End of March - April

I know it's April but I haven't updated for like 3 weeks ... Life's been like a rollercoaster ride really. So much changes within such a short span of time. Anyway, I stopped at 27 March I think, so continuing on! I just wanna do my daily summaries so that I can look back and remember what I did with my days.

28/03 Monday: Woke up really early and actually went for the morning jog with LJ! We jogged (okay fine walked halfway) to Parc de l'Orangerie. It was my first time there actually and was really nice to see all the magnolia and Japanese cherry blossoms blooming in spring! But weather was still really cloudy lol. Spent like 2 hours in the park, came back and had a pretty good breakfast with cakes and teh tarik, then was supposed to revise but ended up playing on the violin. We transcribed a Chinese pop song hahaha. Then wanted to go for lunch at this Vietnamese Pho place but it was a férié and the tram waiting time was too long so decided to go to this burger place nearby that O and V and I went last semester. Was pretty good then took ootd on the way back LOL. Didn't do anything for the rest of the day, wanted to see K but he had prac and work and at night I booked my Eurostar tix! But that concluded my last férié lol we don't actually have that many ...

29/03 Tuesday: Overslept for the 8am class again massive regret cause it was the last class T_T Went for Morpho at 12 thenLexicographie (also last class so can't miss) then half a session of revision for Pragmatique! Went for a Macs burger with LJ after class was absolutely famished then did some grocery shopping, then came back and she helped me to bring my violin to the luthier for re-stringing while I just sat in my room eating M&Ms lol. It's so weird how I can still remember that day so vividly. But yeah blew bubbles and stuff then LJ came back and we went downstairs for dinner (plus ootd lol) and I don't remember what else I did that night but probably rotted in my room ...

30/03 Wednesday: Had last class for Phonologie in the morning, went for lunch with classmates as usual at the resto, absolutely no memory of what I did in the afternoon (probably slept I think) then went for Italian at 6pm followed by dinner with classmates! I think I went back to library to work on Italian afterwards?? Can't remember that week was a blur really.

31/03 Thursday: Went for FLE and managed to finish the resume more or less with my project partner. Came back and met LJ right outside so we decided to go for lunch at the resto. Was supposed to go library to study but ended up nua-ing in my room but K came over to find me! But he was going out that night so just hanged around while he was waiting to leave.

01/04 Friday: Went for 2 ateliers in the morning and made a new friend so we went for lunch together at the resto. Got a text from K halfway through lunch and so went up to find him. He had bites which we thought to be bedbugs so went to Pharmacie and stuff to get meds then in the afternoon he was going out again. I went to Simply afterwards to pick up some drinks and went for prinks at P's place then LIVE afterwards since it was Katia's last weekend here.

02/04 Saturday: Spent most of the day sleeping LOL and was actually watching Tom and Jerry cartoons and some old Disney movie clips on YouTube HAHA. Was supposed to have tea at I's at 2pm but we were all too tired so was postponed to 4pm! Had a nice tea sesh and did another round of Turkish coffee reading by I plus tarot card reading by P LOL. I took notes this time lol!! Went for dinner at this Korean place called Douri afterwards with LJ and YS which was really good! Then LJ and I walked YS to the tram stop and otw back home I got a message from I saying they were going to Exils so of course I said I'd go since it was Katia's last night. Had a pretty chill time but we were all pretty tired from the night before so went back home lol. Couldn't sleep afterwards while waiting for my hair to dry and turned out K was awake so talked until morning ... But I still managed to wake up rather early the next day.

03/04 Sunday: Studied a bit for my exam on Monday then got a message from K in then evening so went over. We got pizza then watched Toy Story 3! I think it was that. Hahaha. Then came back and slept early cause I had a long day the next day ...

04/04 Monday: Missed Syntaxe to do a bit more revision for the exam at noon, had classes in the afternoon was so tiring after the férié cause Monday's are always so crazy. Came back and had dinner at the resto with LJ, washed my hair and saw K who was watching Star Wars before work. Revised lexicographie rather unsuccessfully then decided to sleep early.

05/04 Tuesday: Woke up early and went to the library before Morpho, but the class got cancelled so had an unexpected extra hour to study for lexico. Had the exam, was so tired came back and overslept so was late for dinner. Rushed to Le Michel to meet G, P and I for dinner before the concert at Palais Universitaire, but because I was late dinner overran and by the time we got there the concert was already full and I missed my chance to hear Dvorak 8 ... Heard it was good though! We went to this bar called the Public House instead to chill then decided to pay a visit to K at work before going back and everyone came with me lol. But yeh finally they all met I feel like my social circle is now complete lol??

06/04 Wednesday: Was supposed to have a revision sesh with classmates but overslept so met them directly for lunch instead ... Then dk what I did in the afternoon I think I went to Portique to work on Italian but can't really remember, but went for Italian at 6 then dinner with classmates after, saw K a bit and we walked out together as I was going to meet P and G for a gig by the Razorblades. Was pretty cool though my eardrums aren't really used to this type of music and my ears were totally buzzing at the end but they were cool and I had a song called Smart Phone dedicated to me LOL. We went to see K afterwards cause his work was near the pub and got him a kebab hehehe. Came back and did my final version of the resume for FLE until like 2am omg ...

07/04 Thursday: Went for FLE and submitted the resume then did a bit of revision for Morpho. Was talking to Pauline from class and it was really nice so ended up staying back and talking to her for almost an hour after class! Then decided to go to Place Kleber to get Chinese takeaway and the holographic Stans and check out the new Starbucks. Got the Stans but Starbucks was just having it's opening and was not operating until the next day but was really craving a chai tea latte so I tried this other cafe near my place but they were out of soy milk! Totally no luck with chai tea latte lol. Came back and ate my Chinese takeaway lunch which had turned cold and finished the remaining orange juice. Then met K and we went to try Buffalo Burger at Rivetoile and made K take his ootd and played billiard afterwards! Weather was so unbelievably warm LOL.

08/04 Friday: Got a message from G saying he was nearby asking me to go for lunch when I just woke up so had to quickly get changed and go out! Texted P to come along too and ended up having a nice lunch in the sun at the pasta place (usual hangout lol). Weather was really good and I actually got a tan line like omg and G got sunburnt. Came back and met K and went to Rivetoile to do grocery shopping and found that they opened HEMA! So bought tons of snacks from there lol. Also finally returned my Stradi jeans cause I didn't think I was gonna wear them. But we both took ootds near Rivetoile HAHA. Got takeaway pizza and watched Toy Story 2 then Meet The Parents.

09/04 Saturday: My birthday!! Woop woop woke up really late then showered and video called parents. Went to Rivetoile with P to get food and drinks for the evening then came back to wake K up so that we could go bowling with G and P and I. Haven't bowled in ages and despite it being my birthday my luck was awful and I came in last in both games but K's score was just unbelievable like thrice my score?!?! We played 2 rounds then got Domino's on the way back then went to P's place for food and drinks and Jenga!! Had a really great time and was so happy to spend my birthday with all my friends here, really lucky to have met them all ^_^ Came back past midnight and was so tired fell asleep for an hour then had to pack for Paris and by the time I was done it was 4am and had to leave at 8am so basically didn't sleep much ... But yeh managed to leave on time and made it to Paris!! I should post about it really in a separate post but gonna end this post now! Have an exam at 8am tmr and it's already 12:40 but really just wanted to write stuff down so I don't forget and I should go shower omg.

Easter Weekend

Having a long Easter weekend this weekend but it's already Sunday! I always feel like I don't do anything but time passes so fast omg.

Gonna do a basic summary of my week so that I don't forget what I've been up to!

19/03 Saturday: Can't remember what I did in the morning but think I managed to see K before orch, then kinda lazed around until 1pm then went to Rivetoile to get the Adidas shirt for Anthea. Came back and lazed a bit more before finally dragging my ass to the library LOL but not before making a detour to Simply to buy some gummies first. Texted LJ to ask what she was doing in the evening then she invited me to dinner with her other friend, so I basically spent like less than 3 hours in the library since I only got there at 3pm and had to leave by 5.30pm ... But yeah was rather productive I guess, arrived back punctually to leave at 5.45pm then we went to meet her friend at Observatoire. Took the tram to Homme de Fer and decided to make a reservation at Brasserie Max for 7.30pm, leaving us about an hour to shop! We went to Galeries Lafayette and Stradivarius and Sephora, and LJ and I both bought stuff from Stradivarius lol. I bought another pair of Mom jeans in an indigo shade of denim but now thinking that I might return them cause spring is coming ain't nobody got time for long pants! But seriously the weather is looking so good for the next week like almost 20 deg and I can't wait to wear my skirts and dresses!

