Embarking on a new semester

Exams ended last week and I was grateful to have a few precious days off before the new semester began. To celebrate our survival through exam period, a few friends and I went on a small adventure to Watford where we visited the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London for The Making of Harry Potter! As much as I love Southampton, it’s always nice to explore somewhere new, especially when travelling within the UK is so easy. We took the train from Southampton Central station to Watford (a town I had never been to before) and explored the town centre for a few hours before hopping on a bus destined for the Making of Harry Potter tour. The tour was fantastic! It felt kind of unreal to see the endless pieces of original props and sets. There was so much to see, I really had no idea just how much effort went into creating and designing everything for the films. I now have a new found awe and appreciation for the creativity and talent of the people who worked towards putting it all together. As well as getting to see original pieces from the movies we also had a go at “flying” on a broomstick in front of a green screen, drank our first glasses of Butterbeer and took a stroll down Diagon Alley. My friend Ivy took hundreds of photos and I had a hard time choosing which ones to show you all but here are a few:

Outside the Warner Bros. Studio Tour.

Anybody recognise this from the second film?

Ollivander’s wand shop in Diagon Alley.

And, of course, Hogwarts Castle!

After returning back to Southampton the rest of the weekend passed in the blink of an eye and, before I knew it, it was time to start the new semester. I spent some time looking over various optional modules for this semester and checking to make sure there were no clashes in the timetable. After now having had all my introductory lectures for my modules, I’m very happy with my choices. They’ve all grabbed my interest and I’m looking forward to making the most of this semester. My four modules consist of two compulsory modules: Evolution and Plant Development and Function, as well as two optional modules (which I was free to choose): Animal Reproduction and Development and an interdisciplinary module about Global Challenges. I’m particularly excited to see what I’ll be able to get out of the Global Challenges module. The teaching format is a little different to my other modules and the students come from a range of disciplines. I think it will be interesting to gain a new perspective on issues such as food and energy security, biodiversity and climate change from people other than my fellow biologists.

As well as starting new modules, I've also attended a talk about possible Third Year dissertation projects abroad and an engrossing talk by Simon Watt about what it was like behind the scenes of filming Channel 4's “Inside Nature’s Giants". In addition, I've been quite busy this week looking for summer internships and placements. As important as graduating with a good degree is, I know how valuable getting experience is too! Therefore, I'm hoping to secure something (whether it be voluntary or paid work) that will give me a good chance to gain some valuable experience during the summer break.

Furthermore, with so much going on at the moment I’ve decided to cut back on two dance classes per week - so rather than dancing for just over ten hours each week I’ll now being doing roughly seven hours. I’m probably still dancing more than I have time for but even cutting back a little will allow me to spend more time doing work for my course, which is actually something I really want because I am genuinely excited about these new modules! Our first dance competition is in less than two weeks so I know my schedule is soon going to get pretty hectic, but I’m determined to get the best of both worlds.

Kristin

Trains, trains and Ziggy Stardust

Today marks the start of the new semester and a new selection of modules for everyone to dig their teeth into. Although the first couple of days will mainly consist of introductory lectures outlining syllabuses, recommending texts and detailing the various methods of assessment, I’m sure by the end of the week my workload will have returned to its normal trend. The module I’m most intrigued about (albeit with equal amounts of apprehension) is my computing labs course, which I opted to take instead of the traditional practical physics labs. I’m guessing this module will not be too dissimilar from the kinds of things that fellow blog writer Robin deals with in his course and hence I may be calling upon his help sometime in the near future!

Ever since I finished my exams over a week ago, time has simply flown by. It’s rare for a student to receive the same freedom during term time as you have over the summer break and as such I really tried to make the most of it.

Last Monday, as I mentioned in my previous blog, I travelled across to Wales to investigate a graduate level medical physics course, which I found to be really useful and has definitely helped me to understand where my future might take me. The most surprising thing I learnt was just how high the competition per place is, so although I would really love to stay in Southampton, I think I’d settle for any offer of a placement.

As if an eight hour round train journey wasn’t enough, a couple of days later I got on another train to go home for the weekend. On Saturday we travelled up to Barnet for my Grandad’s 80^th birthday meal, where nearly everyone from that side of the family was present, including my Aunt who I hadn’t seen for about seven years. Needless to say it was fantastic to see them all again!

Tonight I am going out to celebrate the end of exams with some of friends, but bizarrely, it’ll be as part of a joint History and English social! I should probably mention that both my twin sister and my girlfriend study History at Southampton, so naturally this is not the first History social I have taken part in. We are heading into Bedford Place to go to a club called Ninety Degrees, which I have never actually been to in my two and a half years at Southampton! It should be a fun night.

