Skylines, Sheffield and not much sleep

Hey!

Where to start...it has been a busy month (or two)! First year of Uni seems like years ago and summer has been fab so far. Pretty much as soon as I left Uni I jetted off to the Big Apple with my bestie and her family. Ever since I can remember it has been an absolute DREAM of mine to visit New York and it certainly lived up to my very high expectations. Our time there literally flew by but it was incredible and I can't stop looking at my (thousands of) pics. 

After NYC I had a few days at home (when I saw my fab friends), before I went to Portugal with my Dad, Step-Mum and brother, which was fab (and very hot). Last weekend my friend and I also went to Tramlines festival in Sheffield which was sooooo good. Catfish and the Bottlemen and Kelis headlined (4 rows from the front during Kelis was certainly an experience). After an extreme lack of sleep and a lot of bad food I am now back home feeling drained of all life and energy. Going to Sheffield meant that I got to visit our new house for the first time since our contract started. I was super excited to stay in the new house, however finding it dirty and unhygienic was a bit of a shock, so we spent a decent amount of time cleaning....

The house will definitely be homely once everyone has moved in but for now I am glad to be back home and have a shower knowing that I might not get sabotaged by giant spiders.

Some of my friends at Uni have also said that they found their new houses to be dirty, so make sure if you have this problemo that you speak to your landlord and make sure that you're happy with the condition you find it in. That is what they are there for after all.

Also while I was in Portugal I found out my Uni results for First Year, which turned out to be a massive stress as I got an email 4 hours before results came out saying that I had failed one of my modules...After a painful wait I eventually found out that I had been put down as failing a module which I hadn't taken. So I hadn't failed PHEW and actually got a 2.1 which I was pretty happy with. 

It's weird to think that this time last year I was starting to decide what to take to Uni (I needed a while to think judging by how much stuff I actually took with me...) At some point in the next month I'm going to write a post on all the essentials that you should take with you (as I really feel like that would've helped me!) If there are any other posts which you think would come in useful then ask away :)

I hope you have enjoyed this post!

Also, I would be super grateful if you could vote for me as Blogger of the Month by cicking here :)

Anna x

A fresher's guide to surviving First Year

Hey!

I have officially finished first year! What a surreal, exciting and scary feeling. I really can't believe that it's over already. Tomorrow I move out of Endcliffe and back home for a loooong (hopefully hot) summer. *Sings Girls Aloud*

So, like I did after my first semester, I thought I would sum everything up for you. Like a kind of 'what I wish I had known before I went to Uni' thing. Here goes...

1. Don't pack too much
Okay, I'll put my hands up and say that I am massively guilty for this. Off I went to Uni with 2 cars packed with many things that I would never, ever use. Including; a bike, a tank of plastic jellyfish, high school musical top trumps, and a glass painting kit. I don't know what I thought I would be doing at Uni but it certainly did not involve any of those items. I did however, turn up to Uni with no plates or cutlery because I had left them at home. Overall, make sure you've got everything you need and pack the other little things after. 

A living nightmare

2. Be prepared for the craziness of Fresher's
....and be prepared for some awkward silences. After building up to the big day for weeks, suddenly you're in a room with 9 people you've never met, having to make small talk and COOK FOR YOURSELF. It's really overwhelming, and not until you're sat on your own in your room surrounded by thousands of bags, do you think 'So this is actually happening'. But a few hours in to Uni life I had already bonded with my flatmate Lauren over feeling homesick and loving One Direction. And if we can do it, anyone can. You will spend the rest of the week going on nights out and sleeping through the day because you're so tired, but that's the fun of it.

First night of Freshers...

First night out with my coursemates!

3.  You won't get on with everyone
In a flat of 10, you're not going to be besties with everyone. I came to Uni expecting that everyone would be clean, and when that doesn't exactly happen it is a bit of a shock. From mouldy bowls of cereal to disgusting bin bags, sharing a kitchen with so many others isn't exactly easy all the time. But Uni also teaches you to stick up for yourself and be honest with things that you're not happy with. At one point of particular disgustingness I found myself dreading coming back to the flat some days and wondering if Uni was meant for me. But everyone has doubts and as long as you surround yourself with good friends you'll be fine and dandy. (Also, don't be the messiest in your flat. People will hate you). Nevertheless, you will get on with way more people than you disliked so don't worry about it too much.

5/10 flatmates on the last day!

4. You won't get any sleep for 8 months straight
This has been the case for me, anyway. As I have made friends with some extreme night owls, I now find myself thinking 'Ah, 1am, an early night!'. This is dangerous territory for someone who has 9am's every day, but you'll power through with a lot of motivation, naps and mugs of tea.

The legendary Corp

5. Cook with someone else
Before I came to Uni I couldn't make beans on toast without setting things on fire and causing immense stress. But my flatmate and I have made loads of yummy new dishes that we had never tried before since getting to Uni. You can easily find easy recipes on Facebook which you can have a go at together. It doesn't always work out (my sausages and mash was described as looking like 'dog food' and my mac and cheese looked like sick), but you'll become so much better at cooking if you have a go.

One of our personal faves..

6. Take every opportunity you can
Yeah yeah, I've heard it all before, you're thinking. AND I put this in my last 'how to survive...' post which is even more boring. But I want to emphasise how many cool things you can try at Uni. I've had a weekly news bulletin on the Student Radio, met some amazing people from all over the country (and the world), written articles for The Tab (one of which got 23,000 views yay), started to play netball again, picked up Spanish again (however traumatic it may have been), visited to Madrid with a society (and loved it so much that I decided I want to study there next year). There is SO much you can do.

