9 down, holy cow I've finished!

So that's it. I have finished my degree. There are no more assignments or exams. I am done!

These last three years have been the hardest of life, but I think I've learned so much. Despite the difficulty of my degree, the homesickness and the general growing up, I actually enjoyed it too. Now comes the even more scary part of becoming a grown up. Bring it on!

Getting back into the swing of things...

Since the Easter Holidays, I haven't been keeping up my blog at all. It's not because I haven't had anything to write about, but rather that I haven't had the time or energy to write about all the things that have been happening.

In the last couple of months, I have:

• Been to Comic Con
• Visited my father in Portugal
• Went on the world's tiniest spinning teacups with my brother while my family participated in the Market Drayton 2013 10K race
• Watched the Exorcist
• Been voted Vice President of Warwick Glee
• Won Performance of the Year with I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift in Glee Club
• Finished all assignments and exams for my first year of University
• Had my younger sister visit me for a couple of days
• Bought an iPad with my birthday money

And probably a whole lot more that I can't think of right now.

So, my plan for the Summer is to get back into my blogging. I will start it off by writing posts about my C date and D date, then see where we go from there!

2013: Week 2

This week has been all about getting back into Uni life.

 The first few days were spent on solid revision for the exam I had on Wednesday. I found this really hard for a couple of reasons. The more I revised, the more I realised that I didn't really know a lot of the content for one of the modules in the exam. The more I realised this, the more I stressed out about it. The more I stressed out about it, the more I wished I was still at home with my family. The more I sat there missing my family, the more I realised I was wasting precious revision time. It was a vicious cycle. I managed to do a load of revision. I went through two revision guides, and filled half an A4 notebook with notes and exam practise.

So you can imagine that when it got to Wednesday evening, and I could tick off the exam, a huge weight lifted from me, and I began to relax back into my Uni routine.

I even managed to polish off a big plate full of pasta. I was meant to take a picture before I ate it, but I came out of my exam REALLY hungry!

I looked up at my desk and noticed that Pascal seems to look happier than usual. I'm not sure why that is...

I no longer have ducks outside my building in the morning. Instead I have Canada Geese. And let me tell you, they are huge. Quite terrifying really.

My new chalk board has been put to good use already. I actually really love it. It is the coolest thing ever. Makes me feel proper geeky :)

I got woken up at 3.40 this morning by a fire alarm, and had to stand outside in the freezing cold for 10 minutes. In my pyjamas. I was meant to be asleep -.- I did however get to go to archery for the first time since the beginning of last term (oops!) today. I think I'm actually quite good at it, for a beginner anyway. My arm wasn't so convinced though...

It's amazing the damage a piece of string can do! I had fun though, and can't wait to go again next week :)

So that was my week. More pictures and hopefully blog posts next week!

Home

I  knew being back at Uni was going to be tough for me. I won't say I have trouble settling in as such. The people I live with are lovely, I have friends who are also lovely, and I enjoy going to my lectures. My biggest problem is that I get really homesick.

My family is probably the biggest part of my life, and I don't just mean the size of it! To sum up (maths pun alert!) what family is like for me, let me tell you a story.

Over holidays, I was trying to see what my younger sister, Addy, thought about Christmas. Now most little kids are really excited about presents, but when I asked Addy what she thought was the most important thing about Christmas, she said Christmas dinner. We then asked mum, who was also sat with us at the time, what she thought was the most important thing about Christmas. Mum said family. Addy then basically shouted at mum, saying "that's not the most important thing about Christmas! That's the most important thing EVERY day." For a 4 year old, she is pretty wise. But that is what family is like for me.

Don't get me wrong, my family is far from perfect. We have our ups and downs like everyone. In fact I've pretty much all but lost my relationship with one of my sisters. But I'm hopefully that we will get it back, and I look forward to the day we do.

I'm not sure why this year particularly, but I've also grown a lot closer to Apollo's family. So much so that I didn't even think twice about spending Christmas day away from my mum for the most part, which is something that I've never done before. I love having them as my second family, or rather an extension of my first family.

When I'm at Uni, I miss my family like crazy. I miss singing Wicked with my sister. I miss the balls of hysteria we become when I play Bubble Bobble with my mum. I miss Addy coming up to me, tapping me on the shoulder and then pretending it wasn't her. I miss my little brother riding into the room on an upside down ironing board horse. I miss my Step-dad making enchiladas for a family dinner. I miss having Apollo just there to enjoy these things with me.

But now that I've finished the exam I've been worrying and stressing about and revising for for the last few  days, I think I'm ready to be able to enjoy surviving without them for a little while. I know that I'm never really without them. They are always there to support me. But I don't want to have to always depend on them for every thing.

That said, I still think, in the words of Laura Ingalls from the Little House on the Prairie...

Home is the nicest word there is.