So, I have nothing to blog about.

Literally nothing has happened that would be even remotely interesting in the last few days. There are a few small things, but not enough to really make a blog about. What the hell, I’ll type about them anyway.

I cut my finger on a knife. It hurt a lot, and it bled quite a bit, Hannah (she lives in my block) had to rescue me with a plaster. It didn’t really have an effect on my day.

I made enough rice to feed me for 6 days. Yes, 6. I think I need to work on portion sizing a touch. It is delicious though, which is good, because I’m going to be eating it for a while.

Last night I went to the pub with a few people. Nothing particularly interesting happened, I forgot my ID so I couldn’t even drink anything other than fruit juice. Made it cheaper at least, but it’s not exactly fascinating.

I went into town to buy food. This really was a boring thing to have to do. I found a street fruit market that was selling things cheaper than Sainsbury’s, so now I have food again. This is a good thing; I like food...especially cheap food.

The rest of the books for Creative writing cost me £32.50, and that’s only because I split the cost half and half with another girl in my class. Otherwise it would have been £65.00 and that’s a lot of money to come out of my account. So there’s that, it happened. It’s just not that interesting.

Now I’m sat here, thinking about going to the pub, then remembering that I have no money. I might get some reading done tonight, because to be honest there isn’t a lot to do. I don’t even have to cook for myself for a while. I might make Goulash tomorrow and freeze it, because that way I’ll have to cook even less often. I have some meat that really needs using up. No lectures tomorrow so I may as well spend the whole day cooking. Saves time in the evenings.

So yea, sorry this wasn’t the most exciting blog. But nothing has happened so I really don’t have anything to blog about. I’ll have to do something fascinating soon so that there’s something to write about.

Lectures and a night out

So, lectures have officially begun now, and I have a ton to do. So much so that it’s been keeping me from blogging as often as I would like to. I was expecting there to be a lot of work, I really was, but there’s a fair amount more than I was expecting for the first week. I don’t honestly mind the amount of work we have to do; I enjoy the subjects so it’s not an issue. I just need to re-learn some time management skills! For creative writing, by Monday 10^th I need to have written the first 5 pages of a prospective novel (double spaced that’s about 500 words which doesn’t sound a lot but when it’s on a totally random idea you pulled out of your arse in 10 minutes in class it’s tricky) and alongside that I have to read and note my responses to A Clockwork Orange by the 17^th. I have had the misfortune to have struggled through A Clockwork Orange before, and I am not looking forward to having to read it again. It’s one of those books that I can honestly say I cannot stand. I will happily read things even when they’re not in my favourite genre, but I draw the line at a limp plotline and made up words. Nobody should be permitted to make up so many words without even including a glossary. I mean really, it’s stupid. I hated this book at GCSE and having gotten to chapter three this time around, I know that I’m not going to like it any more than I did then. It’s not even that well written! So yea, Creative Writing is looking to be a lot of work.

Religious studies hasn’t been that heavy yet, though I’m pretty sure it will be. We’ve had a lecture on Sikhism which was brilliantly interesting, but there’s been no work set outside of lessons other than reviewing the lesson schedule and making sure we pick up at least some of the recommended books on the reading list. We don’t need all of them and we can use the ones in the library as much as we want during essays anyway because it doesn’t matter if we own them or not. So long as we include them in the Bibliography we’re laughing. It’s good because religious studies books are pretty darn expensive; if I had to buy all ten of them I would be properly broke. Well, more broke than I am now. That said, at the moment money isn’t so much of an issue as it could be, though I’m fully expecting it to get a lot worse as the year goes on.

As much as there is a lot to do, I took last night off and went to a club in Bath with the people I share a kitchen with. There will be pictures at some point, I will put them in a later blog (if I remember) they’ve just not been uploaded to Facebook yet. It was a really fun night and I’m so glad I decided to go; I wasn’t going to join everyone originally. Once we had finished in the club be and my Roommate decided that we wanted chips, like you do. We walked to a burger van ensuring everyone else that we would get the next bus and be home really soon. You can already tell that THAT plan failed. The first, and only, burger van we found had a massive queue. We were slightly tipsy so we were prepared to wait. We were so close to getting our food when a homeless guy decided to attack the van, smashing a window and making the man owning the van close up. So we started walking up town to see what else we could find. About half an hour and some conversations with random people later we found a Kebab shop and the chips we wanted. At this point I should mention that I was wearing 4 inch heels and I had been standing / dancing for a good few hours. From the top of town we then walked back to the bus stop. About 3:30am we stumbled back to campus, I had taken my shoes off and I think that was the better option. This morning I discovered that not only were my feet black, but that I had a blister on every toe. Needless to say it hurts. I have no idea what would have happened to my poor feet if I’d kept my shoes on any longer.

