Well, here I am in Cardiff, after my first night in the house that I’m renting with four friends.
I travelled down from Dolgellau yesterday with my Dad. Dad recently got a satellite navigation gadget, which we used to navigate to Cardiff. Well, tried to – I had trouble navigating the menus to set the destination, so it wasn’t until we stopped at Hay on Wye (where I had a quick look round a couple of the bookshops for stuff on my reading lists, plus anything else that took my fancy) that Dad could sort it out! It then showed a three-dimensional map of our position which updated in real time, and told us where to go at each turning.
We arrived around 3:40pm, and Mr Thomas the landlord was waiting to show us such things as the meters and how the heating works and so on. After he’d done that, Dad and I moved in all my boxes and rearranged the furniture in my room to my liking. We went out to get a takeaway of chicken and chips – so I’m throwing myself into the student lifestyle straight away! He then headed off home, and I wandered out to do some shopping, before coming back to continue unpacking.
It’s strange being on my own again after living at home with my family over the summer. Once again it’s up to me what I do, what I eat, when I go to bed and the like – and also up to me to cook, wash up, tidy up and do whatever else needs doing. The sudden freedom of being at university feels rather strange. It’s like that moment when you’re driving when you realise you only need to spin the wheel around in your hands to veer off the road and probably kill yourself. With the independence university brings, you realise that there’s nothing stopping you from wrecking your life but you yourself. Stupid amounts of booze, drugs, terrorist groups – all are out there if you want (I saw on the papers yesterday that “extremist/terrorist groups” are active at many universities). But you can’t dwell on that – you just carry on, enjoying the drive, your eyes on the road in front of you. I’m glad to say I won’t be alone for long, since my housemate Ian will be arriving tomorrow afternoon. Steve, Ben and Tom will follow over the next few days.
It’s quite different from my arrival last year when I didn’t know anybody and when the city of Cardiff was new to me. I spent the first few days just wandering about and exploring. This time round I’m looking forward to seeing friends again – I’ve already seen Ian and Tom (hmmm… familiar names!) from over in Cwmdare Street, plus Ben, a fellow historian and Debater who has been working for Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central who was elected in the last Election. Tomorrow I’ll be returning to Mackintosh Evangelical Church, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone there. And that’s just the beginning…
