My year: 2016 in review

Exactly one week away from New Years Eve, we’re into the reflection period of the year; an opportunity for everyone to look back over the ups and downs over the past year.

2016 turned out to be a major year for me and below I have listed some of my highlights:

January – May 

The most memorable part of my year was my semester abroad in the beautiful medieval capital of Europe, Rouen.

 When in France...eat macarons

View from a bridge in my beautiful host town

This was an unforgettable experience and I am so proud that I pushed myself to undertake an Erasmus trip. I somehow managed to live on my own in a flat and cope with 30 contact hours a week (without blackboard to assist)! I made friends for life, which seems bizarre given the language barrier and cultural differences. I cannot express how grateful I am to everyone in my L2 géo class for not laughing at me whenever I stammered but constantly supporting me throughout the semester.

Of course, there were bad times. I can easily recall countless times when I felt stupid because I could not understand anything going on around me and my head would be perpetually aching from concentrating all day.

Academically though, the risk was worth it: I still achieved a first class average (despite all learning/assessments being in French). Furthermore, I was awarded the Dean’s List Award for my grade average!

Whilst abroad I also campaigned for and was elected GeogSoc President. It was very nerve-wracking watching the AGM take place through FaceTime! This is my most time-consuming extra-curricular to date but I could not be happier to ensure that geographers have a fantastic time here at Southampton!

Summer 

This was my busiest summer for as long as I can remember. This included my first holiday with my boyfriend (Ireland), family holiday after three years (Turkey) and an excellent fieldtrip (Berlin).

Most notably, I spent two months back at Camp Morty in the USA. Returning for the second year in a row, I not only adopted a new position as counsellor but also juggled my dissertation and conducted all of my data collection for my dissertation.

Dining inside a fancy restored church!

A touching note from one of my campers

As well as some work experience in finance and accountancy, I became a student blogger!

Third Year: Semester One

This past semester was very different to the Southampton experience I was used to. I suddenly had three contact hours a week - all French and no Geography, which was a massive adjustment from my 30-hour week in France.

Without lectures forcing me to go to campus, I realised it was up to myself to self-motivate. My key to success was waking up early - fortunately I have always been an early riser so I just had to make sure I maintained up my 7am wake ups and hit Jubilee gym!

Having played throughout my childhood and competing abroad, I missed playing netball and joined the GeogSoc 1st team. We have had an amazing season so far and I love being part of a sport family again. A couple of weeks ago we held our annual GeogSoc Christmas Ball at the Grand Harbour Hotel. It was extremely stressful as President and a lot of pressure to have a successful night, but in the end the event was spectacular and one of my favourite nights at uni!

I am very pleased that I managed to squeeze in all of my extra-curricular activities in third year so far, despite being warned and advised to cut down and focus on my studies. Although I do worry about my work/play balance sometimes, I am really glad I made the time to have fun: from karaoke at The Stags to participating in Jailbreak for the first time.

Highlight of 2016

To top it all off, I have been offered a place at the University of Cambridge to study a masters in Education, International Development and Globalisation and gain an MPhil (Masters of Philosophy).

To summarise, the only two words to describe my 2016 would be: busy and rewarding.

Let’s see what 2017 brings!

Aditi

Books to read over the summer

July is not only high season for university Open Days, like I mentioned in my last blog post. July is also high season for a proper Summer Holiday.

Most undergraduates finish exams at the latest in June and none of us are back at university until September. This means that July and August are months for appreciating the freedom of not having any assignments due or required reading.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t use the Summer Holiday to be productive. There’s definitely more than one way of being productive over the summer, but one thing I will do is read – a lot.

The thing about being a university student is that we read a lot – all the time, and at some point I stopped reading books I chose and read course books nonstop. Through university and my course I read a lot of deeply interesting pieces, but I can’t remember the last time I picked a book myself (during term time) started reading it and actually finished it. Therefore, there is no better time than right now to read some good books, which I’m sure will be very relevant for my course as well.

I’m going to share my top picks that I have read or I’m planning to read before my third year begins in September. It’s a little mix between academic and fiction!

