a little bit earlier though. I ended up waiting for the Italian girl, because I didn't wanted to leave without saying goodbye, but she had a question for one of the lecturers. They kept talking with two other Italians in Italian (which I don't speak), so I just stood there for a while feeling lost. Eventually we left the lecture theatre and stayed in the corridor, where their conversation just kept going. I just stood there, and soon half an hour was over and I still hadn't said a word.
I wondered how I could leave without it being too awkward, but no idea came to my mind, so I just kept standing there not knowing what to do. Neither of the girls acknowledged me much, which made me wonder whether anyone would notice if I left, but I didn't want to book this as a failure. Not on my first day!
So I just stayed in this awkward situation, waiting and hoping for it to end.
After a while the girls looked at me and I made a sorry face, saying “I'm sorry, I don't speak Italian”, as if that wasn't obvious. And from that moment on they talked a bit of English with me. One of them walked next to me when we left the building. I talked to her for a while, just following their lead. At one point I asked them where we are going and they said, that they wanted to eat, so I figured we were walking to some kind of canteen, but we were heading to student housings, and just before we went through the door, I realized, we were walking to one of the girl's place.
Before I knew it, I sat on someone's couch, even though I had no clue what those nice girls were called, and someone cooked me lunch. I got some pasta and we had a really nice talk. From the original awkwardness we went to a relaxed lunch thing with friends.
Honestly, at that moment I felt like whatever would come my way, there would always be a way to get through it.
No matter how weird stuff is, people are genuinely nice and friendly.
They told me about a place in university where they sell old stuff from people that left last semester for just a few pounds, so now I possess like three plates, two bowls, two glasses and three sets of cutlery. I even got a nice bowl for fruits and stuff.
I will try to nicen up my room a bit more in the future and just go along with everything that comes my way. One way or the other I will end up with extremely nice people.
But my plan for tomorrow: go and see the Clyde!
*lyrics by Gabrielle Aplin „Reverse“
