Yesterday I had my first politics class here in Brussels. I'm taking a module which explains the origins and role of the European Union, it seemed daft for me to live in what is often called 'the capital of Europe' and not at least try to educate myself further on the EU.
I sat in the lecture theatre surrounded by students from across the world, many from countries I've never set foot in, listening to our lecturer explain to us the origins of the EU and how it was created to symbolise and maintain peace and stability across our continent. We discussed how it helped European citizens economically and socially and how European involvement has improved lives and helped to rebuild Eastern Europe after the fall of the iron curtain. Every single student in that room had travelled to Brussels as part of a study abroad programme, most of us were there with Erasmus funding and support. We all spoke French, because we had all taken the time to study a different language and culture, I can almost guarantee that every student in that room also spoke English. Next week we're visiting the European Parliament to see the EU in action. In the coming weeks, rather than learning about what the EU can do for us and what it's achieved, we're learning about Brexit. About how Britain thought it was too good for the EU, how we thought we did not need to be part of one of the largest and most successful peacekeeping organisations. How, even though European history is British history and even though the most commonly spoken language in Europe is (allegedly) English- spoken between non-native speakers, we thought the best thing to do in 2016 was turn our backs on our neighbours, shun foreigners and become an insular little island.
Later in the day yesterday I spent time with my new Finnish friend, who speaks near perfect English and French. She's introduced me to her Ukrainian-born Czech friend and we've had pre-drinks with her German friend. I then came home to my 'kot' (student housing here in Brussels) for an evening of drinks and socialising with my flatmates and their friends who were from: France, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Portgual and America. We're truly an international bunch and guess what, every singly person in that room spoke to each other in near perfect English. I had such a fun evening, playing drinking games and dancing with my new friends as we laughed and fumbled our way through dodgy Spanish to English to French translations.
So today, to wake up to the news that the Tory Party want British businesses to publish their number of foreign staff, to see that (despite the high rate of employment) the Tories are still blaming foreign workers for unemployment in Britain, to see Theresa May imply that foreign NHS workers- those who have held up the NHS amid Tory cuts and austerity- are only here temporarily; is nothing short of heartbreaking.
Being in the capital of Europe surrounded by such interesting, diverse people and seeing my own country turn its back on multiculturalism is simply crushing.
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Friday, 30 September 2016
REDISCOVERING MUSIC
I've always absolutely loved music, I rarely leave the house without my very old and very full iPod touch and since moving Brussels and living by myself there is hardly a second of my time alone when music isn't playing. However, it occurred to me today that my attitude to music has changed a lot as I've grown up and I've only recently really rediscovered my love of music.
But before we get to the rediscovery, let's lay some ground works. My Dad is a music fanatic, our house is stacked full of records and CDs. He's had iPod classics and full iTunes libraries for as long as they've been around, and some of my strongest memories are linked to him and his music. Whether it was listening to Somebody Told Me and laughing at the lyrics which were so ridiculous to my 8 year old mind, or filling the long four hour drives to visit family by taking it in turn to chose music. There was nothing I loved more than getting playlists or album recommendations from him, or spending hours scrolling through his iTunes and copying all the music over to my own personal collection (which is mainly just stolen from him). He's a big fan of your classic Dad indie music, New Order, Elbow, Nick Cave etc. Before this, much to his disdain I lived for my Auntie's mixtapes which included anything from Kylie to SClub to Lion King, any classic cheesy pop and she was all over it- including buying me Girls Aloud and Sugababe's greatest hits and fueling my love of pop music. Dispersed throughout this was my childhood best friend's influence, she was so cool to me as she was the youngest of 4 kids and taught me my first swear words along with introducing me to Usher and Alicia Keys. Suffice to say, my musical tastes before the age of about 14 lacked direction and were fairly eclectic as I just absorbed whatever was given to me. The only real album I can remember discovering (around age 11) and adoring was Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, which remains one of my favourite album to this day.
