STUDY ABROAD DIARIES: first time in the UK, moving to birmingham, dorm tour, settling in & exploring

Hey everyone, welcome, welcome back to my channel. The lighting is atrocious, but I'm currently at the airport. I'm heading to study abroad, I have my mom next to me. If you're new to my channel, I'm going to study in Birmingham, but my plane will take me to London, and then from London, I'll be taking a bus. So I just arrived, I'm waiting for my bus to come. There was an alarm, so we had to evacuate the airport. And I finally arrived. Time check, it is 2.41 pm. I slept pretty well in the bus, but on the plane, and in the car on my way to the airport, it was just like really bumpy. Also, this is the current situation of my bedroom. Um, I have things all over my bed. Long story short, I thought there was going to be an elevator, and I couldn't take my luggage downstairs to the second floor. I literally almost had a mental breakdown. I called my mom, and I told her what happened, and she was like, oh, go to your room, put your backpack down, and all of that. Take a big bag. I brought a big grocery bag with me. Go back down. She told me to open my suitcase up, and take out a couple of things, and put them in the bag, and then just, you know, go back and forth until it's not that heavy. So that's what I did, and that took me, I think, like 30 minutes. But it's okay, because I made it. Oh, also, I forgot to mention, the bus did not take me to the university right away. It took me to a coach station, and from there, I had to take a taxi. This is everything that I had to, like, take out of my luggage. My big suitcase was 29 kilograms, and then my smaller one was about 11 kilograms. Even the taxi driver, he was like, what did you put in here? Like, why is it so heavy? He was, like, a tough man. So, like, there was just no way that I could bring up the luggage to the second floor. May I add, the staircase is outside, so my hands were freezing. At first, I had to go to the reception, which is a five-minute walk from here, and it's, like, down a hill, so I had to, like, take my luggage up the hill, and that was also, like, a lot. I'm, like, really exhausted, but it's okay. Like, it's all good now. At the reception, I got this. Inside, there's this card. This is what I use to access my dorm room. I think for now, I'm going to call my parents, let them know that I arrived safely, and I'll just, like, take a little rest because I'm really exhausted, and also clean up some of this, and I'll update you guys shortly. I got a vegetarian kimbap and some kimchi. It is currently 8 35 p.m. I had to, like, walk for 30 minutes to the restaurant, and then walking back, it took me about 30 minutes, and low-key, guys, I was kind of scared. It was, like, dark outside, and there was nobody, and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm in a new country. I remember one of the responsibles in the university saying that during this time, a lot of students are not here because it's winter break, so, um, yeah, I need to remind myself that, because I was like, wait, like, where are all the students? Anyway, guys, I'm gonna eat because, like, I want to eat, and then I want to sleep. Hello, everyone, this is my second day at the University of Birmingham. Let me give you some context. I was so exhausted yesterday. I woke up at almost 12 p.m., and when I woke up, my body was hurting everywhere. My parents were really worried. They were, like, calling me non-stop because they know that I always wake up early, regardless if it's summer vacation or whatnot, so when I didn't respond to them in the morning, they were like, what is going on? When I called back, I told them that I was actually sleeping. My mom was like, oh, I thought you were busy, you went there, you did this. No, I was just sleeping. I had my breakfast, and then started cleaning my dorm a little bit. As you guys saw, like, I just had things scattered everywhere. I put my makeup on just so I could feel somewhat put together. So before I give you a tour of my dorm, I'm going to answer questions you probably have, whether I have roommates, whether I share a kitchen or share a bathroom. I'm going to answer that right now. I do share a kitchen with six other students. So far, I've only met one student. I'm not even sure if whether all the rooms are occupied. I believe right now there are only about four students, including me. It is winter break, so maybe they are on vacation. I don't have a shared bathroom. I have my own bathroom, which is what I wanted. But this is my first time at this university. This is called the Erasmus program. It's a European program where you can apply to study abroad. For my university, I had to put three universities I wanted to go to. In order of preference, the University of Birmingham was my first one. And it's also my first time in the UK. And I don't even- like, it's still not hitting me. So I'm really excited to discover. I'm really excited to be a student of the University of Birmingham. So I'm going to show you guys my dorm right now. So this is the entrance door. Over here, I just put a few jackets, bags. Right here in this corner, I have my big luggage. Because I couldn't put it under my bed. I have my shoes, my tripod. Here I have some food. Over here, it's the closet. I have a few clothes under there. I need to buy hangers. Other clothes on top. And then this is my mirror. And I put magnetic cats that my friend got me. This is an overview of my dorm. It's pretty spacious. I didn't expect it. This is the long desk. And then here is my bed. Under there, I have my backpack. And then this is a bath mat. This, which I will open with you guys right after. Makeup mirror. Diffuser