Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

It has been a while and so much has happened. Highs and lows. Bits of swapping and changing.

I had finally come to the decision that my current degree - Ancient History and Archaeology - is not the one I want to be studying. After a lot of pondering I decided that I should see if I could transfer to another degree course, specifically to Ancient History and History.

So I made an appointment to see my university tutor, I wasn't sure who to see really.

My worries were:
1. No you can't swap
2. You can but you have to repeat the first year

It was an interesting meeting. My university tutor is also an Archaeology professor so it was difficult to answer the questions "Why don't you want to continue Archaeology?" in a way that was honest but not completely horrible to the subject he clearly derives great enjoyment from.

He didn't initially know if it would be possible to swap, normally, he said, they get people on the History degrees wanting to swap onto the Archaeology ones rather than the other round. So I might be the first. Luckily as we were having this conversation the guy who is the link between the History and Ancient History department walked past the door so he joined in the conversation as well.

They thought it would be okay, just depends on what the history department say, apparently there is some kind of "enmity" playful? between the archaeologists and historians. Anyway the email came back saying yes they'll take me on.

The short answer is yes I can swap my degree course and not have to repeat the first year. Score.

Basically I just have to concern myself with passing the first year which will enable me to stay on at the university and then they will transfer me. I think it means I get last pick of modules next year though. The way the electronic system works is that although you are changing degree you have to apply for modules as if you were continuing your current one. Stupid computers. So I think I might get assigned the modules that are left over from the History side.

I am feeling  much happier about staying on for my degree now that I have been able to change it though. Archaeology was sometimes interesting but definitely not what I want to continue studying.

Another change. So a well as changing my degree I'm trying to transfer onto the four year degree program which gets you a study year abroad. Yes my uni life is now getting a little complicated. There is only one university I would like to do study abroad with though so I'm hoping this will make the yes/no thing a whole lot easier.

But it's complicated. Why wouldn't it be?

The university I want to do the year abroad at is the University of Western Australia. A few reasons: 1. I've always wanted to go Australia at college I even looked at doing my whole degree there but it was way too expensive, 2. I have family out there so if I'm going to the other side of the world I'd like to be near people I know, 3. I have read their website a lot and the course for history looks so good!

That is the catch though...for history. Which I don't study. Yet.

The history department have a link to UWA, the Ancient History department don't only with Flinders which is in Adelaide - wrong coast.

So to sumarise my university status right now:

I am an undergraduate studying Ancient History and Archaeology but am transferring to Ancient History and History in September. In light of this degree change I'm applying for a History study abroad placement. That is the complicated truth.

I have my interview later this afternoon so let's see how it goes. I didn't put any alternative destinations down, that's because there aren't any. I'm worried it will make me seem arrogant as in "Ha I've only put one down so now you have to give it to me" not the case. I only put one down because there is only one place I want to go to, if I don't get it that's fine I just don't want to substitute it for something else.

It's like when I was applying for universities at college my tutor critiqued me for only applying to two high entry universities and not applying for a low graded one in case my exams went poorly. Well my response was if I go to university I will be going to the one I want to go to. I'm not going to pay £9000 a year to go to a uni that wasn't my first choice simply for the sake of going. I'd rather not go. Same for this, if I don't get UWA then never mind, just no substitute please.

These last few weeks have been really busy, lots of assignment handing in and getting returns.

My Greek source project came back with a mark of 74 which is extremely good! The best mark I've ever had on assignment yet. Disappointingly my archaeology came back with 59. Oops. Having read the above you may be tempted to think that I'm slacking off Archaeology. Not the case. At least not consciously. A comment on the front said something to the effect of 'the question is very broad and your answer very specific'. Well great I can see why that would be an issue if I hadn't seen my Archaeology tutor before I began writing the essay and said 'The question is very broad and the word count is small can I focus on one area?' to which the reply was 'yes'. So not entirely sure what happened there, but I made an appointment for feedback so hopefully that will shed some light.

My last essay is yet to come back, hopefully we'll get them before the holidays otherwise we will have to wait until May for the results which is like five weeks away.

