Travel report: The UK - Nottingham - Studying in the University of Nottingham (24.01.16 - 17.06.16)

Chapter 3

The land of eternal spring #England

Arrrhh... Tough week. Well,

- Seems to me, the timetable is finally set! Hallelujah!
- damn, the Mandarin tutor is planning to move a seminar to Friday, damn... UPD it`s moved, damn!

- Been to a movie theatre (Deadpool)

- Been at a Chinese Brush Painting Masterclass by Jiang Hongsheng

- It`s cold:(

So, the modules chosen are:
- Mandarin 2B (10 credits)
- French 1B (10)
- Italian 1B (10)
- The Bible in Music, Art and Literature (10)
- Film and Television in Social and Cultural Context (10 as 1 semester only)
- Italian Art in the Age of Caravaggio (10)
+ CELE Academic Writing: Grammar, Vocabulary and Academic Discussion (only 3 possible, no credits)
=60

The masterclass. We were supposed to attend one 2 weeks ago together with other Art History students. It turned out we were at the right place then:) I don`t know why we didn`t manage to discover that - kind of a simple misunderstanding. Caravaggio... Chinese art... whatever.

Anyway, that was great! That was Chinese Brush Painting Masterclass by a Chinese artist Jiang Hongsheng, and, actually, it cost UoN students 5£, but the History of Art students could attend one for free. The subject of paintings were peonies - fluffy, spectacular, pink flowers, like ones that my granny is used to grow in her garden. The artist explained step by step the secret of their creation with one attempt for each stroke only - the point I missed the first (4 years of art school bad habbits). The amount of water in the brush, the position of the brush and the hand, the way you mix the colours on the pallete - such things become meaningful when you can`t take white colour again to fix an overdose of red. Mostly I was astonished not with the technique but how psychologically revealing the paintings were - the students used colours different from pink, tried to express themselves, each added something personal. Mine looks uncertain, subtle, unfinished (or a bit ruined?), fearful to reveal all of its colour... Something to think about.

Jiang claimed to have been looking for the secret for 20 years (since childhood, I suppose?)

Been to the local UoN Chinese New Year celebration also. Been? No, actually, we made it to the fireworks only. But it was spectacular!!! Just wow! I mean, we really didn`t expect such fireworks, just like the ones we have for the New Year or for the Victory Day in Moscow. Here is just a little town of Nottingham, not even the center of the town, not even the regular 31st of December`s New Year - and they make such a show! My honour.

Well, now to the MOVIES!!!

Planning to go to see Deadpool, I found three movie theatres nearby:
Cineworld, 
Showcase 
Savoy.
Showcase seemed to be the closest, and Cineworld is near Victoria station - convinient if you happened to be in the centre. But the thing is that Cineworld and Showcase are parts of movie theatre chains, whereas Savoy is independent. So, the prices in Cineworld and Showcase were 7,75£ and 7,5£, but in Savoy it`s 4,30£ (Deadpool, 2D, student). Chosen.
(The funny thing is that price doesn`t change acc. to time and day of the week - e.g. same for Sat 7pm and Mon 11am. Why?)

The booking is available on the website, it adds 0.4£ to the price, payment - by credit cards, but no choise of seats - you simply come earlier, enter the auditorium and take vacant seats. Profit from booking then? You don`t queue for the tickets (having a ticket, you don`t have to queue for entering the building\auditorium). The screen and sound are alright - no worries here. I also liked it when they put David Bowie just for a background when everybody was taking seats.

How to get there

Best (as it`s free) to take a Hopper bus (the one that goes to Jubilee) and take off at the first stop outside the campus main territory. The theatre is not far from there up the Derby Road. But to get this way you should chose an earlier screening, as the Hopper runs till 7 pm only. (Or get back by another bus for 1£)

What about the movie? Don`t ask me: I don`t like superhero movies, I don`t like Ryan Reynolds, I didn`t understand half of the jokes (apart from those about sex and Marvel referings). I tried not to fall asleep, even though it was funny.
Oh, I enjoyed watching Morena Baccarin! As always. That`s for sure:)

Problems:

- The timetable gave me hard times. The reason for that  was one of the tutor`s illness. For 2 weeks I couldn`t find Chinese tutor. Nobody else could give me the desired signature. Found her only on the last possible day in Jubilee. Sadly missed two classes of French to solve the problem of the missing signature and submit the module list on time. Success.

Also, when there`s a new tutor, the school reception has no record of him\her. Niether her office number, nor an e-mail - nothing. That`s not good. 

- The weather. It`s about 5`C in the daytime. If it gets lower, I`ll be freezing to the bones. Brrr... I wanna the rain and the warmth back. Where`re those 19`C of the day when we arrived?

UPD
SNOW!!!

- Where the hell is the ironing room?

I`ve heard a lot about awful student accomodations in Russia and thought, that as long as you have heating, hot water, clean room and 24\7 free entrance into the building, there is nothing to complain about at all. Besides, add a perfect location and a good food. So, what else are the students here unhappy about?
A girl from Kazakhstan claimed, that after the first year she got sick of the food here, so she moved out to the self-cattering hall. She needs to pay for the bus now, but is so happy about cooking the food herself. Overheard another lovely British girl we met here saying she goes to the church on Sundays partially to see and talk to grown-ups - tired of being surrounded only by people in their twenties or younger.

Never really understood why student halls are called a school of life sometimes. As long as you are a struggler and work to pay for studying and living there, you don`t really have time to cooperate with other dwellers there. If not, young people live by different rules, far from the ones of grown-ups. Do people study to live together in a society and cope with each other? Isn`t the family enough? They are not going to live in communal flat after, aren`t they? The only thing it gives to me is that perhaps I`ll be absolutely alright to live in a hostel when travel and save money.

When speaking by Skype, my relatives often say "now it`s the first time you cope with your problems yourself" or "see, you have to cope with the problems yourself now" (now, as I`m away from home for such a long time). I even have no answer to that. What problems are they talking about? Which of them didn`t I have earlier? Did not I have to visit universities, claim for information and the documents in 2010 myself as my Mom was lying in the bed unable to get up from sickness? And it was dreadfully hot and smoggy, and scarry, as I was just out from school without any idea what to do...? WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT? All of those above are just little inconveniences. Real troubles are always further.

Photoes: Nottingham City Centre, Nottingham Castle, shops