As with all good socials, it has a fancy dress theme – historical figures for the Historians and fictional characters for the English students. Considering I was technically neither, I opted to go down the music history route (since that’s what I know best), eventually deciding upon David Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust! The great thing about my choice is that it has both historical and fictional elements, so I will be able to fit in with both crowds!

Getting prepared for my Ziggy Stardust transformation

Before I went home on Thursday, a couple of housemates and I went into the city centre to find our fancy dress outfits for the night out. It’s not every day that three men go shopping and between them manage to buy a flat cap, white tights, neon orange fishnet gloves and a pink wig! Since we are all part of the fancy dress society, we thought we really need to show these History and English students how to do fancy dress properly and start semester two in style!

James

Time to celebrate!

It’s finally the end of semester one! Exams are over, assignments are handed in and most people are enjoying the weekend off before we start all over again next week. 

My exams finished on Tuesday, so I’ve spent most of the week relaxing and catching up with various things which got pushed to the bottom of the pile during the exam period. It’s scary to think about the fact that my penultimate semester has finished, and that I’ve only got around four months left here at Southampton! I’m excited to see what the next term will bring, especially as I’m taking a module in another subject, Geography, for the first time. Combined honours students like myself don’t often have the opportunity to take electives, as they’re known here, so when I found out I was able to this year, I jumped at the chance. It will be challenging – different subjects often require very different writing styles – but I’m sure it will add lots of positives to my university experience. Plus, the topic of the module, Geographies of Nature, is directly relevant to my dissertation, which I hope will prove helpful.

The highlight of last week, as mentioned by Robin, had to be SUSU’s Petting Zoo, one of several events put on by the Students’ Union to help relieve exam stress. I loved meeting the dogs, and my friend Emily got to hold a guinea pig!

Meeting these little guys definitely cheered us up!

As I said in my last post, I moved up to Southampton during my exams, which has been a complete godsend. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve still had early mornings and late nights, but at least I could leave the library safe in the knowledge that my bed was only a 10 minute walk, rather than a 40 minute drive! My new housemates made me feel very welcome, and even came and celebrated the end of my exams with me, with dinner and drinks at Turtle Bay. I’ve grown quite accustomed to living in Southampton again, so it will be quite strange to go back to Bournemouth, although I’ve missed being able to turn the heating on whenever I want! The luxuries of living at home!

Turtle Bay – One of my favourite Southampton eateries

I’m currently on my way up to London for a friend’s birthday party. It will be a great chance to catch up with all my uni friends and celebrate the end of exams all over again. I’m especially looking forward to seeing Florence, who wrote for Life at Southampton last year, as I haven’t seen her since September! 

I’ve got all my journey essentials!

I’m also planning on catching up on some well deserved rest. Having not sat exams at Southampton for over a year, I’d forgotten how much it can take it out of you, but I know all the hard work will be worth it in the end.

Tayler

Stress less fest

And, with the final tick of the clock at the front of the exam hall, that, as they say, was that!

As with James, Tayler and Kristin, recent proceedings for me have been dominated by the presence of exams and, although fortunately I’ve had a much smaller number than usual (just the two!) because my module choices were more heavily weighted towards coursework-based assessment (much better for someone who personally hates exams!), there was still the lingering prospect of this set counting for the biggest proportion of my degree to date, being my first batch in third year – so no pressure, then!

But thankfully, despite the usual hefty amount of panic, worry and general neuroticism along the way, I’ve come out on the other side of them, and now have a few days to sit back, relax and enjoy a short spell of responsibility-lifted freedom and celebration – well, while working towards the Third Year Project, that is!

January can often be a tough spell for everyone involved, in truth, with lecturers having to set the papers (while keeping questions proportionately fair and challenging!), students feeling the pressure to make the most of any and all potential revision time, and the University itself seeing an influx of demand, diligence and drive on behalf of the student body – just try getting a desk in Hartley Library during exam season without firstly waking up at crazy o’ clock in the morning and you’ll see what I mean!

Yet simultaneously it’s such spells which I often find can bring out the best in University life as well, with many a person on my Software Engineering course, for example, ready and willing to clarify any difficulties others might have with material (in turn testing and benefitting both parties’ knowledge), while others make a habit of contributing their revision notes towards an online shared resource which puts the more difficult concepts in plain English and helps everybody on their way – particularly handy when faced with rows of seemingly impenetrable Greek letters, for example!

And the support of fellows isn’t just academic, with the spirit of revision inducing ‘study groups’ within my household where we all get together in somebody’s room, with laptops, textbooks and notepads in hand, and we stick on a film which we’ve all seen a hundred times (to give some background noise without distracting us!) and work for a couple of hours at a time, knowing that the presence of one another working hard will force us to keep going even when distractions are abound. Well, at least until the need to procrastinate becomes too much, I guess, and we end up watching the film!

