The past month or so has been rather eventful for me. In this case, my shamefully long absence can be justified by my having to prepare for and take my AS level exams and, once they were finished, travel around the country for the best part of a week.
After visiting family in Birmingham, I spent three days down in Bristol in the south-west to get a taste of the city and what it has to offer. The University of Bristol is a serious consideration for me when I finish school so I was very lucky to be given a whistle-stop tour of the area by a current student - thanks again, Susan!
With ten libraries, including the fondly nicknamed ASS library (Arts and Social Sciences, before you get excited) and a competent and highly-rated English department, I was quite pleased with what I saw in Bristol. Of course, there are problems as there are in any university and I was quite lucky to get a copy of the Bristol student newspaper, Epigram which gave me an inside view into the true goings on of the place, rather than the glossy view of the prospectus.
An article that really caught my eye was the discussion of 'smart drugs' that are being taken by students nationwide, in order to improve concentration and memory retention during the exam period. Drugs normally prescribed for those with ADHD are being taken, regardless of possible side effects in order to aid their studies and, ultimately, their grades. I won't go into this now, as I think such a debate deserves its own separate blog post.
In addition to this, I was impressed with Bristol as a place too. If you refer to my previous post (Country Gal) you will know that a rural environment and general access to greenery is quite important to me, and Bristol definitely has that to offer. The city itself is surrounded by forests, and even the London 2012 Mountain Biking training area of Ashton Court can be found nearby if you cross the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge (as pictured above). As an enthusiastic off-road cyclist who needs to space to pedal around, that box was ticked for me!
Now that my exams are done, I feel that I can finally look forward again. When you're studying, it's almost like there is no future beyond exams! I will be travelling to Ecuador in less than two months and I can't wait to share all my experiences with you all about that trip, as it will be like nothing I have ever done before in my life. My preparations have already begun - I have had my (deep breath) yellow fever, typhoid, hepatitis A and two hepatitis B injections already and will be going to pick up my malaria tablets soon.
Expect more posts about this leading up to the trip next month!
And finally, my newly exam-free life has also been spent reading and writing. In order to fully focus on my revision, I had to completely, if temporarily, crush any creativity within me, so unfortunately no writing - apart from essays, of course! - has occurred since Easter. However, I've been fortunate enough to be invited to try for a spot in a Women in Poetry 2013 book which only features 20 poets in the whole country! Chances of success are close to nil but it's been the motivation I needed to kick start my creative writing again nevertheless.
School resumes on Thursday, as do my A levels, but now that the exam heat is off I will make it a point to blog much more frequently than I have been recently!
If you have been doing exams or have been lucky enough to have some time off afterwards like me, comment below and share what you've been doing now that you've started...living again.
Feel free to hit the 'like' button below!
After visiting family in Birmingham, I spent three days down in Bristol in the south-west to get a taste of the city and what it has to offer. The University of Bristol is a serious consideration for me when I finish school so I was very lucky to be given a whistle-stop tour of the area by a current student - thanks again, Susan!
With ten libraries, including the fondly nicknamed ASS library (Arts and Social Sciences, before you get excited) and a competent and highly-rated English department, I was quite pleased with what I saw in Bristol. Of course, there are problems as there are in any university and I was quite lucky to get a copy of the Bristol student newspaper, Epigram which gave me an inside view into the true goings on of the place, rather than the glossy view of the prospectus.
An article that really caught my eye was the discussion of 'smart drugs' that are being taken by students nationwide, in order to improve concentration and memory retention during the exam period. Drugs normally prescribed for those with ADHD are being taken, regardless of possible side effects in order to aid their studies and, ultimately, their grades. I won't go into this now, as I think such a debate deserves its own separate blog post.
In addition to this, I was impressed with Bristol as a place too. If you refer to my previous post (Country Gal) you will know that a rural environment and general access to greenery is quite important to me, and Bristol definitely has that to offer. The city itself is surrounded by forests, and even the London 2012 Mountain Biking training area of Ashton Court can be found nearby if you cross the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge (as pictured above). As an enthusiastic off-road cyclist who needs to space to pedal around, that box was ticked for me!
Now that my exams are done, I feel that I can finally look forward again. When you're studying, it's almost like there is no future beyond exams! I will be travelling to Ecuador in less than two months and I can't wait to share all my experiences with you all about that trip, as it will be like nothing I have ever done before in my life. My preparations have already begun - I have had my (deep breath) yellow fever, typhoid, hepatitis A and two hepatitis B injections already and will be going to pick up my malaria tablets soon.
Expect more posts about this leading up to the trip next month!
And finally, my newly exam-free life has also been spent reading and writing. In order to fully focus on my revision, I had to completely, if temporarily, crush any creativity within me, so unfortunately no writing - apart from essays, of course! - has occurred since Easter. However, I've been fortunate enough to be invited to try for a spot in a Women in Poetry 2013 book which only features 20 poets in the whole country! Chances of success are close to nil but it's been the motivation I needed to kick start my creative writing again nevertheless.
School resumes on Thursday, as do my A levels, but now that the exam heat is off I will make it a point to blog much more frequently than I have been recently!
If you have been doing exams or have been lucky enough to have some time off afterwards like me, comment below and share what you've been doing now that you've started...living again.
Feel free to hit the 'like' button below!