Chapter 12: Enrolment

I went over to the bus terminus at Market Place and waited on a bus. None appearing, I decided to check the app for the route in question. However, unlike most bus tracker apps, it didn't tell me what time the next bus was due in real time, it just gave me a picture of the bus somewhere on a map of the route, far less precise and a bit naff.

High-Tech

When I did eventually get on a bus, and back to Europa Point, I had just enough time to smarten up before going over to the university. The main hall was full of students looking confused, so I asked at reception where to go for enrolment, and was pointed to a long queue. I got talking to the guy in front of me, Diego. Diego was from Florida and was doing the same course as me, and would become a good mate. We eventually got to the front of the queue and were called into one of the classrooms.

It was far busier than this on enrolment day!

We sat down in front of one of the university administrators, and proceeded fill out various forms. We were then given a health insurance application form, residence permit application form, and a bus pass application form. These forms also had to be filled out, but we had to hand these into the appropriate Gibraltarian institution offices ourselves. So that was it, I was enrolled, and I didn't even get a student ID card. The university were trying to reduce plastic, so I was given a virtual ID card instead on my phone.

Virtual Student Card

After all the paperwork, we were due to attend a welcome presentation by the university at 6pm. Diego and I turned up at 6pm, along with most of the other students who had enrolled that day. By 6.15pm nothing had happened, and we started to wonder if we had the wrong room. Then a member of staff came in to say, 2 different times had been communicated for the presentation, and it would therefore be starting at 6.20pm. Not the best start. However, the presentation (when it started) was actually quite useful, explaining a bit about the university, our courses, and the few social events planned to help us get to know each other. When it was over we were invited out the back for drinks and pizza. Although I no longer drink beer, I helped myself to a bottle of water. I'm not a big fan of pizza, so I wasn't going to have any, but the university had obviously over-estimated the number of students attending the presentation, so there were whole boxes of pizza going spare. So I helped myself to a vegetable pizza, and enjoyed my free dinner!

Enrolment - forms and free pizza.

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