We went back to the restaurant pretty early cause most shops were closing at 7pm. Had a really great 3-course dinner - food was amazing - followed by a Monaco and we had so much fun talking about languages and dialects and stuff. Then after dinner we didn't really want to go back yet so we went to another bar called Meme dans les Orties or something. The last time I went there was with the English gang and that was like the week before our very first term break so all the way back in October?!? Crazy how fast time has gone. We sat there for a while and got another round of drinks and left about 12. LJ and I walked her friend back home first then we went back to PA together.

And here's the crazy part LOL. I went back to my room thinking I was gonna shower and quickly sleep then as I was opening my door my neighbour R and his friend M opened his door and they asked me if I wanted to go to Kehl. LOL. I had absolutely no intention of going out again but when did I ever turn down a night out anyway HAHA. So I asked them how much time we've got and they told me 10 min so I quickly got changed and packed my stuff then we went to catch the bus. Felt so weird going to Kehl again cause the last time I went was like December with the English gang again right before everyone left for Christmas break! But I hadn't drank much just 2 Monacos so was very sober. Got into Gold then met all the Brazilians there and we had not a bad time but was so tired I couldn't wait for the 4am bus back LOL. Got the bus back with O and A and this other girl and we all went back to PA tgt and finally I could sleep LOL.

20/03 Sunday: Managed to wake up early at 9am nonetheless (barely slept like 5 hours?!), saw that K was awake so went over then watched videos and stuff. Was so hungover and tired lol but I was supposed to go to I's place for afternoon tea so I eventually left at 5pm. Got there and they were all waiting for me felt so bad! But we had a nice time and had tea and biscuits and also Turkish coffee reading by I which was really cool. The other 2 girls had to leave early after that but I stayed back with I until about 7pm then her friends were coming and I was supposed to meet P and G at this bar called What The Fox for dinner at 8pm. Was rather punctual and we had a nice dinner and finally tried the Printemps drink which was supposed to be pamplemousse but couldn't taste too much of it! But yeh was a nice way to end the week.

21/03 Monday: Woke up feeling sick and tired so missed Syntaxe and was planning to go for the classes in the afternoon. I went for Rhetorique et Stylistique at noon because it was the class class before the exam but felt so awful and dizzy outside thankfully the class was only one hour. Came back and just crashed without even eating lunch omg. Then slept the whole afternoon even though I was meaning to go for Histoire at 5pm but completely overslept until 6pm. Texted LJ then she invited me over for dinner so I went downstairs. She'd made pasta with avocado and even baked a cake which was amazing omg so I offered to do the dishes but her dishcloth was dirty so I went upstairs to get mine. Met one of my neighbours on the stairs who told me someone was looking for me and I guessed it was K lol and I was right but went to bring the dishcloth down first and dos the dishes before coming up again. Managed to talk a bit before leaving for work then I went back to LJ's place again and we had cake for dessert and watched Big Bang Theory! Left around 10pm cause we were both tired and also had 8am class the next day.

22/03 Tuesday: Actually woke up for the 8am class LOL such a struggle every week (even last term I had 8am on Tuesdays!). After class LJ and I went to Simply first cause I hadn't had breakfast so was craving some cakes. Bought some food then came back to PA and neither of us wanted to go to the library for the 3h break so I just stayed in my room and ate breakfast slowly then packed A's adidas shirt for postage. Went for Morpho at noon then had Lexicographie after where we got back our exam scripts. Was happy that I did relatively okay for it. After class Kathrin and I went to get some food then we went to the library together cause she was waiting for a film meet in the evening while I had to study for the Phonologir exam the next day. Stayed in the library until closing time at 7pm then walked tgt and met Henrietta and her friend that I met once at FLE at the crossing. Came back home and showered early and was supposed to study more for Phonologie but I'm so bad with studying at home it just didn't happen ugh. Ended up sleeping early instead and decided to wake up earlier to study.

23/03 Wednesday: Waking up early to study is a myth LOL. Woke up but couldn't absorb anything then went to class but luckily the stuff were similar. Didn't go for lunch but spent the one hour in the library with LJ and YS then we went to take the exam. Was so tired after the exam I came back and just ... Slept the whole afternoon. Was actually intending to head to the library again but was honestly so tired I slept with my shoes on lol and woke up at 5.30pm barely in time for Italian! Went for Italian at 6pm and after class YS and I went for our usual post-Italian dinner but this time wth another Vietnamese girl from our class and LJ said she'll come along too. Ate in the Resto U and had a nice dinner but I left early and managed to catch K before work so we walked over tgt.

24/03 Thursday: Didn't manage to wake up for FLE LOL but had this weird dream where I was messaging my groupmate that I can't make it and didn't actually send the message?! Woke up quite late then ate some stuff for lunch then texted LJ if she wanted to go to the library and she'd in fact just gotten back LOL impeccable timing. We went to the library at Patio but it was too nice weather to study so we both got pretty restless then decided to go to Macs LOL. Went to Macs for an afternoon snack sort of meal but she had work at 6pm so we decided to just go to centre ville. Took the tram to Homme de Fer then went to some shops then she had to leave before 6 while I went to Galeries Lafayette to try on some jeans from Topshop. There wasn't much to do so slowly strolled back and stopped by at Simply to grab some groceries before the long weekend since shops were going to be closed. Ate dinner and didn't do anything else seriously I get so bored in the evenings lol.

25/03 Friday: Good Friday! Video called parents in the morning, I woke up at freaking 7am the only day that I didn't have to wake up early LOL. Then had to meet the English gang for crepes at noon. We went to La Crêpe Gourmande which was not too bad and I had this crêpe that was on fire!! Walked back tgt with P and G and actually wanted to check out a museum but it was closed for the férié. Came home then went to find K a while before he had to go out then saw that I had 2 emails regarding the internship so talked to Gee a bit about it. And had another extremely boring evening again I was so bored that I wanted to go for a morning jog the next morning and catch the sunrise LOL so slept really early at 11pm.

26/03 Saturday: The morning jog never happened LOL. I actually did wake up at 6am and texted LJ but think she wasn't wake so I went back to sleep and only woke up again 5 hours later LOL. So I slept a full 12 hours in fact. Saw that LJ had texted me at 7 saying she overslept too so oh well! Ate some peanut butter sandwiches for lunch then went to find K about 2pm. The bad news was that Zootopia didnt have the English version anymore so we decided to go see Batman vs Superman at 5pm. Turned out to be a good decision cause there weren't that many people so we got the best seats then when it ended there were so many people queueing for the next show! It was not too bad haha though I didn't understand a lot of the film. But it was 3 hours so long I thought it'd be only 2 hours or something! I like Wonder Woman HAHAHA. After the movie we went to Franky's for dinner and saw they had all the new exercise stuff near Rivetoile super cool! We went to spin around on the spinning things I don't even know what they're called LOL. Came back to PA and had a game of billiard!! My first time playing HAHAHA. Also wanted to see Man of Steel afterwards but was too sleepy and too late by then.

27/03 Sunday: Woke up at 10am but didn't realise that the clocks had changed to BST so actually I woke up at 9am hehe :D But fell back asleep again until 1pm LOL. Had brunch and watched Man of Steel with K omg can't wait for the rest of the movies to come out LOL think the next one is coming out in August ... Then K wanted to go prac but couldn't get the room so came back up but had to leave again at 7. Felt so weird now that the sun only sets at like 8pm LOL but hooray for longer days!! And I'm going for a morning jog tmr with LJ but just washed my hair tonight argh HAHA. But tmr is férié again so glad for one more day of holiday and this has been a really nice weekend so far besides me rotting in boredom almost every night I need to find things to do what did I even do last term?! Missing V and O hahaha they were always up for stuff all the time hahaha.

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Had an equally good day today even though once again I failed to present myself at the library but OH WELL. Was v happy cause I actually woke up early like at 8am (I am becoming more light-sensitive but that's a good thing hooray for longer days!) then saw a text from K who then came over so we spent the morning tgt and had a nice breakfast. I fell asleep again in the afternoon and barely woke up just in time for the atelier at 4pm which I'd signed up for! Went for the 2 ateliers then decided to stay for the 3rd one since it was in the same classroom and was glad that I did cause it turned out to be really fun and interesting! Met Sofia in class so we walked back tgt then I went to Simply to buy some fruits and drinks while she went to the bus stop. Came back and ate a (solo) dinner at the resto'u but so convenient now that it's open in the evenings as well since the one at Esplanade is undergoing construction. But all in all it was a really nice day! I haven't decided if I will go for more ateliers tomorrow but gonna need to go to the library realised I have so much work this weekend :( All the classes this week were really hard for some reason omg and first exam starts next Wed sigh what is year abroad???

