Return to Clifton December 2017

I'm now back in Clifton after spending the past few days at my girlfriend's house. I enjoyed my time there with her and will be back again on the 29th but for the next two days, I shall be at my mother's house, although I'll still be sleeping at my university accommodation. Tomorrow morning, I shall be taking a walk to the city centre and back, provided that I do not oversleep.

End-of-term dinner 2017

My girlfriend, her mother and I attended an end-of-term meal yesterday, which was hosted by NTU's society for mature students (my girlfriend's mother is a student and the reason why my girlfriend and I met in the first place). The meetups usually take place at a pub near to the NTU city campus but this particular meet was held in one next to the city centre.

Besides us, there were some 11 other people, with most of them being the usual attendees of the mature student meetups. Not that that's a problem - they're a fun bunch to be around!

Another term ends

And so, another academic term ends. My fourth term at university has finished and the winter break begins; as of this writing, I have completed ten terms of education in the United Kingdom. My university course has five more terms until its completion.

Classes do not resume until January 8th but I'll be working on existing assignments before then; if I don't, I'll have too much to do in January and that would not be productive.

Rep assembly December 2017

This evening, the last rep assembly of this term took place this evening. I attended the second one at the City campus, as the first one at City and the Clifton rep assembly were both last week when I was away. While attending our home assembly is preferred, we are allowed to attend any provided that we attend one.

The next rep meetings and assembling will likely be around February or March time.

Library time (2)

So I spent a first hours in the library last night but I didn't pull an all-nighter. No...once I'd figured out exactly what I needed to do for my assignment, I went ahead and completed it. No need whatsoever to spend all night in the library when a few hours was all that was necessary.

With that assignment pretty much out the way, I have freed-up time to work on other university projects from now until the end of the term in December.

Rep welcome lecture

My first event as a newly-reelected course rep took place this evening. It was a rep welcome lecture, which explained the role of course reps as well as informed the audience about various statistics with regards to the university (such as the demographic breakdown of students and the percentages of people satisfied with their courses).

The lecture didn't tell me anything I didn't already know with regards to my position but it was still worth attending; I am, after all, committed to my role and it was good to meet up with my friend who is also a Joint Honours Year 2 rep, as well as encountered another friend there, who I didn't know had been running for a rep role herself.

Year 2 course rep

Last year, I ran in an election to become a course rep for the Year 1 Joint Honours students. I won that election and attended every meeting and completed all work that was expected of me. This year, I ran re-election as a Year 2 rep for Joint Honours.

The result? This afternoon I received an email that informed me of my success in the student elections - I'm once again an academic rep! For the third year in a row, I am a class or course rep at an academic institution. I am delighted to have any chance to represent my intake of Joint Honours students here at NTU.

A shorter nighttime library spell

I'll be heading off to the library shortly to do a little work. It won't be an all-nighter like many of my library visits at this time; no, I have about 25 pages of something to read and a set of questions to answer. It should take me a couple of hours or so - not all night!

Originally, I went to the library this afternoon but when I realised I didn't have a lot of work to complete and could do it once the library was quiet, I decided to stop and come back later.

Bug-free lecture

Today marked the start of my first healthy week a for my second year at university. While I have a tiny bit of a cough left, I am otherwise free of germs and I feel great. After coughing my way through the past three weeks, the feeling of not having to announce my presence with massive coughs was a huge relief.

Now to not catch any more bus for the rest of this year - and for the rest of the academic year! Or if I am going to have another cold, at least let it be during a reading week so that it doesn't affect my performance in lectures and scale-ups/seminars/workshops.

The long-awaited walk

For the first time in well over two weeks, I walked to the city centre from here in Clifton. A major factor of my recent colds were that they sucked away my energy and along with it, my wanting to exercise.  Finally, this afternoon, I once again had the energy and it was pleasant outside, so being cooped up inside wasn't at all desirable.

In addition to achieving a long walk, when I made it to the city centre I encountered a university friend, who subsequently invited me to a small gathering she was attending with mutual friends. I stayed for an hour and a half before I returned to Clifton. Much as I would have liked to have joined them at a pub quiz they were attending, the fact I am still coughing occasionally was enough to make me decide to leave before they moved to that venue.

The pizza night

The housing manager for my accommodation paid for a pizza night; this is what he did last year except back then it was held in the first week rather than this far into October. Nevertheless, the effect was still the same: We had the chance to meet other residents of the student village and ate pizza for dinner.

