6/6

6.40pm- Hello everyone! This is a celebratory post as I have just finished my last summative essay for this year. I only have the exam essays to write now...! I've even done some reading for my seminar tomorrow and am now going to relax for the next week and a half. We went out for a friend's Birthday last night so I'm quite tired today. I didn't go to my lecture today in order to make sure I finished my essay. I made sure I popped into town however to send my Mum and Grandmother Mother's Day cards and grab some fruit from Tesco. Tomorrow my friend and I are going to a pancake cafe with the other girls and then we'll be going out to celebrate my Birthday tomorrow night. I had the first of my Epiphany essays back today and I'm happy because it was a high 2.1 and I didn't think it would be anywhere near that. We have a talk tomorrow morning about exam preparation and revision. I can't wait for the Easter break but know it will have to include a lot of revision for the exams in May. At the moment I'm just feeling very happy that I've managed to get everything done by my Birthday, and the deadline on Friday. I can definitely say it's an improvement on last term! I'm going to skype my best friend from home tonight and it will be great to catch up with him. Now that work is out of the way I feel I can enjoy all the end of term events such as concerts and society parties. I even managed to watch the news on iplayer just now! Much love to all.

Early night

11.30pm- Hello everyone! I've had a strangely lazy feeling night tonight. I ordered packed dinner from John's this morning so that I wouldn't have to go to dinner and could eat and work in my room instead. I changed into what I call "essay clothes" (leggings and a hoodie) when I got back from lectures and have only left my room to make tea! I've now finished the reading for the fifth out of my six essays and will start to write it tomorrow. My personal deadline is to finish both by Sunday. My friend and I are both celebrating our Birthdays next week and so I know that I won't get much work done after Monday. I am very excited to finish and am starting to get the end of term feeling. There are various events being held in the next few weeks and there's a general feeling of people starting to look towards Easter and going home. I can't wait until the break. I'm now especially excited as I've discovered I will be seeing a number of AC friends and I truly can't wait! I'm going to Formal tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to it. It's a special formal- Jazz Formal which means there'll be music during dinner and then a Jazz-themed event afterwards. Quite a few of my friends managed to sign-up too so there'll be a nice group of us. Well there isn't really much else to say apart from the fact that I've been busy working quite a lot. I'm very tired therefore for the first time since I'm not sure when, I'll be in bed my midnight! Love to all.

Half-way there

11.50am- Morning everyone! I realise it's been a fortnight since I last wrote on here so my efforts to write regularly this term haven't been very successful! I've just come back from my last seminar of the year (!!) in my African module. I love that module and so am actually sad that we won't be having any more seminars. Most of my other modules seem to have at least one more seminar however. I've now written three out of my six essays this term, although I did all the reading and wrote the one that was due on Tuesday on Monday! I had a small lapse into last term's ways...! I am now reading for my Reformation essay and I have set myself a deadline for Saturday. I'm quite busy these next couple of days however so we'll see how that works out. I ran Toastie Bar last night and we had a great group of people in the kitchen so we danced a little and had some good laughs whilst also working quite hard. Tonight is the John's JCR meeting and despite saying last time that I wouldn't go again, a close friend is running for an Exec position and so I will go along to support her. She's going for an uncontested role however so I'm sure she'll get it but she still has to hust (seems rather unlucky!). I went to Newcastle with one of my friends and her sister last weekend and we had a great time. It was so good to relax, explore somewhere new and get out of Durham for a while. Everyone is talking about the fact that we finish for Easter relatively soon and I can't wait. At the same time however, in my head that also means I have more essays to write! I'm looking forward to having a week at the end of term when all my essays will have been submitted. I've just picked up my glasses from the opticians! I booked an appointment last week as I've been getting headaches and finding it hard to read for a long time (which is a problem for historians!). The optician said not to wear them too often and only if I'll be reading for a long time yet I was shocked at the difference when I tried them on earlier. Reading was so much easier and I think I may now actually be able to concentrate for longer whilst working! I can hear the Cathedral clock striking which means it's time for lunch! Love to all.

