Y2-2: Weeks 2 & 3, busy bee, BUSMS & Arabic!

The speed at which time goes by is insane: three weeks of class in and I feel both like I just started and that I never left.

On Monday of Week 2, the plumber woke me up super early in the morning to my dislike. At least he solved the leaking tap and I was able to call Erin before she went to class to congratulate her for her birthday. She is 17 already! Time goes by so quickly…

Class-wise, I am now more used to the routine and to filling in the gaps between classes, either working in the library or scheduling diverse meetings with different people: tutor meeting with Enrico, help with my CV with Claire, Joblink, the Advice and Representation centre,… I also got to meet three fourth years - Ally, Hermione and Patricia- to talk about their Year Abroad experiences and help me make up my mind about mine. To date, I want to do a teaching work placement in France and then study in Italy for the second semester, ideally in Siena. Let’s see how that plan turns out. Oh, and I also filled in a gap by participating in a PhD project for business, answering a questionnaire and getting 5quid for that. Talk about incentives!

Even though I am getting more used to the routine, the homesickness still makes its appearance and on Tuesday morning I was feeling quite low. I am just so glad that there is Whatsapp and Skype to be able to speak to my family. I could not imagine how bad it would be if not! They are vital!

We also had our Online Presentation induction session for our ‘Italy since 1945’ seminars on Monday Week 2 – we’ll have to upload our presentations as a kind of video prior to the actual seminars. I am just glad I am not one of the first because, although the program is quite straight-forward, I still don’t understand 100% how the uploading and watching before the seminars in going to work… I also went to a Bath Award Info Session during Week 3, and discarded the idea because, in mi opinion, the work it requires is a lot bigger than what you might gain from it. So, moving right along, the rest of the classes were fine.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the workload is not bigger, but that the difference is that we have the pressure of our work counting towards our final degree marks (and possibly, the Year Abroad) and that I have less time to dedicate to it. I spend quite a lot of time on the bus, which I use to just listen to music because I am unable to read while I’m on it, and also cooking and cleaning. I met with Vidushi last Wednesday for lunch and then to do some work and we were talking of how much we miss our catering credit. We might have eaten the same all the time, but oh, so handy. It was great to catch up with her because now that we live in different houses and areas of Bath I don’t see her that often. Also, we needed a break from work so that night we both went to the Spanish Society social at OPA. At the beginning, we’d agreed we’d leave by midnight the latest, but the music they were playing was so good and we were having so much fun that didn’t happen and I ended up going to bed at like two. 

Not great for Thursday because I had class from ten to five and then went straight to fencing training. It was worth it though, I really needed some exercise to relax a bit and I had a lot of fun. I definitely need to improve my fencing skills, but that requires practice. I am also looking forward to their socials as this year they seem very keen on them and hopefully they will be a great way to meet new people. By the way, the sore muscles are so strange because I only have them on one leg and it pains me to go up and down the stairs!

On another note, the previous Thursday I hadn’t gone to the training because I went to the BUSMS (Bath Student Musicals Society) taster instead. The theme was the Wizard of Oz and it was a lot of fun. I found Imogen there so we kind of stuck together but there were a lot of people. First they introduced the committee and then we had to introduce ourselves mentioning our favourite Musical (mine is probably ‘Chicago’) and dream role (I don’t have one really). We did some icebreaking games before learning a song. I am an alto and we sang ‘What Is This Feeling?’ from ‘Wicked’. I feel ashamed to admit this but I had never heard the song before because I have never seen the musical… I feel like as a Spanish person I know my bit about musicals, but I’m definitely a rookie within the society… We then did a small choreography to the ending theme of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ I believe. Apart from the fact that I have two left legs, I think it went pretty well and I did have a lot of fun! After the session we headed to Lime Tree for pres because they were going to PoNaNa afterwards but I had been out all day so I just stayed for a bit and then headed home. They seem like a lovely bunch and I joined the society. It looks like a great way of doing something new, fun and artistic to unwind from the academic side of Uni. Tomorrow I am showing up for rehearsals for the November show, ‘Music through the ages’. I didn’t audition for any solos, but I do want to get involved before the workload gets really heavy. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes…

After having such busy weeks, the weekend arrives and all I want to do is sleep but I have to get the work and reading done for the following week or do the shopping or cook. I swear on Week 2 I was so knackered I just gave up and had a chilled Friday night in ft. film. I chose ’The Craft’, an oldie from the 90s, and ended up watching Glee also. Great cosy night. We had some trouble later on that night with some alcohol related issues but let’s leave that aside… I have also found out that it is worth heading up to the Library on weekends (specially on Sundays) to work over there, even though it is a pain to be taking the bus. I procrastinate a lot less. However, this weekend I have been forcing myself to do stuff so that tomorrow I am free for the rehearsal and chill the rest of the day and I’m pretty pleased: groceries, cooking, cleaning and most work done and out of the way. I think I will treat myself to a movie or TV show tonight.

And, to finish up, I have started my Arabic lessons. I chose Arabic over German because I have always wanted to give Arabic a try and you can learn German pretty much everywhere, whereas Arabic is a bit harder to find. During the first lesson, I regretted the decision. I was sitting next to a Spanish girl called Raquel and we were both looking at each other with our facial expressions saying “What have we gotten ourselves into?” The lessons are intense and we are mixed up with people that know a bit of Arabic but not enough to be on the next level. And so, it is a bit hard to keep up. However, once I was able to sit down at home and go through the material we’ve learnt in class, I have come to the conclusion that it isn’t as hard as I initially thought. It just takes a lot of practice and work because it is a new alphabet, a lot more complex than the Roman one, and of course the vocabulary is also completely different. But I am happy of my decision and improving.

Ma'a as-salāmah! Until next time!