Sunday

After a wearisome expedition by car from home, we arrive at my hall of residence, and I check in. The warden gives me a set of keys and a room number. My room is five floors up, and the lift has a sign on it, “Out of order”. Finally, with my mother flushed and gasping for breath, we find Room 8, I unlock the door, and we all walk in.

After one minute, my father climbs out. The room is barely big enough for one, and certainly not big enough for the whole family. I can stretch out full-length on the bed and touch three walls without moving a muscle.

（What do the italicized parts suggest？）

Later. My parents have just left. I’m here alone, hemmed in by my books and a suitcase. What do I do next?

Monday

 There’s a coffee morning for first-year students. I meet my tutor, a lofty man withsloping shoulders, who looks determined to be affable（kind and friendly）.

“Have you come far?” He peers down at me. As he speaks, his head jerks（shake） wildly from side to side, which makes his coffee spill into the saucer.

“I live not far from Edinburgh, about six hours away,” I explain.

“Splendid!” he says, and moves on to the freshman standing beside me. “Have you come far?” he asks, “splendid,” he barks, without waiting for the answer, and moves on. He takes a sip of coffee, and looks thunderstruck to discover the cup is empty.

My mother calls. She enquires if I’ve met my tutor yet.

Tuesday

Am feeling a bit peckish, and it occurs to me that I haven’t eaten for two days. I go downstairs and stumble across the dining hall, where I can have three meals a day. I go down and join a lengthy line of people.

“What’s for breakfast?” I ask the guy in front of me.

“No idea. I was too late for breakfast. This is for lunch.”

It’s self-service and today’s menu includes chicken, rice, potatoes, salad, vegetables, cheese, yoghurt and fruit. The boy in front piles it all onto his plate, pays for it, and goes to sit down. I seem to have lost my appetite.

My mother calls. She asks if I’m eating proper meals.

Wednesday

I have a lecture at 9 am. I wake up at 8.45. No one has woken me. Weird.

I pull on some clothes, and dash over to the lecture hall. I sit down beside a girl who looks half asleep. She inspects me. “Just got up?” she asks. How can she tell?

The lecture takes an hour, and at the end I look at my notes. I can’t read my handwriting.

The girl’s name is Sophie and she’s an English literature major, like me. She looks frighteningly intelligent, and when we chat after the lecture, she tells me she read the whole of this term’s reading list during her gap year. She’s a bit impressive, and I feel so ignorant … I don’t even think I should breathe the same air as her.

Mum calls. She asks if I slept OK.

Thursday

It’s the Freshers’ Fair today, and Sophie and I go along to see how many clubs we can join. We concur that we want to make a lot of friends, so I sign up for ballroom dancing, the Artificial Intelligence Society, bell ringing and the Extreme Sports Club. Sophie signs up for Amateur Dramatics and the Mozart choir. I wonder if Sophie and I are going to stay buddies.

（what does “stay buddies” mean？）

Mum calls. My brother has tried to rent out my bedroom back home. Mum reassures me that it’s mine for as long as I need it, that it’s my home and that they miss me very much, especially the dog. I burst into tears.

（Why did I burst into tears？）

Friday

In the morning, I go to the library. But it seems I need some form of identification. But I don’t have an ID card yet. For some reason, I also have to swear that I won’t damage the books or break the library rules, and if I do, I’ll be sent to prison. (What!? For speaking too loudly?) It seems that it’s a very old library, and the university is inordinately proud of it.

Tonight is Club Night at the Students’ Union, but I’ve run out of clean clothes. I’m not sure what happens to my dirty clothes after putting them in the clothes basket and before finding them clean, ironed and folded in my wardrobe. Maybe Mum will call soon.