I was thinking a bit if I should reborn this idea of having a blog, where I'll write about fun I'm gonna experience in England. I still remember how I stopped updating my "trip-diary" from my first visit of US after two weeks, because of… well, let's say lack of time :-). On the other hand, it's a new year, it's also a new country, almost like starting a new life, so it is worth to give it another chance. Ok, if you are reading this, then you probably already got what the result is (so why the hell, Jan, are you bothering everybody with this paragraph?!). But the truth is, that my final decision was made because of what happened today and that's the thing I was trying to say here… in a bit complicated way, which is indeed not atypical for me :-). Anyways, sit down and stay tuned!
I'm probably not gonna describe the beginning of the day with too much details, because it was just a normal and boring morning with one trip to Havel (that's the new name of Prague's airport, it might be somewhat related with the name of our previous president) - thanks a lot Urbi for a ride! So, then there was a flight to Dusseldorf, after that there was a sleeping-break for more than four hours at the airport, then there was a flight to Birmingham, after that there…oh, there was a nice french girl from Lyon next to me on the second flight; she's studying now at the University of Birmingham and helped me in Birmingham to get to the train station with the airport shuttle - thanks Claire! …anyways, after that there was a train to Coventry, then I took a taxi that took me in front of the Arden - a place at Warwick's campus well known to all the taxi drivers here - and, finally, a short walk to the flat. Btw, next to Arden there were three or four geodesists, so I thought they are perfect targets for a question like "where is the north". However, they were probably more surprised by my question than me by their answer "we have no idea". On the other hand, they gave me a full map of the campus (I had just a printed map with few streets around Arden), which turned out to be much more important than I thought at that point. They also recognized one big road on the map, so after that I knew exactly where to go (and also where the north is :-) ). Oh, I should probably mention that my (original) plan was that the first days in UK I will stay in a flat of Dan, my Czenglish advisor. Since Dan is arriving on 8th, he lent me the key when we met in Prague. Ok, finally we are getting to the punchline of the story - the key he gave me was able to unlock the front door of the house, but, unfortunately, it was not able to unlock the door to the flat (Dan is using another one, that can do both). Welcome party started right at the beginning! Let's switch to a live broadcast for the next paragraph ;-).
Shit! Dan just confirms by the phone that he probably never tried that key; he believed it works the same as the other one. Both Terka and Lukáš, other students of Dan, are still in Czech. As well as Dan. But the math building (called Zeeman) is opened until 5pm or 6pm, don't know exactly (since this is my very first day at Warwick, I do not have a card to open it after that point). But Dan said that until 5pm it is opened for sure, and it's just 4:30 right now. Ok, armed with the campus map, a swiss knife, Seagal Team' Saracstic Button and a flashlight, there is no chance to fail! Just hope that my eduroam wireless account from Prague is still valid (since my student status there was suspended two days ago). Dan sent me also numbers to two other people from here, but both of them are originally from somewhere else than UK, so most likely they are still out of the country. Maybe, maybe not, but both numbers are switched off. The map is really handy and after not more than 10 mins, I'm in the Zeeman Building. And, internet works. And, Dan also sent me a name of some bed & breakfast place next to the campus. And, my cell just switches off… But, switching it on fortunately works, so I'm calling to the Westwood Cottage Bed & Breakfast (btw, Westwood, that reminds me my childhood). And yes, they have a free room tonight, although the voice in the phone sounded quite surprised that somebody is calling at 5pm and asking for a bed for tonight. I'm not gonna sleep under the bridge tonight! :-) Since I'm saved, I could relax a bit and buy some chips with something to drink in the vending machines here. I'm fighting with the machines a bit (e.g. one of them just took four of my twenty-pennies, turned them to one ten-pennies coin, and said thanks for using it), I'm buying two sacks of chips (well, I wanted just one, but, those buggy machines…), one can of coke, two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, … oh, sorry, that's another story :-). Anyways, time to move (and switch off live broadcasting mode).
I left my quite big suitcase behind the front door of the house with Dan's flat (one more person lives there, she's probably also out of the campus for today, and I left there a message like "Dan's luggage, it will be removed tonight or tomorrow morning"). So, I had to backtrack to Dan's flat and then go to the place. So far, one can say I had more luck than I deserved, and since in the meantime it got dark outside, it turned out I forgot how to get back. I was going back and forth for like 20 minutes, but then finally I found the right way and walked back. Although I lost some of my luck, still quite a big amount of it remained with me. I have to say that the weather here was really great today (and tonight); quite warm and no rain at all. Ok, there was a small space for improvements (e.g. I was too optimistic with the sunglasses in the morning :-D ), but still, really great weather. On the way, I was thinking like "I would kill for having my bike here today and not bringing it in February" (actually, that reminds me that I forgot to try to kill someone in Czech before I left the country, which is kind of unfortunate ). Anyways, my suitcase was there and then I went off to the Westwood Cottage. I met some Indian-looking guy with a big van on the way. He asked me "where are you going?", so I said something like "Bed & Breakfast place near the campus, it's close to here". He replied "Arden house?" (which was like 25 meters in front of me) so I said "no, but that's ok, I know the way". He replied "I'm going this way", pointed to a big road, and continued "So Arden house?"… We chatted in this way for like three more minutes and then most likely we both thought about each other something like "this guy uses a different language than me" and said good bye to each other :-). At least that meant the same in both of the languages ;-).
So, and that's about it for the first day. Now I'm in the Westwood place, in a nice small room, looking forward to some fun coming tomorrow. Hope it will be at least as exciting as today! Ok, just a half of it would be fine as well ;-).
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