Inequality and the 1% by Danny Dorling

This is a book I have already read and enjoyed so much I think I spent three days reading it. Danny Dorling asks whether we “can afford the superrich?”. I’ve always been aware of inequality, but it is through this book I have really understood just how much it affects us. I’ll admit that I read this book last summer, but it is still as relevant as ever. When Danny Dorling actually came to the University of Southampton earlier this year to hold a lecture on inequality, I was quick to book my place. This book has been relevant to not only the economics and statistics courses I have done, but also my politics ones.

Intelligent Governance For the 21st Century – A Middle Way Between West and East by Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardles

This is the book I’m currently reading, and so far it is very interesting. Don’t let the very academic title fool you; it is a very interesting read if you are interested in China and Chinese governance. Personally, my excitement for China and Chinese politics came after I did a module on Chinese Politics last semester. If you are doing a Politics or Humanities-related course and have the chance to chose Chinese Politics in your second or third year with Dr. Monique Chu – DO IT! It’s one of the modules I have enjoyed the most so far at the University.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillip Sendker

When I finish the book I’m reading now, I’m planning on moving on from academic books to this one - a little break in between all the academic English I read doesn’t hurt. I have the Norwegian translation of the book and I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a book in Norwegian, so this will be a nice change. The book is much as the title implies; a romantic novel. It has sold over one million copies, so I’m counting on this being a good read as well.

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

Okay, I admit it (again); I read this one last summer, but it is worth to mention because it is a beautiful book and, although it is fiction, the setting is very realistic because it’s based on a real-time event; Cyprus during the war with Turkey. Victoria Hislop does not only write a beautiful story, she writes diplomatically about the actual conflict and does not try to shift the blame on either side, which makes you only focus on the actual story she tells. She ends the book by saying; “I wanted to tell a story that showed how the events in Cyprus were a disaster for both communities – and to suggest that the issue of “good” and “evil” is not a matter of ethnicity”, which I think she did brilliantly.

My entertainment for the next weeks.

If you’re still in need for some inspiration on books to read over the summer, you should check out our blog post for the world book day.

Alexandra

Society farewells and Media Ball 2016

Somehow, and I still can’t quite figure out how, it’s May already. This of course means that my time here is rapidly getting shorter and shorter, and a major part of the whole transition out of university life is to hand over my current roles to some (hopefully) enthusiastic newbies.

My time as Film Editor of The Edge has been, without doubt, one of the most extraordinary and eye-opening experiences during my university experience, and to be honest, even though I’ve still got a month or so left of editing and scheduling, it already feels like I’ve kind of lost a limb.

Obviously I can’t hold on to it forever though, and with The Edge AGM last week, a new committee of super-talented and mega-capable writers was formed, who I know will totally embrace the roles and make them their own.

It wouldn’t be a proper farewell without a jolly good send-off though, and so all of the core media departments: The Edge, SUSUtv, Surge Radio and Wessex Scene, joined together to host a wonderfully wild night of incredible food and well-deserved awards. The Media Ball 2016 was held on Monday at Fantini’s restaurant in Southampton, and it was the most perfect, truly epic farewell possible.

A small group of Edgelings, suited up and ready to party!

A huge turnout of Edge writers and committee members, both past and present came along, dressed to the nines and ready for a true evening of wonder. Aside from the seriously awesome three course meal though (not forgetting free champagne!), the biggest moments of the night came from the ongoing awards ceremony, hosted by our very own team of sabbatical officers from the Students’ Union.

With a wide spread of different awards and a nominations list so long it was nearly visible from space, the whole room was totally pumped to find out the lucky winners. Judged by a team of external experts, including our very own media alumni and members of the Student Publication Association, the awards were a pretty big deal, and it was seriously amazing to see so many Edge writers being recognised for their work.

I was even lucky enough to grab a few awards myself: Best Review for our work on Reel Opinions, and Best Event for all the work put into the University of Southampton Student Film Festival over the past year. Arranging the festival was very easily one of my university highlights so, as you can probably guess, being recognised for it made me uncontrollably happy and made the night somehow even more terrific.