Plus, the Students’ Union is frequently on the lookout to make sure that its members (and that’s everyone who attends the University – you automatically become a member when you enrol!) are also well supported and coping with potential exam stress, with the annual ‘Stress Less Fest’ events playing a huge part in making sure everyone has an enjoyable and relaxing interruption, on a daily basis, to the pressures the season brings.

This time round, the happening which I went along to took place just inside the main Union building, in the form of a visit from a local petting zoo, featuring some fantastically fluffy rabbits and guinea pigs, which even included ducks, chickens, and two extremely excitable yet happy dogs – it certainly brought back my own memories of living on a farm!

The dogs had a clever tactic to ensure they received their fair share of attention – winding their leads around people’s legs!

Other activities throughout the week included dance sessions, lengthy screenings of some student favourite comedy series at Union Films (the Union’s very own cinema), as well as tea and cake sales and free fruit handouts, providing a great motivation to put down the books for an hour or two and remember to have a moderate amount of play to compliment the necessary work.

It’s strange to think that for many of my friends at University, this was the penultimate exam season, particularly after growing up with their ritualistic January appearances throughout the educational system. But with graduation on the horizon for them, I know plenty of people are excited to take the benefits that being tested in such a way brings, like the ability to concentrate on achieving their goals and getting the marks they want, and apply it in the working world. Personally, however, I’ve got another year after this one – so plenty of time to worry about the real world at a later date!

As for what’s up next, after a few days’ rest I’ll be throwing myself into intensive rehearsals for the next show I’m involved in; after all, Showstoppers’ (the musical theatre society) production of Little Shop of Horrors, a B-movie style horror-comedy bonanza which features murder, man-eating plants and a hefty amount of musical cheese, has its opening night in less than two weeks, which is a terrifying enough thought in itself! The first of a number of sneak previews has just been released – check it out below!

I’ll be sure to write about Little Shop more at the time but, for now, it seems like everything is settling into place for another busy semester two, following on from a challenging, yet wholly enjoyable, semester one. And given the nature of University life, I really wouldn’t want it any other way!

Robin

Light at the end of the tunnel

Three exams down and one to go! My last exam for this semester is on Wednesday and then I’ll finally be able to relax for a couple of days (well almost, I will still have dance classes and several rehearsals to attend!). And truth be told, I always find myself having something to do while I’m at uni. I’ve now also made plans to meet up with a couple of my old flatmates from first year which will be a lot of fun. One of them helped me a lot over the summer while I attended a three week intensive Mandarin language training course for beginners. While my mum does know some Mandarin, she never thought of teaching my sister or me. I suppose since my dad’s first language is Swedish it was just easier if we all spoke English at home. (He never taught my sister or me any Swedish until we moved to Sweden when I was twelve.) Anyway, I’ve always though that knowing several languages was very valuable (and cool!), so I tried my best to secure a place on the course, which only had a limited number of places available. The course was funded by the Confucius Institute, which meant we were lucky enough to be given the lessons and learning material for free! Our teacher was super enthusiastic and very encouraging, I’m so grateful I was given the opportunity to take part. By the end of the three week course our final task was to give an entire presentation in Mandarin and this is where my old flatmate came in. He was born in China and had a good knowledge of Mandarin, so he was able to help me a lot, especially with my pronunciation which was (and still is) terrible! If I was to compare learning Swedish and Mandarin, Mandarin is hands down much harder. (I know living in the country of the language you are trying to learn does make it a lot easier but I think that even if I hadn’t lived in Sweden for seven years, Mandarin would still be much harder). Since I rarely use Mandarin in my daily life, I am beginning to forget a lot of what I worked so hard to learn over the summer. I’d actually like to continue to build on my knowledge because I think it would be a very useful language to know and it would make communicating with many of my relatives on my mother’s side a lot easier. So once exams are over I plan on revising what I learnt over the summer. My former flatmate has even agreed to continue to help me learn more Mandarin. I suppose he’ll at least get a good laugh seeing as my pronunciation resembles how an infant would speak (his words not mine). Nevertheless, I am excited to get back into it and grateful for the help.

Me and the other students who took part in the summer course, after receiving our certificates.

I’m also excited to start new modules once semester two begins. However, I think once I’m finished with my last exam I’m going to give my options another think over. I have quite a lot of freedom on my course to choose the modules which I find most interesting and to create my own path (biology is very broad). This is a luxury but it’s also a bit of pressure. It forces you to make decisions about your future and to really think about what YOU want to do. I’m still trying to decide which area of biology I’m most passionate about. I may even want to take a module completely unrelated to my course. In any case I’ll be sure it give it some thought once my last exam is over. Also related to my course, the Biosoc (Biological Sciences Society) committee have arranged for Simon Watt from Inside Nature’s Giants to come to Southampton and talk about life behind the scenes of filming the programme. I attended a number of really interesting and inspiring seminars from various guest speakers last year so I’m excited to see what this year will bring.