Work and play

11pm- Hello everyone! Time seems to be flying and the approach of the end of term means one thing- deadlines! I am trying to be more organised than last term as regards reading for my essays but I still seem to find myself rushing to do seminar work. I had forgotten that I had a seminar at 10am this morning until yesterday afternoon! I'm trying to balance my time between seeing friends, going to various events and working. This week I have spent lots of time skyping with old AC friends. I always love talking to them but I was having a period of definitely not loving John's earlier this week and so I think I naturally wanted to talk to those who know me best. I'm very lucky in that I also have some wonderful friends here however and it's hard seeing everyone as much as I'd like! Yesterday I visited a local hospice and will now be working on a project organised through John's to volunteer at the hospice. I found it a very fulfilling and exciting afternoon for a number of reasons. One of those is that I met some lovely fellow Johnians from other years whilst walking to the hospice. I always love meeting new Johnians and there are definitely some great people here. We were given a tour of the hospice and told about the various ways we could potentially help- directly with patients, admin etc. I definitely want to work with people if possible but am very much looking forward to taking the project forward in whatever way possible the next couple of weeks. My voluntary work was one of my favourite things at AC and I know that doing something similar here will make me feel more fulfilled and happy. The results of the JCR Presidential elections were announced at President's Formal last night. I didn't sign up for Formal as I was doing Toastie Bar. News of the result spread quickly however and although my second choice candidate won, I am still happy with the result. I think the new President (aptly called John) will be a very good one indeed. Incidentally, he will now spend 5 years at uni as the Presidency is a sabbatical and he was already doing a 4yr language course! Am feeling rather tired so will say Good Night now. I love Fridays and tomorrow I'm having the usual 'Friday Lunch' with one of my best friends and then we're going to do a little shopping before heading to a fundraising event showcasing African music at a local club tomorrow night. Night all.

Sun after the snow

10.30pm- Hello everyone! I'm in a rush but today has been a good day. I woke up early this morning but instead of going to breakfast decided to go for a walk in the sunshine. It was definitely the right decision as this beautiful city looked wonderful in the snow. The photo below does not do it justice but does give you an idea of the wonderful views I see as go about my life every day.

On another note, today was extraordinary as we finally found a house!! We're very happy and excited and feel that we have found somewhere we all love. Bring on next year! Night all.

Snowy Days

Hello! Durham somehow seems to have managed to escape the snow which is affecting the rest of the UK. I find it rather ironic that the South suffers its worst Winter in a number of years when I move up North! We've had snow on the ground here for over a week now but from what I've heard it's nothing near as bad as the amount that's fallen down South. I'm getting rather fed up of the slush and grey skies and would really appreciate a little sunshine now! I've spent the past couple of days house hunting, which is proving to be both rather hard and exciting in equal measure. We went on a long wander around some popular student areas of the city yesterday and are now trying to settle on a house which offers the best value for money. I think the tea and cake break that we had in the middle of our trip is an indicator of things to come next year! We then had an unplanned house bonding party last night- lots of good music and games before heading out to town. I'm having a busy but great week spending time with lots of different people. Even my 10am seminar after a night out wasn't too bad this morning! Tomorrow I have two lectures, instead of the usual one. My BWS lecture was postponed from last term will be at 4pm tomorrow. I'm meeting a friend for our now traditional 'Friday lunch'- a sandwich or panini and a good chat somewhere in town in between my two lectures. As I write this I can hear the usual sounds at this time of night- drunken voices from Cuths trailing off down the Bailey as well as cars turning because of the dead-end outside my window. Add to this the cathedral striking every 15 minutes and it makes for quite a performance! I'm happy to be snuggled up inside with a cup of tea and listening to the Les Mis soundtrack whilst slowly falling asleep. Night all.

Epiphany term

7.30pm- Hello everyone! I have been back in Durham for almost a week now. I was not especially looking forward to returning after spending a month at home for Christmas. I had a lot of time to reflect over the break and eventually managed to overcome some doubts I had about uni life. I have come back re-energised and determined to make the most of my time here. It has been rather strange getting back in to the John's routine but I have started feeling more settled now. I am going to ensure that I'm involved in a wider range of activities than last term. I have just completed my CRB check and will start helping out with a project that is being set-up between John's and a local hospice in the next few weeks. I also attended my first Durham Union Debate last night (which, incidentally, was on gender equality in the workplace) and a few friends and I have decided we are going to make it a Friday night routine to go to the Union. This week I have spent time having coffee and cooking with John's friends and also catching up with people in my lectures. I am determined to be more organised in regards to work this term however I have not got off to the best start. We're having to sort out houses for living out next year which is quite time consuming. My housemates and I are going to start arranging viewings on Monday but it is difficult balancing budget limitations with location requirements and requires a lot of patience! I am very happy with the 5 friends I will be living with however and that is the most important thing. Ironically it appears as thought the North East has escaped the worst of the snow which is affecting the rest of the UK. There has been snow on the ground here all week but it has been a little heavier and more consistent since last night. Walking down the Bailey as snowflakes gently fell in the orange glow of the streetlights must be one of my highlights of my time in Durham. The weather has affected the catering in John's and so we had a "picnic" dinner- soup and salad (served by the Resident Tutors instead of the kitchen staff) on polystyrene plates with wooden cutlery. It was quite amusing trying to eat soup with a tiny wooden teaspoon! I am off to watch Chicago in the college DVD room with friends now. Love to all.

