Day 7 (In Summary part 3), 14th of Jan: "Meet the Flat"

Saturday the 14^th of January, Day 7: “Meet the Flat”

After getting up at 1pm and writing the Jumble post, all I did today was go for my first real run in the UK, go grocery-shopping, and cook chicken wings and beans for dinner with Vinny. The run helped clear my system and I found a beautiful route following the Lake that is visible from my window in Norfolk Terrace. I made it all the way to the road, Bluebell, and made it back to campus in a loop, then did two shorter loops around the lake to finish off the run.

            After dinner, which I’m proud to say that Vinny and I made quite a good cooking team together, there were games in the dorm kitchen (the flat/our floor shares a really nice kitchen) and then a fun night at the student union building, the LCR, which stands for something but I don’t know what. Trust me when I say that this is the last night I’m going out for awhile. Luckily, the English allow for really, really spread-out (time-wise) party scenes, so pacing oneself (with drink) is relatively easy to do. But I still feel sick in the sense of feeling toxins not out of my system—I’m going to run soon, before daylight ends around 4:30.

            More importantly to this day, I met most of my flatmates. As sad as I am that I leave behind my Labyrinthians at UC Berkeley (I miss you guys), this flat is kinda like a family too. Marie and Matt seem to be the most excitable, and two others that I quickly became fond of tonight were Alvin and Dan, who I hung out with at the LCR. The others I’ll bond with too, given time. In all, there are thirteen of us (two left at the end of last semester, hence me and Vinny were able to move in) and I think there are only four girls in the flat. It feels like I’m reliving a freshman year in England since all my flatmates, except my Australian roomie Vinny, are 18 or 19 and are first-years, or as they’re called here, “freshers”. So at the LCR, there were six of us: Alvin, Dan, Marie, Vinny, Steven (who actually didn’t hang out with the rest of us much), and me. Since I am in a relationship, I became the harmless, “gay best friend” to Marie (kinda hilarious, really) and spent most of my time with Dan and Alvin and Marie—ran into Anna and the Oregon girl twice—and can’t forget hanging with Joe, Sean, and Ross. Everyone in the flat (I’ve been told by Marie this morning and also by Alvin last night) is social and there aren’t any complaints among us so this should be a really fun semester with these guys.