Photo of me holding a model of a baby (used for special effects) after attending a talk Faking Science for TV from David Barlow (who has worked on programmes including Life on Earth and Fight for Life) on how scientific research can be used in special effects.

Anyway, it’s back to the books for me! The next time you hear from me I will have finished my last exam… I can’t wait!

Kristin

End of exams

That most unique of days has arrived. The day when your exams are over and you have a new sense of freedom. Perhaps I’m over exaggerating, but the post-examination feeling is definitely one of the best in the student world, especially because this year I finished at the end of the first exam week, leaving me the whole of the second week to relax and enjoy some well-earned lie-ins!

I generally find I cope with the stress of the exam period quite well and I don’t allow it to take over my life, but I am definitely glad I can finally pack away my revision notes and my coloured pens. Overall I felt my three exams went very well and that all the time I spent revising over Christmas was put to good use.

I also want to put the time I have off next week to good use.

My first plan is to travel to Wales next Monday to attend an open day for a graduate level medical physics course. As I mentioned in one of my past blogs, I am torn between becoming a teacher or going into medical physics once I finish my degree, and this event will hopefully allow me to get a clearer picture of where my future might take me. The course has a duration of three years and focuses on clinical training as well as theory, with the added advantage of coming with a salary. Overall it sounds like a brilliant opportunity.

At the end of next week my family are having a large gathering for my Grandad’s 80th birthday meal. Apart from the accustomed “you’ve grown” comments, it will be great to catch up with members of my family, some of whom I haven’t seen for many years.

Sibling love - Our last big family get together was just before Christmas 2012.

On top of that I can’t wait to get the band back up and running, which has taken a back seat in the last couple of months due to us all having other commitments, namely full time jobs or, as in my case, university. Hopefully we’ll manage to book time in a rehearsal space next week and get ourselves back up to speed, and try out some new songs that we have written in our time apart.

One thing you do tend to neglect over revision time is exercise and unfortunately this year it has been no different. If you read my posts regularly you will know I try to be as active as possible, playing a variety of different sports and I can’t wait to get back into the fitness groove, which I will start up again by trying to go swimming every day next week. I also can’t wait to get back to playing in the intramural badminton league and to try and pick up some more points before the Easter break.

As I’m writing this I am just finishing off the last of my Christmas chocolate stash, which has helped me through many long afternoons of revision. Definitely time to turn my attention back to sports and exercise I think…

James

Exam season

One week back and exam season is well underway. I’ve spent most of the days since my last post in the library studying, and Hartley Library is starting to resemble a second home, something which all students can relate to I’m sure. I’m currently in the middle of a four day takeaway exam for my History module. We were able to access the paper at 10am on Monday morning, and have until Thursday afternoon to complete it. It’s my first time sitting an exam of this type and I’ve got to say, I much prefer it to the traditional closed-book exam. If only they were all like this! I’ve got another next Tuesday which is worth 100% of the module – a whopping three hours of writing. But thankfully that will be me done for the semester. I’d love to say I’m looking forward to a break, but my dissertation won’t write itself! Luckily, I’m extremely interested in my topic, and am actually thoroughly enjoying researching and writing the first few paragraphs. It’s all about the world food system, and I’m a total food addict, so it suits me down to the ground.

The joys of revision!

I’m moving up to Southampton tomorrow to stay at a friend’s house until my exams are finished. She doesn’t have any (lucky for some!) so is off on holiday to Egypt. I’m very jealous that she’ll be in the sun whilst I’m working away, but extremely grateful to her for the bed, and to her housemates for putting up with me. At least it will mean no more 5am starts for a while – 7 o’clock is practically a lie in for me now!

I’ve also managed to get out for a few runs too – my next half marathon is getting ever closer and training is starting to step up a gear. I was worried that it would be difficult fit in training around revision, but so far it’s actually working out very well. Getting to the gym or out for a run is a welcome break, and often increases my energy levels and helps me to concentrate and work more effectively. The weather hasn’t been too good, though, so some more sunshine would be great!

Still managing to get a workout in!

I have managed to find some time, in between revision, to continue researching my options for next year. I’ve just sent off an application for International Citizen Service (ICS), a development programme funded by the British government’s Department for International Development, which works with a variety of different charities and organisations. If I am accepted, I will become a team leader on a project somewhere in Asia, Africa or South America for six months. I’ve had some volunteering experience before whilst working in Indonesia and I would absolutely love to expand on this, and hopefully in a brand new location. I’m always looking for the next adventure, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Volunteering in Indonesia a few summers ago

I’m also looking into master’s degrees in London as another option, although I’m not entirely sure how I would go about funding one – I suppose I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. Either way, plans for next year are slowly starting to take shape, and it’s very exciting.