A few weeks ago the Economics department sent out emails inviting people to participate in some research experiments they were doing. I signed up for it and I've participated in two experiments so far.

So you get paid £2.00 just for showing up on time and then depending on what your answers are you have the potential to earn more money. So like on the first test in part 1 you got 50p for every maths questions you answered right and in part 2 20p etc. The experiment I did today was difficult. It was like a maths exam/verbal reasoning test. They did have a section of anagrams and dingbat type questions though and I liked those.

One I can remember is

"In Ancient Greece a man died at X years. He spent 1/4 of his life as a boy, 1/5 as a youth, a 1/3 as an adult and 13 years as an elder. How old was he when he died?"

My first answer was 56, but then I went with 60. I'm sure there is a simple way to work this out. Any takers?

Don't know how much I earned from this, but I'll find out tomorrow. They are marking them tonight. It felt like being back at high school doing exams. Not a nice feeling.

A big change? It felt it. I went on my first YSA convention a couple of weekends ago. I wasn't keen on going, I mostly showed up because it was in Hull so I'd get to go back North and see all my friends who were going, though not everyone came in the end.

It was an interesting weekend and I spent most of it with Jemima which was good fun. On the Friday we went to an adult-sized play area, think wacky warehouse for grown ups. That was actually awesome and I would love to have a future birthday party there, or just go there again really.

On the saturday we did service in the morning, me Jemima and two of her cousins Rory and Chelsea went out collecting for Marie Curie. We stood outside the petrol station shop at the local Morrisons and we did so well, everyone comes in and out with change so we were very lucky.

After that we did some workshops, a dance one where we learned the Cha-Cha-Cha. Then a stress one. Packed lunches and onto activities. Me and Jemima did the bungee run, it looked easy but the belt around your waist really inhibits easy movement and you have to be quite strong to get anywhere with it.

Then we all went to the cinema to see Big Hero 6. I think they had booked most of the screen out, there were a few members of the public there though, I felt a little sorry for them although we weren't too rowdy. Back to church where they put on a Chinese buffet and then it was the dance.

Sunday we had a short service and then we all disseminated slowly back home.

It was a very long weekend. It was also the weekend I lost my voice and couldn't speak for most of it which made it very difficult to talk to new people.

I have mixed feelings about conventions. They are enjoyable but they are also so long. I think I prefer dances.

The week I was off university with tonsillitis I got a surprise dropped round at my house. I don't know who it's from or why but it was lovely and very much appreciated! Cheered me up and gave me some lovely cookies to eat whilst I wasn't feeling well. Thank you whoever you are!

Solar Eclipse last Friday. On reflection I'm not convinced I actually saw the Eclipse, I think I might have just missed it and simply caught a very bright sun. Well that will have been two I've seen, mum said she showed me the one in 1999 and I might get to see the next one in 2090 to, I'll be 95 then. 

I was going to make the pinhole paper thing but reflections seem to work well so I used my laptop screen to look at it.

Couldn't have used my phone or I wouldn't have been able to take a photo. Though as I say you can't see the eclipse in the photo so I think I may have actually just missed it.

I should probably try and write this a little more regularly. Just the rest of this week left then back home on Sunday!

I've already started packing all my room up, so excited to go home and see everybody.

On the minus side, I wont be at my ward here in Leicester for the whole of April which will be a shame, I love teaching my primary kids and I just like attending everybody is so nice. Still it'll be nice to see everyone at Wakefield again. 

In preparation for the fact that I will be away from university for five weeks (yes five whole weeks!!!) I have checked out eighteen books from the library to do with Greek History and Archaeology to read over my break as exams are here when I get back. 

Five whole weeks though! I have waited so long, since my non-existent February half-term really. So glad that it is finally here.

The Ides of January

"The Ides of March" is a famous line everyone seems to know, but did you know that for the Romans every month had an Ides? Today is the Ides of January, if we went back in time to Roman paganism we would all be watching circus games in honour of Jupiter and probably receiving gifts as bribes from the politicians to keep them in the senate.

Certainly sounds a lot more interesting than how I spent my January Ides. 

