What I have been up to -Nottingham Chronicles

Dear friends, it has been a while since I have been here. How are you and where has December gone? Almost every day of the past few weeks I thought about writing this blog post and yet couldn’t bring myself to do it but here we are. So much has happened since the last post but I’ll try to keep it brief, but before you get into it, here are some random shots taken around Nottingham.

Restarting my fitness journey

This is about the “I have lost count of times” attempt to get into a fitness routine but here is to believing that this is the time I will get into a routine. I gave myself the grace to use reasons such as I didn’t know my way around well to jog comfortably, I am food exploring (my favourite reason), the weather wasn’t favourable ( its cold), etc. But after two two months plus, these started sounding like exactly what they are, “excuses”. I looked up gyms nearest to me and found a suitable one and I signed up online. I was not prepared for how massive the gym is when I first visited. Together with one of the instructors that run it, we walked around, and I was in awe of how busy, equipped and I will repeat how massive it is. It is a big winding floor with equipment of all manners and a smaller upper floor. I was dressed to work out, but I felt very unprepared and overwhelmed by the space and the level of activity around me. It was during the gym’s peak hours, around 5:30 pm and there were lots of people. The next day I went back and paced outside the entrance for some minutes contemplating whether to go in or to go home and start the next day. I eventually went in, ran on the treadmill, rode an exercise bike, and was proud of the effort. I have since gone a couple of times with each of these requiring a lot of self-motivation and working to overcome the feeling of being out of my depth. Picture this, a big gym floor with many people all seeming to know what they are doing and more like they live in the gym. And me, well-being me…(hehe). An instructor costs extra money so it means walking in knowing your workouts and self-instructing. On the bright side, despite everyone always seeming busy and grinding, when requested to help or asked how to use a particular machine, they are polite and happy to show you how. As much as I have not gone as routinely as I would wish, I am pinning this as a work in progress hoping to do better in 2023.

The quest to get a temporary job

Hmmm, where do I start with this? I have learnt that the UK is indeed a place of opportunities. As a developed economy, the levels of consumption for different products and services are so high which means that there are lots of industries to absorb all sorts of workers both skilled and semi-skilled. Getting temporary work is easy and but also not as easy as has been my experience. This is a contradiction I know but I won’t delve into in this post. International students are limited to working only 20 hours a week during term time, which means that any jobs one gets must be flexible to this. This can have its shortcomings and I was getting frustrated but not anymore. I am waiting it out as I continue to actively look for something suitable. I have also taken time to learn from the mistakes and taken into consideration what I ought to have done differently initially. Stay tuned for an update.

Abit of School Life

The Assessments (This is the mode of grading not exams): I cannot say I thought these would be easy, but I also did not think they would be challenging (What did I think I signed up for..hehe). Coupled with getting acquainted with a different style of instruction in class and writing (academic writing) has been an interesting learning adventure. The beauty of adult education and choosing what you study is that there is interest in the subject and a lot of it is contextualised by lived experiences which make learning enjoyable.

I also joined the school’s Writing, Reading, and Pleasure (WRAP) a community that held space for me to further my creative writing. I had an exciting collaboration on a project that you can check out here. The 2023 program looks, equally exciting and I am looking forward to seeing what it unveils. With that said, I am so glad to have ended the term. It went by so fast. 

The complexities of making friends

One thing that is not talked about enough is how complex it is to make friends in a new place where you don’t have any connections or pre-established structures to facilitate the process. I am referring to friends outside of the classroom. I had a preconceived notion of how this would be, but the reality has been different. However, I have met some great people and also made a couple of friends and because of them, I did not struggle especially in the initial days when I was like a gazelle in a new territory. There are stories of how lonely it can get in such places, and I can certainly see how this can manifest in many ways. One other thing that has also helped is the fact that I have low key have honed the skill of enjoying my own company. This is an underrated essential skill.

 There are so many other things and encounters not detailed in this update that in many ways are enrichening my experience and for all this, I would not trade this journey for anything else. 

Dear friends, now that you’re all caught up a bit with what has been happening, what have you been up to since I was last here? I would love to hear from you.

Nottingham Forest Recreation Ground