That end of term feeling

Hello everyone! I should first of all apologise for not being a very good blogger! I'm afraid university life got the better of me when it came to finding time to write on here. I'm writing now as I handed in my final two essays of the term this morning. I've had a summative essay for each of my modules this term. History seems to be one of the few subjects where all essays are summative and count towards our final marks for this year. First year doesn't count towards your degree but you must pass! As I'm one of the few people I know of who do 6 History modules, I seem to have had the most summative essays! I started reading for my last essay yesterday and finished writing it at 2.30am this morning. I've been very bad at organising my time and completing my essays this term so I'm going to make sure I sort that out next term. I've passed the two essays I've had back so far however, so luckily it's ok. I don't regret socialising and having fun- I think that's what being a Fresher is all about! I'm truly lucky as I've made some wonderful friends and we can now support each other as all these deadlines approach. My one friend is currently in the library finishing her last essay and when she's done we're going to celebrate with mince pies and mulled wine. We take each other hot chocolate and food when we know one of us has a deadline the next day- it's lovely! Everyone is getting ready for Christmas and this coming week is full of some great events. There's Carol Singing tonight, a Shakespeare play tomorrow, A Swing Night on Sunday, Christmas Panto on Monday, Carol Service in the Cathedral on Tuesday..... and all of these of just the official events organised within John's! In addition to this, there will undoubtably be lots of relaxation and Christmas themed fun with friends. I just did some Christmas shopping, well browsing, with my roommate and wandering around Durham is even more beautiful at this time of year. We had snow earlier this week but it has just about all melted now. I'd like it to snow a little more but not too much so that we can all get home! The end of term is always a time to reflect and I realise that I feel settled and happy at John's now. It took some adjustment as it is very different from AC but I do really like it now. I'm looking forward to enjoying John's in this coming week as I'll be free and it is a great place to be. Hope everybody is well and am looking forward to seeing as many of you as I can when I'm home over the Christmas break. Love to all.

Rainy Durham days

2.30pm- I can't be long as I must do some reading! However, I wanted to let you all know that I am really enjoying life at John's. Durham is a wonderful place to live and John's is definitely a great college. As lectures and seminars are now in full swing, the advantages of living along the Bailey are becoming even clearer. I feel so lucky when I sit next to people in lectures who've had to catch the bus down from the hill colleges and I've had to walk the whole of about 5 minutes to the History Dept! I've been busy enjoying everything that John's and Durham has to offer- from peaceful riverside walks to fun nights out. We were planning on going to Klute ( the infamous nightclub) tonight but I found out at lunch that tonight is a foam party and now I'm not so keen! I've just come back from a John's Welfare Committee meeting and have another meeting about Toastie Bar in about an hour. I'm very happy today as I am going down to London to meet up with old AC friends tomorrow night. I'm travelling down on the train with a friend from John's and we're both very excited! Should really get down to some reading on British Imperialism now. I'm taking a couple of books with me to read on the long train journey. I'm going to venture out into the murky haze later to get some fruit and also a Birthday card for a friend. Tonight I'm helping out on Toastie Bar and may or may not go out afterwards... Love to all.

Settling in

1.45pm- Hello everyone! I must first of all apologise for failing to update my blog more often. However, I'm sure you'll all understand that the past two weeks have been incredibly busy on all fronts. From spending time with friends to sorting out the academic side of things, I find that by the time I finally get in to bed at the end of the day I am exhausted. I must just say that this is the way I like it- I love that I have to juggle trips to coffee shops, mealtimes, nights out and reading for my course. I had three lectures so far this week. All three lecturers have quite different styles of teaching but I enjoyed and feel I have benefited from them all. My lecture in Monarchy and Religion began with Handel's Zadok the Priest being played at a very high volume! In a rather strange way it was a good introduction to the module. I have the first of my seminars tomorrow morning. I am feeling slightly apprehensive about seminars however I am feeling more relaxed following a talk by the History Dept. leaders this morning. We had a really good session led by the Head of Dept and Director of Studies regarding our expectations of lectures and seminars and what the dept. expect of us in turn. We also had a really good, open and honest discussion about our fears and most impressively the lecturers fears regarding seminars. This sort of meeting is one of the things which I believe sets the History Dept. apart- there is a very caring atmosphere amongst the staff (in addition to a very high level of professionalism of course). I am going to finish preparing for my seminar on Reformation Europe now. I know absolutely nothing about this time period and so must do a lot of reading!! I then have a meeting of the John's Welfare Team. I had not originally signed down for this but have been persuaded to join for a number of reasons (partly due to my own wish to contribute to John's life and partly due to the encouragement of others.) I am then meeting a friend to go shopping for hot chocolate (!) Tonight I am helping to run the John's toastie bar with some friends. I did it last week and it was a lot of fun. Love to all.