Tayler

Welcome to the real world

One of my favourite things about my course, Software Engineering, in Southampton is the way it will sometimes engage you with its fair share of theory and skill-based learning in laboratories and lecture theatres, but simultaneously often it just tends to throw you into real-life situations and challenge you to learn enough on your own to stay afloat – with help on offer if needed, of course!

And so the case was proven in just the one week since I returned from Christmas holidays, stuffed with food and decidedly sleepy every day, which became a bit of a culture shock when I had to start waking myself up early enough to go straight into the thick of things! As ever with third year it’s been a tricky week at times, but one which, looking back, has ultimately felt very fulfilling indeed, both from an academic perspective, but also a developmental (not to mention useful for the CV!) view as well.

It began in a bit of a haze with the need to finish off a group project for an early-in-the-week deadline – well, there go those new year’s resolutions (although I’m claiming I’m still keeping to them on a technicality)! The initial challenge, set out a couple of months ago, was to formulate ideas for, design, develop and then pitch an innovative web application to potential business clients, with several technical requisites demanding that you pick up a whole host of skills in the process, including expertise in a couple of programming languages (namely Python and JavaScript) and an understanding of the backbone of such applications. Needless to say, I’m now taking the code that makes my email inbox accessible a whole lot less for granted!

We were given several introductory lectures to the concepts and languages early in the semester to give us enough of a footing to fill in the rest for ourselves, and were then set on our way. As we were in self-selected groups, the variation in people’s prior experience and knowledge was quite significant, with myself being a total beginner to web application development (although I did already know plenty about web design and Python, at least!), so to be put in an entirely fresh developmental context was initially a huge challenge, and one which required me to… *shudder*… actually take out a book from the Hartley Library (not an activity frequently undertaken in Software Engineering, where research tends to be more journal-based), ahh!

However, the freeform nature of the assignment meant that we as a group were all working towards building a technology that we knew we would enjoy making and, fingers crossed if it ever worked, using! So, at the beginning of the week, with a few loose ends to tie up as the work levels undertaken over Christmas started to flag a little towards the end (it’s an accepted truth that working over the Christmas holidays is practically impossible!), we spent a number of hours in computer laboratories as a team, making sure that our application could do everything we wanted it to do before submission – hopefully, all things being well, without crashing!

We were then presented with the challenge of showcasing our work in a professional demonstration to the mock “clients” assessing the application, and thankfully all seemed to go well. I’m not going to disclose exactly what the project did at this stage, mainly because at the pitch we received encouragement to potentially take it forward commercially – we thought it might be quite innovative ourselves – so fingers crossed this is the first place that you’re reading about the next big thing! If not, however, we’d gratefully take getting a decent mark in its stead – so here’s hoping!

On top of the web app project, I also had the small matter of an academic conference to chair on behalf of my coursemates, lecturers and other invited guests. One of my modules in the first semester, named “Interactive Multimedia Systems”, took a rather different approach to its imparting of knowledge; instead of the traditional lecture and lab-based assessments which make up most courses, we were encouraged and assessed throughout on our contributions to an entirely student-organised conference event, which was to cover topics surrounding the world of interactive multimedia like gaming, interfaces, mobile technologies, video screens and so on, in turn reflecting similar real-world events. These contributions manifested themselves in the forms of contributing an original and self-studied research paper (mine being on the topic of classifying addiction to multimedia), peer reviewing others’, and then presenting it via the medium of a poster pitch to guests and the public (and fielding resulting questions).

The set-up for the annual Interactive Multimedia Conference at ECS, 2014 edition! (Credit: Matheus Beleboni)

For the extra challenge, however (and because I don’t know how to say no to things, it seems!), I volunteered at the beginning of the process to chair the “conference committee”, a team of six brilliant and enterprising students who all took on various organisational roles for the main event itself, successfully bringing in, over the course of three months (and with guidance when needed from our lecturers), sponsorship, keynote speakers, refreshments (thankfully covered by the University – although my housemates ended up benefiting from the leftovers!) and advertising, in turn undertaking all necessary administration and booking a suitable venue for it, as well as formulating a programme for the day designed to give everyone the chance to demonstrate their findings.

The poster pitch session allowed us all to wander around and find out more about one another’s work – there was some truly fascinating stuff on offer! (Credit: Matheus Beleboni)

In truth it took up a greater amount of time than I’d perhaps expected (so yet another degree distraction!) – particularly finding a space to host more than fifty people for five or six hours, crikey! – but it was a tremendous experience and was hugely enjoyable throughout, working closely with an enthusiastic and creative set of people to deliver as professional an event as we could muster, particularly when, with all the preparation done, we were able to enjoy the fruits of our labours on the satisfying and fascinating day of the conference itself.

