All Around Leeds

It came to my attention that people may need a visual of where I live in regards to the university, Leeds city area, etc.  This is the best I can do: a photo of a school map.

The "O" on the left side is my dorm; the brown area in the middle is the university; and southeast of the university is the city center.  It's about an hour long walk to get from my dorm to the city center (or I can take a 10-minute bus ride).  The "D" at the top of the map is a town called Headingley (a 15/20-minute walk from my dorm) - it's the closest place for me to go shopping (lots of thrift stores!) or eat out (coffee shops, Subway, Pizza Hut, Thai food and more).

A notable observation about the UK:
In America, there is a plethora of fast food restaurants.  McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Subway, KFC, Panda Express, Chipotle, Quizno's, Noodles & Company, Jimmy John's, Arby's, White Castle, just to name a few.  While the UK also has some of these options, they are only located in the city center.  There aren't any fast food restaurants near campus or my dorm.  Instead, the British love sandwiches.  There are sandwich shops on every corner and in every cafe on campus.  I'm talking plain old egg salad, tuna salad, ham & cheese sandwiches.  This is what they eat every day for lunch.  We've also had a few catered lunches during orientation - yep, all sandwiches.

Leeds city center is one giant shopping emporium, with stores ranging from the Pound Shop (aka The Dollar Store) to Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood.  I went a city tour with a group from school and tried to learn my way around. 

 

Other than shopping, clubbing, or going to the train station, there's not really much else to do in the city center.  And since I am on a strict budget (with no income), my time in the city will be limited.

Grayson Heights

When I received my accommodation assignment, I saw it as a good sign, since my nephew's middle name is Grayson.  It's a post-graduate dorm for international students.  Perfect.

Grayson Heights is a tall high-rise building - I took this picture on a typical cloudy day.  There are 3 flats per floor, each with a locking outer door in the vestibule near the elevator.  My flat is on the second floor and has 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a lounge area. 

Want to see the tour???  Here's the video link.  (I'm all high-tech now with my new iPod Touch.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boesk5xTqPc&feature=youtu.be

As mentioned before, my dorm is a 40-minute walk to campus with a lot of massive hills.  (There are buses that run to campus but I don't have a bus pass yet.)  The major grocery store here is called Morrisons and it's a 10-minute walk, which is really nice.  There's not a whole lot of restaurants or cafes around, but I figure that if I eat out, it will probably be on campus anyway and I'll just cook back at my flat.

These are my flatmates: Shu Ping from China, studying marketing; Seinya from Sierra Leone, studying bio-conservation; me from the USA, studying international public health; Eunice from Zimbabwe, studying sustainable development; Louise from the UK, studying conference interpretation (French & Spanish).  I love the fact that the 5 of us are from 5 different countries.

Funny story: Before we moved here, Louise googled "Grayson Heights" to get more info about the dorm and she found my blog!!  I had already updated my page and included my new mailing address, so it came up in her search!  She told me that she read a few of my entries and recognized me when I was in the lobby on moving-in day.  Ha ha, too funny.

I thought this week was going to be easy.

Last night after I blogged, I decided to look through my orientation binder for the public health program.  I found that there is a schedule printed out for the entire first semester.  To my surprise, classes are starting tomorrow (Wednesday) - not September 25th like the rest of the university.  I guess it's a good thing I got here early.

During orientation this morning, we were given our first homework assignment (due on Friday) and we were informed that there is a statistics test on Thursday.  It's more of an assessment - but either way, I need study up a little on health statistics.

I'm slightly overwhelmed with school at the moment, probably because I'm also dealing with cultural adjustment and jet lag.  I have had no time to open a bank account, get a bus pass, register with a doctor, or look into phone services; I still haven't even registered yet (so no student id).  My room is a disaster and I haven't even unpacked the box of kitchen utensils/cookware that I ordered.  I'm completely scatter-brained from all of the chaos around me right now.  And all I want to do is watch a movie and sleep.

If I can manage to complete all of the previously mentioned tasks by Friday, then I'll be fine.  That's my goal.

Orientation

I fell asleep around 8:30pm last night - then woke up at 3:00am.  Stupid jet lag.  I forced myself to go back to sleep but got up around 5:30am anyway.  I took a nice hot shower and enjoyed some coffee before heading off to school for orientation.

It turns out my dorm is much farther from campus than I expected.  The school website said it was a 30-minute walk - it's actually closer to 45.  With the wind and rain, it makes for a miserable start to the day.  Not to mention the enormous hills to climb (comparable to San Francisco).