As far as awards go, I’m very, very proud of this one.

Ultimately, our friends at SUSUtv picked up the award for Best Media Department which was very well deserved, and certainly helped to end the night on a high.

Being a part of a number of these societies has made my life here at Southampton not only that little bit sweeter, but it’s also fed me the experience needed to take on jobs in the wider world, and getting to hang out with my friends whilst doing so was certainly a bonus.

Life at Southampton doesn’t necessarily have to end with your degree, and there’s always so many fantastic opportunities waiting just around the corner.

Looking back, I can’t recommend a role in SUSU Media enough.

Ben

My Southampton highlights

Apologies for the seemingly never-ending “it’s all about to end and I don’t know what to do with myself” posts, but I guess if we can’t talk about this stuff now, when can we? This week I’ve been reflecting on my time here at the University of Southampton as a whole.

It feels strange picking only a few select moments from three years of incredible happenings, but in doing so it also encouraged me to look back over everything, so it proved a really useful way to kick-start that much needed retrospective.

Also it’s pretty obvious that I’m not quite done yet, and with a whole bunch of exciting events still to come (the Media Ball and the EVAs just to name a few) I’m sure there’ll be space in this list for even more fun stuff.

But for now, like some sort of cheesy, X Factor-style greatest hits montage, here are my “best bits” from my life at Southampton. Cue the reflective piano music.

Freshers’ (duh) 

It’s practically impossible to run through the highlights of my time at the University without at least mentioning how it all began. Freshers’ week might well have been one of the craziest and busiest weeks of my entire life - but in the best way possible.

In the space of less than 7 days, I learned how to dance, learned how to cook (well…sort of) and managed to meet an incredible group of people who have gone on to become some of my closest friends in the entire universe (a university family, if you will). That one week of intensity changed my entire perception of life altogether, and pretty much single-handedly set up a lot of the fun stuff that came later on. So yeah, worthy of highlight status I think.

Halloween/Christmas/General Holiday-themed merriment 

Any opportunity to celebrate has always been embraced here, between our own DIY-Christmases to some dodgy Halloween costumes and the occasional spot of green face-paint for a certain Irish holiday. Narrowing it down to just one is impossible!

The upside to being away from home means that as a student, you get to do a whole bunch of these things twice. I even blogged about the wonders of a ‘Uni Christmas’ back in December, and how magical the entire celebration is; the Campus Christmas lights will never be forgotten. It’s become an ongoing tradition every year here that I’ll miss hugely - celebrating two weeks early over awesome food and mismatched cutlery is something you can only ever really manage as a student, and here in Southampton we truly mastered it as an art-form.

Our first uni Christmas will never be forgotten!

Press Antics 

Aside from my degree, easily the best thing I did work-wise whilst here in Southampton was to join The Edge - our on-campus entertainment magazine. Little did I know when I first wrote a pretty shoddy review of the TV show Dexter in Freshers’ week 2013 that some years later I would be Film Editor, rolling around in screener discs and rubbing shoulders with famous people!

Thanks to The Edge I’ve found myself going all-access at the BFI London Film Festival not once but twice, interviewing some insanely interesting people and even organising an entirely student-run film festival (easily the most triumphant highlight!).

Not only has it awoken my voice as a writer (due thanks must go to this here blog too!), but it’s also helped me find a career path through a multitude of experience, which is basically irreplaceable in my books.

The Edge got me this close to Chris Pratt and James Gunn meaning I will always be indebted to them

Film-athons 

The one thing I really can’t get enough of is the film culture here in Southampton. When I first joined the University, I was a relatively shy film nerd with huge ambitions that I never really thought possible. Now, I feel like I can tackle anything, and a major part of getting to this point has been down to meeting so many like-minded people.

I guess it helped that I chose to study Film here, but also through societies like The Edge and SUSUtv I met a whole heap of other film nerds and together we conquered so much, taking on the Union Films Halloween All-Nighter every year (that’s non-stop horror films from 8pm-8am!), and an entire multitude of midnight screenings and other marathons!

