The first two weeks in university are over and I really like studying here. Nevertheless, there are a few things that are supposed to be simple, but are anything but. I would even say they are absolutely annoying. For example, submitting assignments. At university in Dresden, one only sends the assignment to the tutor or professor via email and everything is fine. Here however, it is not that easy. Instead it is totally complex and not at all more error prone. With two copies of the assignment one has to go to the secretary for the entire department. There one fills out two yellow and two blue sheets (whose purpose remains to be discovered). All the six documents one has to give to the secretary. I have no idea, what she is doing with it. However, on mysterious ways the assignment reaches my tutor (hopefully).
UK and EU Law
It took me a while to figure out the way it works here, but, hey, to employ one person only for stamping incoming assignments is a good step against unemployment *irony*. The next hassle I had with the overall friendly people from a bank called HSBC. They have great offers for all students who are willing to open up a new bank account. Bafflingly, these offers are only valid for UK students. Hm, Britain really does not care about EU, which prohibits such differences. For international students opening up a bank account can get very complicated. I had to go several times to the HSBC branch until I finally got a British bank account.
Struggling to open up a Bank Account
The bank did not accept my letting agreement as proof of residency. Instead they wanted to see an official form from the university. I asked them, what additional proof that would be. None of the people could respond to this question, but, hey, they needed to follow the process. Hence, with my private letting agreement I walked to the student’s union. There, one guy took my private letting agreement, copied all the data without asking anything into an official university form and signed it. I took this official form back to HSBC and was good to go. Several days later I received my HSBC bank account details. It was hard to understand what was exactly the added value of the university form, but like I learned in India – not everything has to make sense.
Roommate Changes
Anyway, apart from these struggles everything is fine with me. I am very busy at university and I am making new friends. Last week, Tim, the English guy and my landlord, left our house, because he found a new job in the south near London. This week Beatrice, the Dutch girl will go home, but Rafael, my Brazilian friend will come to Sheffield soon. Thus, it surely will not become boring. Of that I am absolutely sure!