It was a good night out though, and I’m glad I went. Bit knackered today though. Ah well, such is Uni life.

Ugh

Warning, this will be a little bit ranty. Well, maybe a lot ranty.

Everything in uni itself is going really well, worry not dear followers, it’s everything it should be. I just hate that it’s all so expensive. I bought 5 of the books on my required reading list and it cost me more than a weeks worth of food...on a bad week. So I’m fairly glad I had some money put aside before coming here for books and things or I’d be living off literally nothing at the minute. I could maybe see the expense if I had bought them all new, but half were from the Oxfam book shop! I don’t have all the books I need yet either, so if anyone has Speak Memory by Navokov, Larry’s Party by Carol Shields or Elephant by Raymond Carver and they want to lend them to me, I would be grateful! I can more than likely get the rest from the Library. Hopefully.

 I just don’t see how the university expects us to be able to buy these things right away. It’s not like we have a lot of money to spend on books. Perhaps there should be a book section on the student loan or something, I don’t know. They should definitely put something aside for academic materials. I guess the government don’t understand how short money is when you’re 18 and jobless. I’ve been looking for jobs don’t get me wrong, but most of the ones out there are either while I have lectures or need me to have a car. I don’t have a car and I certainly can’t miss lectures to go to work. So I guess for now I have to keep looking while hoping for the best. Something will pop up eventually; it has to, even if I end up as a librarian in the university library. It will be better than nothing at all.

At least lectures are good. Creative writing seems to have attracted a brilliant group of people. I don’t think I’ll get on with all of them, but the majority are very lovely. It’s fairly interesting content too; the book list has some interesting things on it...as well as some pretty awful things. We’re starting out with A Clockwork Orange. I really didn’t like it at GCSE so here’s hoping it will have grown on me by next week. We don’t stay on one book for long though so it shouldn’t be too bad. There are a fair few to get through after all. I’m trying to persuade everyone in the class to take part on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) not sure how many will but you never know. The entire month of November I’ll be blogging about NaNo (if I can stay away through the long nights) so I won’t talk about that now. Religious Studies is also proving to be interesting. We started with Sikhism today, there are a lot of Indian words dotted about that I’m struggling with a bit, but it should sink in eventually. It’s just terminology at the end of the day. I like that we’ve not started with a western religion, it feels like I’ve done them to death in my years at school, though at the same time it’s strange to be starting out with something that I literally know nothing about. Ah well. At least it shouldn’t be boring.

Time to curl up on the bed with a book again; I have so much to read in the next two weeks I don’t think I’m going to be doing much else! Hmm, that wasn’t as ranty as I thought. Hurrah!

Lectures and Societies

I have, as of today, experienced my first two lectures as a university student. Oh dear lord. To say that they were dull would not entirely be correct, they would probably have been interesting enough were it not for the fact that it was about 100 degrees in the lecture room (even next to the window where I was) add in easily 50 plus people and you have what is essentially an oven.  I found myself looking out the window, hoping and wishing for a breeze, even a slightly warm one, to float its way into the room. For goodness sakes, it’s September and the weather is carrying on like we’re in the middle of July! Equally making the lectures less than simple was the fact that the topics were completely obscure, it’s like they were related to nothing at all. It felt a bit like we had been thrown into lectures more than a week in without any warning and the assumption that we would catch up. Maybe they’ll all be like that, and I’ll always be shell-shocked in the afterhours. Who knows? I’m hoping that the prose workshops / lectures will make much more sense to me than the poetry ones at least. Prose makes sense to me a good amount more than anything poetry related, so I will live in that hope.

After a few sleepy hours of lectures it was time to choose my societies, once I managed to escape a very excitable rep for the cheerleading society that is, who seemed convinced that she could persuade me that I had always wanted to jump around in very little clothing waving pom poms. She seemed put out when I told her that I really wasn’t cheerleader material...twice. The societies fair was pretty interesting though, you can apparently become a member of as many societies as you like, but I have stuck with two. I first joined Knitter Knatter (the knitting society) which seems to be entirely made up of girls so it should be a lot of fun; they give me free wool and needles just for becoming a member. Membership was only three pounds! It seems like a good deal to me. There are no trips planned, no strange excursions, just weekly meetings where we sit, and chat, and knit away to our hearts content. Hopefully there will be large amounts of pattern swapping and technique sharing. I still need someone to teach me how to cable knit.