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HAHA cool date today it's anagrammable!!

Okay but I've finished the syntax exam on Thursday then we all went to l'Epicerie again for dinner then Christmas market where I got another nutella crepe. I came back early and did some work :D Then Friday (yesterday) was a quite productive day, went for an atelier for FLE in the morning, stayed there for another 2 hours and got some work done, then went for lunch with Viivi in the uni resto before going for the methodo revision class. Went back to the library after the class to do some work before dinner, came back and cooked a really lazy soup for dinner, and went back again before the library closed at 10 so I would say that was a really productive day! But I didn't do anything after I came back ahaha. Slept a solid 10 hours so feeling well rested and talked to quite a number of friends it feels so nice to catch up with people after so long! And heard good news too so very happy for one of them :D And very excited to be meeting people in Dec when I go back :D Good day so far even though it's 4pm and I've not done anything for today but I've just showered and gonna do some work now woop woop!

First time at Strasbourg's Christmas Markets

Had the histoire de la langue exam today. Completely screwed it up we always thought it was going to be on everything including stuff from the first exam but turns out it was only the stuff taught after the first exam which was basically all the Latin stuff. I'm so bad at the Latin stuff gah so that was horrible ... couldn't resist checking the answers after the exam, not very hopeful for it at all :( Just hoping I can pass omg ...

Anyway after the exam V and O and I went to check out the Christmas markets in Strasbourg! It opened this weekend but as I wasn't here so today was my first time :D It was quite cool but we went before the sunset so couldn't see the lights, but I'll go again soon when it's dark! Was absolutely starving after the exam so we went straight for the food, but they had tons of cute stuff like candles and Christmas ornaments. I wish I could have a tree but there is no space at all in my room HAHA. Anyway, I got a bowl of spaetzle which is a type of Alsatian noodle/pasta I believe. It was quite good and about standard Christmas market pricing i.e. €5. V and O both got flam baguettes with cheese!

After the spaetzles I was still really hungry so I went for a crepe. Btw we were at the market near Place Broglie which seems to have more food. The one at Place Kleber was mostly clothes and accessories and stuff. Got a crepe with nutella from this store quite near the sides called Stand La Bonumeur. Prices start from about €2 for a basic crepe and you can add stuff like fruits and nutella and other stuff! And the owner was super friendly hahaha he gave me chocolate buttons as I was ordering as well as a brochure menu thing. But the crepe was so good omg it was really soft and chewy and the nutella was heavenly HAHA. Will want to go back again! They also have a Facebook page here: Stand La Bonumeur (it's on the brochure hahaha).

We walked over to the cathedrale afterwards for mulled wine. It was not bad but I still think red wine is a bit strong for me hahaha. Anyway it's really good here in Strasbourg that they dont use disposable cups, but instead they re-use proper plastic cups. So like basically you pay about €3 for a cup of say 30cl and you can return the cup to any store afterwards and get €1 back. Or keep the cup. I didn't really like the design that I got today so I returned it but I saw some people carrying nicer cups when I was walking back so gonna get one of those next time!!

After I got back I was really sleepy because of the mulled wine I think and also general fatigue from all the exams so I slept for 2 hours. Have the syntax exam tomorrow so need to study for that now!! As well as 5 hours of classes before the syntax exam omg ... so much for exchange life T_T

November

Omg can't believe it's been one whole month since I got back from Milan. THE WHOLE NOVEMBER. And it's already 1 Dec today last month of the year omg seriously 2015 is passing by way too quickly ...

Anyway, I have a whole row of exams coming up so gonna make this a quick post because I just wanted to update the stuff in November before I forget. So yep, got back from Milan to Strasbourg on the 2nd early morning I think, then had the Methodologie exam on the 5th. Didn't go anywhere on that weekend because Car came to visit me on the 9th!! I had classes on the 10th so we just explored Strasbourg, ate a LOT HAHAHA then 11th was Armistice Day in France so we did a day trip to Basel since everywhere in Strasbourg was closed. Basel was cool but it was my 2nd time there so nothing new, dragged Car to the Brandy as always and got quite a few items from the last chance rack at 50% off. We also managed to get free tickets to the Natural History museum because they close at 5pm and they give free entry from 4pm onwards. Unfortunately everything was in German so couldn't understand anything ... Then on the same week on Friday made the impromptu decision to go to Zurich because Charles and Han were there on a society trip so another excuse to travel. But I stupidly missed my 5am bus HAHA so got a blablacar instead and finally made it to Zurich at 3pm!! First stop as always is the Brandy so now I can proudly say I've been to all the Brandy stores in Switzerland which is a small but still an accomplishment. :D Got the bus back on Sunday and I was seriously so tired the whole week. Nothing much went on that week but we went to check out Academie de la Biere which was not bad, then Charlie came to visit Viivi that weekend so we all went out. I fell sick and lost my voice on Saturday, didn't even realise until I was calling my mom then I realised I couldn't talk!! So it was quite shitty. Had the synchronique exam on the 24th (last Tuesday), went to all my classes despite being sick and all. Met one of my neighbours on Thursday and he gave me soup and tea and a lemon after seeing that I was sick omg seriously people here are so nice!! Then on the same night I took the overnight bus to Cologne to visit Xichen cause that was something that we planned ages ago! 

Didn't sleep much on the bus and arrived at 6am but ended up sleeping until like 12 noon LOL ... Went to the university for lunch, then we went to the city centre where we climbed the Kolner Dom! A million spiral steps later we finally arrived at 157m up. I think it's like the first cathedral I climbed? Can't remember if I climbed any others before ... then we went to the bridge and caught the sunset and visited a Lindt chocolate factory :D Also went to like 4 Christmas markets, German Christmas markets are absolutely amazing! I think the Strasbourg ones also opened during the weekend so gonna have to check it out sometime ... Then on Saturday we were supposed to go to Aachen, but ended up sleeping in until 2pm LOL. We still went in the end but missed the daylight hours but we went to the Christmas market and cathedral in Aachen and they were really good!! Also bought a lot of Printens (this local chocolate and ginger biscuit thing which is absolutely amazing) and had champignons. Then we went to the Carolus Thermal Bath and spent 2.5 hours there HAHAHA new activity to do in Germany. Got back to Cologne quite late but we cooked dinner! I haven't properly cooked in ages. The next day we were supposed to go to Amsterdam, so thank goodness we woke up in time but barely just caught the train :P Met Petros at the central station, then we went to the Van Gogh museum. Xichen had a concert to watch after that so Petros and I just went to walk around and yes Brandy again LOL but they didn't have much stuff so I only bought the new grid print Kaitlee skirt. Met Xichen again at 6pm then we went for the Heineken Experience! We were the last batch but the staff were all really nice and chill so it was a nice experience :D Got back to Cologne quite late again and had so much difficulty waking up in the morning cause I had to catch a bus back but I made it and got back in the evening!

Then today was the phonetics exam which was quite hard and I have 2 more exams tomorrow and Thursday so gonna stop this post now but omg busy days!!

SXB - LDN: Deuxième fois

Typing this at Stansted now. It's 2.35AM (London time so 3.35AM France time) and I've just spent the past 4 hours sitting in Costa Coffee ... But there's so many changes to Stansted like the Costa is 24h and even the M&S!! Or maybe they were always here just that I never noticed HAHA. I remember back in first year there was once we just spent the night at Stansted but now I can't remember for what trip was it Romania?? But everything was closed and we slept on the floor it was so bad lol. But now I actually don't mind, except that the free wifi is only for 1h but giffgaff does this gigabag thing now so I just bought a 500MB gigabag for £5. Spent £7 on food so far, so total damage of £12 tonight which is not too bad considering that a trip back to centre London would cost much more ...

Anyway, I had my second French exam today for Syntaxe. Completely forgot the stuff for the second question, I remember she went through a similar example in class but I just couldn't remember what it was so that's half the paper gone ... Hope my first question went okay :( But I'm so glad that it's the holidays now!! I swear French uni is so much more intense than in UK, like I legit have twice the number of hours I would have in the UK plus all the tests are kind of spread out so there's always things to do. But yeah, feeling rather accomplished that I've survived half the term so far! Have a bunch of exams coming up in the beginning of December and some coursework due in November and I'm not going to be travelling much in November so I foresee myself spending a lot of time in the library HAHAHA. But I really love working in the library though, definitely more productive there than I ever would be in my own room. I think I should just not study in my room at all.