Then fourteen year old was was obsessed with appearing as indie as possible and along with some questionnable fashion decisions came a love of (mainly mainstream) indie music, I'm talking The Smiths, Arctic Monkeys, Foals, etc etc. I went to gigs all the time, plastered my room in cutouts and posters from NME and listened religiously to Nick Grimshaw on the radio. I fell into a bit of an indie cliche as most of the music stemmed from the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack. The artists I fell in love with around this age have still stuck with me to this day, I've seen Foals and the Arctic Monkeys live 3 times now and loved it every single time. I'm still so excited for everything Foals put out, having followed them from their first album (I liked them before they were cool). Then from about 16 or 17 I just slowly stopped listening to new music, it didn't really interest me, NME seemed (as still does seem) pretentious and try hard and I was just kind of done. I still listened to music, and I still followed my favourite artists but just any interest slowly died away.
And then I went to uni. It was my second year that my eyes were really opened to the world of music again, this was really helped by the fact that three of my best friends wrote for and now run the uni music magazine. So through them I fell back in love with music. I now had friends who liked the same music as I liked, I had friends I could talk in depth with about music, we went to gigs together. I didn't just look forward to new, indie, undiscovered music but I went back, I looked to the 60s and the 80s and everything in between. I fell in love with Otis Reading (my housemates can attest to the fact that I listened to nothing but him for about a year), I rediscovered my younger love of Dolly Parton and Dusty Springfield. I listened to whole albums from artists, such as Paul Simon, I'd otherwise just known the standout singles from. I started making monthly roundups of new music I'd discovered. I now spend more time finding new music, rediscovering old favourites and I'm looking further back into what came before. I'm now excited to listen to music, and I love it again.
Some of my all-time faves: Laura Marling Amy Winehouse, Foals, Joni Mitchell, Beyonce.
Currently listening to a lot of: Bon Iver, Slaves, Jonny Flynn.
But before we get to the rediscovery, let's lay some ground works. My Dad is a music fanatic, our house is stacked full of records and CDs. He's had iPod classics and full iTunes libraries for as long as they've been around, and some of my strongest memories are linked to him and his music. Whether it was listening to Somebody Told Me and laughing at the lyrics which were so ridiculous to my 8 year old mind, or filling the long four hour drives to visit family by taking it in turn to chose music. There was nothing I loved more than getting playlists or album recommendations from him, or spending hours scrolling through his iTunes and copying all the music over to my own personal collection (which is mainly just stolen from him). He's a big fan of your classic Dad indie music, New Order, Elbow, Nick Cave etc. Before this, much to his disdain I lived for my Auntie's mixtapes which included anything from Kylie to SClub to Lion King, any classic cheesy pop and she was all over it- including buying me Girls Aloud and Sugababe's greatest hits and fueling my love of pop music. Dispersed throughout this was my childhood best friend's influence, she was so cool to me as she was the youngest of 4 kids and taught me my first swear words along with introducing me to Usher and Alicia Keys. Suffice to say, my musical tastes before the age of about 14 lacked direction and were fairly eclectic as I just absorbed whatever was given to me. The only real album I can remember discovering (around age 11) and adoring was Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, which remains one of my favourite album to this day.
Then fourteen year old was was obsessed with appearing as indie as possible and along with some questionnable fashion decisions came a love of (mainly mainstream) indie music, I'm talking The Smiths, Arctic Monkeys, Foals, etc etc. I went to gigs all the time, plastered my room in cutouts and posters from NME and listened religiously to Nick Grimshaw on the radio. I fell into a bit of an indie cliche as most of the music stemmed from the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack. The artists I fell in love with around this age have still stuck with me to this day, I've seen Foals and the Arctic Monkeys live 3 times now and loved it every single time. I'm still so excited for everything Foals put out, having followed them from their first album (I liked them before they were cool). Then from about 16 or 17 I just slowly stopped listening to new music, it didn't really interest me, NME seemed (as still does seem) pretentious and try hard and I was just kind of done. I still listened to music, and I still followed my favourite artists but just any interest slowly died away.
