Job update

I seriously believe that all Freshers should work at Build a Bear next year cos it's so much fun, and it puts you in a great (rather hyper) mood!

Yesterday I had training for 3 hours- watching a silly customer service vid about fish, getting to stuff bears, watching a Build a Bear music video (LOL) and then half an hour of actually working.
My first job was quite embarassing as I had to stand at the front with a toy dog on rollerskates and pulling him along. It ended up being fun though as I made a baby laugh, and a little boy hugged him. Then I moved onto the Stuff Me station and cocked up slightly, but it was alright. The hardest part is telling a boy that he has to kiss a heart, make a wish, and put it inside the bear!!

Work is mounting up slightly. I thought I had Reading Week (like half term, only involving work still) but I think I still have some classes and I found out I have a German grammar test, and work that week. So I may not get to go home. BOO. Unless I go this Thursday instead. Hmm.

Stuck in a sleep rut

Tuesday night wasn't great for sleeping.

I spent most of Wednesday morning in town and then in the afternoon I was in the library working on the german language skills presentation with my friend Adam. Felt a bit naff in the evening- a bit emotional and homesick and headachey from a coffee I got.

I got the worst amount of sleep ever last night (about 4 hours.) The other noisy guy invited some mates over at 12am-1:30pm and they were shouting, laughing, slamming doors and playing music. I gave a few of the guy's mates some looks when I saw them in the kitchen and texted the guy but nothing worked. As a result I nearly missed my 9am lecture.

Have done loads of presentation work today. That's about it cos I felt bad. Now I feel homesick again. I have no idea why. Ahh well. Reading week in just over a week. That also means revision too.

Madness

I woke up with a flu-ey cold thing on Wednesday. It's still there a bit but as went I home on Friday and had loads of lemony drinks, cough syrup, throat sweets and juice I'm a lot better now.
Home was fun. Mind you I still woke up going, "Argh I have to go into the kitchen in the flat to get some water. Nooo.....wait I'm at home. Yeah, k I'll do it."

Felt really tired on Monday. Had 3 lectures, saw my personal tutor and did a bit of work. Went to bed at 10:30 cos I felt awful and couldn't get to sleep until 3am cos someone had their msn and music on loud and then started whistling. So I was groggy in Linguistics again. I think it's safe to say that the novelty of living in a flat has worn off. So if you end up like me, please have the guts to go up to your flatmates and moan. I'm contemplating leaving an angry note if it happens again, but I did say something briefly this afternoon.

Got 2 essays back for Linguistics and I got 2:1's on both of them (B's.) Yay. Feeling more relaxed now Pierre said he would give us the exam q's in advance. Today was confusing though as we did syntax and did tree diagrams. I've sort of got it now, but the essay I'm not sure about. I may need to do some more reading. The library's books have become a haven...I use the Linguistics book loads.

German History is so funny. Uwe totally speaks his mind. Today he showed us stupid cartoons and said "Nasty froggies." There's this guy in a few of my classes who is really full of himself and it was hillarious watching him get his comeupance as Uwe ignored him when he put his hand up. In Language skills, Elisabeth asked us what "A pile of money" in German, was in English. He said, "A harbour of gold." HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Did a load of work tonight and am not going anywhere that requires money (aka Oceana, The Works) cos I've bought Xmas presents whilst I still have money. Might end up buying some food though. I recommend Premium Bonds. I love their prizes.

Damn all schools and their half terms :P

Evil person in the flat

The guy next door to me kept me awake for hours last night. He invited some mates over and they had a movie on which was really loud. He comes from Bulgaria and speaks quite loudly too. Doors were slammed. I was actually banging on the wall trying to get them to be quiet. I tried shouting, but I have another cold and couldn't shout very well.

Nikki has had her sandwich ham stolen, and the contents of the fridges were moved everywhere. We're not happy.

Went to the Bullring to enquire about my job and was told that I'm starting training on the 28th for 3 hours. Bought my uniform, but my trousers are way too big and I'm having to try to tie them with a belt, otherwise they fall down. It was also a mission finding plain white trainers. I think I'm gonna have to economize again.

