Croeso I Caerdydd

Fwynhau eich arhosiad!

Good old Google Translate. That said, the Millennium Stadium is Stadiwm y Mileniwm and bacon is bacwn so just replace some random vowels with the letter w and you should get by alright. Or you can just speak English like everyone else =)

Anyways... this year I'm living in shared student accommodation, which I'm pretty happy with so far. It's a bit cheaper than Cambridge and a hell of a lot cheaper than London would have been if I'd chosen to go to Imperial or UCL. I'm in a 6-person flat with a communal kitchen / living area but there's an en-suite in each room, so it's pretty similar to what I'm used to anyway. My flatmates seem really nice, although I've been here a week and I still haven't met the person next door to me... I've had conflicting reports that they're a girl, that they're a guy, and that they have moved out (which would make a lot of sense, lol). Didn't see them today when the fire alarm went off, but I'm really relieved that a) it's taken 7 days for the fire alarm to go off and b) it's like 10x less loud than the ones I'm used to.

Was a bit hectic moving in though:

- had a really busto mattress which they had to replace

- no chair

- carpet had a load of burn marks (apparently the previous guy smoked a load of shisha and/or weed) so they had to replace it

- the key I was given didn't fit in the lock at all, so I didn't have a key to my own room for the first 24 hours or so (faaaaaaaaaail) until they replaced the entire lock the next day

- internet keeps disconnecting every 2 mins... I'm still sorting this out, can't really play poker until then :(

Thankfully they are really efficient at replacing stuff so it could have been a lot worse I guess. Also had to change mobile network since T-Mobile has no signal here, should have my old number back in the next few days when I can be bothered to get my PAC code.

Moving in aside, I've had a great time meeting all the other postgrads - there's been a bunch of postgrad welcome events like pub quizzes, walking tours, pub crawl etc. Bit more tame than the undergrad Freshers' Week but I guess that's to be expected when a lot of the other postgrads are 30 and/or married... it's a bit weird for me as I'm 21 and fresh out of my undergrad, where everyone was the same age as me. I do still feel like an undergrad, hopefully I won't be an old man for another couple years or so, lol.

Also went to the Societies Fayre the other day, ended up joining a few of them... looks like PokerSoc does weekly tournies starting with a freeroll next Wednesday, as well as some 10p/20p cash. Dunno how big the society is but should be a bit softer than a table full of Cambridge mathematicians and economists. I'll see if I can get them to degen it up with some Skinner and 32bb straddles.

PhotoSoc looks pretty good, and I also joined ArtSoc since they do some photography stuff and both societies offer beginners' classes. There's a MathsSoc too, dunno how good it is since it's only been around 2 years but figured I might as well join and at least go to the socials. Tbh, the socials are one of the reasons I wanted to join a bunch of these societies - might be difficult getting a bunch of postgrads together to go out so this is a pretty good way to meet lots of new people and go for a cheeky night out. On a side note, it looks like PhotoSoc and ArtSoc are 80% girls and even MathsSoc seems to be mainly girls (I know, wtf?) which kinda makes up for the fact my course is 14 guys and 1 girl. Good to have a bit of balance, right?

Sorry for the lack of poker content lately, there's been a ton of life stuff going on. Should start playing once I get my internet fixed, until then here's a little something I heard a while ago and just remembered (ignore it if you've heard it before):

"In PLO, the hand 9 3 3 3 can make the nuts at showdown in 3 different ways. How?"

- HappyPixel