Bournemouth Diaries: Discovering new tastes

Hello! Baawo! Ndewo! Hola! Aloha! Salut! Shalom! Guten tag! (I googled them, I'm not that cool!) I'm so glad to be back on the blogosphere, I've missed a lot! Now that I'm settling into a routine, I just want to share a few pictures of food dishes and snacks I've tried, and found to be interesting. 

I had Lamb balti and nan(bread) for the first time; I'm in love with Indian food!

I didn't like this though

Caramel macchiato(yum!)

falafel, humus, taboule (Israeli/Lebanese dish)

No matter what country you're from, pizza is universally loved!

Got this from M&S, basically I can move to Belgium because of this! #lovebelgianwaffles

It was a tearful departure! #thelasttwostanding

Working on my blogposts

when I first saw this, I thought "naa I can cook" until I opened it and found out that I could only make 3 out of the 14 meals in the booklet! #neveroverestimate #britishdishes

The thing about coming to live in a place where the percent of black residents is estimated at about 1% of the population is that you'll probably not get a specialty store that sells your country's food ingredients. This has been a hard pill to swallow for most of my Nigerian (in fact African) friends here but I decided to take the opportunity to discover new cuisines and hopefully get some cool recipes. I've tried out a few dishes and snacks, I'm definitely going to try more, especially at restaurants. I haven't tried out any traditional English dish but I'm hoping the recipe booklet I got from the chaplaincy would help with that. In fact, in order to put some pressure on my lazy ass to make something,  I'll post a dish I've made from the book in eleven days (Mon. 7th October). I can't wait, till next time!

Bournemouth Diaries: Discovering new places

Bournemouth Diaries: Discovering new places

Its been a while since I last blogged, in fact I've also been away from social media in general for some months now. Initially it was due to my Job and some volunteer work I took up in my church, trying to balance work with other activities I was interested in. It wasn't easy and unfortunately Internet activities had to suffer for it(I honestly don't know how other bloggers do it, they must have super powers!). Now that I'm trying to write this "comeback" post, hopefully I'm forgiven! 

 I decided some months ago to pursue a foreign masters degree, although initially  I was not sure what country I wanted to study in. Eventually I decided on the UK, specifically Bournemouth University. I chose the school for two reasons:

1. The widely acclaimed media school.
2. The great weather.

Now that I'm here in Bournemouth, the reasons have increased (mostly because of the town itself ). I'm happy I made this choice, although it wasn't easy initially. I experienced some serious culture shock when I got here which I wasn't prepared for. I had (wrongly) assumed that because I spoke English(spoken it all my life!), watched Downton Abbey a few times, read the Financial times online and loved trying new food that I would not experience an intense culture shock. But I did. And along with that, came loneliness and slight depression(I'm still recovering from that). However, I've realized that these are normal feelings that come with being in a new country with a different culture and different values. Its okay to be initially confused and a bit depressed, just know that all the other international students are going through the same feelings and you're not alone.

Anyway, I'm really excited to share with you a few pictures of places and things that have caught my eye this past few days. 

The frist day I arrived

My view

Bournemouth uni has some nice art displays around the campus

Like I said, our media school is awesome!

Art installation for the "arts by the sea" festival, Bournemouth beach

Bournemouth Pier

Closeup

Cheap and slightly effective

There were many pictures and I'd love to post them all but if I did, this would be be one very long post. You can check out more (better looking) pictures on my instagram page @TFORTOPE.

The top reasons I love Bournemouth(the town and the Uni) are now the following:

1. The widely acclaimed media school (like seriously awesome!)
2. My classmates(too many awesome people!)
3. The beach.
4. The great weather(better than most parts of the UK at least).
5. Dolphin shopping centre (TOPSHOP, Primark, M&S, NEXT, NEW LOOK, The Perfume Shop, so many affordable options! )
6. Indian food(check new next post)
7. Belgian waffles(still part of my next post!)

P.S. - I'm certain that I'll have a longer list by the end of my Masters!