One exam down (Roman History yesterday) but still two more to go (Saturday and Monday) means revision is still on the timetable. Archaeology BC, so much information, so many dates, so little time. But I persevere. I'll be extremely glad when they are all over. I found out my lectures for semester two don't start until a few weeks so I'll have the rest of next week to have a little fun.

In the meantime, revision. Today I did a brief overview of all the topics: evolution of humans to development of lithic technology, origins of agriculture to development of states. Tomorrow I'll go more in depth.

I split up the revision with a Father Brown episode, it's on at the perfect time for an afternoon break and I also went for a run. Four weeks Christmas holiday meant I didn't run, a lot. And I want to get back into doing it consecutively again. It was raining earlier so I waited for it to stop, I did a 4.5km route. I ran down into the next village Blaby and up to Bouskell Park. My plan was to run around it but actually it was so muddy and puddly I had to walk some for fear of falling over and slipping in the mud. On my way round it though I discovered an "ice hut" which was pretty interesting, something I hadn't expected to find.

It was a little creepy, in the middle of some trees, silent and dark and foggy.

Mud everywhere, there were bigger puddles than those too.

I got my Roman History essay back too yesterday. I scored a 2.1 which I'm pleased with, on the comments the marker put that the question I had chosen was difficult and I answered it well which was great to know! Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. One comment that stung a little was that they thought that if I had read over it before submitting it would have been better, a little presumptuous I had read over it several times. I guess that's what happens when it's the last essay due in before term ends and you've already given in two others. Still, I think I was very pleased with it.

Vale Ratae Corieltauvorum (Goodbye Leicester)

This time tomorrow Semester One will be over. It started off so slowly, but it has really speeded by these last 10 weeks have really flown. Which I'm glad for because I can't wait for the Christmas holidays, four whole weeks off. Well kind of, I have three exams in January to revise for but that wont take up all the time.

I already have my exam timetable, luckily none of them are at 9am, all are afternoon ones 2.30pm-4.30pm. Roman History is the first day back, then the two Archaeology ones split over the first Saturday and following Monday. Yes that is right an exam on a Saturday. Apparently because of the amount of modules and stuff they run the exam week Monday-Saturday so they can fit them all in. I don't mind so much it's only two hours of the day.

Today I had my Latin exam. Well can you really call it an exam? It was open textbook so we got dictionaries and notes it was pretty fun and I think I did okay, I got 97/100 on the mock last week but our tutor said he would make it harder for the real and it was so we shall see in January how I did. It was a four part piece, some maths numeral reading questions, grammar functions on nouns and verbs. Then sentences to translate and two inscriptions. The first was a funerary inscription which we had to transcribe, translate and then explain, then repeat for a coin. So Latin is now officially over, we do Ancient Greek next semester. Which I'm looking forward to even more but I hope we can do modules in Latin in next year because I'd love to keep it up. 

In the exam I think I found a mistake/spelling error. It's always worrying when that happens, however I did my best but after we had finished I was talking to some of the others and they said they had noticed it as well. In the verb section we were asked to translate "audistis" it doesn't exist. The root is the fourth conjugation verb "audio" to hear, but it had been coupled with a third conjugation ending "istis" my guess is it was either supposed to read "auditis" - you hear or "audivistis" - you heard. However I did check the dictionary a million times to see if there were any third conjugation verbs with the root of "aud" but there were none. 

My room is just about packed up now for going home. The washing machine has been going crazy, I think I may be one of the few students who tries not to bring back all their laundry for their parents to do. Just clothes and things to pack up when my dad brings the suitcase tomorrow. I'm really excited to be going back, even though I went up twice since going (October, November) it has been a while and I'm looking forward to spending the Christmas period with my family and friends. What is even more exciting is that I am getting put back on the car insurance! I am so grateful and happy, I have really missed driving. First trip will be hopefully be driving back from Leicester to Wakefield after I get picked up tomorrow. I've missed the little orange machine. 

Busy-ish weekend. My sister is volunteering at Nostell Priory so she needed cover for work so I offered to, it will be nice to be back at my old job even if only for a week. Also a nice little bit of extra money in time for Christmas, which as a poor student I can't complain about. Even nicer, my old boss has some other work for me to do from home creating I think sort of revision/note guides on English for his ks3 students so that will be really fun and something nice to do over the holidays.