In Madrid with the gang

7. Enjoy it!!!
I'm sat here on the last night of Uni thinking about how ridiculously fast first year has gone. I've had some absolutely top-notch nights out, learnt a lot (maybe), fallen in love with Sheffield and most importantly met some wonderful, life-long friends.

Tall probs :(

I hope you have enjoyed this post!

If you want to vote for me as Blogger of the Month, you can do here :)

Anna x

Where on earth do I start?

Bonjour!

I’m in a French mood…I have just got back from a few days in Paris with my boyfriend, and I’m so converted that I barely speak English anymore. Maybs. We had a FABULOUS time, and I must admit that I have truly fallen in love with this beautiful city. (That may explain why I took almost 1000 photos in just three days…)

ANYWAYS, I am here to blog about another, WAY MORE exciting adventure that I went on to...IKEA! Believe it or not, I am actually very prepared for University for saying there is still over a month to go. Some of you may be thinking "Where on earth do I start?", and I may just have some of the answers. 

Start by accepting the fact that you are going to University in just over a month. If you've already overcome that (very) large hurdle, next write a list of all the things you need to take. I mean everything. (Down to things like...a teddy, for example. This may or may not be on my list. Who am I kidding, OF COURSE IT IS.) If you're like me, and a sucker for cute stationary, a nice notebook is ESSENTIAL. Anyway...look at what you already have, and what you still need to buy. Then, bribe (or force) your parents to take you to get the things you still need. Nailed it. 

In the meantime...I will talk through what I bought in IKEA, and hopefully for those of you who aren’t as prepared as me (tut tut), this post will give you some ideas!

Here goes. I don’t know if anybody else feels the same way, but I have been kinda obsessed about getting a nice duvet cover for Uni. So when I saw this really cute flowery one, it was an instant thumbs up. (I also got the red spotty one too as it was £5 in the sale…who doesn’t love a good bargain??)

I also got the essential (but less exciting) cutlery…there was an expensive version and a cheap version of this…I went for the cheaper one just because I’ve heard that your stuff gets destroyed by the end of the first year anyways. Yay.

Next…plates/bowls and snazzy chopping boards, woohoo! There was a choice of colour for crockery, like grey/orange/purple/black, but I went for the classic white just because I didn’t fancy eating from a coloured plate. Also, I got two sizes of chopping boards, BECAUSE EVERYBODY LOVES CHOPPING BOARDS! Don't they?

Here’s an aerial view of everything together…So I also got a big red rug (which also acts as a nice backdrop to photos), a REALLY CUTE lamp, a glass with FLAMINGOS on it (I died), other glasses, kitchen-y utensils, and a negatives-photo-hanger-thing (on the left). Basically you hang it from the ceiling and put pictures in it. Oh…and the plastic white thing is a toothbrush holder. Exciting.

Since my trip to IKEA, I have also been to B&M with my Dad, where we bought stuff like tupperware, a jug, sharp knives, a bath mat, a colander, lalala. I’d definitely recommend this as somewhere to go for other bargain University essentials.

Overall, I reckon I’m surprisingly prepared for University! (I’m not sure if this would be the case if I wasn’t on holiday for the rest of summer). It’s good this way because I don’t feel stressed at all, whereas if I was organising things the week before I would most certainly be in meltdown-mode.

Hope everybody's having a WONDERFUL summer! The Blogger of the Year competition is still going....And as it's a new month, even if you have already voted, you can vote AGAIN here! Thank you:)

Anna x

When Annie met Sally

Hola!

Firstly: I'M REALLY SUPER EXCITED TO BE BLOGGER OF THE MONTH AGAIN! Thank you so much to everybody who voted...Keep going because Blogger of the Year competition is coming up in August (this is basically a total of all the votes since we started blogging); VERY exciting. Ta daaaaa: www.ucas.com/connect/blogs/voting

Last weekend my friend from Wales, Sally, came to stay so I finally have something Uni-related to blog about. YAHOO! I met Sally in France when I was 15 and she was 14..so, being a year younger she's currently looking at different uni's and writing the dreaded personal statement. She wants to study Chemical Engineering (I attempted to understand what this is but my brain just couldn't hack it. Chemistry was never my subject. Or biology (or physics)). ANYWAYS, she came to see me in the wonderful land of Derby (no sarcasm intended) after an open day at Loughborough University, which she really liked. We spent the weekend attempting (and failing) to ride a tandem, having a massive picnic, and eating lots of ice cream.

Overall, Sally's visit made me realise a few things...

Firstly, although at the time of writing them, personal statements seem like THE. BIGGEST. DEAL. EVER, they're really not. Don't get me wrong, you can't spend two minutes writing it and produce 42 lines on how your passion for eating pizza can help you get to University. HOWEVER, predominantly I learnt that as long as you CRAM it with experience, along with a mega-enthusiastic passion to study your particular course, you're personal statement will be WONDERFUL. I spent hours changing teeny words and stressing about things like "DO I USE A COLON OR A SEMI-COLON??? THIS WILL DETERMINE WHETHER I GET IN OR NOT". It won't. Give yourself a slap in the face (or alternatively take a stroll) and remember that this is just another small step towards getting to the University you want to go to.

Secondly, enjoy it! Amongst all the stress, deciding what you want to do with your life is kinda a little bit exciting. Make your decision wisely and do what's best for YOU, not your parents, your friends or your great-auntie Hilda. Definitely not your great-auntie Hilda.

Speech over.

In other news, I started ACTUAL-UNIVERSITY-PREPARATION yesterday! My brother and I made home-made spaghetti and meatballs for tea, along with orange flapjack for pudding. I'm getting there right?

P.s After somebody pointed it out, I am starting to realise that I have a slightly extreme obsession with brackets and capital letters. I LOVE THEM. There I go again.

P.p.s Like the ingenious film reference?? Anybody?

Anna x