So anyway, the 10AM class that I was supposed to have yesterday was cancelled, so that was great because I spent the 2 hours getting extra sleep (had a massive headache in the morning and I rarely ever have headaches) and then spent lunchtime doing revision in the Portique library. However the exam for that class is going to be right after we come back from break, so I'm feeling a bit unprepared since we didn't have a proper last lesson before the exam. Then I went for a class and for Syntaxe it was supposed to be class for the first hour then exam for the second hour, but she had a change of plans so we didn't have class and just had the exam and we could just leave after the paper! Which makes a lot of sense because it's true that we'd be too distracted to focus for the class anyway. Went back and ate dinner, packed and cleaned my room within 2 hours then made my way to la gare avec O. We were early for the train and made it to the airport in good time. Met a few other Erasmus students on the flight lol seems like everyone is going back early!! Then we arrived at Stansted where I have to wait for 10h until my next flight so here I am. But I'm already halfway through!! Slept a bit just now and I think I am going to try to sleep a bit more before I head off again. Very very excited to see HX and Zherms later!!

First French Exam

Had my first exam in France today. I feel I should've apologised in advance to the tutor for my bad French ... but anyway it's over. One more exam tomorrow then I'm off!!

Anyway I wanted to post because I honestly thought this week was a shitty week but things turned out fine in the end, like:

- I had a panic attack on Tuesday because I suddenly realised that since I missed my last VISA appt for the medical check up they've not yet sent me another convocation and the 3 months deadline is approaching rather soon. Then it turned out that I worried for nothing, because the very next day they sent me 3 emails reminding me of my next appt, which I can finally make!!

- Was so unprepared for my exam today but V was so sweet she went through the stuff with me at noon before the exam!! Very very grateful omg :D

- Came back just now and neighbour opposite was having a party and I was worrying whether if it's gonna last through the night (because I have an 8am class tmr and I really need my sleep) and I really didn't want to be the bad person but ... they've all left before 12 so all's good and quiet now.

- Supposed to have 5 hours of class tmr before the exam but just checked my email and one of the 2h classes is cancelled so I have a 4h break now!!!!!

Cheap thrills, I know. But I am so happy and thankful!!!

Anyway I've discovered the joys of studying in the library again. I like the libraries here, but it's just annoying that all the libraries close quite early i.e. no 24h libraries like UCL. Like the one in Portique closes at 7pm but from 26 Oct (Idk if it's like that for the rest of the year or just Vacances Toussaint) it's gonna close at 5pm. 5pm. LOL. But the U2-U3 closes at 11pm, so that's not too bad. I definitely am more productive in the library than I ever am in my room. But anyway massive accomplishment today when V and I were the last ones to leave the Portique library!! But we were only there for about an hour or so HAHA. Still, we went to the U2-U3 after dinner for another library sesh. And we had BROWNIES for dessert!! Woop woop good timing. Spent an hour in U2-U3 then went out for drinks with the English gang before we all go on break next week (or this week, or tomorrow actually). V and O and I shared a bottle of Pinot Gris (something that starts with S) and it was really good and the bar was so chill too. I'm super super grateful for having found such amazing friends here really <3

Okay so this post turned out not so much to be about the French exam after all but still! I'm going to stop here now because I want to do some readings for the exam tomorrow and sleep early!!

Days are getting cold

It's actually quite late and I really should be sleeping but so many of my friends who are on their year abroad right now have been posting links to their year abroad blogs which look really cool so I felt this sudden obligation to update this space! It's been what, 3 weeks since I last posted? Life is going on at full pace and I've been meaning to update for a while but never got round to it and I want to kind of quickly record things down before I start to forget what happened!!

So, I stopped at 27 August. Mid-Autumn Festival!! My craving for Chinese food got satisfied that day because right after I posted V and B and I decided to go for lunch at this Chinese buffet place. Actually, it's the only Chinese restaurant I know of here in Strasbourg. V introduced it to us and it's called Le Grand Shanghai and it's located near Homme de Fer tram stop. And did I mention this already but the best part is that it's a buffet! A BUFFET! I don't fare well at buffets in general but I love desserts ahaha. Their lunch costs €12,80 and dinner is €16,80 I believe, and they also do takeaways which is great. The takeaway boxes come in 3 sizes but I've yet to try so I have no idea how big the boxes are. Anyway, the food was amazing. I tried one piece of every single type of meat before I couldn't eat anymore. And the fried rice!!! Omg I missed rice so much omg. And they also have SUSHI. It was AMAZING. I am getting all hungry again just thinking about the food. But I have pictures!!

So basically, I had 2 rounds of mains and 3 rounds of dessert! One can never have too much dessert. And of course every French meal comes with wine. I had rosé instead of vin blanc for a change.

ALL IN ALL I NEED TO GO BACK AGAIN. Probably this weekend ahahaha.

Anyway back to Sunday. So there was the amazing lunch (probably the best I've had in Strasbourg so far legit crying), then in the evening we went to the Irish Bar for the Sunday pub quiz! And proud to say that we didn't come in last or close to last this time, in fact we were 6th from the bottom which was a massive improvement from the last time :D Then the rest of the week passed by pretty quickly, finally got a French SIM card, went out on Wednesday night (bad idea LOL), was so tired on Thursday and then V and I had to rush to catch our flight back to London!! We'd booked the same flights for Thursday and to return on Monday. So the weekend was spent in London, which I think I'll do a separate post on sometime because it was such a hectic weekend I was just out the whole time and didn't even have time to meet everyone I wanted to meet :'( But yeah, going back for the weekend made me realise how much I'd missed London, and also how much I didn't miss the weather LOL. It was drizzling on Monday when I left, so I was actually glad to be going back to SXB though the weather here that evening wasn't much better tbh HAHAHA. But it's less dry here than London I think? Like my skin doesn't dry as much here as it does in London. Oh and I brought back like 12kg of clothes or something HAHAHA. Didn't actually weigh it but I'd bought a new duffel bag which was bigger than my other one so it was freaking heavy my arms were totes aching the whole week.

Classes again for the week (this was last week btw), I managed to wake up for the 8am class on Tuesday despite only reaching back at 11 the night before which was a great accomplishment, but I was SO tired the whole day haha. Went to Topshop after classes and managed to buy the last piece of the indigo denim jacket that I was searching for in London in my size!! But I've still not worn it yet the days are too cold ... V and I went to O's place for dinner on Wednesday. Carbonara! But they did all the cooking I am absolutely useless in the kitchen ... then on Thursday night I was bored and made a last-minute decision to go to Basel on Friday for a day trip. The tickets were €24 with the SNCF carte jeune, and the timings weren't that bad for off peak, except that the Friday evening off peak starts later and I was actually really tired in the evening but had to wait an extra hour to take the next train back. Once again, I'll do a separate post on Basel with lots of nice pictures aha but that'll be another time. But Basel was amazing! I love Switzerland but everything is so expensive there :( Anyway after I got back from Basel on Friday night we went out again but I was so gone it was horrible omg and I was such a burden I felt so bad T_T Was hungover the whole weekend can't believe it's taking me so long to recover aha. So I literally spent the rest of the weekend including Monday in my room. But I did lots of work, so that was a good thing. And I was doing my own laundry by freaking handwashing my clothes even my jeans and shoes!! The thing is that the laundry here costs €4 per wash and when I went to check out the machines they didn't look very ... desirable for me to put my clothes in. And most of my clothes can't be machine dried and I really don't want to ruin anything. It's good now though because they've turned on the heating now so I could just dry my stuff near the heater. I also finally cleaned my New Balance shoes after one year!! It was amazing watching the laces turn from grey to white again lol. But I left my shoes on the heater overnight and I think the sides touching the heater got scorched ... Fml this is the type of thing that always happen to me ugh. But yes, my shoes are clean. I don't know how to get rid of the scorch marks though!!

