127% ready

Hey!

I survived the 'State of Sheffield' project week! I majorly overestimated how terrible it would be....I thought it would be 9-5 but realistically I went in to Uni for about an hour a day in which I would gossip with my group and receive dirty looks from the other hard-working groups. Our project was on CCTV in Sheffield. On our research day we went to a random road and counted the number of CCTV cameras and based our entire findings on those numbers. Safe to say we didn't win the competition- after all on our poster the name of the place we'd researched was spelt wrong. OOPS. On the plus side my group were lovely and we're going to meet up soon for some J20's.

Also we had an interesting lecture on the first day by David Blunkett, former Labour Home Secretary under Tony Blair. He was a really interesting guy and at the end I asked him a question about the MP's expenses scandal (absolutely nothing to do with CCTV but at least I tried).

*My flatmate Lauren currently has her head out of my bedroom window and she's shouting "I love the smell of Sheffield!!!". Sorry if this post is a little rambly- as you can imagine I'm going to be a little distracted.*

ANYWAY. On Friday my Mum came to visit which was so good! She briefly saw the flat kitchen and didn't have to search for long (or at all) before she spotted a bottle of Pepsi with mould growing on it. Nice.

The next day Harika and I went to a vintage 'kilo sale' where we spent a little too much money. Afterwards I embarked upon a dreaded 9 hour shift. After lots of business and little sleep my mentality on Sunday was I AM SO DONE so I got the next train home and spend the day with my beautiful dogs (and family and the boyf).

Tom Odell: Reeeeeaaaal Love

I came back the same night and now I'm 127% ready to get back to Uni life and lectures and going out (obvs). Talking of lectures they started again on Monday, with shorthand at 9am. I just about survived it! I also found out today that I passed my 60 words per minute shorthand exam with 100% accuracy YAY! So no more 8ams.

Today I was given my first article of the semester, on the retirement age being moved to 65 for women. So I went in to the city centre and managed to find some women who were very angry about the sudden change! It was super interesting (and VERY cold. I thought my hands were going to fall off).

I'm thinking of doing another 'advice' post kinda like my relationships one but I'm not quite sure what to do it on...I would love to know any ideas!!

Anna x

P.s you can vote for Blogger of the Month here :)

"Uni is so weird"

Hey!

I thought this was an apt time to write a blog post as I have just woken up after a night of celebrating that exams are over. Yay! We went to a club called Plug last night as they bribed us in with 'free chocolate'. Moral of the story- never trust club promotions. They lie.

I had my last exam- 60 words per minute in shorthand- yesterday and it went really well. Ironically it went better than all my other exams and it isn't even part of my degree. Ah well. I'm super happy that they're all out of the way! However we still don't start lectures for another week which is a bit annoying...next week we have to do this project called 'State of Sheffield' where we are put in random groups to research something in our area. I thought it sounded interesting until I found out that it runs 9-5 every day. I'll pass. (I won't really because if you don't go you can fail your whole first year).

In other uni news my flat's cleanliness has seriously deteriorated since we have been back. I was delighted the other morning to empty the bins only to find that a jar of mouldy hot dog sausages had fallen out of the bin bag. These days you're lucky if you go to the sink and it isn't full of a combination of 5 people's dinners. Mmm. I'm definitely not selling university here am I? On the other hand, when you visit other flats it makes you realise that maybe yours isn't so bad....When I visited my friend in recently I was highly amused by her passive aggressive posters such as 'If the bins are full, EMPTY THEM'. 

I've also started exercising which is a surprising yet positive change. I discovered a really pretty park which is really close to my accommodation so I've been going there a few times a week. Also with my new app MapMyRun I can track how many miles I've ran and how long it has taken me etc. I was inspired to start because a) when I went for a jog with my Dad over Christmas and almost passed out I realised how unfit I was and b) the amount of hills in Sheffield means that I really need to be more prepared.

I had better get out of bed now as it is now 12:42 and I still need to eat breakfast. 'Uni is so weird' - a fact that my flatmate Lauren likes to remind me of every day. She's so right. 

Hope everyone's goooood! 

Anna x

Scary Mexicans

Hi!

I most definitely should not be blogging right now but for some reason I always want to write a post when there are other things (like work) that I should be doing...Oh well. The fact that this is the first thing I have actually done today makes me feel slightly better. Sunday's were made for doing nothing weren't they??

I've been at Uni for 6 weeks today! It's so weird how fast everything has gone already. I think everyone has pretty much settled in to routine now...I love having my Wednesday's and Thursday's off (except from shorthand), as I can literally come back to the flat and sleep....(or work...maybe). However because I've got two days off Tuesday's are craaaaazy, as I'm in Uni from 8-7!

I've also started Spanish classes which are really good. Not going to lie, I can't understand a word of what my teacher is saying most of the time as she speaks so fast! It's so weird how at A-Level the teacher would always explain things in English, but here the whole lesson is in Spanish! I've not really spoken Spanish for a year so in my first lesson at Uni I was VERY confused. But it's slowly coming back which is good....

