(quote from M.F.K. Fisher)
2nd of April in 2018:
Today the rain woke me up.
The first sleep in a strange bed is unfamiliar. I usually slept but not enough, because I used to get up at 5 a.m. at home. Therefore I can´t sleep until 9 or 10 a.m. except when I am exhausted.
The room has two beds, two commodes, a desk and a wardrobe. One aspect, which bothers me a little bit is the space in the room. If I want to leave the room, I have to go sideward between the bed and the commodes to reach the door. All in all, I would say it has modest furniture. I know, I shouldn´t complain because it could have been worse. My mother often says: That is enough for a student to live.
Tesco Superstore opened today, so some of us decided to buy some more groceries and some cleaning agent. I was looking forward to it because I like Tesco, because it has a lot of varieties of products, has lots of offers. It can compare to ‚Kaufland‘ or ‚Real‘ in Germany. I was at a Tesco Superstore in Stratford-upon-Avon, when I had my language study travel in 2011. It felt kind of nostalgic when I entered the building. Comparing to Tesco Express, I would prefer the Superstore more because it is cheaper and has more offers with „Any 3 for £2 „. For an apprentice, it is an excellent opportunity to have healthy nutrition and for a person, who likes to cook, to have many ingredients.
A little bit later we decided to discover the neighbourhood by looking for the way to our working places and the InternEurope office. We took for about 11000 steps today. Usually, I like walking and rainy weather, but today I forgot the umbrella. The rain never stopped, and the wind was annoying. But the neighbourhood was beautiful. I start to like Belfast even with the rainy weather. My workplace isn´t far away from my home, just a 15 minutes walk. I am going to work at „volunteer now“ in the next two months. What kind of company is it, that is worth for another blog entry.
After this long walk and a break at home, we went to Jenny´s, Phi´s and Dominik´s accommodation to have dinner together. We took a taxi because it rained a lot, our jackets were wet and, it was cold. We have to pay £4. It wasn´t much. The first time in my life I booked a taxi 😀 Their kitchen is excellent. I was a little bit envious. I helped with cooking because it´s one of my passions.
Then we didn´t want to use the smartphones. Uno was the main game but also the most significant factor, which gave us so much fun for this evening. Playing ‚Uno‘ with seven persons, having many rules like play the zero – you have to change the cards with your neighbour, playing the seven – you have to play with open cards, gave some of us to use the rules in the wrong way to irritate the others. Son or Phi or even both of them started to collect 20 cards and played the zero. I think everyone can imagine what will happen… If looks could kill, so many would have died 😀
We enjoyed the time. But everything has to come to an end. We were too lazy to go home by feet, but after calling three taxi services, we had to walk. One didn´t have available taxi cars; one could offer us a taxis in 1.5 hours, the last one even didn´t pick up. On the way home, we wanted to order a taxi by giving the passing cars a sign, but each of them just ignored us. But there was one taxi, which wanted to give us a ride, but we declined him because we were nearly at home. On the way home, I found an impressive vending machine.
The day was exhausted. Tomorrow will be another day. I am looking forward to it.
-Huong Giang-