Monday, 28 April 2014

Southampton vs home

I remember being shocked in first year when I heard that the Easter break at university was four weeks long. It seemed like such a long period of time, in which I could relax endlessly, spend time with friends from home and play guitar to my heart’s content. It sounded fantastic!

I soon realised that wasn’t the case. Exams are never too far away at university and the four weeks that appear as ‘holiday’ on the calendar, turn out to be the perfect time to start revision. Now that  third year has come about, the length of the Easter break suddenly becomes a saviour; it allows dissertations to be written, work to be caught up on and notes to be highlighted and organised.

In first year most people tend to pack up and move out of halls for the entire duration holidays, but as years progress there is definitely a shift towards students staying in Southampton. The main reason is the library. As a physicist I hardly touched library in my first year, but this year it has been like a close friend; sometimes welcoming me at hours earlier than lectures start!

After one week at home, I chose to come back down to Southampton for several days to get started on the second project for my computer programming module, which I find much easier to concentrate on in the distraction-free computer rooms. Fortunately there were several friends still around, including some of my house mates, so I didn’t just have my work for company and I could use any free time to relax and enjoy myself.

On one of the evenings that I was back in Southampton, my girlfriend and I decided to try out a Mexican restaurant called La Cantina for the first time, which is situated in Bedford Place. The menu was so enticing and the choice was so hard that we ended up covering most of the table with plates of steaming enchiladas and delicious sides.

Although staying in Southampton over the holidays can be advantageous, I do still enjoy going home. Fortunately getting back home from university only takes an hour by train, which means the decision to swap between the two is an easy one to make. Not only does home come with all the little luxuries (mainly things like your Mum’s cooking), it’s also great to meet up with friends from your school and sixth form days to catch up on the last few months. You also tend to find you bump into people who you haven’t seen since A-level results day, which when I come to think about it is almost three years ago!



An egg-cellent Easter


After getting most of the work I wanted to get done in Southampton and returning home, the Easter weekend seemed to appear out of nowhere and was a flurry of activity, with my grandparents coming down on the Saturday, as well as my sister and her boyfriend making an appearance on the Sunday. This year Easter has fallen just over a week before my 21st birthday, so it made to sense to celebrate it early whilst other family members were visiting and it also means that I can celebrate it again with university friends in a few days’ time.

James

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