Y2-6: Week 11, Christmas meals, Snowball and going home!

The last week of the semester was also packed with activities but fortunately a bit more chilled because most deadlines were already gone. And it also meant finally going back home in a couple more days.

On Monday I went to my French seminar and then went back home because I had the BUSMS Xmas meal that night at around half six and I decided to skip the Italian oral lesson. I did some reading and reviewed some Arabic at home, so I was more efficient than if I’d stayed on campus anyway. The meal was nice. It took place at the Roman Bath Kitchen, which is a fancy restaurant next to the Abbey. We had the second floor to ourselves. First we chatted for a bit while drinking some “Christmas” Pimm’s and then headed to the tables. We were doing Secret Santa, so they’d laid out the presents next to the plates so that we had to find ours and sit there. I ended up sitting by Stokoe, Liv, Maddie, Jena and Jonathan, whom I hadn’t met before. We did the crackers and opened up the presents- I got a sugar pot.  The meal was nice, the best was the dessert of course! After dinner, we teamed up for a quiz organized by the Social Secs. I teamed up with Maria, Maddie, Monica and Emily. We didn’t win because we lacked some BUSMS seniors, but we had a good shot at it by randomly guessing some questions and ruling the Christmas rebuses (not me though obvs). After dinner some of the people headed to Turtle Bay but I went back home because I had an early seminar the following morning. It was a nice dinner though.

On Tuesday, I had class and did some reading. We spent the two hours of Arabic lessons practicing the oral, which was both useful and a waste of time. I found that after having studied I had a far clearer idea of what people were talking about, which was reassuring because the exam was the next day. I left the lessons with the plan to study and review a bit more that night. In the bus, I randomly ended up sitting next to a guy from Dubai doing his masters, which was such a coincidence! We spoke a bit about Arabic and life. It is always great to meet people who speak the languages you are studying. Needless to say, once home I sorted up my stuff for the next day and then I was so tired that all I did was go through my notes and go to sleep. I had given up on Arabic a lot earlier…Oopsie.

Wednesday was an incredibly long day. I had two seminars in the morning, which I went to. I then did some work in Lime Tree while I had lunch before my Arabic test – Xmas meal for a change. The test was supposed to be from 2:15 to 5:15pm, but ended up being longer than that. The teacher kept saying that we didn’t have to worry that it was going to be fine but all we wanted to do was just get it done. He put Arabic music to “calm us down”. It was a bit annoying because I just wanted to finish asap even though he did it with the best intentions. The exam itself was fine. Except the listening perhaps, but I had already assumed that would be the worst. The reading and writing went well on the most part, although I absolutely winged the translation from English to Arabic script exercise because I had only studied the transcripts and not the actual writing, so I just wrote it down literally as it sounded. That will certainly have an interesting outcome… Then he started the speaking test, which he did individually and by pairs. Considering that it was way past four and that we were more than 15 people, the test was going to take ages and I had to get out of there by 5:15 because the Fencing Xmas Meal was at 6pm and I was already going to arrive late… I managed to do the test with Joanna, just in time to run to CB and get changed in the toilets. I’d literally carried all the stuff in the sports bag so that I could make it to both the exam and the dinner, so I got changed and dropped my bad at Leila’s before catching the bus to go to Aqua Restaurant in town, where the meal took place.

I arrived at the Fencing Christmas Meal just in time for the starters, and ended up sitting at one of the ends of the table which was awkward because I hate the ends… But I had a lovely time. The food was amazing and I could barely finish my Turkey. I sat near Chris, Ali and Fari, and also another Spanish guy whom I hadn’t met before, Alex. We Spanish are everywhere! We chatted, did the crackers, Jess gave out some funny prizes and we stole Chris’ phone and took loads of selfies on it. It was a lot of fun. We then headed to Slug and Lettuce for some drinks before the Snowball. Although I didn’t drink, I had a lot of fun. We started speaking in Spanish; it is always fun to hear Brits speaking Spanish, they come up with the most hilarious vocab! After pre-ing, we went to the Pavillion, where the Snowball was. At this point, only a few of us were left, the ones on the picture. We managed to get tons of free drink tokens and then got a table. The music was not great which was a pity, there was a DJ and a random folk/pop cover group. They weren’t the best singers and were definitely not my cup of tea… But we danced all the same. Throughout the night people started leaving until there were only three of us left. At around half one we decided to leave so I found B and walked with her, Ali and his friend back home. For the price of the ticket, not worth it. For the experience, worth it once during the degree. Anyway, fencing socials always end up being fun!

