In at the deep end

6.28pm. After the school director's welcome and the course director's briefing, we were split up into our groups, all of which are a colour and a shape. I'm in the yellow rectangles group.

We met our group tutor David Bard, who has eccentric handwriting to say the least. He's clearly a man of hidden depths; on first meeting he appeared a little awkward and socially uncomfortable however within a couple of minutes it was clear that this was an exceedingly clever man with an iron-clad intellect, who will be an excellent tutor.

Phoned home, and it was lovely to hear Alan's voice. Felt slightly glum to be missing out on Alan's chilli con carne this evening.

Went for dinner, unfortunately the restaurant was very busy, and by the time I found somewhere to sit, the meal was largely cold. I sat with Kirsten, who seems pretty lively and likeable, and it turns out that she's also going to do SXR208 next year. It's possible that we might even be on the same residential school for that too, which would be comical.

Most of the rest of the table were psychology students, it turns out there are at least three OU summer schools going on here at the moment.

Kirsten is an IT manager, and has just returned from several days working in Saudi, where it was 45 degrees outside, and air conditioned to the point of refrigeration indoors. She is having to take this week off as unpaid leave, then when she gets back she is overseeing the movement of 7 file servers. She won't get another day off for three weeks.

Dinner itself consisted of a small lukewarm steak that was as tough as leather, with a choice of vegetables. I had some chips (won't be having them again -- memo to self, avoid), courgette slices, cous cous with roasted vegetables, a glass of orange juice and a small slice of some kind of gateau.

On the way back from dinner I called in at McColls shop, grabbed a milkshake as I feel as dry as a bone. I've only had half a bottle of Lucozade and a short cup of coffee today.

I have to be back in the classroom inside the Pevensey building for 7.15pm to meet the activity tutors for Sunday, i.e., tomorrow, and also some preparatory work for Activity E, which is the research/scientific poster presentation task.

Tomorrow our group is being thrown in at the deep end, as we are doing Activity C, the field trip. This means that I will have to be up and around for about 7am, as we are congregating outside Bramber House for 8am. Then we get taken to Birling Gap for some geology and ecology stuff, along with some field sketching. After a packed lunch it's off to Newhaven for a similar bunch of activities, then back to the campus. After dinner it's back in the classroom for some data analysis, and that will take me up to 8.10pm. Phew.

It's raining here at the moment, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow, I'm in no mood to stand by a bloody cliff in the rain for eight hours.

It's already been a very full day, and I've barely stopped to even look at the time let alone sit and digest what's been happening. I am very glad that I brought my little digital sound recorder, it will be an invaluable addition to my notes when this course is all over. I'm also very glad that I can send blog entries by email from my phone, I can always flesh them out later but sometimes you have to jot something down before you forget it.