set. This I got with me. This is a dining set, which I will also open with you guys. Under here, I have drawers. And here I just have my school stuff. And then here I just have my hair straightener, hair dryer, makeup bag. It's also pretty spacious. It's pretty big. It can fit a lot of things. And then under here, I still didn't fill it up, as you can see. This is my desk area. Over here, I have a lot of plugs. But I only have like two UK plugs. I got these from France. And they're like adapters, which connect to the French plugs. I don't even know if that's the word for it. But here, I just put like fairy lights. I didn't even put effort into it. Here, I also have magnetic cats. Like, it's so cute. This is the view. My sister gifted me this plant before I left. Over here, it's the bed. And then I brought these covers with me. And then this is my bedside table. This is the bathroom. I'm gonna open this. Oh my god, that's so sweet. Wait, that is so sweet. So these are the snacks that I got. Nerd gummies, iced coffee, mountain water, iced tea, noodles. Wait, I don't know what this is. What is drumstick? So I started opening it. But there's like boxes in boxes. So it's gonna take me like a while to open. And I need to do grocery shop. Because I quite literally don't have anything. And I want to go out before it gets dark. So I'm going to open it either later today or tomorrow. I'm going to put an outfit on, get ready to go out. Guys, it is so cold outside. And because of the temperature difference, it's so fogged up. Oh my god. Let me just clean you guys. Much better. All right, so I just came back from the grocery store. I also got some takeout. I want to show you guys what I bought before I head into the kitchen. And put everything away. Broccoli, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, clementines, apples. I'm gonna put these away in the kitchen. Oh, also guys, I met my flatmates. And they're so nice. Like they're so sweet. I still didn't meet every single one of them. Oh, and also I mentioned that I thought that there were only two or three people. But it turns out that there are six people living here. But yeah, I met a couple of them. And they were so nice. I even met someone else that lives right above us. I'm like so happy to be here. Everyone is so nice. They like made me feel super comfortable. For dinner, I went to a vegan restaurant. I went there because they sell oriental dishes as well. I ended up getting vine leaves. This was called a munch salad. A dressing. It has olive oil and pomegranate juice. I think this is not going to work well. So I got my own form. This salad has lettuce, radish, onions, pepper, tomatoes. As well as this herb. I forgot what it was called. But it's so good. The herb just gives it so much flavor. If you guys don't know what it is. There's rice inside. I know that my mom makes it too. And my mom is Algerian. In Algeria, they also make them. But I think it's originally Lebanese. Oh, I was so wrong. It's actually from Persia. It's also really common in Greece. I'm learning. I'm learning stuff. So I just received my welcome plan for the week. I'm going to write down all this information on my calendar. That way I can stay on top of all the activities. I'm going to show you guys what I got today. I was in need of kitchen supplies. Notably, pans and pots. Your girl made her adult purchase. I do have other kitchen supplies. But just my suitcase was already heavy in itself. And there was no space. So there was just no way I could bring everything. And that also includes towels. So I did get towels. I only brought one with me. But I needed a towel for my hair and for my body after the shower. So today I got everything. I don't even know why I'm whispering. I don't know if my flatmates can hear me. And I'm kind of like... I'm not kind of. I am shy. Right behind the wall that's in front of me is the kitchen. I believe that there's someone right now. And I don't know if they can hear me. So that's why I'm whispering. So I got food containers because I'm going to meal prep. This is my adulting era. I also got purple grapes. A wooden spoon for cooking. These two kitchen utensils. I thought you could cook with these. But apparently you can't. You gotta cook with the wooden one. Thank god I have my mom. I like making salty tarts. So I got this one. A kitchen knife. Saucepan. Oh my gosh. I just realized I dented. Oh hell no. Okay, I'm gonna have to go back. A light gray bath towel. And then a hand towel. These hangers. I got four packs of six. I brought a lot of clothes with me. And my closet does not have hangers. So right now they're just scattered everywhere in the closet. You do not want to look inside. I'm gonna be organizing everything tomorrow. I'm pretty tired today. It's like almost 7 p.m. I also got a kitchen towel. And then a chopping board. Frozen. It's also sprouts. I got this pan. This one is like low-key so pretty. Like I'm gonna bring this one back home. And also this one was pretty pricey. But um, this is like my first big girl purchase. So yeah, I'm definitely gonna keep this one. Now I'm gonna call my mom and show her everything that I got. Because she's my mom. And I also need a desk lamp. So far like the only lamp I have are my fairy lights right here. Which I have to redo that. Otherwise I have like these two lamps. And I don't like that. When it gets like dark outside, I don't like having the big light on. So for dinner, I got a takeout poke bowl. I know I've been mostly eating takeout. But that's because I didn't have any pots and pans. Starting from tomorrow, I'm gonna start cooking. Because I have everything now. Okay, this is my first time trying Japanese pickles. Oh wow, it is very salty.