Managed to do 4 pieces of work today, so now I only have Linguistics reading and a new essay to do (if I figure out what to do that is.) Yay.

I'm thinking about going home again soon.

I have a job!!!

Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated this since Sunday.

Monday night was really good as we had a session in the kitchen with loads of people and then went out to Oceana for Carina's and Jenny's birthdays. The only annoying thing was that Jenny and I forgot our Aston ID, so we had to get a taxi back and to there again. I had to stand at the Lakeside gate and my block door as well cos I didn't have my card on me.

Got back and couldn't sleep as I was running on adrenaline. Then some guy came into out flat shouting about wanting something and nearly set the fire alarm off. As a result I was shattered on Tuesday and had a 9am start. My lecturer wanted me to read out my essay as well but I made someone else do it. Turns out, he thinks I got either a 2:1 for it or a 1st. The next one looks a lot worse.

German Language seems to be going a bit slow for me at the moment.

The Freshers Ball was a bit hectic. It was raining really hard and there were puddles everywhere. The cars were going mad and wouldn't slow down for us, and Nikki got soaked by one. Then we had to sit in Einies for ages waiting for a bus. We gave up and went to the Sacks for a bit and got some chips cos we were so hungry. The bus eventually came. We had a good time, but the music got a bit slow at times and there wasn't much nice food left.

Had a nice lie in today and did loads of work. I still have quite a bit to do. Went out to see Black Sheep tonight which was a right laugh, although pretty gory.

Got a phone call from Mum to say that I got the job at Build a Bear. I start on the 28th at 9am :D WOOO!!! I'm so excited. So here's a tip- apply as soon as you get here and blag that you're a uni student. They'll take you.

Boring weekend

The weekend hasn't been that great really. Turns out Fi went home too, so there was just George and Massoud "around" (they're pretty much non existant and don't say much.)

Yesterday I was missing an old friend of mine so I wrote some letters, went out to the library and printed them, then went to Tesco Metro. Watched The Edukators & Goodbye Lenin and called my mum.

Today I printed off some more stuff and had a shower. This evening I watched The Crow and I might watch Shaun of the Dead. Ordered a book I'll need and got mum's Christmas present in case I start running out of money.

Job Interview

Currently trying to remember what I did yesterday:

I woke up half an hour late and so only have 25 minutes to get ready for my 9am German Language lecture. For some reason I was over tired and nearly fell asleep in the lecture too. Then I went to the Bull Ring and found out where I was supposed to go for the interview at Build-a-Bear and which bus to take.
Made a start on my essay by completing a plan of what I was gonna write. Was rather chuffed with myself cos I'd been putting that essay off for days. Decided that I'd go shopping for a new pair of shoes after I went with Nikki to the library. I have a pink/lilac dress so ideally I was looking for silver shoes but most were boring. I found some gorgeous sandals in Faith at £30 so I bought those. I am so economizing for a few weeks now cos I've spent so much this week. I'll need to do a food/toiletry shop soon too. Eep.
Was shattered by half 10 so went to bed. Couldn't sleep for a while cos I could hear everyone in the kitchen talking with a farmers accent.

Today:
I almost overslept AGAIN. Posted some letters although I heard that there could be another strike. I need my letters to reach my family and friends asap!!!! Legged it to the taxi rank and got a taxi to Colmore Row where my bus goes. I know now where that is and can walk to and back from there so go me. Had a pallava on the bus cos the drivers don't give change and I only had a tenner. His only advice was, "Well go around and ask everyone on the bus if they can give you some change." All of them said no. ********. So I yelled "FINE. I'M STUFFED THEN." and was waiting to get chucked off or arrested or something. Eventually he let me go for free which was cool.

Got directions from the shop at Merry Hill and met another girl. For some strange reason the interview wasn't in the shop, but in Burger King's Management Suite. WTF?! One girl turned up late and the others didn't, so instead of it being a group interview it was just us two. Not really sure how it went and the questions kept alternating or the interviewers got sidetracked but they said they'd get back to me within 3 weeks or so.

