Y1-8: Weeks 10 & 11

Here goes a long (and late) post about my last two weeks this semester.

On Monday on the tenth week the Sport Club pictures were taken. The volley team’s ones were at twenty to eleven so I went to have them taken. They were running late, so I only made it into the official photo of the first women’s team (at least I made it into one). Then I had to run across the campus to get to the other side, where I had my French grammar exam. I must have looked mad, running in stockings and volley pants through the mass and panting when I got to the classroom… The exam went fine. I got 88/100, which is awesome! This was a week of class work, because later that day I also had a seminar presentation with my team. We spent the morning rehearsing for it and did a pretty good job. I was happy with the result, despite a couple of technical problems with the slides…

On Tuesday evening I skipped (again) my Academic Writing test/class to go ice-skating. They set up a rink in Royal Victoria Park and the Resident Tutors had organized for us to go there. It was fun. It was cold but I had fun… and managed not to fall!

On Wednesday afternoon I was in the volley squad to play against Bristol. I finally got to play. I played in the second set for a little bit, but I must admit I was a bit lost in the court… I think I messed up at some point, but it could’ve been worse. I just need to get more confident when I am competing. The match was extremely close: Bristol won the two first sets, then we mounted the score and won the third and fourth ones, and the last set was won by Bristol with the two minimum difference points. It was slightly disappointing after the effort made, but I was proud that we had managed to get so close.

At the same time, the holidays were drawing near and the excitement for going home grew. The Christmas feel was in the air and I couldn’t wait for the time to go back. Only one week to go and lots of work to get done before leaving, but still…!

On Saturday I joined a RAG (Raise and Give) event. We went on tour to Cardiff to raise money for Concern Universal, a charity that helps fight poverty in nine different countries (http://concern-universal.org/). On Friday I had dropped by the volunteering office to pick up the kit: a Santa costume, some flyers, the permit, the seal stickers and, of course, the bucket! On Saturday morning I met early in the morning at the station with the other five team members: Kristin, Matilda (the organizer), Jack, Alex and Williams. We got the train to Cardiff and arrived at around 11. We dressed up outside the train station, took a picture and went into the busy shopping streets of the capital to spread out and get to work. It was extremely difficult. Although the weather was lovely, there were a lot of people and lots of other volunteers from other organizations asking for donations too. Competence was hard and I didn’t have the skills because it was my first time. Nonetheless, I think I did a fair job and I am so happy that I did go. I would have never thought I’d do that and now that I have, I have a new respect for the volunteers that do this normally. It is such a tough job. You have to smile all the time and ask thousands of times to the passer-byes, who reject you or ignore you most of the time. I did have a great time with the people I met there though. We found an Italo-Portuguese restaurant that took ages to serve our lunch, and then had to split up because three of us had to go back earlier. Matilda, Jack and I stayed and kept walking the streets with our buckets. Cardiff is a very pretty city (my spot was near the Castle, in the corner where the two main shopping streets meet), I will go back one day and do tourism. I really wish I had had time that day. We got the 5:30pm train back to Bath and arrived a bit past an hour later. Again, it was tough as Hell but I don’t regret doing it. Many people just ignore you, some donate without paying much attention, some just stop to ask directions and you might even encounter some odd people (maybe drunk). But then there are the nice people, like children who come up to you with their eyes wide open at your looks or people who actually stop and talk to you (there was a woman who told me I ought to sing carols to draw attention… and an old man who was very nice and told me he donated regularly and that young volunteers like us should keep up with the good work we’re doing, he was really kind and cheered me up).  Against all odds, we managed to raise 142.89 pounds. I raised 16.55 out of that, which is a feat! Please, if you ever encounter a volunteer, just give them whatever change you might have. Any little amount will count, not only towards their cause, but it will also cheer their day up and renew their forces to go on. Tough job it is!

Finally, on Sunday we craved sugar. We had coffee and chocolate with marshmallows for dessert at lunch, and then cooked crêpes (round two) for dinner. We even tried to make chocolate crêpes, but that was a bit of a fail… If anybody knows how to make them, please tell!

Week 11 was the last week of the semester. At last. I got my exams and work-sheets and essays back, all with 1st class marks (+70/100), which made me really proud. There is obviously space to improve, but the results meant that my hard-work was worth it. It was a hectic week (as per usual), but a bit busier because I tried to use any spare time to do work in order to have more free time during the holidays. This was challenging because I lacked the will to be honest, but I did get some things done nonetheless. As it was the last week, the classes were quite light, talking about Christmas in France and Italy, eating panettone and chocolate that our Italian teachers brought for us (which was so cute),… Some of the French teachers also organized a quiz for the first and second years (in which my team – the Jacobins- and I ended in second place and won chocolate treats) and we had food to taste, French Christmas desserts. It was also quite strange to think that some of my lecturers won’t be teaching me next semester and I will miss some of them…

Some other things I did were, for example, a Christmas night with the girls. We watched Love Actually, to get into the Christmassy vibes (popcorn included, yum!). I also went to the Christmas Carol Service at the Abbey, which was quite impressive (although I silently left before it finished). I had an appointment at the Hospital on Wednesday, which was a challenge, both to get there and find my way through. I arrived in taxi to the building, which was an old building, probably from the 60s, with corridors that looked as if they belonged to a horror movie… But the personnel were nice and it wasn’t that bad. I also took a blood test and managed to return by bus in time for a late lunch with Amélie and Begoña (Christmas meal, for the umpteenth time).

Friday was my last day in Bath in 2014. It was weird because, although I was really looking forward to seeing my family and friends the following day, I was also going to miss the people I have met in Bath. I’ve only known them for three months but, because I spend so much time with them, I will miss them over the holidays. I spent the evening packing my suitcase (and panicking about the weight limit, which I finally solved by taking a hand-luggage suitcase filled with the heavy stuff (you can image how heavy the small suitcase ended up being…). And later that night I went to Klass with Jenny. It was so-so because half the students had left so the club was half-empty. I left at a decent time to go to bed and be able to wake up early the next day.

I am going to include my trip home in this post too, because it is also part of Week 11, although the holidays will be in another post (if I eventually do write about them,  but I don’t promise anything).

On Saturday I woke up at half past eight and got ready. I had to leave my room clean and tidy and throw away any unwanted rubbish or food. I also had to drag my two suitcases down the four floors and outside it was cold. Like, there was frost and everything. I took the Wessex Bus (which was packed with people and suitcases) to the station and then the A4 bus to the airport. The bus left at ten and an old lady sat next to me and told me about her life and travels. 83 years old and she had been basically everywhere: the Caribbean, Australia, Tenerife, Switzerland,… A few stops after her son got on the bus and then they left to go shopping. It was an amusing experience. Once I arrived at the airport, I went to the EasyJet queue, which was astoundingly long. I got there just in time to get into a decent place and had to wait for about 40 minutes to drop off my luggage. The rest was normal: security check, get into the waiting area,… I had to wait for an hour to know my departure gate so I had a brunch at Burger King and then bought some food for the plane in Superdrug. Then I went to the gate and got on the plane without any issues. The trip was alright. I did some work, ate and took some sleep. And a four-hour-flight later I was back in Tenerife after three months! HOME AT LAST!