Then this week was the 17 intensive hours of classes again, and I have 2 exams next week before Vacances Toussaint!It was freezing this week like 2 deg when I woke up for my Tuesday 8AM. Went out on Wednesday night (bad idea again never gonna do that again) then couldn't fall asleep and I had another 8AM on Thursday (which is today/yesterday) so I've literally been up for like 36 hours maybe?! But I had a nap over lunch. Classes were okay though, I'm really liking the stuff especially linguistics because it's actually really practical for grammar. And it's cool that I have a chance to finally take linguistics, because I still slightly regret not taking ELL over physics in JC it would've been a lot more fun and would've spared me the torturous hours of toiling over physics which I never understand ... But yeah. Also I did a French oral presentation today in FLE, and my tutor just confirmed the suspicion that I've had for so many years that I speak French with a Chinese accent. But what she said actually was that it was a melangé de chinois et anglosaxon (??) because I have the tendency of cutting my words instead of letting them flow like how the French speak. But it's so hard since I'm trying to concentrate on the pronunciation ... and also how I focus on chaque mot like in English instead of a phrase. So there was this sentence which she separated into basically just 2 phrases and it felt so long! No wonder I always feel the French speak too fast for me sometimes, I've been getting it all wrong ... But yes, useful things to know!

I have no classes tomorrow, but I need to sleep now anyway hahaha need to do my London and Basel posts soon but probably over the weekend. I've posted about my spacious flights though :D And need to studyyyyyy. Then it's London again + my 10 day backpacking trip!!! So hyped :D

One month in Strasbourg

It's been a long time since I last posted omg life is getting busy ... Or I've been just lazy and exhausted hahaha. Waiting for my eggs to boil now in the rice cooker I swear the rice cooker is the most useful thing ever ... I've been cooking noodles, boiling sausages and making milo / teh tarik without even having to step out of my room HAHA. The kitchens here are too bare anyway and I don't know how to work the microwave and I don't have pots and pans so.

Anyway where did I stop!! 2 weeks ago ahaha when the internet wasn't working on the Saturday night. Right. So anyway I was supposed to meet Xichen the next day (Sunday), but we lost contact since neither of us have a working French number and ended up not meeting :( Had dinner + pub quiz with the English gang (UK gang???) at night and got to know a couple more people. Monday was another failed attempt at trying to submit my learning agreement, I think it was because I was missing the module code for the FLE class, then V and O and I had dinner at Le Michel, which is this really nice restaurant near the Gallier tram stop. They have a dinner menu for only 11,50 EUR and it included a starter, a main and dessert! The starter and the main was good but the cake for the dessert was a bit dry and I was so bloated but still finished my food anyway because one should never waste food ... Then we went to check out the Erasmus speed meeting thing at La Taverne but there was too many people so we just hung around a bit got one drink spoke to some people and left early.

Tuesday to Thursday was the 17h of intensive classes compressed into 3 days hahaha my timetabling skills are the best ... and also made the YOLO decision to go to Munich for the opening of Oktoberfest with the Brazilians in my hall. The plan was to leave at 3AM on Saturday morning, sleep in the car on Saturday night, then come back by Sunday afternoon. Oktoberfest wasn't really in my plans at first considering the fact that I'm not a huge fan of beer (though Alsatian beer is making me change my mind) but still not going to miss out on any opportunity to actually do something for my weekends. I think I've wasted too many weekends (3 and counting) not doing anything because everything is freaking closed on Sundays and even Saturday nights and I've been decomposing in boredom in the tiny enclosed space of 10m2 that is my room.

And did I mention it's been exactly 4 weeks here in SXB!! I arrived on the Saturday night (29 Aug) 4 weeks ago ahahaha wow how time flies 8 more months ;'( Tbh I can't really tell whether it feels like it's been a longer or shorter time here because sometimes it's super busy whereas other times I'm just rotting away in boredom.

ANYWAY. So last Friday we went out to celebrate Viivi's birthday!! Went bar-hopping and ended up at Agora which was really happening and apparently it's an every Friday thing but I had to leave early because I had to get back and shower and pack to leave at 3AM HAHA. Left at around 1.450ish in the end and got back just in time to shower, pack and to back up my phone LOL btw I really really need a 64gb Idk what is Apple thinking but 16gb is simply not enough to function on. So we went down at 3am, got into the car and I just slept. Most of the time. It's not really comfortable to be sleeping with an empty stomach filled with too much alcohol. Oh but it was really pretty!! I think we were driving through the Black Forest (is it???) so it was really dark and no light pollution so you could see all the stars super clearly *_* I was staring at one super bright star right in front of me before I fell asleep. And the sunrise was amazing too but no photos because I was too lazy I think ... 

Arrived at Wiesn camp at about 7+, had an amazing breakfast of eggs and bacon (I haven't had eggs in the longest time ever omg) then took the train to city centre where Oktoberfest was. OPENING DAY. It was super packed and even though we got there relatively early almost all the tents were full so in the end we ended up Paulaner but at the benches outside. The beers came in 1 litre mugs and it was impossible to finish I felt like I kept drinking but the volume of liquid left never decreased?!?! Not to mention like the million trips to the toilet. So yeah, adding on to the existing amount of alcohol in my system I think I was completely gone ......... but still managed to make the trip to Brandy Melville in Munich in the evening before it closed :D :D I had to go on the Saturday because as usual stores in Europe are all closed on Sunday. It was only 20 min away from Oktoberfest anyway and I finally managed to get wifi otw thanks eduroam for being literally everywhere :D Okay but the store itself was a disappointment and Germany prices are a lot higher than the rest of Europe because of the 19% tax which is exactly like their website and I am too poor to afford anything at full price. But they had the last chance rack too with everything at 10% off and I found one last piece of the floral Jeanne bralette there!! It's still more expensive than if I were to buy off the US site / Europe / maybe even UK but I will probably never be able to buy it elsewhere anyway so nvm. And I got the Irosha necklace too hehehe regret not ordering it when I was back in SG because it's actually super pretty irl?!?! Not an accessories person but I think I ought to own maybe like one necklace ... Okay and also all this time I think I was under significant alcohol influence and dehydration so I can't really remember what happened exactly everything was pretty much woozy ... Made my way back somehow to Oktoberfest and went back to Wiesn camp had dinner and all. Then sleeping in the car. Not the most comfortable experience it got really warm at night so I had to get out to breathe but managed to fall back asleep in the end again. Then round 2!!! I think there were less people on the 2nd day probably because most people who came on the first day are too hungover / it was a Sunday but we managed to get a place inside the Augustiner tent!! It's supposedly the best beer in Munich but as usual I can't really taste the difference and absolutely knocked out again after less than 1 mug hahaha I was so sleepy T_T But I went to take the rides this time and I'm pretty sure the first time when I took the rollercoaster I was drunk because I couldn't really feel anything but the second time it was like O_O And we were interviewed by German TV!!! Idk what channel though I will probably never see it anyway but it was cool.

Stayed until past lunch then drove back to SXB and it was already past 10pm by the time we reached. Super tired fell asleep almost imm after coming back and took the whole of Monday to recover ahaha. Finally got my inscription pedagogique done on Monday!!! Such a relief to finally submit it in. Then Tues-Thurs was the intensive 17h of classes again, and on Thursday night went out with the English gang for dinner to celebrate the end of a school week because none of us have classes on Friday woooooo. Collected my student card on Friday, then pre-drinks at Beth's place + Agora. I think I am becoming really week barely had 4 Jaegerbombs and for the first time I had rashes?!?! Okay but I cannot remember what happened except we went to Agora again and I don't even know what happened there or how I got back but I did, with my bottle of Jaeger and 2 cans of red bull hahaha wtf. Terribly hungover ytd so stayed in practically the whole day but now I think I'm all good though there's nowhere to go on a Sunday. I actually woke up really really early today like 6,45am and I don't even know why but okay really need to get out of SXB on weekends cannot afford to waste anymore weekends! Was searching for train tix in bed but everywhere is so expensive I swear if I could actually afford it I will be flying out every Thursday and returning on Monday night but being a poor student one has to search for the cheapest tix which don't exist sometimes. And this no shopping thing is really getting to me omg I need to buy something but there is nothing to buy and nowhere to buy from argh. London and Paris is having a brandy sale today but I am so near yet so far argh was actually supposed to fly up to London this weekend!! But I didn't book and the tix have gone and November tix are still not out yet haha really appreciating the convenience of London now because it's so accessible whereas if I wanna go anywhere by plane from here I have to actually take the plane to London first.

Okay it's been half an hour since the eggs have boiled so am going to eat now and probably do some work today. Classes are too intense need to WORKKKKK. Oh and it's Mid-Autumn Festival today!!! I am craving for mooncakes and chinese food so bad (cries).