Got lost in the centre on the way out and had to go and find one of the girls at Build a Bear to show me where to go. Then when I got the right bus, he told me he didn't take change either and I had to ask staff at the Post Office to change it. Got back at 1pm and was starving and nearly falling asleep.

Done my essay now. All of my flatmates bar Fi have gone home (not counting George or Massood cos they don't talk to us really) so it looks like it could be a boring weekend. I might go to the pub with Karen. Failing that I have movies and a computer.

When am I allowed a non packed day off?

My days off aren't really days off, cos I still have to do work. I wouldn't mind, but I do spend a lot of time doing it.

This morning I went to Appleby Hair Salon in the guild and had my hair done. It was really worth it. After that I went to the 2nd socs fair but there were only 7 stalls, and none to my interest. Where is the German soc?! I met Will coming out. He was quiet yesterday and I thought he'd gotten the message. Apparently not, cos the texts have started again.

I thought I had a mentor meeting this afternoon but I couldn't find it, so it looks like I'm not gonna have one which isn't great. I did however in that time manage to do some work. Blackboard doesn't make any sense- with the ILT excercises it says they can oyfrienonly be accessed on campus. What it doesn't say is that you can only do it on a uni computer. So I was in the library for a while.

Did some more work, so now all I have left to do is my scary dissertation syle essay. Tomorrow I only have 1 lecture, but I need to go into town to check my interview details again.

I'm not feeling good. My boyfriend can't make it down to see me cos he's behind on his work and has no money. I miss people from home.

Shout outs

I don't know if you'll read this, but if you do.

To Karen W and Sarah A:

I miss you :) My lecturers are pretty funny here but I don't even think Uwe could beat the two of you. Hope everything is ok and that you aren't dying year 9 overload. If either of you see Pam Hart about please tell her from me that I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye and that she needs to post on the Vandyke Forum cos I left her a message. Poke Kirk Redmond for me cos he said he'd check his emails and he never does.

*hugs and ganz liebe Grusse*

Stressful past 2 days

Yesterday up until the evening isn't worth too much commenting on. Went to my 3 lectures, 2 good one boring. (Learning how to read for uni in academic study skills.)

Yesterday night however is a different story. It was a nightmare!! Carina (one of my flatmates) and I decided we'd go to see if it's as good as everyone says it is. IT IS. Check it out, cos it does slightly put The Works to shame with its different rooms and music. Also, if you get online tickets you can go straight to the front of the queue. Anyway, I knew that the night wasn't gonna be my night cos things just kept going wrong one after the other, like a domino effect. First of all I cut my legs really badly with my razor, then when I was cleaning the razor on the towel it got through the towel and sliced my thumb. All wouldn't stop bleeding for ages, and I didn't have any plasters (I said to Mum I did cos I swear they were in the first aid box) so I ended up stealing them from Nikki as she works at Boots.


As we were coming out of Oceana we ran into a guy called Hugh who I've only met briefly. He had too much to drink and to cut a long story short, stole my glasses. And he's a kleptomaniac. I was freaking out cos obviously I can't pay for a new pair and he'd gone into Dalton Tower. I have no idea where he lives in there either. A really nice 3rd year stopped and stayed with myself and Carina until things were sorted cos he said he didn't want us to go without help. Carina ended up calling our friend Becie (it was getting to 3am by this point) who lives in his flat to try and get her to get them from him. Thankfully she did, but the nose pieces are a bit bent. So now I need to find a Specsavers.

Don't laugh at me.

As a result of this I didn't sleep too well and felt really groggy in Linguistics. That was ok though at its still quite confusing. German History and Society especially, as Uwe decided to do two lectures in one. Super fast!! Then I ended up getting the wrong lift to the North Wing and was 15 minutes late to German Language.

Over the past 2 days I've been given 6 pieces of work, all with small tasks embedded in them. Annoying. I have 2 and a half bits left, cos Blackboard isn't working properly and I can't access the listening task. Be prepared to spend ages on Blackboard looking for things. That or printing. I was in the library twice today and printed loads.

