give it a go!

The University of Sheffield has this "Give It A Go" programme that basically means you can try a wide variety of hobbies for a little money without actually committing to a whole society's schedule. I've got a ticket for nearly ten of these events, and today was the first one: archery!

Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the actual archery, but here's a sign (yay!) for the sports centre where it was held. As you can see, they have facilities for quite a few different sports -- apparently Sheffield has the world's largest bouldering wall! Not sure if it's the one in this centre, but somewhere anyway.

The archery was fun! There was quite a bit of standing around, as there were so many people and only two targets to shoot at, but it was okay. First, the instructors showed us how to deal with a bow and arrow, and then it was time to give it a go! (I wonder how many times I can fit that in...) I think I did pretty well, even though I've never done proper archery and the only time I've tried something even close to it was this summer at a village fair in Devon. My left-handedness forced me to wait a bit more as well, as they only had one left-handed bow, and for some reason that was the one being used to demonstrate archery to another group!

After everyone had given it a go (!) once, the instructors pinned balloons to the targets for us to try and pop them. They had hidden chocolates inside the balloons as well, so that whoever hit them could go and get the prize. I got very close with my three arrows, but no chocolate for me this time! (Luckily I had some Kitkats hidden in my desk drawer anyway.)

I'm not sure if I'll join the archery club or anything, but it was really cool to take part in this session. I'm glad I gave it go!

Ranmoor Village is where I live, and the Ridge is basically like the reception building. They also have a bar/restaurant, so they have parties every now and then, and it's also a place to come and unwind. However, I've never seen that many people there, because Ranmoor is pretty small. Granted, I haven't gone out there very late.

The Ridge also has a cute little launderette (they keep spelling it "laundrette" but I've always known it as "launderette"! Which one is it?). I think it's worth mentioning, because I actually did my laundry there for the first time today! I wanted to get there before all the British freshers run out of clean underwear a week or two from now and make it crowded. Hopefully it won't happen, but I figured I might as well.

They have about ten of these sets of washing machines and driers, and you need a laundry card that you have to top up to be able to use the machines. One cycle of washing is about £2.50, and one cycle of drying £1.20 or something very similar.

My block of the Kinder building. You can actually see my room there too -- it's the window in the top left corner.

Tomorrow I should be enrolling for my modules! That'll be interesting.