Y2-1: back to Bath…

Hey y’all! September is over and a new year has started. And I’m already behind in on my blog updates. I’d first like to make a disclaimer and say that the work-load this year has increased considerably, so I have less time to update my blog. I will keep on doing so because I know a lot of you follow my adventures in Bath and it is a great way to record my memories, but I will probably be less regular than last year.

I arrived back in Bath on the 15^th of September, with enough time to settle in (and for our little getaway to Edinburgh… http://gathering-smithereens.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/september-2015-pre-class-getaway-to.html) before the new academic year started.

This year, I am living with Begoña, Amélie and Joel in a house in Oldfield Park, the student-y area of Bath that stretches behind the train station. Houses in Bath are pretty old, which is part of the appeal of the beige city, but it has its downsides when it comes to living in them. As a student house, we obviously weren’t expecting a five star hotel, and have encountered quite a few problems – linked to living in an old house, but also to simply living in a house rather than halls of residence. Electricity and gas readings, figuring out how the water and heating work, sorting out rotas for cooking and cleaning, doing the grocery shopping,… Adult stuff entering our lives all in one go. I am so glad that our parents are always there for us to contact if we need them, because I have certainly been on the phone a lot lately.

I spent the first few days absolutely busy: running errands, unpacking my things and trying to make my room look more homely, going to campus to get paperwork done, buying my bus-pass (I have to take the bus up to campus every day, so a pass is definitely essential!). The small short break in Edinburgh a few days after arriving was also hectic, but it was a change of air that was very welcome and that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Once we got back, it was Freshers’ Week which, as a second year, didn’t particularly involve me. I spent the first week back sorting out things as an adult, learning my way around the new area, getting to know the house, and feeling quite homesick. The change of weather, being away from home and having to deal with all this new stuff and issues, made me feel very homesick and I cried some of the first days. It was the same homesickness as during the first year, only as a fresher you have a lot of new stuff to be looking forward to whereas as a returning student, you are back again and having to be an adult. I’m not going to lie; I had some pretty rough days of crying over the phone. Just as I brag on the blog about my travels and the great things of Uni life, I feel responsible for also showing the uglier sides of it. Anyway, with the support of your loved ones and the ones around you, and by keeping yourself busy, you slowly get over it and settle into the new life and routine, which also happened to me eventually – although let’s leave a couple of stress breakdown moments aside.

Even though I was not a Fresher, I did go up to campus for the Sports’ Fair and the Activities’ Fair. This time around I did have an idea of the clubs and societies I was interested in, so I avoided freely giving out my email and being victim to a year-long spamming attack. I signed up with my email to quite a few Socs and sports, but waited for the taster sessions before paying the memberships.

The first taster I went to was the fencing one. I went to the taster last year and really enjoyed it, but the training clashed with volleyball so I wasn’t able to join. This year I’ve swapped it and I decided to do fencing instead so now I have training on Thursday evening, which is not great because I have a really long day but I have fun fencing. I totally suck at it, but I enjoy it which is what counts! I also went to the Fencing social on Friday night which was a pub crawl starting in Lime Tree. It was fun, I got to meet a lot of new people and we had a laugh playing drinking games and chatting. I definitely enjoyed myself! Another taster that I went to was pole dancing. It is so much harder than it looks! It was a half an hour session on Saturday afternoon at Funky Monkey Studio in which they taught us a couple of different simple and more complex moves. It takes a lot of strength and style to do it! Such a good workout and I also really enjoyed it, but I have to think if I will finally join or not depending on training sessions and practicality… I also have a few more tasters next week so I will keep you posted but for now I have joined fencing and FrenchSoc (of course, couldn’t not join with all the class mates in the committee – it will be fun!).

On Friday 25^th during Freshers’ I had most of my induction sessions. Pretty much a straight morning from ten through to four. An intense start of the year. I first had the Returners’ induction by the Director of Studies, welcoming us back and already starting to stress us out with the Year Abroad information, a stress that has only intensified as the different meetings for the different options and countries have been organised. Then we had the Peer Mentoring Scheme welcome session. This year I am a peer mentor, which means I am the mentor of four first year MLES students to help them out through their year in Bath. Luckily, they are also studying French and Italian, which is perfect for advice on the course! All the mentors and mentees got together with some food, formally introduced each other and then did a fun and fairly hard quiz organized by the Lead Peer Mentors. It was a good experience and I hope this year I get to know them four better. I then had the Unit introduction for Italian, in which the Italian units for this year were more or less explained to us – it was great to see the teachers again and also meet our new ones. Right after that, we had the Year Abroad meeting for Italian students. The great things about these sessions is getting to meet the fourth years who have just returned and can share their experiences with us, which is first-hand and thus invaluable! After that we had a break for lunch just before our Year Abroad meeting for French students – same thing as for Italian but for French. My overall opinion of the day was ‘day one, already stressed out’. Right from the start, they were already telling us to start thinking about our Year Abroad options, for which we’ll have to have made our minds about by the 23^rd of October. So much work to get done!

On Friday night, Vidushi and Jenny came over for pres before Forever Fridays at Bridge (here we go again!). It was great to see them after a long summer and we had a lot of fun getting ready, dancing to reggeatón and basically having a laugh during pres. We danced all night long at the club and I had a lot of fun. Moreover, the DJ played quite a few Spanish songs so props to him!

The first week of proper teaching left me exhausted. First, the bus usually takes around half an hour to get to campus, but you have to get to the bus stop earlier because of the massive queue that forms. The new U1 service – former 18- has thoroughly improved the commute as there are more buses during peak times. This is vital because sometimes the buses are so full they don’t even stop and so you are screwed. I haven’t had any problems with the buses for now so I am pretty happy with it, it is just tiring because I haven’t really had to commute before, but I can’t complain because a lot of people do longer commutes than I.

Concerning the classes themselves, my timetable is alright. I usually start at ten meaning that I get to sleep until half past eight. On the first week however, one of the lectures had to be rescheduled to 8:15 and 6:15 on Tuesday, which meant we had to get up at half six and pretty much fight the lack of sleep. I saw the sunrise, beautiful by the way, but I believe my bed is even more attractive… This year our French groups got remade and so I am now with a couple of girls from last year and the French and Russian students. This year the classes are less grammar oriented and more focused on learning how to write properly, write CVs and cover letters etc. We have to learn these skills before leaving for the Year Abroad so our language classes will help us with that. The lectures for this semester are: ‘Italy since 1945’, which I don’t like simply because I don’t like politics… this will be a tough one; ‘European Integration’, interesting and the lecturer is quite good; ‘La France et le monde, la France dans le monde’ which also looks pretty interesting and I have another new lecturer for it.  I have some gaps between classes on some days meaning that I will spend more time in the Library studying, which should be good if I manage to find a place!

During the first week of teaching I also had the general meetings for ERASMUS, placements and English Assistantships for the Year Abroad, and I scheduled a meeting with the Year Abroad Placement Officer to find out how I can do teaching in the private sector. As I said, all pretty stressful but I guess it’s a matter of dealing with it step by step…

I also had to cook a meal for three of us each day during the first week according to our trial rota, which took quite a lot of planning. I hate cooking, that doesn’t come as a surprise. However, my cooking skills did surprise at home. I mean, I hate cooking but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it! I cooked pasta, garbanzas, lentils, salmon, shepherd’s pie,… I can be a chef if I need to, but if you buy me dinner I will love you forever!

Those have been my first few weeks back in Bath. The hectic life of the University student has reappeared and so I am literally busy all day long. Tomorrow is the start of week 2 already and I can’t believe it! This year will also fly by so quickly!

Until my next post, see you!

Zoe