La première semaine de cours

L'internet ne marche pas depuis environ une heure donc je vais essayer d'écrire mon blog en français. C'est un grand problème parce que je voulait faire beaucoup de choses et répondre aux emails mais il n'est pas possible maintenant. Néanmoins ce n'est pas la fin du monde même s'il n'y a pas d'Internet. Excusez-moi à l'avance pour le mauvais français ...

Cette semaine était telle vite c'est incroyable. J'avais 17h de classes et elles sont tous très difficiles parce que tous les choses sont en français et seulement français. Le lundi je suis allée au secrétariat pour clarifier quelques choses, et après cela Hannah et moi nous avons assisté à une classe de l'ancien français. C'était intéressant mais c'est un module de licence 2 donc je trouve qu'elle était trop difficile. Le prof était très sympa mais je ne pouvais pas comprendre le contenu comme les siècles et l'évolution du latin au français et ainsi de suite. Alors je pense que je ne vais pas s'inscrire à cette classe ... Après la classe H et moi nous marchions à IKEA qui n'est pas trop loin de l'université, environ une heure à pied. H a acheté quelques trucs mais moi je voulais juste manger les boulettes. C'était très longtemps depuis la dernière fois (en février à Stockholm!) que je l'avais mangé et c'était très bon.

Le mardi j'avais une classe à 8h et je pense que je vais s'inscrire à cette classe mais la seule problème est c'est à 8h haha ... Mais de toute façon je devrais se lever plus tôt. Il y avait deux classes de linguistiques dans l'après-midi et je les aime. J'étais très très fatiguée et après les classes je suis allée à Rivetoile avec Sena pour faire les courses et puis j'ai mangé kebab pour le dîner.

Finalement l'Internet marche maintenant!!

Le mercredi était plus ou moins le même avec 6h de classes. J'ai manqué la classe du matin parce que je ne pouvais pas se réveiller, encore, mais je ne m'intéresse pas vraiment dans cette classe. Après ma dernière classe qui terminait à 18h je suis allée à la centre-ville pour dîner avec Oliver et Viivi. Nous sommes allées à un petit bistrot qui s'appelle L'épicerie pour manger les tartines qui est une spécialité alsacienne, et bien sur avec le vin. Normalement je ne bois pas très souvent mais j'ai toujours préféré le vin blanc que le vin rouge. Le repas était assez bon et je pense que je vais revenir!

Le jeudi j'avais 6h de classes encore et après cela j'ai rencontré mon buddy et ses amis. Ils sont tous très gentils et nous avons mangé à "Au Brasserie" qui a beaucoup de spécialités alsaciennes et la bière. À nouveau je n'aime pas la bière normalement mais la bière alsacienne est très différent des autres bières! J'ai oublié le nom du plat mais il était un nom alsacienne que je ne sais pas comment prononcer.

Hier je n'avais pas de classes, finalement. Au début je voulait assister à un cours de littérature du matin mais je trouve que l'œuvre est un que j'ai déjà étudié alors il n'y a aucun intérêt. S et moi nous sommes allées se promener dans l'après-midi et dans le soir V nous a invités chez elle. Elle cuisinait le porc avec la salade et c'était la première fois que j'ai goûté le fromage mozzarella! Il était assez tard quand je suis rentrée chez moi et j'étais très fatiguée.

Aujourd'hui je me suis réveillé assez tard. S et moi nous avons mangé la nourriture thaïlandais (enfin un peu de nourriture asiatique!!) et nous avons acheté des livres. J'ai réussi de trouver deux livres dont j'ai besoin pour un des modules et j'ai également acheté deux livres de "L'accro du shopping". Je les ai déjà lu en anglais mais c'est cool à lire en français encore. Nous avons faire plus les courses parce que je mange trop beaucoup et je finis toujours ma nourriture très rapidement.

Je ne sais pas quoi faire pour demain encore mais il semble qu'il pourrait pleuvoir demain. Le temps hier et aujourd'hui était vraiment beau et j'espère qu'il va rester de cette façon ...

Home

Finally back home for summer so I've slightly more time now. Been back for slightly over a week now, haven't done much tbh ... Feeling really lazy this summer, plus my summer break is really short so I wasn't intending on working or interning this time. Anyway I landed last Friday evening, so came back and had a really nice home-cooked dinner (finally) T_T Honestly missed my mom's cooking so much. Then I spent the rest of the evening lying on the sofa HAHAHA and feeling weird about being back. It feels like I haven't left yet so many things have changed so much.

Saturday was spent trying to unpack, and I listed a bunch of stuff for sale. Went out with the family to JCube in the evening for dinner then my sis went to skate. I was really looking forward to skating except that my ankle still hasn't recovered and it's been over a month already. This is the first time I've sprained my ankle so I don't really know what to expect argh. Stayed at home on Monday, then went to town with my dad on Tuesday, stayed at home on Wednesday again, went to town to collect some stuff on Thursday and met Steph on Friday! We had lunch at the same Jap restaurant that has FREE FLOW RICE (HEHE) and then went to the shops. Didn't buy anything and anyway I'm on a no-buy this summer because I have way too much stuff and I need to save $$$. And then my results came out on the bus home with Steph ... Sigh I also dk what to do, I guess I could've studied much earlier but tbh I really did do a lot more studying this year and I'd been doing consistent work throughout the year so I really dk what's the problem. I wish I could say that studying pays off, but no it doesn't it's almost as if studying has the opposite effect because I got higher for the mods I don't study for. I'm just hoping that these haven't been moderated yet and that hopefully they are going to moderate, but Idk. On the bright side I've improved by an entire grade band for both Use of French and French Oral, so I guess that's pretty good though I still have no idea how I did so badly last year ugh. SIGH. It actually feels a bit like JC all over again, like how I switched from Econs to Physics at the last minute and regretted and now this just makes me wonder if I should've stayed with IR in the first place. Consequences of decisions s i g h .

Don't really want to do anything don't really know what to do but still feels like I have so many things to do argh. Am gonna post about the Brandy garage sale soon been wanting to do that for ages so probably tomorrow!! And I really wish my ankle will recover soon it's so inconvenient to do anything gah.

Exams

First TGIF spent at home in more than a month? And only because all of us in the house are now down to one last exam and we all finish next week! Had curry for dinner and it was really good. 

Can't believe it was only last Friday that I was slogging away in the library for econs T_T Last weekend was such a horrible weekend, had Micro on Thursday, Macro on Monday and Stats on Tuesday so it was literally 3 consecutive papers except I was lucky enough to get the weekend. So far I've had French Oral, which went okay I guess. I didn't manage to finish my presentation, was down to my last point but the examiner told me to conclude so I went straight to the conclusion. When I was timing my presentation it only took 4min30s, but I didn't memorise my presentation word by word this time so I guess I spoke a lot slower during the actual presentation. The questions were quite okay, though I don't know if my answers or preparation were actually sufficient enough or if they addressed the question properly now thinking back about it :( I had one question that was unexpected and I was struggling to give an example and ended up giving the most cliche example of Paris (my topic was on tourism) "je dois donner un example ..." T_T So that was French Oral. Had slightly more than a week (10 days) to study for Micro, and I'm proud to say that I actually (almost) completed all the past year papers!!! Not sure how effective it was because the paper was really hard and I know I had some mistakes ... Was so tired after Micro and I was supposed to study Stats that afternoon but my brain just wasn't working. Dedicated the weekend to Macro and it was terrible because I did Macro right at the start of Easter break but by then I'd forgotten like EVERY SINGLE THING so it was as though I had to study all over again T_T So I didn't manage to touch stats until after the Macro paper. Made quite a few mistakes in Macro as well and didn't manage to finish my essays argh but I really didn't know what to write by then and there wasn't enough time!! I had a blister on my finger after the exam. And I wrote 15 sides. Then it was stats the next day and I couldn't remember the formulas T_T Didn't finish the stats paper, had 25m worth that I didn't have time to finish T_T Just hoping that I pass everything now. French written next week. I think it's good that I started and am ending with French and had Econs in the middle so I didn't have to keep switching subjects to study, though it was quite hard with Econs because Micro was so much math, Macro was more essay and graphs and Stats is just stats ... Okay please just let me pass everything please. :(

In other news I also sprained my ankle for the first time in my life yesterday. Went for a French revision class and missed a step when I was walking down the stairs. Went to the school clinic and the doctor said it was a hyperextension (??) because I basically slid down the stairs on the front of my right foot T_T It wasn't even swollen at first and I could still walk then within an hour it started to swell and now my right ankle is about 1.5 times the size of my left. So annoying and I've been limping about everywhere and I walk so slowly it took me half an hour to get to school today instead of the usual 15min a r g h. And I was supposed to go for the OML sample sale that day!!! And I sprained it right before I was going to leave school ugh.