On Thursday morning I slept in and then decided to start packing my suitcase. It took me a lot longer than planned and so I didn’t manage to finish it, but I did set aside all I needed. I then went up to campus for French oral class, in which we did a Quiz which we did win this time! After that I went to fencing practice. We had the second part of the foil competition. I wasn’t very keen. First, I fenced against Inès after struggling with the kit and cables – they wouldn’t work, obviously I’d jinxed them! She won, and so did the other opponent I fenced, which didn’t come as a surprise. When I fenced Michele, I did manage to win, but by a difference of one point, so that was more due to luck than actual skill. Anyway, for not having trained for two weeks, I think I did pretty well. I fence for fun not to win…

On Friday I had my last few seminars and then packed my suitcases. Begoña saved me because my weight ran out of battery and she had a spare one so I could weigh my bags. Everything fit and I even had weight to spare! I decided to watch a Glee episode but at some point I started talking to Amélie and we ended up just chilling in the corridor, the three of us, just having late (really late) night reflections about life and Bath and how time flies by. I then got an email saying my flight the next morning had been cancelled, which freaked me out but ended up not being true. So much for customer service… 

On Saturday, I woke up really early because I thought they’d be a lot of traffic since it was the first weekend of holidays and I thought a lot of people would be travelling. It wasn’t the case, so I got to the airport extremely early and had to wait for an hour and a half before dropping my bag, and then another hour inside after security. At least I didn’t rush and had more than enough time to sort my things... I had my last Gingerbread Latte of the year and did some work on my essay. During the flight, I watched Glee and “It’s kind of a funny story”, which turned out to be a nice film. I just wanted to get home tbh. After a couple of hours of travel, I arrived at the airport back home. Back to the warmth (literally, 20 degrees), to the sun, to the family and friends, to the good food and my comfy bed. It’s always great to be home.

I got to sleep in on Sunday, sleep as much as I wanted. Then Lara came over for lunch and we made the Xmas tree. This time, red, green and gold rather than multi-coloured. I went through my things and planned the week and watched “Labyrinth”. Basically just being a lazy-ass, but it’s cool because I’m home and I deserve some rest. Although not too much rest because I still have an essay and two exams to prepare, and to go out and enjoy being back in the Islands. Let’s see what the Christmas holidays have in store this year!

Y2-5: Weeks 9 & 10, Mockingjay, finding a placement and the Christmas Market!

As I’ve already said, Weeks 9 and 10 were really hectic and stressful because of deadlines. I had three presentations and three exams in the span of two weeks, and although I had just enough time to manage it all, I had no time to spare which stressed me out.

Week 9 was my last week of lectures, which meant I would soon have more free time to deal with coursework. We manage to, successfully, get our La France presentation done with a pretty great mark considering the lack of time and organization. We struggled to find time for the four of us to meet which meant that the first and only run-through we were able to do was half an hour before our 9:15 actual presentation. Talk about rushing for time… I’m happy with the outcome and the mark though, I know we could’ve done better if we had organized earlier, but for what we were able to do, a 68 is a very good mark. Once that presentation was out of the way, it was time to meet with my European Integration seminar group and start working on our presentation about Turkey and Ukraine for the following Tuesday. As I said, I couldn’t stop for a moment. 

On Wednesday morning I had to get up early because I had an appointment at the RUH. I thought I was going to miss my lessons for the morning, but luckily I finished at the doctor’s quite soon and managed to get to my second seminar and catch up on the missed one on a later session. That was awesome because it meant not having to dedicate free time to go through the seminar slides on my own. Later on that day, we had a French “Atelier d’entretien” aimed at those looking for a placement in France. We were split in two groups and had to prepare a mock interview for a post. The feedback was generally quite good, the bad thing is that I get really nervous and run out of breath. I guess all I can do to avoid that is practice and practice… Any other suggestions? 

