“Oh finally”, my lips muttered as the announcement of our arrival at the Lancaster station broke my wondering thoughts. I was in a train from London thinking of the next one year in a ‘foreign land’. I thought of lecturers and lectures, porters and what my room would look like, the LUSU I have read about and students I was sure to meet. The permutations of these thoughts got me heated that I did not feel the cold outside until the train stopped and I came out pulling my bags behind me as a snail does its shell.
Behold how time flies; now it is my third eventful week in Lancaster University. What a mix of ‘genres’! I have seen the ‘black’, the ‘yellow’ and the ‘white’. I flew over the Mediterranean Sea before I got here but the diversity of Lancaster University makes me proud; fourteen countries represented in my class cannot all be wrong. I’m in a group with Paulami - an Indian, played with Cabrera - a Mexican, discussed with Hatoon - an Arabian, danced with Jiaxin - a Chinese, drank tea with Sarah - a British, visited Nkele – a Cameroonian, ate pizza with Pelumi – a Nigerian and checked the map for Cyprus and Mauritius with Rowin – a Mauritius. I cannot count them all; it is a big world of diversities. In all of these, as said by Rene Dubos, I have learnt that human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.
So also I have learnt that the only constant in life is change. Studying for Masters in Lancaster University is a different ball-game. Lancaster says, “read a mountain of books, dig out wealth of knowledge discussed by men, living and dead”. In two weeks of lecture I have been trained to skip and scan – great skills for intelligent knowledge searcher. The classrooms are world-class and the lecturers are dedicated researchers. “What a wonder of a library!”, said Emmanuel as I explained to him he could borrow a book without seeing the librarian, change his money from the ‘money changing machine’ and top-up his printing credit automatically with some coins in hand.
There are more to write as there are more to gain, I know time will tell of the volumes I will soon write of my experience in Lancaster. Lancaster University, here I come.
19Oct2008