Anyway there isn't much else exciting happening in my life so I've just been entertaining myself by adding things to my Brandy wishlist. Pinterest is wonderful hahaha but it just makes me want to buy everything o m g and I'm actually really broke right now T_T

Keeping my fingers crossed for French on Tuesday and hoping that my ankle will recover soon!!!!!!

School

I've been MIA for so long because I've been so super busy with everything. Supposed to do French now but I think my brain just stops working after midnight but I can't wake up in the morning so I have to finish it now omg .........

Anyway, happy CNY! Not much happening over here. I wish I was back in sg hahaha and I haven't even had time to watch the CNY countdown yet T_T It's a thing which I need to do lol I'll probably replay it this week and like speed through the boring stuff. I am also craving mandarin oranges which they don't sell here so clementines will have to suffice.

Life has been super hectic and packed but exciting! I went to Norway a week ago and spent a week there. Managed to see the aurora borealis twice, and also visited the Brandy Melville store in Oslo and got a ton of stuff - 4 Donilyn tanks + 1 Nadine + 1 Chiyo + 1 Ellie + 1 Genevie + 1 Bobbie and a Nana dress, which is basically the long sleeve version of the Alena dress. Too bad it only comes in black for now :( I was there on Thursday and they had a whole bunch and I hesitated cause it was 330NOK which is like 30GBP/$60?! Then I went back the following Wednesday and it was THE LAST PIECE on the last chance rack and I just couldn't bear to leave it behind LOL. So yeah. I also caved in and finally bought the American Apparel Tennis Skirt in white and am intending to get it in more colours ... New clothes hooray!! Brandy just had a warehouse sale ytd in Cali. I wish I was in Cali.

In other news strings concert and opera are coming up in less than a month, making it 5 more performances this term since the opera runs 4 shows. I'm slightly dreading the thought of having to play for 3 hours non-stop (okay there are breaks in between the acts but still) but it's my first time being involved in something that's not purely orchestral so it's very exciting! We just had the first rehearsal today with the chorus and some of the soloists and they were really good. In addition I've also finally reached the end of SW applications and have spent the past few weeks on apps and interviews. But I'm pretty happy to have came out with 2 offers, so Easter's looking very very busy. Exciting days ahead!!!

And I'm going to quickly finish up my French and sleep asap.

End of Week 2

Second week of school has passed and things have been slowing down to a more acceptable pace since the submission of my French essay. I know I've said this enough but I really NEED to stop leaving things until the last minute but it's just that I don't have this sense of urgency for some things?! But anyway, it's done, I just hope it'll be a good ending to this module because I really quite enjoyed it. The thing about literature modules is that it gives you an extremely good reason to READ and you get to read novels instead of textbooks. Novels!!! I haven't been reading much since JC to be honest and I always feel like I'm not sure what type of books I'm supposed to be reading ... I mean I still enjoy children's books LOL but I go through them pretty quickly and like young adult books are not very meaningful and sometimes too emotional ...? And then there're the classics which I've already read and popular novels which I have also read so now I'm kind of at a loss of what to read. I guess I need to start on Les Mis in French, after all I'm watching the play soon. And I haven't read the Fault in Our Stars and it's been so hyped up on Tumblr so I guess I should read it soon. But anyway, I really liked 19th century French lit partially because a lot of the works were more familiar, like Madame Bovary and Cousine Bette so I've read a number of works by the authors. However the emphasis of the module was not to read it in a conventional way, but rather from other perspectives and trying to get a deeper sense of the meaning. While it was pretty enlightening studying those texts I think it'd be too difficult to try the same with all other novels ... I mean I just want to enjoy a book. Haha.

Overslept on Thursday morning and missed the econs lecture :( Macro is actually starting to look better this term we're doing forex!! My favourite part of econs haha. Went for dinner at C's place today and stayed until quite late talking. I love days like this!

Currently browsing the Brandy Melville site. They really NEED to have a UK website soon I'm not kidding. It was up for like 2 days? And when I went to Carnaby yesterday it was under renovations and closed for a week. I am so tempted by every single thing on the website T_T My current favourite top is the Genevie top which I got in Milan. I usually hate wearing long sleeve tops and horizontal stripes but omg this top is perfect, I got it in the navy base with white stripes as well. I love Brandy <3

Back to School

It's barely been 3 days in and I'm already overwhelmed with so many things to do. I'm glad that a lot of things have been settled quickly but there's still a lot of last minute surprises (or rather shocks) popping up and lots of uncertainty. Of course the topmost priority now is my essay which is due on Monday but I am still less than halfway done. I really need to stop doing this!!!

Also been sleeping very late and taking naps in the afternoon (why is London so cold) but at least the days are getting longer. Having afternoon classes in December was just completely depressing because you walk into your tutorial at 3pm and it's still relatively bright and by the time you come out one hour later it's completely dark. I miss summer days and wearing skirts and shorts.

In other news I have also discovered the wonders of Topshop Joni jeans. They're high waisted so I don't have to bother with belts and stuff and the jeans with their new material are super stretchy like leggings. They also go well with crop tops which is why I am still wearing crop tops and cropped jumpers in winter. I currently own 3 pairs but I really need to get a pair in black even though I don't wear black in general.

This is actually quite a pointless post but I'm trying to record my days so that I can look back next time and know what I was actually doing lol. Today was actually a pretty smooth day, I managed to wake up on time and prepped myself for school without being in a rush. This waking up in the morning thing is really getting to me because I just don't have the energy to do anything if I wake up too late but yet I just can't wake up earlier. Tim's alarm clock Christmas present has been pretty effective the past few days (yes I got an alarm clock for Christmas!! Cheers for practical gifts) but I'm still waiting to see how long it can last before I get immune to it again. Anyway, the micro lecture was pretty good, I paid attention throughout the entire lecture and took notes and all, then I came home and on the way back I met my French tutor and we said hi. It's quite coincidental that she actually lives really near me and I've never seen her around the area before. Then I had lunch and lazed around but didn't fall asleep which is a good thing, did a bit of work and then left early to prep for rehearsal. Reh was pretty good as well and then I came back and lazed around some more (I really need to stop) and now I am going to shower and finally get started on work.

3 due dates tomorrow please let me survive them all.

Back in the +44

Been really crazy since I came back to London, second year is no joke man! This week is even busier with 4 rehearsals and concert on Saturday but I did want to pen down some thoughts before I forget everything.

Anyway, I came back on London on Monday morning on the 22nd. C came to fetch me from the station (thank goodness!) and then I spent the morning just lazing around in the new house. I really like our house hehe. Couldn't unpack on the first day cause my room was still serving as the storeroom. I went out in the afternoon to Oxford Street and Regent Street (I HAD to check out Brandy Melville) and met Alice and Anna who were shopping. Then E and T came back the very next day and we had pizza for dinner. And the rest of the first week was spent settling in, buying stuff for the house, unpacking and such. I can't even remember what happened already because it feels like it's been so long and it's already the end of week 4. School life is passing by too quickly. :(

In terms of classes and all I'm rather enjoying my timetable this year - 3.5 days of the long weekend! It never actually feels sufficient though and I always seem to be rushing my French homework the night before classes. My Mondays and Tuesdays are also intensively packed - like literally all of my tutorials have been put together in 2 days alone. I don't have complaints though except that the school is huge and it's been a tiring (but healthy) workout running from one school building to another. And cheers for Free Fridays with Car - so far we've been exploring and walking around London and cycling (last week) but unfortunately I've got rehearsal tomorrow so I don't think I'll go out during the day.

In other news I've also been heavily involved in Music Soc this year. Made a crazy last minute decision to sign up for auditions for the Symphony Orch and got thrown into a fit of panic since I didn't have any suitable pieces in mind and I had to learn whatever it was within 2 days. Very grateful to Evan who took the time out to practise with me on the piano omg ... and by a stroke of pure luck I made it. It was quite a surprise because I honestly knew the parts which I screwed up in and also made a lot of stupid mistakes which I normally don't make ... but well say hi to 5 concerts this term, which is like one every weekend after reading week. And that's also how I ended up with 4 rehearsals this week alone. X_X I don't regret it though, sym orch's been pretty challenging so far and I've missed those type of grilling rehearsals for some reason. I also feel it's a good balance with strings cause there's more variety to the pieces this year. I will manage this, yes.