And then I went to uni. It was my second year that my eyes were really opened to the world of music again, this was really helped by the fact that three of my best friends wrote for and now run the uni music magazine. So through them I fell back in love with music. I now had friends who liked the same music as I liked, I had friends I could talk in depth with about music, we went to gigs together. I didn't just look forward to new, indie, undiscovered music but I went back, I looked to the 60s and the 80s and everything in between. I fell in love with Otis Reading (my housemates can attest to the fact that I listened to nothing but him for about a year), I rediscovered my younger love of Dolly Parton and Dusty Springfield. I listened to whole albums from artists, such as Paul Simon, I'd otherwise just known the standout singles from. I started making monthly roundups of new music I'd discovered. I now spend more time finding new music, rediscovering old favourites and I'm looking further back into what came before. I'm now excited to listen to music, and I love it again.
Some of my all-time faves: Laura Marling Amy Winehouse, Foals, Joni Mitchell, Beyonce.
Currently listening to a lot of: Bon Iver, Slaves, Jonny Flynn.
Friday, 2 September 2016
hello, again
So it's September, oops. Where did the last 4 months go? Let's briefly play catch up.
My last post was about a lovely day in Liverpool in April, since then I've been to Iceland, Dublin and America. I've sat (and passed!) all my exams, I've moved out of my uni house, worked abroad for 7 weeks and am now preparing to move abroad a bit more permanently.
Next week I'm off to Brussels for 3 days with Liverpool Young Labour to see the European Parliament, then I'm back for a week for my brother's 18th and then I'm moving to Brussels to study until the end of January. It seems I'm hardly ever at home these days, so I'm enjoying my time here for the time being. I'm squeezing in boring things like eye-tests and dentist appointments but also making the most of seeing home friends before we all go separate ways to start either our years abroad or final years of uni- when did we all get quite so grown up?!
I'm doing that thing all year abroad students do, I've decided to start blogging about my experiences, because of course you absoultely need another slightly pretentious languages student telling you how life-changing and eye-opening getting drunk in a dodgy european bar is. I do have slightly romantic (read: naive) ideas about how fabulous the year of my life is going to be, which are based largely on many films watched during my a-levels. But before we get to that I need to tackle the minor issue of finding somewhere to live. Stay tuned to see if I end up homeless for the next 5 months...
My last post was about a lovely day in Liverpool in April, since then I've been to Iceland, Dublin and America. I've sat (and passed!) all my exams, I've moved out of my uni house, worked abroad for 7 weeks and am now preparing to move abroad a bit more permanently.
Next week I'm off to Brussels for 3 days with Liverpool Young Labour to see the European Parliament, then I'm back for a week for my brother's 18th and then I'm moving to Brussels to study until the end of January. It seems I'm hardly ever at home these days, so I'm enjoying my time here for the time being. I'm squeezing in boring things like eye-tests and dentist appointments but also making the most of seeing home friends before we all go separate ways to start either our years abroad or final years of uni- when did we all get quite so grown up?!
I'm doing that thing all year abroad students do, I've decided to start blogging about my experiences, because of course you absoultely need another slightly pretentious languages student telling you how life-changing and eye-opening getting drunk in a dodgy european bar is. I do have slightly romantic (read: naive) ideas about how fabulous the year of my life is going to be, which are based largely on many films watched during my a-levels. But before we get to that I need to tackle the minor issue of finding somewhere to live. Stay tuned to see if I end up homeless for the next 5 months...
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
A DAY IN LIVERPOOL
Ask any of my friends, I'm very proud to call myself a scouser and it's something I'm not ashamed to bang on about while surrounded by southerners at uni in Exeter. So when my friend from Essex came up to visit the other day I was delighted to show off Liverpool in all its glory and I thought it would be nice to document this and share in case anyone fancied a cheap cultural day out in Liverpool.
