Cliftmas & Home Time!

I'm finally home!

I finished uni for Christmas last Thursday and it is definitely a welcome break. I still have work to do over the holidays but it feels good to have an official break and get home to my family. 

Friday was the official 'Last Day of Term', so there was a lot happening on campus, all known as Cliftmas! We got our picture taken with Santa, because who wouldn't? It's not like any of us are nearly twenty... It was an awesome night full of Christmas music and a hell of a lot of dancing and singing. It's safe to say, I had no voice the next morning.

I was living in an empty flat after that though and it felt really strange - I was the only one left at our uni flat out of a flat with eight people in it. It was weird not hearing other people in the flat and going into a completely empty and silent kitchen, I missed my friends too much over that weekend! Luckily one of my friends was still in the flat below me so we had a nice little dinner date and relaxed with Christmas movies for the night in our Christmassy-decorated flat.

I've eventually made it home though! I've seen all of my little ones and I've eaten lots of food, so Christmas can officially get started now!

Katie x

Another Real University

Hello!

About six months ago, maybe longer, I wrote a blog post about what university was really like (HERE - you should probably read this before reading anymore of this post), from a current students perspective. Well, since then, I have moved into a new flat, I live with new people and my view has changed a bit. 

I still think people are given the completely wrong image going into university for the first time - Freshers week is exactly how it sounds: great but messy. Other than that, everything's different after that first week. Obviously I'm in my second year now, so things are different for me just in light of that. I'm living with different people to last year who are also in their second/third years, so we're all a bit more mature and focused this year... just a bit though!

I love my flatmates this year. Let me just put that point out there. Last year, I got dealt a rather horrible hand of flatmates that consisted of a lot of bitchy girls and a guy who liked to hoover at four 'o' clock in the morning whilst playing extremely rubbish music at ungodly hours. This year I stayed in university halls but moved flats with one of my flatmates from last year (one of the nice ones) moving to the same block as me... if that makes sense. As in, I'm on the same campus but I moved to a different flat in a different block that was especially for returners (second years and above) and everyone in the flat is so nice; it's a massive shock to the system after last year. 

So let's have a run down of this years flatmates: The guy who's kind of old-fashioned but unbelievably kind - he came and retrieved a daddy-long-legs from my room at 5am one day because my friend and I were freaking out (I don't do creepy-crawlies! Complete aside here but did you know daddy long legs would be the most poisonous insect if they had the brain to use the poison? Nope? There's something to terrify you further then!). Anyway, back to flatmates; then there's the one I'm going to refer to as the musician because he is an amazing guitar player, like seriously - wow, and no he didn't pay me to say that! There's the loveliest Londoner you will ever meet as well as her being the one who exaggerates everything she's already exaggerated but it just makes her even funnier. There's the kind of quiet girl but has one hell of a partying streak in her (not that that's a bad thing). There's the guy I can't actually tell you anything about because the only word he's ever said to me, and most other people in the flat, is "hi". I can't forget the dude who I've never seen in anything but pyjamas and, finally, there's the quiet guy of the flat who is probably one of the loveliest people I've ever come across in life.

Added to my flatmates this year is the one guy I got on with really well in my flat last year - he lives in the flat below me, along with a girl I've grown really close to this year; the amount of deep talks we have at stupid times in the morning are ridiculous, but also great at the same time. I say she lives in the flat below me but the majority of the time she lives up here and occasionally goes to sleep in her bed downstairs - she's probably slept on my floor more times than her bed!

So out of my eight flatmates this year, I can't say I actually don't get on with any of them and I definitely don't dislike any of them. There are obviously a couple who I don't know extremely well for one reason or another but I'm pretty sure that if I knew them better they'd probably be really nice.

The weird thing about my flat this year is how I'd go out of my way for most of them and vice versa. Whereas, last year, nobody wanted to help anyone (aside from the guy who's still here this year - let's pretend he wasn't a part of the flat last year) because they were too busy trying to be better than each other and it's that kind of bitchiness I hate, so I'm glad there doesn't seem to be any of that this year.

I've mentioned in many previous posts that I don't generally drink much and I mentioned in the other post that I didn't go out much because I never wanted to. Wow, how that has changed this year. I think I've been out more times since the end of September than I've ever been out - which probably has a lot to do with my flatmates, because they're all genuinely nice people; I feel safer and I know I'll have a good time without them walking off and leaving me or anything like that (which, on one of the few occasions that I did go out last year, I experienced that - it wasn't nice). I'm still of the opinion that if you don't want to go out or you don't want to drink you shouldn't though. I've maybe started doing more of both this year but only because I know I'm safe, I'm going to enjoy it and I know my limits. But there have been plenty of occasions where other people have been going out and asked me if I was coming and I've said no because I haven't felt up for it or I simply couldn't be bothered.