The orientation for the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences began at 9:30am.  I thought it was just be a quick meeting, maybe one hour.  It lasted until 1:00pm and tomorrow we have another 9:30-1:00 orientation.  I'm a little overwhelmed by all of this immediate information, but it was really nice to meet the people in my program.  We were also introduced to the teaching staff and got to talk with some former students.  Then there was a lovely catered lunch for us after the session.  It was a really nice surprise.

Here's the breakdown of everything I learned today:

• The department has 4 sections: Masters of Public Health (MPH) - International Health; Health Management, Policy and Planning; Masters of Science (MSc) - International Health; and Hospital Management.  I am in the Masters of Public Health (MPH) - International Health.  There are about 65 people total in all of the programs - the MPH section is the biggest with 33 people.
• In all of the programs, I am the only American.  And there are only 4 students from the UK.  The over half of the students are from Nigeria.  For the MPH program:
• Nigeria - 17 students
• Saudi Arabia - 2 students
• Kuwait - 1 student
• Zimbabwe - 1 student
• Ghana - 2 students
• Kenya - 1 student
• Uganda - 2 students
• Taiwan - 1 student
• South Sudan - 1 student
• Thailand - 2 students
• Namibia - 1 student
• UK - 1 student
• USA - 1 student (They had me listed as "Uganda" but I explained to everyone that I'm American.)

• In the other programs, there are also students from India, Afghanistan, China, Italy, Pakistan, Sudan, and Vietnam. 
• The majority of students (in all the programs) are doctors.  Many of them got frustrated only treating one person at a time and have decided to go into public health to treat society as a whole.
• This year is going to be intense - classes run 9:30am-5:00pm Mon-Fri.  Yikes.  (But there is a 1 1/2 hour break for lunch.)  With this kind of schedule, there's not much time for a social life, working part-time, or even going to the gym.  (Of course walking 4 miles a day with all of these hills is a pretty damn good workout.  If only I wasn't a hot mess when I arrived at class.)
• The first semester for the MPH is only 2 courses: Foundations of International Health and Principles of Public Health.  The reason I chose this university is because of the way they present the core courses.  Other universities have separate classes for epidemiology, biostatistics, health systems and research methods.  The University of Leeds blends all of those into Foundation and Principles.  For me, it a easier way to learn and apply the concepts.
• So at this point, I don't have to register for my electives.  That will happen later and give me some time to think about my thesis.

I spent the rest of the afternoon running around trying to submit paperwork and get my student id, but there are a few hiccups in my account and I can't pay tuition yet, which means I can't register yet.  Hopefully it will all be resolved tomorrow.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

And I'm off again!!

I took a non-stop flight from Chicago to Manchester, got a on train from Manchester Airport to Leeds Train Station, then took a cab to my dorm.  Unfortunately, I missed my stop to transfer on the train and had to backtrack a little.  It never fails that I get lost the first time I try a new public transit system.  The train system here is enormous - I can't even find a systems map because there so many trains going to so many different cities.  Slowly, slowly I will learn.

I had arranged a meet & greet at Leeds Train Station with the university welcome team.  It worked out perfectly.  They had a little booth set up and I walked right over after getting off the train.  I received a welcome packet (which I have not looked through yet), and they arrange for a taxi to take me to my dorm for a fair price.  After I got to my dorm, I met a few of my flatmates and promptly passed out for a 2-hour nap.

I didn't want to sleep all day (since it was noon when I started my nap) - I decided to go walking around for a bit.  I took a wrong turn somewhere and never found the supermarket that near the dorm.  Instead, I walked all the way down the main road (called Commercial Road) and found another supermarket.  It was kind of small (compared to US grocery stores) but I picked up some fruit, cookies, soup and sandwich for dinner.  Other than the supermarket, there is really nothing else around.  It's very residential and virtually no restaurants or shops nearby.  (But I've seen a map and there's plenty of cafes on campus.)

The weather here is WINDY!!!  It was cloudy and rainy this morning, now it's cleared up.  Temperatures are in the 50's, so it's not too bad, but the wind is crazy.

Now I've got a massive stack of welcome letters, university events, maps and brochures to sort out.  And I need to figure out my walking route to school tomorrow.

Under Construction

I'm currently in Chicago making the transition from a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda to a grad school student in Leeds.  Stay tuned for a new adventure in the UK . . .