In addition to being a pizza night, the event doubled as the occasion where we handed in our inventory forms to the housing manager; however, I did not need to do this because I gave it to him last week when he was here briefly for another reason.

End of week 1, university year 2

Today marked the end of my first week of my second year at university. My lecture today was for my sole English module for this half of the year and it was followed up with the first seminar of said module.

So far, I'm happy with my Year 2 modules. The workload appears to be what I expected and the topics are more interesting than I had anticipated. I'm looking forward to the upcoming lectures, seminars and workshops that the first half of the year has to offer!

The only downside to this week is that I have been ill with a bug I caught last weekend. I thoguht I was on the mend but I've been sneezing today and my nose has been running this evening, so it's either showing more symptoms or I've picked up another bug!

Client-led

My lecture today was the start of my client-led video project module, on the Media side of my course. This module is similar to the video project I did in my first year except this year we're making a video for a client; this client is the university itself.

The three subjects we can choose to make a video about are student living, the student societies or healthy living. Depending on what my group thinks - when we from groups next week - making a video for mature students would be a good idea, for I don't think there is enough information out there for mature students.

If a video is considered worthy enough, NTU will use it in its marketing programmes.

First lecture 2017-2018

My first lecture of the new academic year took place this morning/early afternoon. The subject was my core media module, which will run for the first half of the year only. For this year, I have three subjects in the first half and another three in the second. Four of my six modules I chose and the other two are core.

Work completed during this year goes towards my final grade, unlike work completed during the first year. There is greater pressure this year for students to put in more work to obtain a good grade.

The Harry Potter quiz

Tonight is the last night before the university term officially begins. As such, some of my fellow students in my accommodation village and I will be going to a Harry Potter quiz night here on campus. I'm not sure how it will turn out but it should be interesting, to say the least.

My first lecture tomorrow is at 11:00am.

Bakewell September 2017

As a treat for both the help she gave me over the past academic year and for her return to Nottingham for the new one, I took a university friend to Bakewell for the day. Said friend is a fellow mature student (significantly older) and half of her course is English, as is half of mine. In addition to having a pleasant walk up there, we had lunch - fish and chips, in fact - as then paid a short visit to Matlock Bath on the way back.

When classes start back next week, we're in a meeting together on Wednesday and in a class together on Friday.

From one to the other

So, this morning I woke up early to move. Boxes needed to be carried, various items packed, belongings carefully placed on the other side - all that good stuff.

But...it wasn't me moving! No, not this time. A university friend was moving to a different part of her building and required some help, for she had only two hours to move all her belongings before
starting work. As I was free this morning, I was more than happy to wake and leave early to help her.

The hard part now for my friend, assuming she hasn't already finished it, is sorting out the mess we left her new place in from hurriedly taking her belongings there. This isn't really a task I can help with since people have their own arrangements when it comes to where they live.

Housemates 2017

My accommodation fits five people. While inductions are next week - many beginning on Monday - so far my house only has four of its intended five occupants. There is a fifth person scheduled to arrive but they have yet to make an appearance. My hope is that they have a reason to have not moved in on the standard move-in days and that they are merely delayed for whatever reason.

If they don't show, I'll only have three housemates this year unless a replacement is found. I expect the person will show, however. As for my current housemates, I'm again sharing with the year's Resident Assistant and he's been doing a good job so far with his role, meeting whoever has moved in and offering to help them. There is a man from Malawi in the house this year and a woman from Doncaster.

So far, everyone seem friendly. May it be kept that way.

Back to my accommodation (3)

And it's done. I'm fully back in my accommodation. My aunt and uncle from the East of England came over, helped me transport my belongings to my accommodation, helped me unpack my items into my room and they did a small shop for me at Morrison's - the same as they did last year.

Next week is welcome week but that's for new students, not second years like myself. My classes do not begin until Monday the 2nd of October.

Back to my accommodation (2)

I'm now officially back at my accommodation. I went over to my campus in the morning to ensure I was enrolled again and then I picked up my key to my old room. Once at the house, I met my new Resident Assistant; this RA will be in the same house as me, same as the previous one.

While I'm staying at my accommodation tonight, I've only brought a few items with me. As my uncle is coming tomorrow, there wasn't any need to bring loads of stuff over.