Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Singing, Hot Chocolate, and Chill Night

These week - the week we're currently halfway through - is called Freshers Fortnight. Or, for those of us who don't really know what a fortnight is, consider it Freshers Week. It's the week where the Freshman have all sorts of cool stuff to do - mostly partying - but which also included a hypnotist (x-rated, no joke - one of my flat-mates did it last year and he was hypnotized to make it look like he was giving head) and this guy from Britain's Got Talent that can swallow billiard balls and then regurgitate them. There's also various themed parties (tonight is beach night, Saturday is pajamas) but there are also nights that are considered Chill Nights where, as it says, you more or less chill out.

Last night was one of those nights.

Six of us decided to go out together to the Student Union (more commonly known as the Union) to have a few and just sort of get to know each other better. What was supposed to be just a couple of pints and not very long turned into about an hour and a half there, on the balcony, sitting and talking. I didn't do any drinking last night- just didn't want to - and after looking at the time, we decided to head back and watch a movie.

Which turned out to be High School Musical 3, which at least three of my flat-mates knew by heart and were more prepared to sing along to. We even had the subtitles on (Huw is used to watching movies with subtitles because his girlfriend is partially deaf in one ear) and it was a great time watching and singing, and generally laughing at each other and at the movie. From what I've been told, it's the first and third movies that are great, but the second one is absolute crap.

I can't really explain it, but halfway through the third song, I think it just really hit me that I'm three thousand miles from home, and that the people that I normally lean on as we go waltzing through life aren't here at the moment. I had expected this maybe the third day here, the third day in an empty flat in a foreign country that I've just been tossed into, but over a week later (eight or nine days, at least) it really hit me.

I was homesick.

We're all sitting there in the dark, watching and singing to this movie, and I just started to tear up. So I just sort of got up and went across the hall into the kitchen to sit and try to get a handle on it. And it just really wasn't happening. Jenn and Jess came in, saw me crying, and wanted to know what was wrong. And they really understood as I was trying to tell them that it was really just hitting me that I was so far from home, and they put the kettle on, offered me tea or hot chocolate. I took the hot chocolate and the boiler was on, and I'm still properly teary-eyed when Huw opens the door, leans against it, and goes, "So, eh, our singing is really that bad, eh?" Which made us all laugh, and the next thing you know the boys come traipsing through the door and into the kitchen, more water is added to the boiler and we all sit down. I mentioned something about being three thousand miles away from home, and Huw goes, "That's a bit of a walk, isn't it, eh?" To which I replied, "More like a bit of a swim, really."

So with the movie on pause we sat in the kitchen drinking tea and hot chocolate and generally pissing ourselves with laughter at various stories. It wasn't how we had originally intended to finish our evening, but it wasn't a waste. And I realized then that I have the most awesome flat-mates that anyone could ask for while in a foreign country for three months.

And we will eventually finish HSM 3.

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"The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn't."

-Joseph L. Mankiewicz