Productivity and the Easter break

The Easter break is the perfect mid-semester break to recharge your batteries and maybe get some work done. A whole month off of my usual timetable is nothing to complain about, and I’ve already gone home to Norway for some much needed time relaxing with my family.

However, since the Easter holiday here in Norway is only until Tuesday next week and most of my friends here have their exams, I’m not going to stay for the whole month. The plan is to get some serious work done in April when I’m back in Southampton, so fingers crossed I will actually follow through.

In the meantime, while most Norwegians have retreated from the cities and up to the mountains, I’m here in sunny Oslo enjoying some gorgeous sunsets

I was lucky enough to get to spend a couple of hours with my best friend before she went back to university in USA!

Now I’m here wondering how I should spend the two next weeks. The thought of not doing any university work is tempting, but not so likely. It’s a strange feeling going into Easter break after such an intense work-period before Easter and now there’s suddenly a month until my next deadline. What’s the best way to keep the motivation up for this month?

Without claiming that I know the best answer to this, I think the best way is to have a proper week off without any work. Did someone say binge-watching Netflix? Yes! The best part about that is, that even with a proper week off there are still three weeks left of the break, which means you can spread the workload.

A good start is to make a plan on what you want to have finished over Easter and what coursework you want to have started. If you make a realistic plan imagine how nice it will be after Easter when you are ahead on the deadlines. To me, the thought of being ahead for the next term is motivation enough to work over Easter.

How to get there is up to you. It could mean working a little bit every day or simply putting aside two or three days per week just for work. It’s also a question of defining work. ‘Work’ could mean catching up on the reading you should have done, starting that essay or coursework or simply just taking notes from the lectures you missed before Easter. Either way, without sounding like your mum – not doing any work over Easter is bad idea no matter how you put it.

Make a plan, but also remember to enjoy the holiday.

Other than that, I hope you have a productive and, most importantly, relaxing and refreshing break!

Alexandra

Summer throwback

With it already being mid-august, my summer holiday has gone past a lot quicker than I expected it to.

Although I actually have over a month left, I am now back in Oslo and with grey skies everyday the summer feeling is slowly drifting away.

I don’t know if it’s a particularly British thing that summer holidays are so long at university, but I guess it’s more of a Norwegian thing that summer holidays are shorter. Apart from our last year in high school when we finish rather early, we usually finish around the end of June and school usually starts the third week in August. Universities in Norway actually start this week!

This year I was lucky/unlucky enough to have all my exams within the first week of the exam period - meaning that by Friday 22nd May I was free from university work until the new term starts in late September. As nice as it was to finish my exams, I was the first one in my flat to be ‘free’ from exams, and this obviously led to a lot of spare time.

The weather forecast for Southampton said sun, sun and more sun, and the Oslo forecast was saying rain and low temperatures, so I decided to not go home straight away and instead explore a bit of the south coast of England.

Thanks to living at the new Mayflower Halls, located around two minutes away from Southampton Central station, I basically just had to pick a location and go! I would really recommend arriving in Southampton early before term starts, or staying on late once term ends, so that you can explore. From Southampton Central there are direct trains to Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Brighton, Poole and other local places on the coast.

As soon as my flatmate Miranda finished her exams, we went on a day trip to Bournemouth.

We enjoyed Bournemouth so much we already know we are going back!

However, since I hadn’t ordered tickets back to Oslo until the 12th of June, I also had a lot of time to explore more of Southampton, and just go to places I usually don’t have the time to go to during term time. This included loads of trips to the docks and parks.

Celebrating my flatmate Milly’s birthday at Banana Wharf, Ocean Village.

Then the time came for me to leave Mayflower Halls and England…

Coming home and seeing my friends and family again was obviously really nice, especially since Oslo decided to stay sunny until I left for Bucharest!

 

I went on a Cabin trip to a place in Norway called Fredrikstad with these lovely ladies. (They will get very angry if I don’t refer to them as “beste chicksa” so, beste chicksa!)

Oslo sunset at … 10.30pm?! Yes, we get some long days here during the summer!

Boat trip on the Oslofjor.

My best friend Ina’s boyfriend came all the way from Minnesota, USA to Oslo! 

Cycling with my dad to the “beach” at Bygdøy here in Oslo.

And finally, a month well spent in Romania with my mum!

This pretty much sums up my summer until now! I hope you have had a lovely summer so far.

If you are starting at Southampton in September my next blog post will have some tips about our Open Days in September. Stay tuned!!

Alexandra