The Reel Opinions review team attempting to make sense after staying up all night

The ultimate highlight came this time last year though, when a group of friends and I stayed up through the night for a midnight screening of the latest Avengers film (Age of Ultron), before keeping ourselves awake and hiding out in Hartley Library thanks to its 24-hour opening times, so that we could film our SUSUtv review the very second the SUSU building opened. There’s very few people who would be nuts enough to join me in such endeavours, and it feels like I could only really have ever met them here!

Then there was the time that Hollywood came to Southampton (quite literally) as the Tom Cruise-starring Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation started filming nearby in Fawley. They auditioned a ridiculous amount of our students in the Students' Union for roles as extras and I was somehow lucky enough to be picked! I’m still not really allowed to talk much about what went on, but it was quite possibly one of the most incredible weeks of my life.

I feel like I’m using that phrase a lot, but it couldn’t be more true. Over my three years here, Southampton has graced me with some of the most standout moments possible.

Looking back, it’s going to be sad to leave it behind, but the memories will always be here, and I’m sure there are more adventures yet to come!

Ben

What I've missed about university over the break

As I am cracking on with the final touches to my dissertation and although there are plenty of things to do at home, there are some things that I have missed about university life during the semester.

I guess the reason why I am thinking about this is because, as a final-year student, the thought of forever being on a university break is dawning on me; what happens during a four week Easter break will soon be, simply, the norm.

Here are the top four things I’m looking forward to when the break ends:

The People

I miss coming home from the library late at night and heading straight to my housemate’s room for our nightly chit-chat. What’s great about living with other students is that there’s no need to make plans in order to catch up. If I want to have a cup of tea with my other friends who I don’t live with, they are just down the road or around the area.

The other things I miss are communal meals. Currently, I live in a house of seven people so we often eat and cook together. It’s the perfect time to bond and catch up with what we have been up to during the day and food somehow just tastes better when you’re eating with someone else. Of course it can be loud but that just means there is never a dull moment at my student house. Plus, it’s strange seeing the kitchen so clean and the hobs so shiny!

House Christmas meal

The University Schedule

I never thought I’d say this but I even miss Monday morning seminars! I normally have a schedule during the week based on lectures, seminars and meetings. It helps plan out deadlines and tasks for the week. I am even encouraged to go to the gym because I’m already on campus and the gym is so accessible – my Mondays are for spinning class and Thursdays are for Zumba! I even miss the green and pretty campus. I’m sure it would look even more beautiful in full Spring bloom when term starts again.

The Activities

I’m really looking forward to the first Filipino Society committee meeting after the break. We’re planning to hold a Filipino themed Karaoke night as part of Culture Week so that’s something to look forward to! It’s been a while since we last held a social so this is an excellent time for the society to catch up with each other. Of course there’s also society handovers to think about. It’s crazy to think it’s been almost a whole year since I became President. University clubs are the best way to meet people who have similar interests as you. Conversely, it is also a good way to immerse yourself into a different group of people altogether. I am aiming to try out a new society in the last few months.

With the Filipino Society committee

At the Easter Fair held on Southampton Common every April 

The Student Perks

Since I haven’t graduated yet, my student discount still applies. These are definitely something I’ll miss after graduation. Most retailers have exclusive deals for students. Even takeaway restaurants around the city have student deals!

Food tastes better with the 10% student discount…

The second half of semester two starts in a week again and I am so excited. There’s plenty to look forward to: handing in my dissertation, International Culture Week, exam season (maybe not so much for this one!), graduation and, of course, THE GRAD BALL. Yes, there are lots of things coming up so watch this space!

Rylyn

Battling the mid-semester blues

While looking for inspiration for what to write this week I read through the previous blog posts written by my fellow writers, hoping that something would inspire me. All I achieved, in fact, was being extremely jealous of Ben’s visit to Playzone!

The reason why I was battling to find something to write about is that I am now two-thirds of the way through the formal taught part of my Masters, which means in this week run up to Easter I am buried under presentation preparation, reading and coursework prep. I think that I feel like I have no time to do anything interesting worth writing about!