That night we decided to take out some time and the girls and I went to ODEON to watch “Mockingjay 2”. I was so excited to watch the film! It was the end of the cycle, although I am not sure if I liked it or not. As a film, I think it is very good. As a book adaptation, I think it could’ve been better. I don’t know; they messed up some bits. And I didn’t like the end at all tbh. But still, I am happy with the films. And I got free posters so now I have the full collection: a poster per film. Call me a geek. It was also great to meet with the girls again, as we don’t get to see Vidushi as often since our timetables don’t match and she lives in Combe Down. A nice break from work altogether.

On Thursday I guiltily skipped fencing practice again because I was struggling with the deadlines. I had an Italian grammar assessment the next day for which I had to revise (and which ended going just fine). Aaaaaand, I also had to prepare my interview. I had got an interview offer from a local English school in Fécamp, Haute-Normandie. I was supposed to have the interview over on Skype on Friday afternoon, but we couldn’t get the call through because they wouldn’t reply. Turns out they had written down the date wrong and forgot about the interview, so I ended up having it again on the following Friday. I got the job (yay!). And so will be working as an English assistant, teaching students of ages ranging from 2 to elderly people. It will be a challenge but I am sure I will learn a lot from it! I will be in France from September to December 2016, so now all I have to do is sign the contract! Yippee!

I basically spent the rest of the weekend at home cooking and studying, sheltered from the horrible cold and rain outside. I had to venture out on Saturday evening to meet with the seminar group in town, which was a massive mistake because with it being Saturday and the Christmas market going on, the traffic was horrible and we didn’t really manage to get anything done other than set another meeting and kind of update the others about the outcome of our research. Again, a bit of a last-minute presentation.

As I said, on Week 10 I didn’t have any more lectures so I had a bit more time to work, but that didn’t mean I was less stressed. On Monday the seminar group met up to finish off some bits and bobs and our presentation on Tuesday evening was alright to be fair, aside from the fact that only the seminar teacher and one student showed up. Our feedback was pretty decent and again I’m happy with the mark we got.

On Wednesday morning I had another Italian assessment, this time for writing class, which also went alright despite lacking a bit of study time. After the assessment I went to have lunch at Lime Tree and joined the French lectrices for their “Rendez-vous café”. I hadn’t managed to go to the one two weeks earlier, but I did show up to this one. It was a nice opportunity to informally practice some French, so I’m glad I went.

On Thursday I went up to campus for my seminar at ten, and then filled in gaps between Lime Tree and the Library. I had a meeting about the TEFL unit I will be taking next semester, just to make sure we had made the right decision when choosing the unit as they have had problems with that in the past. I think I have, it will teach me the skills I will need for my placement and also I think I will find it interesting, even if I don’t end up choosing Teaching as a career. I had French oral at four and by the time that came, I was feeling pretty sick and had a headache, so I decided going to fencing wouldn’t be a great idea. It was a pity because they were having the first part of the beginners’ foil competition, but the stress was caving in and I was feeling quite unwell and needed to rest. Health goes first.

On Friday, I couldn’t go to the Peer Mentor pizza and wine social because I had my interview. But I did manage to get the post so it was worth it. However, I didn’t really have time to celebrate as I had to record my online presentation for Italian. It took ages to do and got pretty frustrating, but I managed to get it done. I decided to watch a Glee episode before bed as a treat, and it was a lovely coincidence that is was Christmas themed so I was feeling quite festive and it was a nice end to a stressful week.

On the Saturday, I decided to take a break from coursework as all I had left was to start reading for my French essay due after Christmas and to study for my Arabic test on Wednesday (and by study, I mean cram the contents of over a month because I had totally neglected the thing- not a great prospect). Anyway, in the morning I did my laundry and took it to the launderette to dry. By chance, we’d found out that there is a launderette at the end of Moorland Road which makes it so much easier to get things done, so I got everything cleaned up quite soon. Then, after lunch, I headed into town to do some Christmas shopping and visit the market. The traffic was crazy and the bus got stuck half way into town so I ended up walking the remaining distance. I first went to a couple of shops before they closed, and then headed to the market. It was absolutely packed and it was hard to walk around, but I am so glad I got the chance to go. As every year, the different wooden huts full of hand-made goodies and food were lovely, and the lights and carols helped reinforce the festive atmosphere. If you ever have the chance to go, definitely do it because it is so worth it! I got half of my presents and also found a great musician busking around the streets. I think I’d seen him before, but he’s called Simeon Baker and I thought he was pretty good, give him a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDZ7ZeKUlHQ He’s been busking all around the UK and I got his CD- supporting a street artist ;)

On Sunday however, it was time to go back to reality. I basically spent the whole day at home studying Arabic and mutually motivating Amélie to write her essay. The weather was so bad we stayed at home rather than go up to campus, and I sadly could not go to the Open Mic night organised by BUSMS, but I really had to get most of the Arabic out of the way. It took me forever, but everything made so much more sense after I’d studied.