I decided to show off some of the best art we have up here in Merseyside so firstly we headed up to Crosby on the train, we got a day saver ticket for well under £5 and this served us well right through the day. My friend was keen to see the Anthony Gormley installation, Another Place which is 100 identical cast iron statues left along the beach. I've been to the installation more times than I can count but I never tire of it, it's so changeable depending on the weather, tide, time of year and your company. I've been before when the statues were surrounded by thick snow but this time the weather gods blessed us with glorious sunshine (throwing my friend's fears that she would be subjected to eternal greyness for her entire trip out of the window) and we got there when the tide was right out so we got to get up close and personal with the more sea-weathered statues.
After about an hour wandering about in the (slightly sticky) sand we were ready to jump on the train back to Central. The train out to the beach couldn't be easier, it's just under ten minutes walk right onto the beach. It was lovely to show off the outdoorsy side of such a big city to my friend.
Back in town we decided it was time for lunch so I took my fellow vegetarian friend to one of my old favourites, The Egg Cafe, which was a bit of staple to my teenage weekends. We both had what is definitely the best cheese on toast I've ever eaten and homemade lemonade for about £7 each. Full of veggie goodness we then wandered down Bold Street, calling into the charity shops on the way before heading down to the Albert Docks. No trip to Liverpool would be complete without seeing the River Mersey and the Three Graces so we had a quick photo stop on the Pierhead and were both pleasantly surprised to see the class ferry across the Mersey revamped into a 'Dazzle ship'.
After this we headed over the main docks and ambled around the Tate Liverpool until it closed, we were lucky enough to catch the Matisse exhibition (for free!) which was so interesting. I also loved the thought process behind the collections as they were all inspired from one or two central piece so it was interesting to think how the art works were connected.
At this point our feet were tired, we'd be out for a long time and we were in need of sustenance so stopped off briefly for an iced coffee and fruit cooler before traipsing up the hill to see the Cathedrals (plural!), with a mini detour to see the Chinese Arch. Unfortunately we didn't get up there until after 6 so both cathedrals were closed but being the edgy kids that we are I dragged my friend around the Anglican Cathedral grounds to look at the old graves (not sure she was really a fan of this bit and our conversation did veer into morbid territory). We then walked along Hope Street to see the Catholic Cathedral (known locally as Paddy's Wigwam) before dragging our tired feet back to the station and heading home.
Managing to cram a trip to the beach, lunch, a walk round the Docks, an art gallery and two Cathedrals into one day really reminded me just how much Liverpool has to offer and I think my friend fell a bit in love with it too. This day out cost us around £15 and we managed to squeeze so much into it, I'd highly recommend anyone who isn't already in love with this city pay it a visit, we're a friendly bunch.
After about an hour wandering about in the (slightly sticky) sand we were ready to jump on the train back to Central. The train out to the beach couldn't be easier, it's just under ten minutes walk right onto the beach. It was lovely to show off the outdoorsy side of such a big city to my friend.
Back in town we decided it was time for lunch so I took my fellow vegetarian friend to one of my old favourites, The Egg Cafe, which was a bit of staple to my teenage weekends. We both had what is definitely the best cheese on toast I've ever eaten and homemade lemonade for about £7 each. Full of veggie goodness we then wandered down Bold Street, calling into the charity shops on the way before heading down to the Albert Docks. No trip to Liverpool would be complete without seeing the River Mersey and the Three Graces so we had a quick photo stop on the Pierhead and were both pleasantly surprised to see the class ferry across the Mersey revamped into a 'Dazzle ship'.
After this we headed over the main docks and ambled around the Tate Liverpool until it closed, we were lucky enough to catch the Matisse exhibition (for free!) which was so interesting. I also loved the thought process behind the collections as they were all inspired from one or two central piece so it was interesting to think how the art works were connected.
