Getting started: Part 1

It’s been almost two whole months since I started the Computer Science course at ECS. It still sometimes feels like a dream. I remembered reading about the University and student life before coming, getting ready and, most of all, getting excited. I wanted to find out more about Southampton as well as living in the United Kingdom. Everything turned out to be completely different from what I had anticipated. Different and better.

My arrival in Southampton could be summarised like this: excitement, excitement, excitement, panic! It turned out (as it usually does in cases like these) that there was absolutely no need for the last bit. Yes, I was suddenly living all by myself, not to mention in a different country and yes, there was a fire alarm in the late evening to welcome us to our new home but I wasn’t alone. The people I met that first day were very open and friendly, all (as I kept forgetting) in the same boat as me. Some became my closest friends at uni.

The ECS Society Jumpstart event was even better. What better way to get to know people from your course than to plan a survival strategy against a zombie attack together?

Which is not to say it’s been all easy as pie. I had to survive the whole first week eating soup because I couldn’t make anything else and my first morning found me starving since the necessary trip to IKEA the previous day had taken so long there was no time left to do the groceries.

But the thing I was most scared of (meeting new people and finding friends) came slightly easier than I expected. And so did the actual lectures and coursework… but that’s a story for another time 🙂