On top of that, as Chair, I was tasked with being the one to stand up and make the opening and closing addresses, running proceedings and introducing each speaker as their turn arrived – granting me the opportunity to tailor the old stand-up comedy set to a Computer Science audience, amongst other things! Although I found it a bit nerve-racking at first playing host to the whole event, particularly in terms of trying to make sure everything kept to time (and when I knew my contribution was being assessed!), once I grew into it I found I was having a fantastic time with my fellow committee members, which proved that when thrown into such situations, you can get the most out of them by just going for it as confidently as possible, a lesson I hope to take forward the next time a presenting opportunity rears its head!

Despite being a little nervous at first, I had a brilliant time in the Chair/Presenting role for the conference! (Credit: Matheus Beleboni)

Moreover, students and staff alike all had a great time getting to ask people about their work, learning aplenty about some exciting new technologies (discovering more about autostereoscopy, or ‘glassless 3D’, was my favourite – brilliant work, Andy Davies!) from coursemates, as well as explaining and debating the conclusions of our own with passers-by, which, to my surprise, I found was very enjoyable indeed, although I felt like I was talking at a hundred miles an hour to try and fit it all into a succinct pitch! Nonetheless, if the event and indeed course was a true reflection of the process of contributing towards and participating in an academic conference (and graduates from the course have commented so in previous years), then sign me up for another – I had a blast!

So on the whole, it’s been as hectic a start as ever in Southampton, but one which has been hugely fulfilling as always, gifting me several opportunities already to taste the oncoming professional world in a couple of different contexts, in turn arming me with a number of skills, experiences and embellishments to the CV along the way. Despite the initial challenge of being thrown into such situations, finding a way to get the most of them has enabled myself, and many others, to draw the best from ourselves – and, strange as it may seem, enjoy doing so!

Let’s hope the same can be said for the onrushing exam period, I guess!

Robin

Getting back into the swing of things

The winter break is officially over and it sure went by far too quickly! I’m now back in Southampton and with so many important events coming up in the next few months, there is a lot to prepare for but also a lot to look forward to. First up are my end of semester one exams which begin next week! I can’t say I’m looking forward to writing my exams but I do look forward to the day they are finished. Because exams start in less than a week, my days currently consist mostly of sitting and revising which makes me both restless and exhausted. Luckily, I still have dance classes and squad rehearsals to get me away from the desk and moving. Also approaching, in less than a month, is our first dance competition for the year! This is really exciting but we still have a lot of practicing to do which is why we need to have rehearsals during exam period. Last year the first competition we attended was at Bucks New University, however this year, our first competition will be in Southampton held by us! The pressure is on…

Me and last year’s jazz squad after placing first at the Bucks New Uni competition.

Also dance related, are preparations for our annual Pure Dance show which is in March. This is a huge show consisting of performances by members from all the different dance societies at the University of Southampton. The competition squads also perform at the show but it’s a great opportunity for even beginner dancers to take the stage and show off what they’ve been working on for the year. You’d be surprised by how much a person can improve within a year! Because it’s such a huge event it’s really rewarding to be a part of and it’s a lot of fun too.

Me and other dancers getting ready for last year’s show.

In spite of being very busy (which I actually enjoy!) it’s been nice to come back. I will admit that I did feel horribly homesick for the first couple of days. I always find that I miss my family the most, right after I have been home to see them. This might seem strange because I think most people would assume that you’d miss your family more, the longer it has been since you last saw them. Anyway, I was lucky enough to be welcomed back to my house in Southampton with a lovely dinner prepared by one of my housemates. (This was really appreciated because travelling makes me hungry despite sitting for the majority of the journey.) My housemates and I started a cooking tradition last year which was inspired by the UK TV show Come Dine With Me. If you’ve never seen the show, don’t worry, neither had I before we started. Basically, we take it in turns to cook a “fancy” meal for each other on the weekends. It’s actually been really enjoyable and on the Sunday evening I arrived back in Southampton, it gave us a good chance to catch up on what everyone had been up to over the winter break.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the winter in Sweden when I was home was surprisingly warm. Here’s a photo from one of the forests I went for walks in with my dog. Not a patch of snow!

Since our little reunion, the house has been relatively quiet compared to how it normally is because my housemates are also revising for their exams. I’m looking forward to celebrating together once exam period is over. I’ve also made plans to go and visit the Harry Potter World in Watford, with a couple of my dance friends, when exams are over. I have a lot to look forward to but right now the trick is to stay focused for the next few weeks. At least I enjoy what I’m studying so it makes the long hours by the desk more bearable. One of my new years resolutions includes the cliché “be more organised”. I have a lot of commitments but I think that if I can truly master my organisation and time management skills this year will be outstanding.

