It's Official

Today I had my welcome ceremony so I met up with a friend today who I know from home (she moved into my building yesterday) because I needed take her into town. When I rolled up on my bike she asked me how much I paid for it and then laughed. Poor old Hoj (hunk o' junk). I'm getting to be rather fond of him actually. Even if he is a bit rusty and his lights don't work (something else I'm going to have to sort out soon).

Anyway, I lead her to Martinikerk which is a huge, old church. It was where the first part of the welcome ceremony was held. It was very beautiful but it was hard to hear the speeches because of the echoes. I couldn't understand a word that the mayor was saying but I'm sure it was very welcoming.



Then we went down to the main Academy building.



It was kind of set up like a Fresher's Fair with booths of information and freebies. I got a lot of helpful brochures about Groningen and I also got my student ID card so I am officially a student of Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG).



I signed up for the ESN (Erasmus Student Network) Introduction Week with pub crawls, belly dancing workshops, karaoke, film night, orange party and learning some basic Dutch. It looks like it should be a lot of fun but I have to wear a green wrist band for the next week and a bit which digs in when I'm trying to type or write.

The price I pay to be entertained.

Today was also a success because I finally went food shopping! Huzzah! I decided to have fajitas for dinner so I went to the kitchen to set everything up...only to find I had forgotten to buy oil. Felt like such a fool.

So I need to go food shopping again tomorrow and, I looked in the kettle in the kitchen and it's fairly gross, so I might have to buy a kettle as well. But then I can probably keep it in my room and have cups of tea in bed. Bliss. I also managed to bug my student manager for a pillow and a tea towel so that's another thing to tick off the to-do list.

I think my greatest purchase of the day was Earl Grey tea bags. How I have missed the sweet, simple pleasure of tea. <3 I also took a nice picture of a park on the ride home so I will share it with you now.



&&Fin.