| Eloise | My name is Eloise Horsfield and I am 24. I am going to Leeds in September 2005 to do an MA in Screen Translation Studies. I grew up in North London, and left home after A-levels to spend a year in Tahiti with my boyfriend. I then studied French and Spanish at Bristol, spending my year abroad in Reunion Island and Madrid. Since graduating, I have been working as an editorial assistant in a Parisian company. I am very much looking forward discovering Leeds, a city that I have never even visited before. However, I know that one of my main worries this year will be MONEY, as I have not been able to get funding for the course and am having to get a Career Development Loan. |
Especially interesting were the International Supermarket and the Hyde Park Picture House, both within five minutes of my house. I was also glad to see that Hyde Park was clearly large enough to go jogging in. After unpacking and meeting the two fluffy cats in my new home, I was dying to get out and explore the streets around the house. I walked the length of Brunewell Road, absorbing the atmosphere and observing everything around me like a tourist. It felt odd to find myself once more in this student atmosphere, having worked for a year. At this stage I still felt that I was between these two worlds, and found it strange to think of myself with the 'student' label, but I knew that within a few days I would settle into this new life. The area was buzzing with students doing their shopping and carrying luggage, some with parents and others with new or old friends. What struck me immediately was the fantastic selection of accents coming from students' mouths! They looked the same as those at Bristol, where I did my first degree, but their words were pulled in all sorts of directions with all different provenances and pasts. At Bristol, although there are some students from the north, I got so used to hearing that accent (think Tara Palmer-Tomkinson) that I had subconsciously begun to believe that this was part of student identity. This, now I heard, was clearly not the case.
 | | University of Leeds |
The next day I drifted across Hyde Park towards the university, following the crowd. It reminded me of walking to school! Every typical student was there – the scruffy student with his hood up and hands stuffed in his pockets, the muscular rugby type, the bleached-blond fashionable chick, the funky hippy with dreads. When I got to the campus I tried to find the direction of town with the A-Z my landlady had loaned me, but ended up walking in the wrong direction. A student of Italian pointed me in the correct direction, accompanying me for five minutes or so through the campus. This was my first contact with another Leeds student, and felt nice – I was now part of this world and no longer a newcomer. That day I must have walked about ten miles, doing some shopping, finding my bank and trying to make sense of it all with my A-Z. I have forgotten how nice it is to discover a new city. Leeds looked great. I liked the (almost) back-to-back houses, I liked the city centre where there was obviously every shop you could ask for times two, and I especially liked the prices, that were a pittance compared to London (where I grew up) and Bristol. The next couple of days involved registering, finding out about societies and going on a tour of the library. I love the campus, I love the city and I love my new house. I think I'm going to have a good year! |