Only one more week of the first semester to go, so keep your eyes peeled for the next post involving Xmas meals and the Snowball!

Y2-4: Weeks 7 & 8, Musicals Through the Ages, Arabic Calligraphy and Balanescu concert!

It’s been ages since I’ve updated the blog, so sorry but these last few weeks have been absolutely hectic and full of deadlines so I haven’t had the time to write. I am now in my Christmas hols so expect a couple of posts going up about the past month and a half.

Let’s commence!

On Monday the 9^th of November, it was my 19^th birthday. The night before, my lovely flatmates had surprised me with a box of pressies, including lots of chocolate. I love those girls. And then Amélie made crêpes for all of us and we had a little pancake flip competition. It was a lot of fun and a delightful surprise after a long day. On Monday itself, I woke up a little bit earlier to open the presents that had arrived on the mail. I loved them all and Dad’s poem made me cry, I admit it. I also scrolled through social media, flooded with messages of people wishing me happy birthday, so thank-you everyone! I did have to go to class though, so it wasn’t that much of a different day aside from the presents and the fact of being officially a year older. I had the usual seminars and lectures, and studied in Lime Tree during the break (lame). After class, however, I did decide to spoil myself and stopped by New Look to buy some high heeled boots I’d been eyeing up for a while. So worth it, they make me feel so badass and they are super comfy! For dinner, Joel surprised me with a red velvet cake so I got to blow the candles. Can’t skip the tradition!

 The rest of the week was nothing special tbh. I had an oral presentation for French with Catherine, so we met up on Wednesday to practice and finish it up. I had my seminars and lessons, and filled in gaps studying in Lime Tree. I had an Interview Skills workshop which I found quite useful, since I would have to do interviews to secure a placement in France. The only out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened was the weird weather on Friday, it was sunny, then cloudy and raining, then all of a sudden it hailed. So random.

The actual extraordinary thing that happened that week was, of course, THE SHOW! I did not have to do any flyering because… we’d run out of flyers by Friday! So chuffed, the show promised to be a massive hit! I had tech rehearsals on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, but luckily I did not have to stay for the whole thing and I managed to get away. You could feel the excitement in the air and it was insane that a month had gone by so fast and that that weekend it would all be over. We had to give the best performance! On Thursday evening I had to skip fencing because we had dress rehearsal, meaning a proper show-like run-though with costume changes, having to stay backstage etc. I had dinner right after class and headed to The Edge. Backstage is so tiny for the amount of people involved in the show that is was kind of hard to pick a spot that would not be in the way of everybody. A couple of freshers and I took over the shower room and got ready there. It was stressful but so much fun to do! The dress rehearsal went just fine and the directors and backstage crew were quite happy. We had some bits to improve for the actual show, but that is what dress rehearsals are for! 

Friday was the first show night, and we nearly sold out. We only had 6 tickets left. SIX. TICKETS. How insane is that? Everybody was so excited and we had a blast. I think the best thing of a show is the reaction of the public, when they laugh and cheer and you know you are doing your job as an entertainer. The excitement of the success of the first night was tainted dark by the tragic incidents in Le Bataclan in Paris. It came as a shock to everybody and a lot of people were touched by them, close to the victims, close to home. We took it upon ourselves to make the most of the last show night to, as Alex said, entertain our public and make the them happy again, at least for a couple of hours. The last night was a total success, a complete sell-out! MTTA was the first sell-out November event in the history of BUSMS and I am so glad I got to be a part of it. The last night was a night to be enjoyed by both the public and the performers, so we aimed to have fun rather than to be perfect, and it was great. After the show- which David, Amélie, Begoña and her boyfriend and Jenny came over to watch and can vouch for the amazingness ;) – we had to help Backstage to dismantle and pack up everything. It took a while, but everyone was buzzing for the after party- it was going to be a good one! After everything was tidy again, we went to Claverton Rooms for our own private party. There was music and brownies and drinks. We danced for a while, and then had a break for Ginge and Lil’Dot (Aaron and Hannah) to give out some presents to the Production Team. It was so nice and funny. The Production team were also really sweet and handed each one of us a flyer with a message to “make a start on our BUSMS collage”. So sweet. We then danced all night. Lyana, Roberta, Lelia,… We danced and danced and danced and at like, half three we decided it was time to wrap it up and go home. The bus took ages to come though, so we had a chill drunken chat at the bus stop. Once back home, I went to sleep and slept until late the next morning. Most needed sleep and best “night out” in Bath. All for the win.