Kristin

Happy New Year

Christmas is always a hectic time of year for a student; it consists of trying to balance all the social arrangements and family gatherings that come with the time of year, with arguably the zenith of our workloads for the first semester.

My personal workload this Christmas break was probably the largest I’ve ever had; it makes my complaints about revising for A Level winter exams over Christmas seem particularly insignificant. I actually began writing this blog minutes after I put my preverbal pen down after finishing my dissertation. These are words that I never thought I would be saying – after all it doesn’t feel like any time at all since I arrived at the University of Southampton simultaneously excited and nervous for my first lecture, and now I have accrued enough Physics knowledge to write my own scientific paper on how solar variability affects the Earth’s climate! How time flies!

That being said I certainly did have the time to gorge myself senseless (and of course regret it every time) and do all the things I wanted to do back home in Surrey over the break. The first thing on my agenda was to finish my Christmas shopping, because even after several trips to West Quay and that Winchester market expedition I wrote about last time, I had still managed to come home without the full array of presents needed. Whoops!

Although as a child it was hard to believe, there are definitely more important things than presents; Christmas is a time to enjoy by spending it with family and friends. It was great to have my Gran come down for nearly a whole week, even if I did spend half the time locked away in my room revising! I also went to visit my grandparents on the other side of my family over the holidays, but unfortunately they didn’t let me join them for their Christmas holiday in sunny Spain – oh well!

The Christmas tree at home looked far superior to mine back in Southampton

It’s also great to reunite with friends from my sixth form and school days and to hear how they have been getting on since I last saw them in the summer, especially since some of them have now gone out into the world of work. Hearing stories about company cars and having conversations about tax brackets makes the fact that my university friends and I are nearing the end of our degrees (I have one more year after this) become all the more daunting and all the more real.

Catching up with old friends on Christmas Eve

But now back in Southampton, with less than a week left until the January exam period begins and with all my other deadlines met, revision for my three exams is well underway (and they say students don’t work hard!). No doubt the exam period will fly by and 2014 can begin in earnest with a new semester and plenty of new opportunities.

Happy new year everyone and I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year. I know I certainly did!

James

Welcome to 2014

Well, it's 6:24 am on 6 January, and I'm on the train to University. The Christmas holidays are officially over, and exam season is about to begin. It's all a bit of a shock to the system after three weeks of lie-ins and lazy days! 

Getting the train is a total luxury for me – it's nearly three times as expensive as the coach, which is my usual mode of transport when I don't drive to Southampton. It saves so much time, though, and also gives you the option of returning whenever you like, rather than having to book a specific time. Aside from that, getting the train is just a generally better experience than getting the coach, so I suppose you get what you pay for!

Welcome back to the real world!

Christmas was a rather quiet affair – just my Mum, me and some good food. Tried out a few new recipes which, in hindsight, may have been a dangerous move on Christmas Day, but it all turned out wonderfully! It was my first Christmas as a vegetarian, but I honestly didn't feel as though anything was missing!

A rather special Christmas pudding

I saw in the New Year in Cornwall, where a group of us rented a house for a few days. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, which was mostly fine, if cold, and it was so lovely to have most of my best friends from university back in one place. We got up to all manner of ridiculous things, from winter walks to renting out spas (which remarkably only cost us five pounds each!), and a number of rowdy games of Articulate, of course! I already miss everyone so much, and it really made me appreciate the first two years at university that I was able to spend with them all. I'm not normally an advocate of staycations, but I was more than pleasantly surprised at how much fun can be had for relatively little cost.

Reunited

Winter walks in Newquay

The 2nd of January was my birthday – 23! Feeling rather old. It was quite a quiet event this year, as I was pretty exhausted from our trip, but we managed to squeeze in a final trip to the German bar, Anchorman 2 at the cinema, a meal at Wagamama, and a few cocktails – all in all a very good day in my book! The best thing was being able to spend it with people I love, and catching up with some old friends who were back from university and travelling.

Birthday cocktails

I managed to recover from all the celebrating enough to go on my first run of the year yesterday, which was nothing short of grim, if I'm perfectly honest. The weather was absolutely disgraceful – I don't think I've ever been so cold and wet in my entire life! But there's only eight weeks to go until my next half marathon, training to be done and no excuses! Here's hoping for a good year of running.

A rather wet and windy Bournemouth beach

Now, to revision. I've got two exams this month, and it's time to knuckle down and make sure I finish third year with the marks I want. January is always a strange month for me – part of me hates it (let's be honest, who really enjoys exams?) but once you get on the library hype and 'the fear' sets in, the early mornings, long days and late nights can actually seem quite fun. Although, ask me again in a week's time and I might disagree!

Happy New Year to all our readers, and I hope 2014 brings you everything you wish for and more, and good luck to anyone with exams this month!