I have always been this way; during the first semester I’m full of enthusiasm and energy, but by the second semester I’m feeling pretty drained because of all the demands on my time. Mid-semester blues are something that pretty much all my course mates are feeling right now, and the only remedy is to find little things that you can do to try and cheer yourselves up. Which, thinking about it, is something worth writing about!

Last Friday, at the end of a one-week intensive module, our poor little brains exhausted to the point of potential explosion, we went to the dry ski slope in Southampton which is only an eight-minute drive away from campus and you can ski for free with your sports and wellbeing membership! I did not know this before and it’s probably the best news I’ve had in weeks.

I love skiing but since I am perpetually broke, real snow will continue to evade me for the foreseeable future. The dry slope is the closest I’m likely to get, but that’s okay because it’s a really great place and for the first hour we had the whole slope to ourselves! Afterwards we picked up a bunch of pizzas and garlic bread and chilled out at mine – a perfect start to the weekend.

 

It's not quite Austria, but just as fun

 

We even had great weather for it! 

My second activity to cheer myself up was to start looking at booking a summer holiday. Since I have to write my dissertation over the summer, my partner and I are only going to take a little over a week, so we are trying to plan the best week ever. Comparing flight prices and looking at hotels is infinitely entertaining, motivating and a fab break from work!

Finally, something a bit random. Every Monday I have a five hour lecture block at Southampton General Hospital, and normally I would take the bus there and back. This week, since the weather was so lovely, a few of us decided to walk back which was really nice. The Common in the sunshine is so pretty and walking is so much more inspiring than sitting on a bus trying not to fall asleep!

A nice way to end a Monday

Everyone has their own little ways of fighting back against the mid-semester blues, and instead of feeling guilty about taking time off work, we should feel great about it. There’s only so much time you can spend studying before you need a break.

Emma

World Book Day 2016 - our favourite books

As part of World Book Day 2016, three of our Life at Southampton bloggers are sharing their favourite books and stories.

Alexandra - 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini

I’ve read so many good books over the years which I have enjoyed and  have left me inspired and touched. However, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini was something different. I think I re-read the last page about three or four times, because I didn’t want it to end and because I didn’t want it to end the way it did. I have not met one person who has read this book and didn’t thoroughly enjoy it, and if I have any friends who need a book to read over a holiday I always recommend this one.

Although it is fiction, it touches upon so many real issues as it is based on a true event. For those who have not heard about it at all, it takes place in Afghanistan and it portrays a beautiful friendship between two ladies, who both have their different stories. The turning point is when the Taliban takes over and the book does such an incredible job at telling a story which easily could have been a true one. The feelings, fears and emotions described are so real and that is what really captured me.

I had the pleasure of driving with an Afghan taxi driver a couple of months ago, and when he told me he was from Afghanistan I immediately had to mention the book. I can guarantee you that’s not the first time he has heard someone mention that book, because all I had to say was “I read this amazing book by an Afghan author” and he asked “Was it The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns?”. I’ve read both of them, and I’ll say the same as the Washington Post did; ‘In case you’re wondering whether A Thousand Splendid Suns is as good as The Kite Runner, here is the answer: No. It’s better’.

Happy reading!

Alexandra

Ben - 'Completely Unexpected Tales' by Roald Dahl

Narrowing down my favourite novel is hard-work - especially since a lot of the time I play them out as little films in my head. One author that I’ve constantly gone back to time and time again though, ever since childhood, is oddly enough Roald Dahl.

His silly names and inventive set-ups certainly excited my tiny mind as a young boy, but even after I had grown out of all the ‘frobscottles’ and ‘whizzpopping’, his short story collection, Completely Unexpected Tales, always had me hooked every single time I picked it up. It still remains a staple of any travel kit I ever put together, and even now, nearly eight years after first delving between its pages, I still haven’t managed to conquer every story (although I have recently narrowed it down to the final two!).

The stories themselves, as fantastically twisted (and often adult-themed) as they are, are still always written so elegantly, and crafted with that classic world-building vision that Dahl mastered so many times over his expansive career.