I have now finished my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. Finally, I'm sure my assessor is sighing with relief. Just have to wait to get some dates back now for when I can go for my presentation. That should be pretty exciting, sometime next summer I think.

So of the three essays I have handed in I have the results for two of them back. On my Archaeology one on Cave Art I got 68 which is equivalent to a high 2.1, two marks off a first. I was feeling really pleased about that such a huge improvement from my non-assessed essay. Then I went to get my Latin Source Project back on Augustus' res gestae and got a score of 70. Which is the mark for a first! Very much pleased with that and it gave me the motivation I needed to get through the Roman History essay which I will get back after Christmas.

Tomorrow I only have one lecture 12-1pm and it's just a summary on what the exam will be like in January so that will be okay, and then homeward bound. Happy times.

Essays

Just something short and funny.

Maybe it's just me but when I write essays I try and give myself time frames to work to, say I have to reach a certain point by an hours time I find it increases my productivity.

This also has negative sides to it, in that sometimes the conclusion of the last bit I was finishing is hilariously bad because I spewed it out in about three seconds.

The funny side is when I come back to edit it another day and read what I thought was pretty good at the time.

So today I was editing about 800 words of my Latin Source Project, somehow when I wrote this out the first time my brain decided it was okay to describe Caesar Augustus as a "magical man". Reading this back was hilarious, I laughed so hard, then rang my sister up and laughed with her about it.

Who said essays were always boring to write? Me, often, but it's little things like that that don't exactly make it worthwhile but bearable!

Half-Term Report

Five weeks in means five weeks left. Time seems to have started off slowly but quickened quite suddenly. So halfway through semester one and what do I have to show for being at uni. I can think of a few things: 1. I can definitely cook a Jacket Potato successfully (though I did have to ring my mum every time I wanted to have one because I kept forgetting to write it down), 2. I'm not bankrupt, from some of the conversations I hear at uni a lot of people seem really hard up - I can only equate this to a. I have a budget and b. I don't go over it. 3. Talk about time speeding up I had no essays and now I have three.

On the subject of essays I think this is the most prepared I have ever been to write them. I got books out of the library weeks in advance and started reading them and I'm currently on top of all my deadlines. I have 3/4's of my archaeology essay done (due in for the 24th) and half of my Latin source project (due in 17th). I haven't started my Roman History essay, which will be my favourite as it is on the pax deorum between the Romans and their gods definitely the most interesting aspect of ancient history, but that doesn't have to be in until the 8th December so I'll have a nice two weeks after handing my others in to get that sorted out.

Things I'm excited for: my society jumper. I ordered it a while back it's a cornflower blue colour and I can't wait to get it hopefully in time for the winter cold that's coming. On the back of the jumpers you could have a nickname printed, I deliberated over a few and I nearly went with Salisbury until I figured that no one who saw me wearing it would know what it refers to so I went with just my name in the end. What else am I looking forward to, hmm Christmas I have an advent calendar in my room already my mum gave it to me from when I last went up to visit and I'm really excited to start it. Excited because 1st December means only 11 more day at university and then I get to spend a whole month off visiting family and friends.

I taught my first sunbeam lesson at church on Sunday. Out of the four children I am supposed to teach only one was there I think the rest were away with family or something. Anyway I had trouble trying to get him to stay in my lesson, his mum had previously taught the class and I don't think he was too keen on having a new teacher. Still it was pretty fun we coloured pictures and sang songs with musical instruments and had lollipops as treats. I think he was pretty happy with me as his new teacher by the end of the lesson. After the lesson I went to help out in Nursery that was really fun. We played with the children and sang songs and did games. One of the ladies in Nursery is Spanish and she can speak Italian too so I got to talk a little Italian to her which was really nice I've missed speaking it! I still practice my Italian though, I don't want to forget everything I managed to pick up. I'm quite excited to prepare my next lesson for this week.