Tayler

New year, new plan

“New year, new me!”

It’s the phrase you’ll hear many a person bandy about in the next few days – some with a greater hint of irony than others, and some with greater success!

But whereas the eclectic multitudes of New Years Resolutions that I’ve ever made have fallen flat after I’ve hit the junk-food-embellished annual period known as “January exams” (after all, something has to get you through all those lecture notes!), this year I’m hoping to adopt a different approach to the challenge of personal reformation. And although I go into it feeling less than confident in my odds of success as always, I’m hoping 2014 will allow me a (relatively!) clean break to hit the personal goals I’ve had floating around my head for a while, but never really managed to accomplish.

Because so far, third year has been somewhat… well… busy! As you might’ve been able to tell from my last blog post, the amount of extra-curricular activities I managed to fit in around my degree, particularly in terms of Performing Arts shows I was involved in, declined significantly after the joys of the Edinburgh Fringe and the summer holidays, and not just because of the post-show blues! It should have been expected given the importance of the year from an academic perspective – in my course, for instance, the year’s results count for a massive 40% of my total degree classification, double last year – but it still took me aback just how big the step-up is in terms of time commitment, particularly if you’re aiming to attain a First as most, if not all, of the bright and motivated people in Southampton frequently do.

Upon reflection, however, although I’ve occasionally been unrealistic in the amount I’ve taken on in the past couple of years (I guess you have to learn to say “no” from time to time!), it’s sometimes been exacerbated by the fact that, as is the case with many students, I can, at times, be a spectacularly good procrastinator! It’s remarkably easy, considering the apparent extra importance of having a clean room, an empty laundry basket or a well-stocked fridge – all of which jump to mind when you know you have something much more worthwhile to do!

It’s important, but can be quite tough, to strike the right balance between work and play – or, in my case, plays!

But in my case, I sometimes found it could often manifest itself in many ways, particularly in terms of assignments. As I’m approaching the tail end of my degree programme in Southampton (a frankly terrifying thing to write!), it appears that pieces of coursework have been delving into increasingly more challenging and seemingly dense topics, which could often on the surface seem quite intimidating.

For example, glancing at the specification of one assignment in particular, I had no idea of how or even where to begin, but as I put it off in favour of completing tasks which looked more easy to accomplish, the need to get started grew more and more, until it got to the stage where I needed to just see it off once and for all. And, to my surprise, once I’d well and truly thrown myself into it, parts of the topics covered began to click into place slowly but surely, until I reached a level of understanding where I felt I could give the assignment my best shot, somehow answering all the questions to a decent extent – or, at least, I could write down something which seemed to make sense at the time, even if this isn’t the case a month or two down the line!

So I guess my resolution (if the endless potential distractions allow me to keep it!) would be to remember that, ultimately, as a student and person you’re not expected to be superhuman in Southampton. Distractions can happen, things can go wrong, and the University and people around you will understand that – although it’s best to try and avoid them obviously! And academically, although things can seem complicated across the board at times, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses - for example, I love the creative aspects of Software Engineering like design and programming, but struggle with some of the more abstract and theoretically-rooted principles – so the curriculum is designed to be varied enough and aware of that fact to reflect this requirement.

I’m not saying that getting good marks in third year is meant to be, or indeed will be, at all easy; more that, if I can remind myself of what I’ve learnt from this first term, and indeed the rest of 2013, while having a rich and varied life outside of the lecture theatre, doing so should be very much achievable – so here’s hoping! If I can just take each challenge as it comes, and throw myself into it as early as possible to give myself the best turnover in terms of work, I’ll have done all I can, and the final result will hopefully reflect that. After all, one of my favourite aspects of university life is the way you always feel like you’re learning something new, be it a new module, a new life skill, a new programming language, a new hobby or getting to know a new person, a new experience, or even a new variation on beans on toast (and one day I hope to learn how to cook!).

So looking at what I could take from a deadline-packed first part of the year, I feel like I learned a great deal about time management techniques (particularly in getting the most out of the hours between lectures), about dealing with pressure when things begin to mount (and the need to avoid panicking, tricky though it may be!), and about my own limitations (for example, I found towards the end of the term that the later I worked, the slower – sleep really is necessary!). Hence if I can take this all forward with me and combine it with the awesome events I have to look forward to – the Curtain Call awards, Little Shop of Horrors and Guys ‘n Dolls, and the completion of the SUSUtv film, the Society, for instance - I should be well set for a third academic year, and a 2014, to remember.

On top of that, in 2014 I’d love to make a return to stand-up comedy at some point, complete my driving test after a brief hiatus from lessons, and continue to throw myself into new and exciting challenges (in moderation) on a weekly basis to give me that extra motivation to drive me on.

As with 2013, it’s going to be a fantastic year around Southampton – so here we go!

Robin