You should
feel special because I am destining some of my precious time (as you will find
out later on, I have been – and still am- really busy) to keeping you updated,
so please don’t forget to follow the blog and give me your feedback!
You
Canarian folks will have realised that my Week 21, was your Carnival Week.
Well, in Ol’ cold England there is obviously no Carnival so I got to get
increasingly homesick while I saw all your pretty pictures on Facebook and was
told about the great time you were having while I had to deal with truck-loads
of coursework and CPE preparation. Thanks. It was not very nice. But I am glad
you enjoyed the week for me.
Instead, I
had to deal with my Internet not working on my laptop anymore. I hate
technology and I’m not good at it. I had had problems with the wi-fi earlier
last semester, but it had been solved by getting a cable and connecting my
laptop to RESnet. Well, from one day to another that didn’t work either.
Thank-God there is the free Computing Services at the Library to solve this.
They found out that the problem was the antivirus I was using, so after a lot
of investigation and program downloading and setting up, they fixed the issue and
I now can connect to both networks YAY!
Tuesday the
17th was Pancake Day in the UK, so we obviously had to celebrate.
Amélie had her day off so she made tons of batter in the morning and cooked
crêpes for us as dessert after dinner. They were delicious as always. Another
nice thing that happened was that I Skyped with the girls back home. I miss
them a lot and it was great to be able to talk to them, despite it being only
just a little bit because I had class. I managed to connect with them during my
break and have a chat. Hope to see you girls soon xx
Although
Wednesdays are my “free” days, I had tons of work to do. And for some reason I
also agreed to take an online course to get my Level 1 Food Hygiene Certificate
to help out V Team on Sunday, because they were organizing a party for a local
charity called Time2Share and needed someone with the certificate to run the
kitchen. So yeah, more things. But now I have the certificate and it was paid for
by V Team, so who is the actual winner, hey?
Thursday was
incredibly busy, but really awesome. I had class from 11 to 5pm, with only my
lunch break which I spent in my room eating take-away and doing work. Sad,
pathetic life until 5, when I got out of class and rushed to pick up some food
and drop my stuff and go with Amélie to Thekla, in Bristol, to see Christina
Grimmie, Before You Exit and Hannah Trigwell live! We had got tickets for their
European tour and it was amazing! Although we caught all the rush hours
(literally, bus in the middle of traffic jam, extremely packed train and busy
traffic in Bristol), it was so worth it! When we got to the club, it was only
half full and we managed to sneak to the second row. There were more people
than when we went to see Box of Light, but still it was pretty empty. First, it
was Hannah Trigwell who performed. I had never heard her before, but she was
really good. Here is her youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/hannahtrigwell She is also very sweet: we went to
take a picture with her while we waited for Christina to come out later on in
the night, and she took the time to actually get the perfect picture and fiddle
with Amélie’s reflex camera haha Before You Exit (https://www.youtube.com/user/BeforeYouExit) went next. To be honest, because
they are a boy band, I thought I wouldn’t really like them but the truth is I
actually did. They had such energy and good vibes on-stage that it was
impossible not to like them! Even the mothers that had come with their minor
daughters were dancing! (And stepping in the way of our cameras, which was
utterly annoying…). I also got one of the guitar picks they threw to the
audience because the crazy fan-girl that had got it in front of me dropped it
whilst jumping madly…Sorry for her but good for me… And, finally,…the star of
the show… Christina Grimmie! It was so cool to see her live! Her vocals are
breath-taking and, even though she is famous and has been to The Voice and met
loads of celebrities (Adam Levine was her coach guys *o*), she is still
down-to-earth and nice. Check her awesomeness for yourself on her YouTube
channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/zeldaxlove64 and her audition on The Voice USA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGuVKMUwgE8 After the gig we waited for
Christina and BYE to come out, but the security guy ended up chucking us out of
the club, so we waited outside in the cold for a while and, just as we were
about to leave, Christina came out! We were the firsts to talk to her and take
a picture and get her autograph, and Amélie was so happy because she has been
following her videos for years! A little bit later, BYE came out real quick
heading to the bus, so we only managed to take a picture with Connor and get
both Riley and Connor’s autograph, but it was still worth the wait. We were
really happy (and tired) coming back from Thekla to get the train back, we had
had an unforgettable and wonderful night. Concerts are always awesome!