Not going to lie, the whole lecture/seminar side of life hasn't changed much since last year; I still think the same things. Very few of them are genuinely interesting for the whole two hours or however long they last but you should probably still make sure you go to them - especially if it's a year that actually counts towards your final degree...

I still miss home a lot and I have been back a few times since I got here but it's not as bad as last year and I think that's simply down to the fact that I have some great friends this year and we're like a little family away from home. It's super cute. We even take turns in cooking etc. so we don't have to each cook every night - we have this thing figured out! I still live the furthest away out of everyone in my flat but that was pretty much inevitable, it's not too bad though, after doing them for over a year, I've gotten used to the long train journeys!

So this is the new kind of university that I've discovered this year. It's still not everything people make it out to be when you hear about it in sixth form and college but if it starts off bad, it can get better :)

There's still a bit of this year to go, seen as when I wrote about this last year it was near the end of the final term and I'm only just nearing the end of my first one when I'm writing this, but this has been a better start to my second year than I ever could have imagined.  

A few of my favourite pictures with my flatmates (and friends) so
far this year :)

Katie x

The Real University

Hello!

Before I came to university, I had an image of exactly how it was going to be in my head and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. 

The image that was created in my head made it the best place that ever existed - you were going to move into a flat with a load of random strangers who knew absolutely nothing about you which, to me, was perfect. I could try and shed the 'shy girl' image I had obtained from sitting at the back of classes, staying silent and just getting on with my work. We were all going to get on perfectly (how I created that image, I have no idea) and watch loads of movies - I was even willing to go out to parties more often. Lectures and seminars were all going to be super interesting. Living away from home was going to be easy as pie and everything was going to be perfect. That's the image that is fed to you when ever university is talked about in high school, I think.

Well, I'm calling bullsh*t on that. 

University is nothing like that. 

Images (and people) don't change that easily. I was branded as a shy girl throughout school because I was and I am. I'm getting better in my old age, but I'm still not the kind of person who can go and talk to a complete random stranger just because I feel like it.

If you take anything from this, I want this to be it: the chances of eight people (or however many are in your flat), who have never met before, all getting on perfectly are so slim they may as well not exist. Including myself, there are eight people in my flat. From that, one of them is a complete d*ck who likes to slam doors at three 'o' clock in the morning. Another has already moved home and is commuting. One girl is super lovely... When she actually leaves her room. There's a girl who thinks way too much of herself and suddenly stops talking to people for no apparent reason. Someone who is constantly talking on the phone (at all times of the day and night). Another who is actually pretty awesome, as long as she's not around the previously mentioned self-absorbed one. The final is probably my favourite person in the flat, and I definitely get on with him best, most probably because he doesn't care about anyone else in the flat - it's refreshing to talk to someone who doesn't want to bitch about everyone else! Basically, if you get on with just half of your flat, you're doing good.

If you don't want to go out, don't. That's the biggest lesson I've learnt - don't do something just because you think it'll please everyone, do it because it will please you (woah, deep).

Let's be honest, lectures and seminars were never all going to be interesting. That was just wishful thinking. You do get a surprise every now and then though, so you should probably still go to them all.

Moving away from your home and family is not as easy as it sounds. Even more so if you do what I did and move four hours away from home. Why did you do that, I hear you ask? I have no flippin' idea! 'I thought it was a beautiful place' doesn't seem like it's going to cut it when you could just really do with a hug. Also, food shopping is expensive! Make the most of when your parents come to visit - if there was ever a time to exploit your parents, it's when you're at university. Stock up on cheese when they visit; it's more expensive than it looks. You may think you love to cook, I do, but when you have to do it every single day, and wash all the dishes up after, you'll yearn for the day when you had your mum there to cook you something when you can't be bothered.

So yeah, university is not all it's cracked up to be.

Small disclaimer here: Don't mistake this post for me saying university is a waste of time, because it's not. I love university and I have met some amazing people here, who I know will be friends for life, and I love my course. I'm just saying that the image everyone has of it, isn't necessarily true for everyone. I still wouldn't change anything. I'd still go to university and, although I'd like to think I might choose one closer to home, I'd most likely still choose Nottingham.

Katie x