Cos of all this work and the antics of last night I decided not to go to the foam party tonight. I need sleep. And to stop eating junk food cos I'm normally very healthy. Urgh, that reminds me do not order chicken and chips and John's Fish Bar. Chips were great, chicken was gross. It was all grey and there was a bone sticking out of it. It grossed me out. Back on the pasta methinks.

I'm getting a haircut tomorrow. Yay.

EDIT: More stupidness. I just fell over my laptop bag and smashed my mouth on the hard plastic arm of the chair. I have a bloody top lip. Yum.

Settling in

This is how used to uni I'm getting. My Mum gave me a naff pillow last night and I actually wanted to be back in my bed in my flat. Then I woke up and was like, "Where the hell am I? Why am I not in my flat?!"

Going back tomorrow afternoon. WOO :D

I've done all my Linguistics reading and understood quite a lot. Go me.

At home

I really don't have good luck. Wednesday night everyone (literally) decided to be really noisy inside and outside of my flat at about 1am. My flatmates went out to RISA (I didn't cos I was sorting out my net) and got back at 1am. I heard Carys come in and slur "Can someone open my door for me cos I can't get it in...I can't get it in." loads of times. She hit her chin on the toilet seat. She came out of the kitchen when everyone else got in, and so they all decided to sit in the corridor. Fi got back and was so out of it- I think she yelled something like "OMG there's a door there." and couldn't stop laughing, Dan hit the wall and was like "There's a wall there. OMG it's speaking to me." There was some kind of flashing going on according to Matt. I thought I had a test so I had to go out and tell them to be quiet, but looking back on it now it was pretty funny.

Thursday I went to the doctors. That was all fine, apart from the fact that they've mispelt my surname.
Was all ready for the German test, I go up there and Emmanuele says, "Oh, they made a mistake on your timetable. It's only for those people doing the university wide language programme and that's not you." So I could've gone home then.

I got a call from Build a Bear in the Bull Ring, who want me to attend an interview on the 12th Oct. The only problem is, that I don't drive yet and it's in a nearby place called Dudley. I'll need to find out where it is and which buses or trains to get. I also got a message from the Langs for Life scheme so I have a meeting for that next week. I also have to go to the mentoring meeting, as I'd like to be mentored this year by an older student. (They know what they're doing better than I do and can give advice and exam tips.) Meetings galore next week.

Will MSNed me and was all guilt trippy and clingy, "You're the best friend I have." After 2 weeks?! That's a bit too soon for me to be honest. I'm only just finding my feet and am enjoying being independant. I don't really wanna be tied down by anyone right now. He hasn't really made any friends at all. Get out there people!!! Just crack a joke in your lecture. As a matter of fact- say anything!!

Today I decided that I would go home, seeing as I'm not too busy and only have a tiny bit of reading for Linguistics left. It was really weird arriving in my home town. I felt quite out of place to be honest and for a while I wished I was back in Brum and in my flat! Now it feels quite good being home, but I do wanna go back on Sunday. It's good seeing my cat (Pimms). My Mum said that Pimms hasn't been around much because she knew that I'd gone somewhere, and that her behaviour had changed somewhat. When I got in she hung around me for a few minutes and then sat a way away, as if she couldn't understand if I was real or not. After 10 minutes she wouldn't leave me alone. I'm gonna miss my cat when I go back. I love that thing to death.

Text from Will this afternoon- "It's Friday, kick back, rleax and come out with me and a friend into town." Pushy much? He's like this every day. I texted back and was like, "Err...well I can't really cos I'm not in Brum at the mo." Best excuse ever.

I'm ready to be diverted loads on Sunday. I've never done that before. Eeep.

I have net!!!

I'm posting this from my room. YES!!!! The modem isn't too good though so I might have trouble signing on sometimes.

I found the health centre and had to make an appointment. It seems like a really nice place, although it is a bit scary as its all shiny and new.