Late nights, early mornings

Good morning all. I am writing this post from the John's library. The library is a former chapel and is an interesting building. Luckily for me it also has wifi, a surprisingly good history section and is very quiet. I did not have any lectures yesterday and as seminars are yet to start this meant I had an entirely free day! I still made sure I got up at a reasonable time and had breakfast. After breakfast a group of us walked up to the main uni library which is on a hill outside the city centre and about a 10min walk from John's. I managed to get a couple of books and I will start doing a bit of reading today. I am starting to understand that lots of the reading required for seminars and essays will actually be available online. The uni has a very good online catalogue and so many of my texts will be available to read online. I will obviously have to still borrow books, but my expectations of how I'll be working are changing. After lunch some of us went down into the town to wander around the shops and a couple of people had things they needed to buy. Last night was the John's Fresher's Noah's Ark Bar Crawl. We had to let the Freps (Fresher's Reps) know if/ who we were going with and they assigned animals for us to dress up as. My roommate and I were swans, which luckily meant we could just try to look elegant. When we arrived at John's bar we were sellotaped together by our wrists and ankles. We all then had to head to the other college bars on the Bailey (road around the Cathedral) and walked together, two by two! The Noah's Ark theme continued when we played some strange game and the Freps squirted water pistols at us (imitating the flood apparently). The highlight of the night was when we all ended up in Klute (the notorious nightclub) and danced until the early hours to some of the cheesiest songs imaginable! I am going to read a little about Reformation Europe now. I have my first lecture of this module this afternoon but I have a book on a short-term loan and so must return it to the main library on Saturday. Love to all from a cold but beautifully sunny Durham.

Finally a Fresher!

12am- Hello everyone!! After what seemed like a very long wait all summer, I have just finished Fresher's Week. The past week has been one of the busiest of my life (and after 2 years at AC that is quite something!). I cannot believe that I have only been here for a week! So much has happened- from the chaos of arriving to the excitement of everything that Fresher's offers and I am left feeling very tired! I have managed to escape with only suffering from mild 'fresher's flu'- a cold for a couple of days. Some people have fared far worse and are quite ill. I cannot begin to give an account of everything I have done in the past week so I will try to be very succinct. I have made great friends, been out to sample Durham's nightlife, had tea parties, attended Matriculation in the Cathedral, tried local coffee shops, been on a cruise down the Weir, worn some strange outfits,had a ridiculous amount of fun on a bouncy castle, gone to Christian Union meetings and church, tried out at a rowing trial and as a result of all of this yesterday was the first night I went to bed before 2am! There have been times when I have felt unsure, missed family and old friends but now I am really starting to feel part of the John's community and can begin to call it my home (albeit not for many weeks of the year!!). I had my first lecture today (I was supposed to have two but one was cancelled) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The module is entitled "Birth of Western Society, 300-1000" and I really liked the Professor. I have had to buy my first book- and that was for £23! I am writing down everything I buy in a little notebook so that I can keep track of my spending. Tomorrow I only have one lecture and that is not until 3pm. I'm not sure what I'll do before that but as always I know something will evolve or crop up. I may actually go to buy my NUS Extra card as apparently it is worth investing in. I'm afraid that is all I have time for for now. Good night.

My new room- half decorated. Lots of pink and hearts, as expected!

A new adventure...

Hello everyone! In a couple of weeks I will start a new chapter in my life as a student at St.John's College, Durham University. I cannot wait to embark on this new and exciting journey! I hope to write on this blog about my day-to-day life as a Johnian, living in the shadow of the beautiful Durham Cathedral. I will write more when I arrive as a Fresher at St.John's....!

The cathedral on my visit to Durham for the University Open Day last year.