Orientation

We had a meeting with all new students this morning. I found out that the abbreviation for my course (MA Shakespeare, Stratford-Upon-Avon and the Cultural History of Renaissance England) is MASSCHRE, or as we call it 'Massacre'. The lecturer said 'But don't worry, we wont be massacring anyone......this isn't Paris.' I looked around and everyone got the joke. That kind of confirmed that I was in the right place.

(In case you don't know, Christopher Marlowe (a contemporary of Shakespeare) wrote a play called THE MASSACRE AT PARIS, a play about the Catholic massacre of thousands of French Huguenots (Protestants) in the 1550s.)

I had lunch with some other students before we had out first meeting with our Tutor at the Institute. There are only 7 of us in the MASSCHRE program, and only 2 of us are full time. Four of the others are older, and the others are in our 20s.

I found out that since my degree is an interdisciplinary degree I have class every Wednesday morning/afternoon in Birmingham at the main campus (about an hour away) and every other Wednesday afternoon for a lecture, but the Institute will reimburse me for the train expense.

I am looking at moving out of the B and B I am at, even though I thought about staying here indefinitely. It turns out that most of the students who want room mates already have them, so I may have to move out on my own or look for a room mate that isn't a student. I just know that living here will never really feel like my place, and I will feel like I am invading their space when I use the kitchen or what ever. I also cannot get a phone plan (just a pay as you go) and possibly not a bank account until I have an address where I am on the lease. I need to figure out how much money I get for this term to see how much I can afford.

Classes begin tomorrow.