Ever since cracking open the book’s spine for the first time, I’ve always promised myself that if one day I get to the position where I can confidently make films, I’d love to adapt at least one of these stories. Or maybe all of them. Don’t make me choose.

Ben

Emma - 'Anything by Neil Gaiman'

Choosing my favourite book is not an easy thing to do – there are around 200 books in my flat and those are just the ones that made it with me to university, not counting the extra 80 or so I have on my iPad. What criteria are we supposed to use to choose our ‘favourite’ book?

There are books that I have picked up time and time again and I consider the characters old friends, books that I have had for so long that the characters have changed as I’ve grown older. Books that have generated huge TV shows (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones) that I adore because I can see the characters that I imagined come to life in a whole new way. There are books that have influenced me in a great way – like Watchmen, the first graphic novel I ever read and that sparked an obsession that’s cost me in excess of £400. There are countless stories and adventures that all became part of my life – how am I supposed to choose just one?

Just one of the seven bookcases in my flat I have thought about it for a while and decided that I can at least settle on a favourite author – Neil Gaiman (who only just beat Scott Lynch, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Stephen King for top spot). Neil Gaiman writes beautiful and beguiling stories that are impossible to put down, and his collections of short stories are never far from reach.

However, my favourite character from any book is Locke Lamora from The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I can’t quite explain what attracts me so much to the world Lynch has created, and the characters that exist within it, but it is one of the few books that’s made me laugh and swear and cry in equal measure. If anyone asks me to recommend a book, then that’s the one I suggest. Everyone has heard of Pratchett and Gaiman, but Lynch gives them a run for their money while remaining unfortunately relatively unknown.

I would also like to add a small postscript to this piece, a fond remembrance of a wonderful man named Brian, who ran a second hand bookstore in Portswood. He created a place where people came to relax and enjoy great books and friendship. Sadly, Brian passed away unexpectedly from lung cancer last year, and the shop that he ran had to close.

Peter Rhodes Bookshop

Since this piece is in celebration of World Book Day, I would like to use it to celebrate the life of a man for whom books were his obsession and livelihood and who is missed sorely by those who knew him.

Emma

Do you share a favourite book with Alexandra, Ben or Emma, or do you have one of your own? Let us know in the comments below.

Procrastination is an art form

I’ve written before about adult colouring books – a way to procrastinate that calms your mind and can help you deal with stress. This year I’ve taken on a whole new kind of procrastination – teaching myself to play guitar.

My partner has three guitars taking up a lot of room in our small flat, so over Christmas I said that he either had to start playing them again (he hadn’t touched them in over a year) or get rid of them.

Because he is as stubborn as I am, he started playing again. Listening to him play made me think about how I actually really like guitar, and I was jealous that he was able to do it and I wasn’t. Then I thought ‘Well, why can’t I learn to play guitar? There’s nothing stopping me – other than my own laziness and fear of not being very good at it’.

One day I waited until he was at work so that I had the place to myself and I YouTubed ‘how to play guitar’. I found a good tutorial, picked up his guitar and very, very, very slowly started to get the hang of basic chords. I’ve looked up guitar lessons and they are crazily expensive (£35 for an hour is not something I can afford) but fortunately once I was brave enough to tell my partner, he has been helping me with some of the difficult bits.

It took me weeks to convince my hand that this was a normal position! 

I am slowly getting better, and I’ve found it’s the perfect procrastination activity because I’m actually doing something I really enjoy and learning new things. Even better, my partner made me a deal; if I kept playing for a month, he would buy me my own guitar for our anniversary! Because I love things and presents I kept going with it and because he is far too generous I now have my very own.

I felt particularly loved when this was delivered. 

Problematically, he hasn’t gotten rid of any of his, so for now we have four guitars and very little room for anything else. When he suggested getting a keyboard I told him that was fine so long as he got rid of his desk!

I’m really glad I decided to give it a go; it’s given us something to do together, and it’s given me something to do in the evening other than play computer games or work. My competitive side means that I won’t give up until I am at least as good as my partner, but my ego is struggling with still not being very good, so at the moment it’s a battle between the two – I hope the competitive side wins because I do really enjoy it.

Emma