Carys told me that I was supposed to read Phonology and not Phonetics. That's the longer chapter!!! It's like 70 odd pages. I've done 12 this evening with notes and may do some more tonight, but its getting really complex.

I may be going home at the weekend before everything gets too hectic.

Tomorrow I have a German Intermediate test. Wish me luck!!

Day off. Yesss.

Today is my day off, except I still have loads of things to do. I was planning on waking up at half 7 to get in the lib for 9 but I was pretty tired. I blame the Linguistics book as I read and made notes on 10 pages about phonetics last night. We haven't been told to make notes but I figured I would anyway to get a head start for the lesson and practice essay next week. Always a good thing.

I also tried connecting to Keysurf again and I did it!!!! YAY. But they don't accept my card. I'm going to phone my mum to ask her nicely if she'd mind paying with hers for a month.

So far I've come here and done my German Culture hw...watching a concert. That was quite cool. Now I'm off to the book sale, (cheap books, yay) then getting phone credit, then going to check out where the health centre is and later reading some more of the Linguistics book.

Last night my aerobics was interrupted by a residence meeting. Bah. There were some funny things mentioned mind. You can get fined if you throw a teabag out of the window.

Its all go

Tuesday 2nd October:

I don't have much time so I'll try and type this as quickly as I can. I have to go and do aerobics, finish some German Language hw and start reading about phonetics and phonology for Linguistics. I may be back tomorrow as its my day off, but I have some hw for German Culture to do online.

Sunday was boring. Basically I spent half of the afternoon wandering around the campus with my Translation friend Becki trying to find someone who might be able to help us with our timetables. As it was a Sunday everyone gave us funny looks and of course no one was around. Stayed in in the evening cos I needed to economise and save money. (Only buy the essential food, otherwise make do with what you've got. In my case, 2 bowls of cereal per day.)

Yesterday was really hectic. Got up at half 7 as I had to sort my timetable out at 9 in case I missed any lectures. Finally found Mingjing Jia who does the timetables and she said that they'd changed the system this year. Even though my modules are core, they failed to update. Then she told me I'd have to hand write it all out whilst I waited for it to go online. Bahhhhh. That was a lot of fun.

My first lecture was a 2 hour lecture at 11: Introduction to Basic Translation. The tutor noticed me straight away cos I was wearing a German t-shirt which said "Heirate mich." (Marry me, a song by Rammstein.) That lecture was quite interesting. I got homework to translate a few sentences. I've done it.

Then at 2 I had German Language Skills. That was great fun and I really enjoyed doing the worksheets and getting back into the swing of it. The tutor was also loely, and she's picked up the vibe that I'm a languages enthusiast. I don't know whether that's good or bad cos she offered me extra work.

At 4 I had Intro to German Culture but Susie the tutor never turned up so we left. I now have hw to catch up on but I'll do that tomorrow.

The worst lecture of the day was Academic Study Skills. at 6-7pm. Its a course which teaches you how to study and which helps you, but you have to do coursework and an exam in it. So if you think you're going to uni to do a course you enjoy, and that you can get out of boring stuff, you can't I'm sorry to say. We all hate it.

Sleep was tough last night as pretty much all of my flatmates were drunk and I heard banging. I think they had a football in there.

This morning I had Intro to Linguistics. Really, really gruelling lecture. Funny tutor, but he did make me a bit confused, as it wasn't much to do with langs. He compared langs to the eye and went on about that for a while, and then said something about the side effects of viagra. I have to read a huge chapter in a book about phonetics and phonology to do a dissertation style essay soon. I'm starting the book tonight, but I have no clue as to how to do a dissertation essay. He said most of us would fail.

Got my timetable finally, and discovered that some classes I'd been to were on other days (I should've gone to German Language today instead of yesterday) and that I have an Intermediate German test for 2 hours on Thursday. ARGH. Hopefully it'll be fun, as I did one today in German Language and I loved it. As a result, Elizabeth, my tutor, has promoted me to german grammar motivator for the class. Nice.

M'off now. Need to go and do those things I mentioned above.