At this point our feet were tired, we'd be out for a long time and we were in need of sustenance so stopped off briefly for an iced coffee and fruit cooler before traipsing up the hill to see the Cathedrals (plural!), with a mini detour to see the Chinese Arch. Unfortunately we didn't get up there until after 6 so both cathedrals were closed but being the edgy kids that we are I dragged my friend around the Anglican Cathedral grounds to look at the old graves (not sure she was really a fan of this bit and our conversation did veer into morbid territory). We then walked along Hope Street to see the Catholic Cathedral (known locally as Paddy's Wigwam) before dragging our tired feet back to the station and heading home.
Managing to cram a trip to the beach, lunch, a walk round the Docks, an art gallery and two Cathedrals into one day really reminded me just how much Liverpool has to offer and I think my friend fell a bit in love with it too. This day out cost us around £15 and we managed to squeeze so much into it, I'd highly recommend anyone who isn't already in love with this city pay it a visit, we're a friendly bunch.
Monday, 29 February 2016
FEBRUARY #2
So I didn't document this month, I failed on that front. BUT, I didn't fail at February, I loved basically every moment of it. So here's an unnecessarily long recap of the month I was determined to enjoy that no-one but me will read.
This month I wanted to DO MORE, that meant seeing friends and getting out as well as getting on with uni stuff and I think this was generally a success. I'm yet to get out in Devon much or take the trip to Bath I'm dying to take but everything else I'm working on.
Here's a break down of my wonderful month with my lovely friends. The month kicked off with Don't Walk Boogie, a funky disco night at Cavern full of glitter and terrible dancing and plenty of indie kids.
The week after this was fairly average, I can't remember anything amazing happening but the week ended on such a high as I found out I got my first choice study abroad placement so I'll be studying at l'Université libre de Bruxelles in September!! This exciting news was followed by a lovely, lovely weekend. After work on the saturday (6th) I headed to my friend's house to make cakes and prepare for the oncoming week (more to come on that) which was just such a chill way to spend a lazy saturday afternoon. In the evening I went to my other friend's house with my friends for predrinks with her brother who was visiting and then headed to the indie night at Cavern (back again) which was fun. Any night that ends with You Can Call Me Al is a success in my eyes. The next day we went out for brunch at the cafe on the corner just up the road and then I did a bit of work on campus before finishing the weekend with some intramural netball (fully out of my comfort zone). Such a blissful weekend.
The next week was probably my most intense week in Exeter yet: sabb election week. My friend Lucy was running for VP Welfare and Diversity and asked me to step in last minute to be campaign manager which meant campaigning up and down the hills on campus from 8.30 to 5 all day every day, a fair bit different to my usual week to say the least! Lucy might not have won but throwing myself into this and putting myself out there for a whole week is something I'm so proud of doing and the week was genuinely such a rewarding experience. To top off the intense week I worked as a French ambassador a school in Torquay on the Wednesday morning which meant a 6am start to catch the train! Special mentions for this week as well goes to my housemates for providing me with an evening of domestic bliss as we ate pancakes to our hearts' content and watched Matilda on the Tuesday and to my friend Sarah who came over on the saturday (Galentine's day!) to cook brownies and chat for five hours with me and Hope.
After this hectic week the next week was pretty chill before my weekend away. On the Friday lunchtime me and Hope headed up to Birmingham to see Foals, something we booked months ago which slowly crept up on us. We dumped our stuff at my friends' house, who trusted me with their keys even when they weren't there and we went out to pizza express before the gig. Suffice to say, Foals were well and truly worth the trip, they're yet to disappoint. Yannis has such star quality and him and the others worked their way through a setlist from all 4 of their albums masterfully. The next morning Hope hopped on a train back home and I went off to London for a family weekend.
