Hey y’all! As I said,
this is a shorter post than my previous ones. Only two weeks, so hopefully it
won’t take that long to explain what I’ve been up to.
So, Week 19 mean back
to the routine. First week of the second semester. It wasn’t that bad, but it
did take some time to get up and do something with my life. My timetable this
semester and I have a love/hate relationship. I tend to start quite late; being
10:15 the earliest my classes start throughout the week. This is good because I
get to sleep, but bad because I’d rather have to wake up early to go to class
at 9am and then have the rest of the morning and afternoon to actually work.
Because I start so late, my classes usually finish at five or six, which is
pretty late and makes me be fairly tired at the end of the day. Also, some days
the classes are really spaced, some days they are all in a row. And then there are
Wednesdays, when I am totally free (except for the fact that Wednesdays are
usually match days), and Fridays, when I only have one class at 11:15 and then
I’m free the rest of the day. Therefore, I wish my classes were earlier, but I
can’t really complain, can I? I guess I will soon get used to the new
timetable.
New semester also
means new teachers. I have two new lecturers and my first impressions of them
are very promising. My Italian lecturer seems very keen and interested in the
students actually being interested in
the subject. She is also very kind. The only drawback is she is always behind
the time… And my new French lecturer is great. He makes the classes funny and
interesting, and reminds me a bit of Dad (at least that is how I picture Dad as
a teacher, because I never really attended any of his lectures). So, overall, I’m
quite pleased with them all.
Week 19, at least the
start, was not particularly interesting. It was quite cold, what is to be
expected in January, with snow again. I ran some errands and also started to
realize the amount of work I will have to do this semester. Not only do I have
my regular weekly assignments, but I also have a lot to read. Two of my new
units involve a lot of reading, one as preparation for the lectures and the
other because the unit itself is focused on culture and, therefore, literature.
So, every week I have to read about 100 pages or more only for those two
subjects. Plus the compulsory reading for the different seminars which I am
doing at the same time. In addition, I signed up to take the Cambridge
Proficiency Exam for English on the 6th and 7th of March,
meaning that I have a little over a month to prepare the exam. To be honest,
now I feel it is work on top of my work and at some point I have regretted
signing up, but then I re-evaluate my options and it was the best moment to do
it. So I just hope I am ready when the time comes. I am trying to do exercises
but it takes a lot of determination and organization to juggle all the work!
I have previously said
we had started with our house hunting for next year’s accommodation. On Wednesday
Amélie and I went to visit a House Begoña and Khumbo had seen over the ISB and
were happy with it so we decided to secure it. However, the following day
Khumbo came up to us saying she could no longer live with us and left us having
to look for a replacement asap otherwise we would lose the house. To be honest,
it was not a very nice experience and it involved a lot of stress and
frustration, but at the end we did find a replacement and will hopefully sign
the contract soon. This is one of the most daunting and exasperating processes
I have had to deal with since I am here…
On Wednesday I also
went to SCORE, the themed night at The Tub (SU club) for the sports societies
in particular. In this case, it was the first SCORE of the semester and so it
was pretty packed. This is what it looked like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bi7V9KPeFA We went to celebrate Katy’s birthday, so there
were pre-drinks in Norwood. I had a nice night with my course mates and SCORE
was crazy with all the people dressed up!
Thursday evening,
after a very long day full of non-stop classes, I went to a Danger Awareness
and Self Defence Skills Training with Amélie. I genuinely enjoyed it. Not only
because you gain skills for your CV, but because I found it really interesting
and practical. The teacher, Paul Johnson (http://www.backtobasicsselfdefence.co.uk/), was very professional and after an
introduction to the theory we passed on to the action. The fact that we were
only four students meant that we actually got to practice and try all the
techniques ourselves and repeat them until we felt confident about them. I
would totally recommend the course to anybody. I feel like now, with a little
bit of practice, I can actually react and defend myself if the need arose! Empowerment!
Friday, however,
started well because it was nice and sunny, and then in the afternoon I started
feeling unwell and in the evening, I fell ill. That night I went to sleep very
early, feeling very cold, with shivers and temperature, and slept really bad
and intermittently. The next morning I was still feeling unwell and so I could
not go to Stonehenge and Salisbury, which left me gutted as I have been wanted
to go to Stonehenge since I was a child… I basically spent the whole weekend in
my room, only going out to do the washing because I really needed to have clean
linen put in my bed. The girls checked up on me which was really nice of them, and
Alex and Amélie brought me food and drinks. I spent the weekend resting and
trying to get work done, but I felt really bad so I worked very slowly. I also
felt kind of depressed which did not help at all. On Monday I was feeling a
little bit better and went to class but I phoned the Medical Centre and asked
for an appointment with my GP for Tuesday anyway. She told me I had a slight
tonsillitis and prescribed me some antibiotics, which I went to pick from town
straight away so I could start taking them asap. I have been taking the
antibiotics and paracetamol, along with a lot of liquids, for a couple of days
but my throat still feels uncomfortable. At least I have no temperature
anymore. I just hope I am fit again for Monday, because I have a French oral presentation…
Apart from the amounts
of piled work I have had to do and resting to recover, other things have been
going on during Week 20. To start with, I watched Mean Girls for the first
time. I had heard so many people talking about it lately that I just treated
myself to a break one evening and watched it. It was so stereotypical! But I
thoroughly enjoyed it! I laughed a lot! On Wednesday I had a meeting for the
BIB (https://bathinternationalblog.wordpress.com/about/), and then attempted to attend a Translation
Session organized by MUN (Models of the United Nations). It was a total fail
due to lack of organization so I ended up just leaving, but they supposedly debated
about Ukraine in different languages while the MA Translating and Interpreting
students translated them. The good thing is I got to see the interpreting labs
in the Library, which I didn’t know existed. On Thursday I went to the
volleyball training, which was quite soft, but I ended with sore muscles
anyway. Oh, I also got some marks back: 70% on my Seminar write up for Images
of War and 73% for my Introduction to European Studies Essay! And, lastly, my
Italian teacher Enrico has the flu so his classes at 11am on Thursday and
Friday were cancelled, meaning that I GOT TO SLEEP IN! Hope he gets better
though.
And finally today, Valentine’s
Day. Not that I care, really. If I am honest, I realized it was Valentine’s
because it has been all over the social media for about two weeks. I didn't
plan anything special, because it didn't really mean anything to me. To be
honest, I am more depressed about missing Carnival back home than about not
having a date on Saturday. Whatever. I hope my friends have fun dressing up,
while I spend the rest of my week reading and doing work…
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