End of exams and exploring Southampton

I’m very happy to say that I have now finished all of my Semester One exams! As a mini break before Semester Two begins (and before I get back into lab work for my Third Year Project) my coursemate and I decided to spend a little time checking out a couple of the things the city of Southampton has to offer. As James mentioned in his last post, there are a lot of things I’d still like to see and do while living in Southampton. University life keeps you pretty busy, especially with so many societies and events on campus to get involved in (not to mention coursework, extra seminars and exams!).

In addition, my family have finalised their decision to move back to Australia, which has left me wondering if I would also like to move back Down Under (it’s been about eight years since I was last in Australia so this could be an exciting new adventure!). With this in mind, and with the realisation that my last semester at the University of Southampton is about to begin, I hope to take the opportunity to see more of what’s within the city while I’m still here.

One of the things my friend and I wanted to check out was the Civic Centre. We have both passed the building countless times but have never taken the time to see what was inside. We discovered it housed the Central Library in addition to the Southampton City Art Gallery, O2 Guildhall and Sea City Museum. Admission was free to the Art Gallery so we decided to take a look around…

Outside the Civic Centre building. 

Inside the Southampton City Art Gallery. 

It feels good knowing a little bit more about what’s in the city and its always fun to go exploring (especially after being glued to my desk for the past couple of weeks). We also wanted to eat out somewhere new to celebrate exams being over and opted for a vegetarian buffet restaurant which was recommended by the University’s Vegan and Vegetarian Society in one of their recent emails.

Our delicious vegetarian lunch! 

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve managed to convert a couple of my housemates into eating a vegetarian diet. After studying for my exams, one of which had large focus on food security and the other on conservation, I’m even more aware about the importance of making more sustainable changes to our lifestyles.

One positive of finishing exams early in the second exam week is having some extra time to relax, recover from the intense revision period and start preparing for Semester Two. My friend is lucky enough to be heading home for a few days – however, I’ll be getting straight back into lab work for my Third Year Project. I’m happy to have had at least one day’s break in between and am looking forward to making some more progress with my project as well as learning some new lab skills. Our Third Year Projects aren’t due until the end of April, but I’m realising more and more how extremely fast time is flying by!

I hope time won’t pass all too quickly and that in addition to learning as much as I can in my last semester, I can find the time to see more of Southampton and the surrounding areas while I’m still in the UK.

Kristin