the most excisting week so far

The most exciting week so far.

On Monday, I picked up my ticket for the rugby match. Tuesday was spent with the Photo Society—we went out for dinner followed by a photo walk. Wednesday started with university classes and ended with Varsity, one of the biggest sporting events in Leeds.

The city’s two major universities compete against each other all day in a huge range of sports: athletics, American football, badminton, cricket, football, golf, hockey, swimming, volleyball, and many more. There’s something happening all day long, with the rugby match in the evening as the main event. Unfortunately, I only managed to watch the women’s volleyball match and the rugby game because university kept me busy beforehand.

Sadly, “our” university lost both matches—and the overall Varsity competition—but it was still an amazing experience. Rugby is basically fighting with rules. I probably should have read the rules before the match instead of afterwards. It would have saved me from constantly wondering, “What just happened? Why was that worth five points when the last one was only three? Why only two points this time? Why has the referee blown the whistle again?” Even so, it was fantastic to watch.

The atmosphere was intense, too. Not because of the game itself, but because the security measures in the stadium were so strict. Fans from the two universities had to stand in opposite sections, the exits led in different directions, and they tried to avoid any contact between the groups after the match. Apparently, things can get a little heated from time to time. By the end of the evening I was completely soaked and freezing cold, but it was absolutely worth it.

Even better, I sent my photos to the Photo Society, who passed them on to the university. They ended up being published on the university’s Facebook page as well. And after looking through the album, I’d like to make the very modest observation that I think mine are the better rugby photos. ;-)

Friday brought my personal low point of the week. I logged into the online exam portal of my university back in Bamberg and was greeted with the message: “You are no longer enrolled in this degree programme (No degree awarded).” Excuse me… what?! It seems that only one of my master’s programmes was affected, so it’s probably just a system error rather than anything to do with my leave of absence, which was my first thought. Anyway, I sent an email but haven’t received a reply yet. Oh, how I love university administration…

On Saturday, we took a short trip to Liverpool. I wouldn’t call it spectacular, but it was definitely a nice place to visit.

Sunday was Carnage. It’s a party that takes place across the UK this week and can be summed up like this: there’s an overall theme (this year’s was “Pimps and Hoes”—which, to be fair, doesn’t look much different from a normal night out here), and you spend the evening hopping between different clubs. In our case, there were six of them. There’s a recommended order, but you don’t have to follow it.

Your ticket is actually a T-shirt, which you collect the day before and then customise. In keeping with the theme, most people cut away as much fabric as possible while still technically leaving it recognisable as a T-shirt. On the back is a checklist of the clubs and various challenges to complete throughout the night. It was a lot of fun. Another nice thing was that everything started at 8:00 p.m. (after all, there was a lot to fit in), so by 3:00 a.m. we could head home with a clear conscience and still have something left of Monday.

This week I’ll be having my first visitor. Let’s see how well we can make it work in the rather modest conditions of my student accommodation.