On Friday
we had an appointment with the advisor at the SU to check our contract for next
year and solve our doubts, so that was great. I am amazed by the amount of
support that is given to the students in the university here! And then after
the check I decided to go into town to buy some things I needed, what turned
out to be a massive fail because 1. they had run out of the things I needed so
I couldn’t buy anything and 2. there was a car accident that altered the bus
route so I had to walk half the city to another bus stop and wait for what
seemed like forever in the cold until a bus finally came. The whole thing was
an absolute waste of time.
Saturday
was not too interesting, I spent the whole day working because I had a lot of
reading and class work to get done. The only relevant thing that happened was
that it hailed out of the blue. Like, literally, I was working in my room and
suddenly I hear this really loud noise outside and look out of the window and
it was hailing! The sky was completely blue and there were no clouds, but it
hailed for about three minutes. Don’t ask me why or how, I have no idea.
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| Top right, don't even ask... |
On Sunday I
made my way to Bath City Football Club in Twerton, where the party for
Time2Share was taking place. Here is the link to the organization’s website in
case you are interested: http://time2share.org.uk/ Jo, the leader volunteer, showed us
around and distributed the chores and activities. I spent all morning in the
kitchen preparing the food, with help of other volunteers. We had so much food.
Bags and bags of food. We made sandwiches, prepared trays of food, cut fruit,
served crisps… It took ages but, once we brought the food out at four, it was
all gone in a blink of an eye, and was even taken home in doggy bags. We
volunteers also got the chance to eat, and then after the job in the kitchen
was done I stayed outside for the bingo and raffle and then helped to tidy up
again after the party ended. Everybody had a great day, both the volunteers and
the guests. I was able to make new acquaintances and be satisfied with my work
knowing that the people from Time2Share were enjoying themselves! Volunteering
is definitely a rewarding activity. +1.
This last
week however, Week 22, has been far less interesting. I have had a lot of
accumulated work to get done (particularly reading “La Peste” by Camus, which I
finished on Tuesday), and so have been spending my days pretty much trying to
get things done bit by bit. I still have quite a lot to do but such is the
student life… Nonetheless, some things have happened.
On
Wednesday, we finally signed the contract for the house. We are no longer
homeless for next year and Begoña, Amélie, Joel and I will be living in
Oldfield Park. It is such a massive weight off our shoulders to know that is
finally done. One more thing to cross off the list.
On the more
reflective side of things, spring is coming. It is weird to actually be able to
appreciate the change of seasons, whereas in Tenerife the only difference is
that in the winder it rains. Full stop. There are loads of bulbs sprouting here
and there, the temperature is slightly warmer, the sun tends to shine (although
it also rains haha), there are more animals to be spotted around the campus… I
even saw a wild cat the other day!
And,
lastly, this week has been Go Green Week, so the SU has organized a range of
different activities related to environment and recycling and that sort of
thing. I was too busy to take part in any, which is a real pity, but on Friday
they organized a Cycle Cinema by the lake. They showed “Mean Girls” and “The
Hunger Games” and, although I didn’t go because I had other things to do and it
was too cold for my liking, I did go out to take a look, as you can see from
the pictures. It would be great if they did another one nearer to the summer…
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| Yep, top right, holes in my jeans... |
Oh, I
nearly forget, on Friday our marks came out too. Mine were great! I am really proud
of myself; hard work does have its reward. I got 70, 71 and 77 overall on my
first Semester modules, being all of them First Class marks. And 80 on my
Italian History exam, which made me really happy because I didn’t expect such a
good mark. I am really pleased because these results mean that I am doing the
right thing and should keep going like this J
That is all
for now. Wish me luck for my CPE exam which I will be taking next week and,
until my next post, hope everything goes well for you all. Please bear with me
if the posts come late, but as you can see, lately my student responsibilities
have been pretty hectic and it looks as if the situation will continue for a
couple of weeks…
Zoe
PS: I am
going to Paris after the end of the year. Check that out! B)
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