i love sheffield.................

yaaaay.. i finally got my internet!!! aaah. it's such a relieved being re-connected to the virtual world.. :D

so, to sum up, i finally departed from indonesia to sheffield to continue my study on friday night... i had 3 suitcases on.. put 1 in the luggage, and 2 in the cabin... my plane stopped in kuala lumpur and amsterdam, so i had to get my cabin bags inside and outside of the plane... gosh.. i tried lifting my bags up, but i couldn't manage to push it above my head.. it was so embarassing, thank god some people were really nice and helped me with it...

the flight was good... everything went under control... but i couldn't sleep really well.. i mean, 11 hours sitting in the chair, with your head kept falling down.. you can imagine that.. :P oh, and i had the window seat.. i travelled during the night, and it was a really clear night, so at some points, i could see all of the countries with the lights on... it was AMAZING... oh, and i could actually see the stars... Gosh.... i was totally speechless....

anyway, when I arrived in Amsterdam, it was 5.30 am.. another day has started.. and again, thank God, it was a very clear beautiful day... I had the window seat again on my way to Manchester.. it wasn't a very long flight, and I don't think that the pilot flies too far away, so we're actually able to see everything clearly.. all the hills, green fields, everything.... i mean,, wow.............

well, anyway, so I'm now in Sheffield.. :D the course won't start until 1st of October, but I joined the Orientation programme, which is encouraged by the university for the international students to take... I am so glad I took it.. so, Orientation basically is a program intended for students who are not familiar with UK.. so we have about more than 200 students in the program, from 60 different countries.. I talked to a lot of people, from Cyprus, Iceland, Germany, Canada, Philadelphia, Malaysia, China, Singapore, Malawi, Kenya, India, Portugal, Swiss, Iran, Japan, Hong Kong, Denmark, Mexico, Greece and many more... they were really really nice, and we kept saying hello whenever we meet each other, and smile to each other.. I feel really really comfortable...

the place was .... oh my god.. there's no word to describe it...... i just LOVE LOVE LOVE it.... the scenery is unbelievable... on my way to sheffield from manchester airport, there were big green hills, with colourful flowers and trees ... and there were a LOOOT of sheeps eating the grass... i just couldn't believe i'm actually there.... the city was really nice, too.. the roads are clean... and the people were very nice and warm... the temperature was about 12 C, but it turned out to be okay for me.. :D yaay.. i survived 12 C... :P I think it's gonna be lower and lower til December, well we'll see.. :)

one thing i learned from the UK people, don't ever trust them when they said, 'oh, it's only 5 minutes away'.. because that's the answer i had when i asked someone where the nearest supermarket is... and it turned out to be 20 minutes away..... and it turned out that it took almost twice as longer to walk with your groceries on... oh, man... it took me more than one hour to get back to my place.. and i kept thinking.. ohh... i missed my house, i missed having a car, i missed having my grandma cooked for me, i missed talking to my family, i missed playing with my dog... it's gonna be a year before i can do all of that again.. why did i choose to go.. and so on and so on.. and to add my misery, there was no internet here... i was miserable.. but thank god, some positive thinking came to my mind.. 'hey, i just survived my first shopping in the UK (and in my life actually.. :P)... i survived walking for an hour by myself in a foreign country... i managed to survive my first time travelling abroad by myself' .. well then i just felt better.... :P

so, we're having tours in these last few days, to the city center (which was 30 minutes walk to go there, so that means 1 hour to go back and forth), then the tour to Endcliffe village (about 1,5 hours), and last night, we had a dance class.. :D i joined it again, and it was really fun... we learned cha cha cha, rumba, waltz and tango... we stumbled into people all the time, we stepped on other's feet, we had a great laugh.. haha.. it was an unforgettable experience.. :) oh, and after i counted, so that day i walked for 5 hours... :D how great was that? i never walked more than 15 minutes in a day in Jakarta.. i was sooo lazy.. :) well, this is an enormous achievement for me! i never thought i would say this, but i'm really used to be an independent girl, and not the spoiled one.. and to be honest, i really love it... i walk everywhere now (and not complaining), i deal with the weather, i eat the food (which i don't think was ... as good as Indonesians), and *narcistic mode on* I'm really proud of myself *narcistic mode off*.. hahahaha...

well, the orientation programme will last for a week.. and on friday night, we have a formal dinner where everybody should wear their traditional dresses... i can't wait.. :D

oh, it's 11.25 pm here.. and i have to wake up at 6.30.. so i'll write more tomorrow... :D