Straight off the train I made my way to Westminster for a Camp America recruitment fair and got offered a place as a horse riding instructor and general councillor at a camp in upstate New York! I'm excited, nervous, scared, unprepared, you name it I feel it. After this I met my mum for a wander round the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery before meeting the rest of the fam for tea. The real reason for the trip was to see Book of Mormon, which was what we did next. I can't really settle on an opinion about this but let's just leave it at uneasy and maybe I'll come back to that another time. On Sunday, after much deliberation (read: almost arguments) we settled on having a touristy day of climbing monument and tower bridge before having some of the best tapas I've ever eaten for lunch. A lovely weekend all round.
The last week of the month was one I completely threw myself into. A reunion-turned-bar crawl with my old flatmates on Monday night, a tapas and salsa night on Tuesday, pub trip with feminist friends on the Wednesday and a night out on the Friday. My bank account and my liver won't thank me but it was worth it.
I then ended the month with a perfect Sunday with Hope and Sarah. We set off down to the quay around 11, rented the most beautiful bikes I've ever ridden and took them out for a ride down the river, stopping only for some quick pics (because if you don't document it on every form of social media what is even the point). We rewarded ourselves afterwards with a roast at Firehouse, the stuff of dreams. Heading home we all managed to get tickets for a summer ball at the end of the year and rounded up the weekend with take away pizza and a film, bliss.
This February gifted us with an extra day, and although I might have had to spend it at pointless lectures and in work, a last minute invitation to tea with Helana meant that the month ended on a high note.
So all in all, a top month that I'm glad I decided to make the most of. I've felt so smugly content this month, everything just seems to be going well. Work is fine and it's nice to be earning money, uni is actually going ok, me and my home friends are closer than ever and not a day goes by where I don't thank my lucky stars for my uni friends. Thanks February, you can come again.
This month I wanted to DO MORE, that meant seeing friends and getting out as well as getting on with uni stuff and I think this was generally a success. I'm yet to get out in Devon much or take the trip to Bath I'm dying to take but everything else I'm working on.
Here's a break down of my wonderful month with my lovely friends. The month kicked off with Don't Walk Boogie, a funky disco night at Cavern full of glitter and terrible dancing and plenty of indie kids.
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| 4 year dream of a nice club photo finally achieved |
 |
| my lovely housemates |
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| indie night with Alfie |
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| cutest cafe |
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| i'm a star campaigner, wouldn't you know |
After this hectic week the next week was pretty chill before my weekend away. On the Friday lunchtime me and Hope headed up to Birmingham to see Foals, something we booked months ago which slowly crept up on us. We dumped our stuff at my friends' house, who trusted me with their keys even when they weren't there and we went out to pizza express before the gig. Suffice to say, Foals were well and truly worth the trip, they're yet to disappoint. Yannis has such star quality and him and the others worked their way through a setlist from all 4 of their albums masterfully. The next morning Hope hopped on a train back home and I went off to London for a family weekend.  |
| monument with the family |
The last week of the month was one I completely threw myself into. A reunion-turned-bar crawl with my old flatmates on Monday night, a tapas and salsa night on Tuesday, pub trip with feminist friends on the Wednesday and a night out on the Friday. My bank account and my liver won't thank me but it was worth it.
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| a typical friday night |
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| ladies who salsa |
I then ended the month with a perfect Sunday with Hope and Sarah. We set off down to the quay around 11, rented the most beautiful bikes I've ever ridden and took them out for a ride down the river, stopping only for some quick pics (because if you don't document it on every form of social media what is even the point). We rewarded ourselves afterwards with a roast at Firehouse, the stuff of dreams. Heading home we all managed to get tickets for a summer ball at the end of the year and rounded up the weekend with take away pizza and a film, bliss.
This February gifted us with an extra day, and although I might have had to spend it at pointless lectures and in work, a last minute invitation to tea with Helana meant that the month ended on a high note.
So all in all, a top month that I'm glad I decided to make the most of. I've felt so smugly content this month, everything just seems to be going well. Work is fine and it's nice to be earning money, uni is actually going ok, me and my home friends are closer than ever and not a day goes by where I don't thank my lucky stars for my uni friends. Thanks February, you can come again.
