Saturday

Well it was a great day here weatherwise, sunny most of the day, between 55 and 60 degrees all day, although the rain has just started a few minutes ago. I did take the bus back to campus this morning. I left some course packet info in the library that I was looking for, but did not find. I should be able to get another copy on Monday. I did however spend some time in the library playing around with ANSYS and Matlab, which are finite element analysis and math softwares that I will need to use a lot during my studies.

After that I attempted to head back home, but after discovering I'd left my keys on my desk! So I wasted some time exploring the area south of where I'm living while I waited for my landlord to get back in touch with me. I took a nice 30 minute walk to Woughton on the Green, which was a nice area, lots of grassy areas, a bunch of horse and cow pastures, and a quaint little town area. I took the bus back, but could have walked too. By the time I was heading back I was just ready to be home and back in my room.

I've been streaming Petit Le Mans online from Road Atlanta while waiting for the NCSU vs Virginia Tech game, which is about to start. That's about it for now, I've got a bunch of pics from today, I'll probably start something on Flickr, but if anyone has other suggestions please let me know!

GO Pack!!!!

Beer and Chocolate

Ever seen a KitKat like this?

It was a freebie in a goodie bag from the University. Haven't tasted it yet, but definitely not what I expected when the woman told me there was a KitKat in the bag!

Jeremy remembers a different version of this beer.

Found a four pack of this stout at the store, it was just a little over 3£. We used to get a Mackeson XXX Stout that Jeremy and I enjoyed. This one is only 3% alcohol, and a milk stout. I guess because of the lower alcohol the milk and lactose flavor stands out more. Quite enjoyable.

If the weather is good tomorrow I might take the bus back out to Cranfield and take some more pictures. The forecast says sunny and partly cloudy, but apparently the forecasts are notorious for being wrong.

Registration

Rugby and Football Fields

Today I officially registered for the course, got a general overview of things going on at the University and met my classmates. We also toured the motorsport testing facilities and Impact Centre where 70% of F1 cars get their FIA certified crash testing done. The course director, Dr. Njuguna basically told us to never walk in there unannounced or without a professor because of confidentiality agreements that they sign with the teams or organizations running the tests.

Rugby and Football Fields

After the tours we all met in a classroom and introduced ourselves. Let's just say it's a very diverse group. I'm the only American. There are student(s) from Belgium, Holland, Malaysia, Iran, Scotland, Ireland, England, Asia (didn't specify further), Canada, India, France, Spain, Poland, and I'm probably forgetting a couple as well. On Wednesday we get to tour Silverstone (current home of the British Grand Prix) and spend all day there as well. We were told to bring our driver's licenses, because there was a "driving activity." Don't want to be too opimistic, but actually driving a few laps of the circuit would be just absolutely phenomenal.

Afterwards we had a welcome BBQ, which was hamburgers, bangers, chicken wings, a couple pasta salads and cole slaw. Overall a pretty good meal, and a good number of my classmates were around so we got to know each other a bit more. Surprisingly I believe there are only a few others that have work experience - meaning they aren't coming directly out of undergrad or the "uni" as the English seem to call it.

The main task for tomorrow is to go get a cell phone. I'm going with the company 3 because you can use Skype on all their phones for free. I'll do a pay as you go plan for local UK calls, which should help me keep overall costs down. Hopefully I won't need to use it too much.

The Bus Stop at Cranfield

First Journey to Cranfield

I decided I would take the bus to Cranfield to get a feel for how long it would take, and to finally see the place where I will spend a lot of time over the next year. The bus station is about a 5-7 min walk, then a 35-40 minute ride due to the number of stops and the fact that the route isn't the quickest or most direct to the school. I really should've brought my camera though, there was barely a cloud in the sky.

The first thing I saw as I got off the bus was what looked like field goal posts, but then realized they were for rugby. I walked around campus for a bit, found the building that I think my classes will be in and found the registration building for tomorrow (Friday). Seems like there are many international students as I have heard probably 4-5 different languages as I walked around. I did see a Yankees hat too. I did find out from Chris, one of my roommates, that the last bus from Cranfield leaves at approximately 5:30pm. This might mean the purchase of a car comes sooner than anticipated, as I think I will need to be on campus at night a good deal. A taxi fare from the University is 10£.

I spent some time looking around the library, and then flipped through a few of the many racing and engineering magazines they have available there. I had decided I would take the bus back to Newport Pagnell to explore a little bit and find some lunch. The town looked very enjoyable on the bus ride to campus. Much more traditional English feel and look than Milton Keynes, which was expected. I wish I had been able to find more accommodation options. I found a pub that had a large crowd outside, and seating outside to enjoy the weather so I stopped for lunch. I had a pint of Wainsworth bitter and chicken Tikka masala. Both were enjoyable and hit the spot, but the food was a bit on the pricey side.

The rest of the day was spent looking at a few different cell phone stores, buying an umbrella for the "heavy rain" tomorrow, and I got in a small run and bodyweight workout in my room. Dinner was a frozen bangers and mash that was not very good, needed some salt and pepper. I'll try to remember next time.

The picture at the top is the view out of my balcony window.

Welcome

I am attempting to document my year spent in the UK studying for a MSc in Motorsport Engineering and Management.

My first flight overseas was very easy. Not much turbulence at all, though I still didn't sleep as much as I would've liked to. I did run into a small issue though trying to get a cart for my 4 pieces of luggage. I needed a 1£ coin, but the change machine wouldn't accept the 10£ bill that Dad and Jane had given me. After a few minutes of actually trying to wheel around 3 bags while carrying a backpack I saw an ATM. I needed cash anyway, so I withdrew some money, and luckily the ATM's here seem to give you two 10£ notes with larger withdrawals (the change machine would not take a 20£). Luckily it accepted the new 10£ and I was on my way.

The school had sent a driver to pick me up, so I waited a few minutes for her to arrive, as the plane was a little earlier and customs and baggage was fairly quick too. Sitting in the left side of the Mercedes was a little eerie, as was being on the wrong side of the road. We took the M25 up to the M1 to get to Milton Keynes. We did get really close to being hit when a car cut us off though, that would've been fun I'm sure.

My landlord met me at my new home to give me keys and go over basic stuff. From there I unpacked most of my stuff and went out to find a grocery store and some food. I found a Waitrose, which seems to be somewhere in between a Harris Teeter and Whole Foods. Bought some cereal, milk, frozen dinners and a few other things.

I then decided to go try and find a store to buy bath towels and some hangers from. I found a couple of options and headed out in the rain. I thought my jacket was rainproof (it was, must've worn off over time) but it turned out to be far from it. By the time I got to the store I was basically drenched. It didn't help that I apparently didn't remember the location exactly correct, as I walked around a while trying to find it.

On the way back I grabbed some dinner at a pub. I was hoping to dry off, which I did, but unfortunately the rain didn't slow down at all. I had a tuna melt sandwich and a pint of cask Greene King IPA. The sandwich was simple but good. Beer was good as well, but far far far from what I'm used to as an IPA. The walk back home was wet and I was glad to be home.

I stayed up till about 10 trying to get rid of my jet lag by watching F1 on demand on BBC.com.