 I have also signed up to the BSL (British Sign Language) society. While I had planned to join some kind of knitting group I hadn’t really considered joining a signing group, as I only know the basics of sign these days and even then my precision is, well, imprecise. The group will offer lessons and teach us all a bit about the deaf community. Might even be some volunteering work in it, who knows. I think it’s pretty darned important that people learn at least enough sign to have a conversation with someone who is deaf, even if they’re with speech. I’ve just felt a little rude expecting them to lip read all the time, expecting them to cater to us. So I’m doing something about it. Maybe enough others will do the same someday and we can finally move towards some kind of worldly equality. Ok, so I’m not entirely hopeful about that bit, but it will be good to learn all the same.

I think it’s now time to make myself a cup of tea, then snug myself up in bed with a book and read till I pass out. No mad parties for me tonight. I’m just too tired.

University Life

It struck me today that I’ve been rambling on about being at uni without actually taking any pictures of the place. So today is going to be a photo blog! I will try to make these more often, with pictures of nights out and other interesting things, but I’m not great at remembering to take pictures so this might not be a regular thing.

The campus is seriously beautiful, there are trees everywhere, and the buildings are old and really quite pretty. There’s even a lake!  I’m pretty certain I’ve walked the whole campus by now; I’ve found a few nice places to sit and read (as well as a few trees to climb). I guess all in all I’m settling in quite well. I’m still without a roommate, I might get one at some point later in the year, or I’ll just get really lucky and not end up with one at all. That would be nice. I’m still not certain how well I would do sharing a room with another person, I guess I would manage but sometimes it’s nice to be able to shut the door and not have to see anyone. Especially when you’ve not had a great deal of sleep.

So this is my little room. It’s twice the size of everyone else’s room, but there are two beds and two desks in it so the actual floor space available is pretty small. I’ve managed to squidge everything in so far, but it’s not very tidy! Though I never have been a tidy person. Some of the things in here could go upstairs now that I know and trust my flatmates, (well mostly trust), but I’m used to having it down here now. If I took it all upstairs I would only forget what I had done with it. All I need now is a tiny fridge so I can have a pint of milk up here. Tea first thing in the mornings is definitely a necessity.

That’s it; this is my world for the next year. Lectures start properly on Monday and I will just have to let the wind take me. I might just find something interesting to say one of these days.

Nights out and Freshers Fairs

So I wasn’t planning on going out last night. My housemates had other ideas. After about half an hour of persuading I was escorted downstairs by three girls and they helped me choose my outfit. I ended up in a red flowery tube thing, with heels...and makeup. There are thankfully no pictures of this venture. When I walked back into the kitchen one of the guys that I live with didn’t recognize me for a minute. Thankfully everyone has decided that tonight will be a quiet night inside. I might even get some time to work on the book, something I’ve so far not managed. While the student union is awesome, and the drinks are cheap, I don’t think it’s something I would be able to do every night.

We had introductions to the courses today. Everything seems to be what I expected, though philosophy and religion aren’t joined, I have to pick one. That’s a bit of a strange concept, I’m not sure that it’s really possible to ever fully separate philosophy and religion. Maybe that’s something we’ll cover during the course. The groups seem to be a good size though, not overly large. I don’t think a huge class would be a good thing. The tutors are all nice people, they seemed happy to answer even the most obscure questions about the running of the course. I think a few of the people in the classes themselves might end up annoying me, but that happens with anything. I think the first year will go pretty much as was planned. Now all I have to do is pick societies. I’ve been told that there’s a knitting society which might be worth a look. I really love knitting!

Just chilling in the kitchen now, listening to some music, thinking about what to have for tea. Such big decisions we students have to make!

First night

So I survived my first night at Uni. Hurrah. I am so far sans roomie, but that might change today. More people are apparently moving in so we never know. Everyone else in the flat seems to be nice, though they’re all somewhat hung over this morning. Makes me quite glad that I don’t really drink that much, I don’t entirely think I would want to be in the same state as them this morning.

Last night was pretty good fun. Went down to the union to see what it was all about, and actually managed to have a fairly good night. There was a jazz band on who were seriously brilliant, even Charlie danced. Charlie never dances. There was some kind of plan to drink but we gave that up after one shot of Tequila. Note to self, I really don’t like tequila. I ended up being fairly boring and coming home about one. After a day of moving boxes and sorting things out I was pretty shattered. Not sure why I thought I was going to be able to sleep, everyone was still partying around me. Eventually I managed to drop off; with the duvet over my head. It almost felt at home. It quietened down about 2am. I really should have taken some pictures of the night. Would have been a fun start to the year. I’ll remember that for tomorrow’s blog.

Time to have another tidy up, just in case the roomie does arrive today; I don’t want her thinking I’m too messy. I have a lot of stuff to fit into a fairly small space though...