On Monday week 8, tickets for the Snowball went on sale at 9am sharp. Unfortunately, I had a Careers for Linguists event starting at 9:15 so it was a bit of a chaotic experience. The site went down and wouldn’t work, and I had to go to the meeting so I ended up getting Alexandra to purchase the ticket for me an hour later, when they fixed the technical problems. The meeting itself was quite useful as a starting point, but I wouldn’t say it was determining… Anyhow, I did manage to get my ticket for the Snowball on Wednesday with the fencing guys woop woop.

Later on that day, a minute of silence was held by the Lake to remember the victims of the Paris attacks over the weekend. Organised by the French Soc, a few people said some words and many people gathered around.

During week 8, proper work started as I had quite a few deadlines coming up. I tried to balance study, work and research with a few outings or social events. And so I had to meet with my presentation group and with Nina for our La France seminar about multiculturalism, and get on with my part about films, as well as catch up with the work I had left aside during rehearsals and show week. It was tough to not have a minute to relax, but I had been conscious about it when I signed up for MTTA. It was stressful all the same. I also had to finish up my cover letters to send out my applications. Amélie and her mum lent me a hand with proofreading my cover letter which was very helpful on their part, and I had everything checked by Vicky on Friday and sent off two applications, one for a centre de langue anglaise and another one for a high school. I also attended a research seminar led by Christina Horvath about radical Islam through beur literature which I found quite interesting. The room was packed! Oh, and I also managed to get the time and place for my Italy since 1945 first seminar wrong, and so I missed it which was not great at all… Learnt it the hard way.

On the other hand, however, I managed to fit in some leisure activities. On Wednesday evening I went to an Arabic Calligraphy Event led by Ali Amir from Cardiff University, organised by Splat Art and BUIS. Here is the link to Ali’s page: https://www.facebook.com/Alhamdulillah-Arts-803170073057763/ I really enjoyed it. Considering I’ve been learning Arabic for a couple of months, I know the letters and so it was great to have a class on Arabic script. It lasted for a couple of hours and Ali taught us a couple of letters and we had a chance to practice ourselves. I used a pen marker first, but the ink was bleeding everywhere so I changed to a Qalam and ink which gave me more control. I really enjoyed the session and also got Ali to write my name in script! Check out his page, his pieces are beautiful!

I also went to see the premiere of Alexander Balanescu’s piece composed during his project with the PoLIS department about the links between music and language. I don’t know if you remember but last year I took part in the project and had an interview with Rebecca and him in which we spoke about music, language and he had us translate a short story by Kafka into French and Spanish. We got free tickets for the show so I went with Megan, as we were curious of the outcome. The concert lasted about an hour and a half. He played two pieces first which were not part of the project, a piece about polyphony and a couple of studies exploring percussion and violin (he is a violinist) and then he played the piece. It was half what I expected and half not. It started with him playing the violin and then looping different tracks on a computer, and then suddenly he added the recordings of the interviews mixed together. It was an amazing piece. And actually the first voice track that was played was me introducing myself. It got a bit awkward at one point because my voice kept being looped over and over. Then other voices were added, talking about music, names and translating the story. He juxtaposed me speaking in Spanish with someone else speaking in French, and ended up with Megan saying why she likes languages and then her cute laugh. It was a long but intricate and emotional piece. I really liked it and wish I could have access to it to listen to it again. The concert was followed up by a Q&A led by Nina Parish with the participation of the public which was also quite interesting. I’m glad I attended and got to listen to the outcome of the project.

Other than that, I spent the entire Sunday studying in Lime Tree with Amélie. So-much-work.