So this weekend was like the first weekend I'd actually spent in Leicester for quite a few weeks. It was my cousin's 1st birthday so my aunt and uncle had a party for her and it was lovely, got to spend some time with some of my extended family catching up and playing. And they had fireworks which was nice because I missed them on Bonfire Night and Halloween this year so that was fun, there were some really good ones.

My running is going pretty good, this is the third consecutive week that I've managed to go out everyday (weekdays only - weekends I get off so my legs can stop hurting). I feel a huge difference from it. Just in simple things like being able to sleep easier, get up earlier, better prepared and awake for lectures (since I started running in the morning before uni) also I just feel healthier which is good because I think in winter its hard to motivate yourself to go out into the cold. But today I ran the furthest I've run so far 4.87km in 33 minutes. Perhaps that's not good timewise, I don't really know but I managed to keep a steady pace and run for longer segments. I try and motivate myself through the music so I stick on a really long song and make myself run at least until its finished. It works, I only stopped three times on my run today and one of them was because of traffic lights. Running is a nice way to explore around where I live as well, I run from Glen Parva into Blaby and I went a little further into Blaby today before looping back. Because I run via the Nike run app it tracks all my progress and so today I squashed four of my records which was fantastic, I got furthest run, longest run, fastest mile and fastest km. My heart still felt dreadful at the end, but I can that'll get better the more I do it.

I've started picking up leisure reading again, just to make a change from uni course texts all the time, I really need to update my bookcase so any suggestions are welcome - by update the books can be old books too. I picked up Jane Eyre yesterday. Very reminiscent of Italy where I read it like everyday, mine is a different copy to the one I had in Italy though and it's weird reading it when I was so used to the other one. I've never really been attached to a specific version of a book before, but then I've never really read a book so repetitively as I did Jane Eyre in Italy. I guess I'll get used to it.

A few years ago I had a really good list of bands and music I liked but then I lost it, which is a little annoying because I can't remember most of the ones on it. Italy sort of got me hooked onto the mainstream stuff because that was the only English stuff the radio played so I was just on English summer hits and Italian stuff. The Italian bands aren't actually half bad. If I had to recommend a song: La Pioggia by Dear Jack or Come un Pittore by Moda. I've got back into the All American Rejects again recently and The Pierces and I've had some new stuff recommended which had been really good.

Guess that's it for the half term report. To surmise, it's going pretty well. It's just difficult, but that was to be expected.

Weekend Coach Trip(s)

So a downside of being at University is that I don't get half term in October, although I think it makes up for it by the fact that I get a whole month off at Christmas, not sure that I want to wait that long for my holiday though.

Instead I kind of had a mini weekend holiday back home. Friday at uni consists of one lecture 12-1pm, so after that finished I got a bus into the bus station in town and hung around for my coach to the North of England. It was supposed to leave at 2.45pm but it didn't really get going until 3.15 so a later arrival into Leeds. But all good the coach was nice and comfortable but still three hours, a good opportunity to catch up on notes though. After I got to Leeds I had to get a train to Wakefield, then my mum came and picked me up with William. He was super excited to see me which was really cute! He'd grown up a lot since I saw him last, it's crazy how much little kids change in such a short space of time. Spent the Saturday with the family and then church in my home ward on Sunday which was great I got to catch up with everyone. Then I had to get back to Leeds for my coach back so my dad and Louisa dropped me down at the bus station. I sort of fell asleep on the way back which was one way of getting through the trip. All in all not a bad way to travel, though I definitely prefer car.

Short night's rest after a late arrival and then an early start for university 9am lecture. What a horrible time to have a lecture on a Monday, I'm sure out of all the lectures in the week that is the worst attended, and the people who do manage to make it are usually half asleep.

This week seems to have gone very very fast, before I know it the weekend is creeping up and that means another trip homeward bound and beyond. The last one I think until Christmas, who knows we'll see. This will be a busy weekend though, coach up on Friday and then Saturday is hairdressers appointment (I trust my home town hairdresser too much to try a new one and they had no slots last weekend). Following that is a train ride further northwards to visit some friends who I haven't seen for a very long time, dare I say ridiculously long time, for a catch up and birthday celebration! Then another week in my home church ward before the coach ride back to Leicester.

