Hi everyone!
So I haven’t written a blog post for a while, either here or on my other blog.
I haven’t done much of anything else for a while actually because I’ve been
busy getting assignments ready to be handed in. By this point, I am mostly free
for the summer. Classes finished last week and most of my assignments were
given in on Monday. There is one left but the deadline isn’t until Tuesday and
it’s very close to being completed so I decided to take a couple of days off to
relax. I’ve decided that I’m close enough to being done that I can do my review
of the year, my classes and whether I did any of the things I said I would, as
well as look at what might be happening next year. I’ve divided it into
categories to make it easier.
Non-Academic
Well, my
life outside of university work has been a bit hit and miss this year. For the
first semester things were looking pretty bad. I didn’t have a lot of money to
live on, ending up on one meal a day and having to hand wash clothes (the
latter I kept because I don’t want to spend £6 a week on the washing machines
here). To make matters worse I had serious problems with my flatmates at the
time that ended up with me basically being scared to leave my bedroom. I won’t
go into more detail on that right now. Also due to the lack of money I wasn’t
able to visit home often. I believe I was only able to do it once before
Christmas, that time being Expo. Going to Anime Society at uni and thinking
about being at Expo with my friends was what got me through that time. What
actually ended those problems was when a new problem occurred that I had to complain
to management about. They offered me the opportunity to move to another flat in
the building at no extra cost. I think I may have mentioned that part in a
previous post actually.
Anyway, the
flat I’m in now is the same one I lived in during first year, just in a
different room. It also has basically the same layout as the room I was in last
semester so there wasn’t much of a change to adjust to. I like the flatmates I
have here. We’re not really friends (I don’t mean that in a negative way) but
we talk sometimes and it’s nice. There have been some small problems but
nothing really troubling and always resolved. I’m not complaining about that,
you’ll have problems with anyone you live with for a long period of time; it’s
not a bad thing as long as you handle the situation properly. It’s been fun
living here.
This
semester’s gotten a lot better as well because I’ve been able to afford
everything I need and even get a treat once in a while. I’ve also had enough to
fund my cosplay hobby and I’ve been getting really excited working on projects
as well as planning to redecorate my room. Unfortunately due to uni work I’ve
had to miss a few Anime Society meetings but I’m determined to make more of
them next year.
Academic
I’ve had a
lot of fun with my classes this year. Some of them have been hard work, some
not so much. In a lot of cases it’s not that the work is hard, just that there’s
a lot to be done and it takes a while. As I did last year, here’s a little review
of each class I did:
Prose
Fiction Workshop: Rhetoric and Reflection – This was a fun one. I’ll probably
end up saying that about all of them. It started with a lecture each week that
was simple enough to follow. Following the lectures we’d have workshops, this
is all pretty standard, but it was great. The tutor we had for the workshops
was amazing and so was the group really. Everyone was really easy to talk to
and it was nice being able to get feedback and give it on each other’s work.
Screen
Story: Structure and Short Film Writing – This one went pretty much the same
way as the above though to be honest I preferred doing prose. That’s not to say
the things we did and the teachers we had here weren’t great, I just never felt
I could be as open there as I did in prose, I’m not totally sure why that is
myself. We got to watch a lot of films in class though, including a couple I
just love.
Independent
Study In Creative Writing – I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this one. I
loved the idea of it because it meant being able to do everything myself
completely alone (unless I needed help of course) and doing whatever I wanted.
I decided to do a comic. This is one of those cases I was talking about where
the work isn’t necessarily hard, it just takes forever. I underestimated just
how long it would take to colour each page. This is why my last weekend before
the deadline was nothing but finishing this monster off.
Approaching
Your Novel – Another great module that went fairly the same way as prose. Good
lectures, great workshops, good communication with others in the group. I got
to write the first chapter of the novel I’ve been planning for the last two
years. In all honesty, I still think it needs work, but I’m sure I’ve done
enough to get a good grade for now. There was also one book we all had to read
and I’m so glad this module introduced me to it because it was amazing.
Fantastic
Worlds – This was by far my favourite module of the year. As you may have
guessed from the title it’s all about world building! I’m not sure if it counts
as lecture and workshops or just one because unlike other classes we only had
one guy running it so we weren’t moving around and being split into different
rooms. It was all about fantasy, sci-fi, alternate history, that kind of stuff,
all of which are things I love, so I was right at home. The guy who ran the
module was awesome the way he talked about it. He’s the kind of person who can
talk for ages on the topic of the day but does it in such a way that it never
gets boring and you love hearing it. The work we did in and out of class was so
much fun too, even the research homework. For the assignments I used the same
world from my novel, the one I also used in AYN, I love how you can do the same
thing in different classes like that. I mean, you can’t hand in the exact same
piece of work, but doing it like this made it a lot easier too. I think what I
did in each class improved my work in the other too.
2nd
Year Resolutions – Success?
So at the
end of first year I made some ‘Academic New Year’s Resolutions’ and I figured I
should come back and see which I succeeded in and which I failed.
Work harder.
– That one definitely is true. My grades have gotten better too, I found out
for sure a couple of days ago. My GPA for first year was 56, for this year it’s
68. That’s two points away from top marks, and that’s without factoring in the
assignments that haven’t been marked yet (let’s hope they don’t take it down).
Either way, when you consider this, consider the difference made in one year
and how determined I am to do well, I should be doing pretty well next year.
Don’t miss a
day of class. – I think I missed just one. Close enough I don’t feel bad about
it.
Be more
social. – I wouldn’t say I made more friends but I definitely was able to talk
a lot more to more people and it all went pretty well.
Get fitter. –
The goal that appeared on everything even though it’s not really academic.
Progression has been slow with this one but I’m pretty sure there has been
progress.
Improve
drawing and writing skills. – Check and check, I didn’t really have a choice
there. Both still need work, especially the former.
Win a
competition. – Not yet, entered a few though.
So all in
all I’ve done pretty well. May not have done everything I wanted to within each
goal but certainly enough to consider most of them a success.
Well, this
post has gotten pretty long now so I think I may do as I did last time, leave
it here and put my plans for 3rd year in a different post.