However work-wise I really think I need to work a lot harder this year. I've been doing my assignments and stuff and generally paying more attention in lectures but it still feels like my brain is not absorbing anything. Really regret not studying more last year because my foundation is really weak now so it's not helping much. Also I feel like I'm approaching quarter-life crisis and not knowing what I'm going to do in future when everyone around seems so sure and determined of their life path and I'm just trying to wake up on time every morning and catching up with work that's due the next day and stuff. Like trying to pull up my grades and get my shit tgt when everyone's applying for internships and summer placements and all. Idk I don't like thinking about it and I don't really know what to think either. Sometimes I also think I've been given so many chances and all but all I do is to ruin things for myself every single time. I don't know really.

Off day tomorrow so let's hope I get some proper work done. I wish time would slow down actually I really don't want school life to end that quickly.

Module Selections

Just got an email from the departmental tutor informing us of our module selections for the upcoming academic year and I'm pretty happy to see that I got my first choice :) We had to submit our selections in mid-June and I literally spent 2 hours researching and deciding before finally going for 19th century French literature. So much effort lol considering that I was basically choosing which century of French lit to study but it was the only module that I get to choose so of course it was important. Felt pretty silly after that I completely missed out on the ELCS modules which really look interesting but noooooo I don't have enough units T_T

Anyway, the module I picked was FREN2106 on 19th century French literature. There were quite a few reasons as to why I picked that over the rest - the texts, the assessment mode and as well as the tutor. I'd done a presentation on 19th-20th French literature before and also read a few of the texts (though I've forgotten them by now) so some of the titles were pretty familiar. Also considered the fact that I would rather one less examination in term 3 so doing 2 assessed essays might be slightly better ... though experience tells me examination essays tend to score better but oh well :( They could've just been extra lenient this year! Lastly, I attended a few lectures by the same tutor last year which I thought were pretty interesting and I do like his style of lecturing so hopefully it'd be the same or better for this module!

The other module that I was considering was FREN2107 - also French lit but on the contemporary period. suppose I gave it a pass in the end because the two-hour examination on ALL aspects sounded too scary hahaha. I also briefly looked through summaries of the texts and found that they were slightly too dark for my liking so well it's back to the 19th century I guess.

I stupidly only discovered that we could actually choose ELCS modules as well only just now so I guess it might be a bit late for me to make any amendments ... Looked through the list of modules for term 1 (because term 2 will probably be too hectic so I would rather take more modules in term 1 first) and thankfully there wasn't anything that I would be particularly keen on. I did locate 2 very interesting modules that were only taught in term 2 - ELCS6009 and ELCS6028 - both linguistics modules and aspects in which I've always wanted to explore more. It might have been a good chance for me to get out of my comfort zone but then again even though I may like it (or I may not) I wasn't too sure about doing well in it academically, so... And anyway it's in term 2. Note to self to attempt some of the readings during my free time hahaha. This is the thing about only having interest but no skill in a subject hahahaha I guess I would prefer studying it in my own time and it reduces the stress of having to absorb so much stuff within a limited period of time.

Anyway to conclude I feel that UCL offers way too many interesting modules but way too little academic units so I really really wish we could get to learn more stuff hahaha okay I know the lack of time is a big problem but still. Could we maybe just take modules for fun I feel like I learn much more (and more willingly) during then LOLLOL.

UCL Global Citizenship Summer School and Bulgarian

Now that I've been back for a while it's time to sort out my posts! Busied myself with UCL's Global Citizenship Summer School in my last 2 weeks in London which included some very basic Bulgarian lessons. I have to admit that it was the language component which attracted me to sign up for it in the first place because I have some sort of obsession with European languages in general.

We started off last Monday with an introduction session and an un-conference (not UN conference) where we had to discuss aspects - basically characteristics and skills that a global citizen ought to have. I was in the same group as some people whom I already knew but anyway most of them were linguists, so we were very meticulous with the words used - for instance "tolerate" had a negative connotation so it was almost the very first word to be taken out. All the groups submitted their word lists afterwards and they made a really cool word cloud with it!

What my group came up with!

We also got a really cool map :D

After that we went for our first language sessions! I didn't specify any preferred language as I thought all of them sounded really cool and exotic - they offered German, Slovakian, Hungarian, Serbian, Romanian and Bulgarian - and I was allocated to Bulgarian, which was a good thing because I think I would've been exasperated at not knowing how to speak a single word in Romania the week before had I been allocated to Romanian. Also I've not been to Bulgaria yet, so there's a higher possibility of me visiting there in the near future as opposed to Hungary and Romania! So yes, I was happy with what I'd been given :D And everyone from my Bulgarian class were really nice and friendly! Even the tutors hehe. In our first lesson we learnt the Bulgarian alphabet which was the Cyrillic alphabet. I was glad that I finally got pushed to learn it properly because I'd been meaning to learn Russian since years ago but was always put off by the alphabet. It's quite difficult to remember because there are more letters than the latin alphabet, but generally easier to pronounce as it's a phonetic alphabet. We also did some simple greetings and phrases, and that was about it for the short one-hour class.

The rest of the days followed a schedule somewhat like this: lecture in the morning (10-11), academic tutorial / discussion on the lecture (11-12), lunch (12-1), skills lecture (1-2), language class (2.15-3.15) and project tutorial (3.30-4.30). For the project we basically had to come up with 2 "outputs" - a poster and a film. I really enjoyed all of the lectures because they covered aspects such as geography, anthropology, linguistics, politics, international relations and even the economy in relation to the Danube river. Prior to this the only thing I knew about the Danube was the Blue Danube Waltz lol :( And my favourite lecture was the one by the Hungarian lecturer Adam Nadasdy on language along the Danube! It was really inspiring and I was so tempted to study linguistics hahaha. Also went for a talk on Bulgarian writers in London in the same week and that was interesting too!

Stuff we learnt about during the lecture

Conjugaison in Bulgarian class, much to my delight (HAHA)

 

Bulgarian snacks that our tutor kindly brought for us!! - Bulgarian delight that was rose-flavoured (similar to Turkish delight) and this peanut biscuit sandwich. I love the Bulgarian delight because it leaves a burst of rose aroma as an aftertaste. :)

On Monday this week we also had a story-telling session by people who came from the region close to the Danube, followed by a food-tasting session! The only food I could recognise was the Hungarian noodles (only because I had those in Budapest).

Not a very good photo due to poor lighting and no filter, but photos won't do justice to the food!

Bulgarian class :D The only photo where everyone's face was inside haha

The rest of this week we worked mainly on our projects. Had to submit the poster by Wednesday so we stayed back on Tuesday to finish up! Really thankful for such a cooperative and efficient group ^_^ And here's the QR code for the Bulgarian quiz we made: (I never knew that coloured QR codes work too!!)

Couldn't attend on Thursday and Friday because my flight was on Thursday :( There was supposed to a be a guest lecture on Thursday but I had last minute things to settle so I had to give it a miss :( And Friday was the exhibition and party! Really sad that I missed the fun part but apparently our group won for the poster so well done to us!! It turned out really great:

Photo sent by Evangeline! It's quite pixelated because whatsapp reduced the quality :( But it looks good! We played with the words смел (pronounced as "smell" and means brave in Bulgarian) and "smell" because Bulgaria is famous for their rose oils! Rose petals from my bouquet hehehe they dried up but they still had some scent left I guess and glad they came in somewhat useful ... and incidentally also remembered that my favourite mask was Bulgarian Rose too hehe. But yeah I missed all the excitement, back here and sweating in this humid and sweltering weather :(

Anyway to conclude I felt that it was a well-spent two weeks! It was really intense though as compared to my usual school hours because in my last term I only had 10 hours of classes each week, but summer school was about 5 hours each day like 10-4. The lectures were very interesting and you can really tell that a lot of effort was put into the preparations for this, judging from all the materials we had and the people they invited just to speak to us. We're really lucky to have had the chance to attend everything and without having to pay :O And I'm so determined to continue with Bulgarian so that I can at least attempt to speak it when I visit Bulgaria! Would highly recommend this to all juniors, though I can't comment on the other schools hahaha. The only regret I had was that I couldn't commit to it as much as I had wanted to since my flight was on Thursday and I was busy with house-moving stuff so I missed quite a few sessions :( Nonetheless it was a still a great experience and I'm really glad to have met my fellow Bulgarian classmates and it was a good conclusion to my 9 months in London :)

Danube on Thames website: http://danubeonthames.wordpress.com/

Our group's Bulgarian documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PODoEDYwMY4