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
FEBRUARY
(I meant to post this yesterday but in typical fashion- I forgot.)
I've decided that this month is going to be GOOD. I'm going to make this month mine.
This doesn't mean getting up at 8 everyday, eating a green smoothie and going for a run- i'm not an #eatclean kinda gal. It doesn't even mean getting on campus on time every day and slaving away for hours in the study rooms. What this means is that I'm not going to let this month pass by without really taking it in, i'm going to relish and savour it.
I'm (quite depressingly) viewing February as my last 'fun' month in Exeter for as long as I can imagine. March will start and end well but before we get to the glorious end of term I'm going to have year abroad meetings and planning, committee AGMs, two essays, formative assessments and French exams- the joy of a dual honours degree! I don't want to overwhelm myself in March so I want to focus on powering through the aforementioned work. In April I'll be home and hopefully travelling a bit, but I'll be out of Exeter. Then it's straight back into revision, exams that actually count towards my degree, a few fleeting moments of freedom before it's summer and I'm (hopefully!) off to America. After that I'll be heading on my year abroad, which is simultaneously terrifying and thrilling, partly because as of right now I have no idea where I'm going to be studying and I haven't even started to look for jobs yet. so February, you're going to be a good one.
I'm going to do as much of my work as a can (realistically that 900 page Dickens novel might have to stay on the shelf), and I'm going to enjoy working on a degree that I genuinely enjoy. I'm going to see my friends as much as possible; lunches with course friends I never see outside of grammar classes, actually going to the parties I'm invited to rather than turning them down for another evening lying in bed on tumblr.
I want to get out of Exeter more, the beach is literally half an hour away and I STILL haven't been this year. Bristol and Bath aren't much further along with all the other towns round her. I love Exeter but the south west isn't going to be on my doorstep forever!
I'm going to document this month and I'm refusing to let it just pass by. The month got off to a lovely start with a lecture I genuinely enjoyed, an alright shift in work, dinner with my lovely lovely french friends and then a night out full of glitter and funk.
I've decided that this month is going to be GOOD. I'm going to make this month mine.
This doesn't mean getting up at 8 everyday, eating a green smoothie and going for a run- i'm not an #eatclean kinda gal. It doesn't even mean getting on campus on time every day and slaving away for hours in the study rooms. What this means is that I'm not going to let this month pass by without really taking it in, i'm going to relish and savour it.
I'm (quite depressingly) viewing February as my last 'fun' month in Exeter for as long as I can imagine. March will start and end well but before we get to the glorious end of term I'm going to have year abroad meetings and planning, committee AGMs, two essays, formative assessments and French exams- the joy of a dual honours degree! I don't want to overwhelm myself in March so I want to focus on powering through the aforementioned work. In April I'll be home and hopefully travelling a bit, but I'll be out of Exeter. Then it's straight back into revision, exams that actually count towards my degree, a few fleeting moments of freedom before it's summer and I'm (hopefully!) off to America. After that I'll be heading on my year abroad, which is simultaneously terrifying and thrilling, partly because as of right now I have no idea where I'm going to be studying and I haven't even started to look for jobs yet. so February, you're going to be a good one.
I'm going to do as much of my work as a can (realistically that 900 page Dickens novel might have to stay on the shelf), and I'm going to enjoy working on a degree that I genuinely enjoy. I'm going to see my friends as much as possible; lunches with course friends I never see outside of grammar classes, actually going to the parties I'm invited to rather than turning them down for another evening lying in bed on tumblr.
I want to get out of Exeter more, the beach is literally half an hour away and I STILL haven't been this year. Bristol and Bath aren't much further along with all the other towns round her. I love Exeter but the south west isn't going to be on my doorstep forever!
I'm going to document this month and I'm refusing to let it just pass by. The month got off to a lovely start with a lecture I genuinely enjoyed, an alright shift in work, dinner with my lovely lovely french friends and then a night out full of glitter and funk.
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