A stoodent again

It feels like I've been waiting forever but I'm finally here at Loughborough - back to the student life again! I'm even living in Halls but this time around it's a beautiful and very plush Postgrads-only hall. I've got my own bathroom so it sort of feels like I'm living in a hotel. For some unknown reason Loughborough Uni have decreed that we had to get here on Thursday, although I haven't got anything that I need to do until Monday. So I've been generally mooching around and discovering my new surroundings. So far I have unearthed:
- the Uni pool
- Loughborough's Saturday market in town
- a bike shop
- Sainsbury's
- the town library
So not doing too badly. Have scoped out the choir situation - there is one that practices on Monday evenings, starting next Monday, so I'm going to go to that. According to the website, 'New members are welcome at any time - there are no auditions, no previous experience is needed, and there is no requirement to be able to read music'. In other words, 'We're a bit shit'. But then I can't really read music, so I'm a bit shit too, and it's clearly the kind of choir to which I should belong. I sort of wanted to join a wind band or something but I can't actually play
anything so I've had to knock that idea on the head. Choir it is!

I'm missing Mach quite a lot, all the familiar surroundings, and all the lovely people. I went into a health food shop today (a phrase you would *never* have heard me utter before I moved to Mach) and the smell made me so nostalgic for the Hippy Wonderland of Machynlleth that I almost burst into tears. Luckily the sight of muesli brought me round (which for some reason makes me angry. I think it's because it's so relentlessly tasteless. Don't get me started).

I had a lovely holiday in the south of France before I came here, a pilgrimage to see the Pont du Gard near Nimes. It was very impressive, and I had a great time practising my French and exercising my language brain. Also ate a lot of lovely food (sharp bread, smelly cheese, bloody steak) and managed to avoid stepping in a single dog poo for the whole trip despite there being plenty of opportunity for me to do so.

Off to the pub now with my new flatmates!