The worst bit is packing and unpacking. Actually it's quite funny, because of the coach time up to Leeds and the times of my lecture on a Friday I have to take my suitcase to uni with me, and I do not have any mini suitcases. It is still a pretty small suitcase it just doesn't look it compared to everyone else's tiny ones and consequently it looks like I'm going away for a month not a few days - though I will say it isn't jam packed, but I guess you can't tell that from the outside.

Two essays are in the mix but then that seems to be it until exams start in January. I've managed to keep quite on top of them, I've taken six books out of the library to read up for my sources so so so much reading. But it's going well. My archaeology essay is on the ways cave art has been interpreted and my ancient history one is on the relationship between the people and their gods. Yes some mythology at last!

Non-Assessed Formative Essay

The first essay of university. Though non-assessed I still wanted to do well as it would set a mark for the rest of the year.

Today we got an email saying they had been marked and to sign up for feedback on Monday. On my way to sign up for a slot I bumped into my tutor and he said he could give me the feedback then. 

It wasn't a rubbish essay but it wasn't brilliant either. When I handed it in I thought it was pretty good, just shows we are biased when we come to our own work. 

The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that having such a ridiculously long summer the process of essay writing had become to be erased from my memory because at college all I wrote was essays. I studied three essay based subjects. I got really good grades in all of them. Something happened between June and September.

The process of referencing especially seems to have gotten a little crazy with me putting just about everything in quote marks making for an essay split into equal thirds of my words, the books words, and citation references. Not the best. 

The feedback is really good here though, better than college. They go into more detail. Hopefully by taking it on board I'll do better for next time for the essays that really count. 

Though it wasn't to be assessed they said what it would have got. Mine came in at a low 2.2. Really not what I was aiming for. Although he did say that with work and taking on the feedback he thinks I can push it up a lot further. So I think it's just the step up to university level essays as well.

My next essay is due November 24th so I need to start reading for it now and preparing, I want it to be much better than this one, especially as it is marked and counts to my degree as well.

Settling In

Let's see so it's been 13 days since my last post. A lot has happened and I haven't the time to write it all up so I'll just summarise the main bits.

Monday I had to had in my first essay for the archaeology side of my course. It's non assessed just a formative one but I'm real excited to get my mark back I don't know when that'll be but hopefully soon. My next essay is due in November 17th. They have a very specific way they want you to lay the essay out which I found when I was reading the handbook. Specific ways of referencing - say goodbye to footnotes - it's all about the Harvard system. Extra bracketed information eating up my word count. What size and font and line spacing and margin widths. So I was glad I saw that because I think some people didn't realise there was a required way but luckily as it's non assessed hopefully we'll all manage the real ones okay. 

I've been in my new ward at church for two consecutive weeks now. And the second week they gave me a calling. I'm now a teacher in primary I'm responsible for the sunbeam class which is 4/5year olds. I sat in and observed for the first and the four of them are really sweet so I'm looking forward to teaching them. 

My cooking if not improving is definitely working. I'm managing to make a success of everything I make which is good. Definitely a plus if a) the stuff is edible and b) it tastes nice. The only downside seems to be I bought a bag of carrots which tastes really weird and not like normal carrots so it's now sat uneaten in my fridge. I think I'm going to have to have them smothered with ketchup.

I learnt how to use the smart printers at uni they are actually really easy to use. Though it's eating my money as we fund our own printing costs. You would think with £9000 fees printing or some printing might be included. Coughing up £4/5 every week to print out seminar/tutorial reading is not fun.

The weather on Tuesday was crazy, really windy. Several times I had to stop walking and just wait for the gust to be over it was so strong I kept getting blown about. Luckily it has improved somewhat since then.

Whilst managing to avoid freshers flu which everyone on campus seems to have I feel a cold coming on and I'm headachey a lot. But I think it'll pass it's just settling in. Tomorrow I'm going back to Wakefield for the weekend which I'm really excited about, I get a coach right after my lecture tomorrow.

Today should be good I have Latin, Roman History seminar and lecture. So not especially busy. Just lots of notes to type up afterwards.