We had a meeting about Erasmus recently which is a scheme where you can choose to spend your 2nd Semester of your 2nd year studying in a different country. You can study at various different Uni's around Europe, one of which is a Uni in Barcelona which looks SO GOOD. It's kinda scary because you go for 5 months, but also SO EXCITING especially as I'd get a chance to practice my Spanish. Not sure how I'd cope with being so far away from home as just being in Sheffield seems so far away, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...

Apart from that not much is going on! On Thursday I went to a Spanish social where we were told to dress as 'scary Mexicans'...this is what my friends and I came up with....

For actual Halloween we tried (a bit) harder....here's my flatmates before we all went out...

Some more random pics...

Next week I've got a shorthand test which I am definitely not looking forward to. If we pass it, we can move to the 9am class so as you can imagine I am trying not to get my hopes up too much (but the thought of an extra hour in bed AGH).

SO maybe I should go and get on with it. Sigh. 

Have a good week!

Anna x

Freshers, Flatmates and Friends Box Sets

Hiya!!

I am officially here! Despite most people's predictions, I actually made it through Freshers Week unscathed -apart from a slight case of Freshers Flu....

Where to start...well my flatmates are super cute!! There are 10 of us altogether, so cooking is slightly hectic (but we mainly cook pasta/pizza/jacket potato so it's not too bad...) and otherwise it's brilllllliant! In Freshers we went 'out out' some nights, and other nights we had flat parties (some successful...some not..that's another story).

Mostly we were getting to sleep at around 5am and waking up at 1pm the next day. SO, last week, when I found out that my shorthand classes are at EIGHT AM which means getting up at SIX FOURTY FIVE...Well you can imagine my reaction. It wasn't pretty. It was grumbly (if that's not a word, it should be). I was (and still am) extremely saddened at the thought of my flatmates enjoying their lie-ins, whilst I eat my cereal zombie-style and watch the News in the hope that I'll pass the 'news quiz' for the week. (Which I inevitably will not. I got 1.5/10 in my first Lecture, OOPS).

Overall it has been a fab two weeks! I was told to prepare for homesickness (good advice...but how do you prepare for moving in to a new place in a new city with 9 new people?)...Obviously it'll hit everybody at different times, but as long as you have good people around you (and a Friends box set) it's fiiiiine. Everybody's going through the same thing after all. (Plus it helps if you're close to home...I've already been back once!)

I hope you're all enjoying Uni so far!! And if you're in Year 12...power through the pain, it's all worth it once you get here! I feel weirdly old and responsible, doing my own washing, shopping and cooking (if making jacket potatoes and beans counts as cooking), but I'm also loving the independence of it, and finally being able to study such an interesting subject!

Anna x

Wimbledon in Wales

Hiya!

I’m currently writing this in my pyjamas whilst watching Wimbledon with Harika (she’s the one who wants to go to Leeds Uni. My only friend. JOKIN). We’ve got French baguette with cream cheese and salami, living the high life. We’re also in Wales! Having a chiiiiiiill holiday and celebrating the end of exams (and seven years of Secondary School) in style. If style consists of glamping it up in a caravan and bearing daily cold showers, that is. All in all, this is the life (and also why summer is most definitely my favourite season).

If you’re wondering, the sunglasses are an attempt to pretend that the overcast Welsh sky is ACTUALLY beautiful sun. I’m not just being a diva at the fact that I’m being practically forced to watch 3 hours of Wimbledon over being on the beach. Honest.

My main incentive for this totally Uni-related blog post (as always) is the fact that I went to the Sheffield Uni open day a year ago today! Weeeeeird, those 365 days sure did fly by. As Results Day gets closer, my blood pressure gets higher and the nightmares become more frequent. Only joking. Or am I? It’s definitely a waiting game, BUT in all honesty the days of Sixth Form and exams are long gone, and boring books about the French Revolution (Sorry Sally Waller) have been replaced with ACTUAL ENJOYABLE READING. Love it. I’m currently enjoying Insurgent –the second book in the Divergent series- but it has occurred to me that maybe I should be learning some Shorthand instead. Maybe. Another day? Most of all, I certainly need to treasure my sleep at the moment, as at Sheffield shorthand classes begin at 6am (HAHA).

In other news, I’ve started looking at jobs for Uni –Well. My Mum has a friend whose son knows someone who owns a restaurant in Sheffield…So that’s about the extent of my ‘looking’. But anyway, I have been advised by many people to start looking for jobs BEFORE Uni, and not just when you get there (when thousands of other people will be searching also.)

Hope everybody’s gooooood. I'd also love it if you could vote for me in the Blogger of the Month competition –all the votes go towards the Blogger of the Year comp next month. Oooooh. Click here to vote! Thank you!

Anna x