HELLO, FROM UNIVERSITY.

Monday

Last Saturday was the day that I moved from my home in Wiltshire to University. Since last Saturday, a lot of weird, crazy and exciting things have happened. Obviously moving to uni came with the "delight" of fresher's week which included excessive drinking, meeting new people and for some reason, lots of drum and bass. University hadn't properly started for a lot of people until today so fresher's week was the opportunity to get all of the partying out of the system (although fresher's is still continuing this week unofficially and I'm heading out tonight). During the last week, I have made some amazing friends, especially the people in my flat. I am in a flat with 5 different people in halls of residence and we have all looked out for each other since day one.

university student in fancy dress

For me, fresher's week was all fun and games until I got fresher's flu. THIS IS NOT A MYTH. I am still suffering from fresher's flu and I could not move from my bed on Friday. The days where I could go out of my flat, I had drunk people running up to me with lines like "why aren't you coming out tonight?" and "come to my pres" as if no one is allowed a day off of drinking. What's worse is I didn't even know these people. I did have fun nights out but even when I didn't go out because I was feeling rough, I'd still have fun nights in with my flatmates. One night we played a girls board game (boys played too) where you answer questions to find out whether you are a bitch, a tart, or an angel; I will leave you and your imagination to work out which one I was.

Even though it has only been 9 days since I've got here I feel like I've learnt so much. I've learnt how to make noodles and pasta, AKA student necessities. I've also learnt how to find the best deals and spend around a tenner on food shopping, my grandma would be so proud. As expected, I do still have a lot more to learn but I'm having fun while I'm learning about student life and that's the main thing.

Thank you so much for reading :)

TWO WEEKS IN CYPRUS

Thursday

Protaras beach in Cyprus

As some of you may know, I recently went on a family holiday to Protaras, Cyprus in early August.  On this holiday, a lot of alcohol was drunk and a lot of halloumi was eaten; fitting the occasion. The six of us went to Cyprus for ten days which was sooo not long enough! I still have holiday blues now. Three days into the holiday, the family met three of our BFFs who we usually go away with out there which added to the festivities.

As opposed to usual holidays I've been on, where people will ask me if I lied about going on holiday because I come back as pale as previously, I did catch a slight tan. Although, most of the days I didn't make an effort to sunbathe because I was busy enjoying the luxuries of the pool to ourselves in the villa, or enjoying ice cream and the beach. Incidentally, the Ferrero Roche ice cream in Cyprus is among the best ice creams I have ever tasted.

pool at villa in Cyprus

Going on holiday is one of my favourite things and I love the day time so much because you can just relax and the most stressful thing is worrying about putting sun cream on, which is a worry I don't mind having. However, the night time is for eating and drinking your own body weight and partying, for me anyway. The only stress in the night time is being so full that you are struggling to finish your dinner but it tasting so good that you can't stop; which, again, is a worry I don't mind having.

family and friends on holiday in Cyprus

Our night times consisted of karaoke, where I sung "No Scrubs" with my mum, which was quite a spectacle. They also included nights out in Ayia Napa. Ayia Napa was such a good night out if you ignore all the reps trying to get you into each of the clubs and being given shots with any drink you order. Although, we didn't go out every night. One night we stayed in the villa and did our own talent show which was the funniest thing. Acts included: a rap (by me), a roast, pool game activities, mind reading, etc. 

two girls at the Ayia Napa signs

While we were away, we had some celebrating to do. We celebrated a 24th wedding anniversary and a 24th birthday on the same day. Here we had a very nice meal and I think I had about 4 passion fruit cocktails that night to start with. I could not stop drinking them and I couldn't get over how nice they were. When in Rome and all that...

Before this year, I had never stayed in a villa before. Any time I had been away we would always stay in hotels so this was a pleasant change. It had a lot of advantages like eating whenever you want (I need to stop talking about eating), getting ready for the night time when you want and the option of staying in or eating out. In an all inclusive hotel, I will often get bored of the food in the main restaurant because they more or less put the same sort of food out each night and I'm quite the fussy eater so I would normally have pizza and chips every night (I'm not even joking). Eating in the different restaurants gave us different choices of food each night. For me, the best thing about the villa was being able to get into the pool in the middle of the night after going out without getting into trouble. 

pretty lights in a villa garden

Overall, I loved the whole experience and I would recommend a villa but one close to an area with a lot of stuff going on so that you wouldn't feel isolated. 

Highlights of the holiday:
1. Getting 119 with the bat and ball
2. Winning the talent show
3. Passion fruit cocktails
4. Waterpark
5. Watching my uncle dance to feed em to the lions.

Thank you so much for reading! I'd love to know where you have travelled to and about your holidays :)



LIFE UPDATE: UNIVERSITY

Sunday

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that this year I have been doing my A levels and applying to universities. I got offers back from all of my choices and with the results I needed and I have recently been accepted into my first choice, Bournemouth University, to study Communication and Media. YAY!

My A level results were:
Media - B
Philosophy and Ethics - C
English Language - C

I am happy with these grades knowing how hard the exams were and how nervous I was because ultimately, all that matters is that I got into my first choice university.

Now it's time for the exciting part of shopping and moving down! Shopping for homeware, shopping for stationary, new clothes; you name it, I'm going to shop for it. I have already got tickets for freshers' events and nights out in freshers' week so September is going to be a very exciting month for me and any of you who will be starting university soon. Obviously I can't wait to study either.

Stay tuned for my uni life updates!

Thank you so much for reading x

Bournemouth pier

TERROR ATTACK ON ARIANA GRANDE CONCERT

Wednesday


After hearing about Monday night's terror attack on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, I was truly devastated. A venue holding around 21,000 people including many children and teenagers was thought to be the "perfect" place to commit an act of pure evil. Among the 22 people that have passed away so far, approximately 12 of them were children. An 8 year old girl was killed, ruining the lives of people close to her and for what? An 18 year old girl, the same age as me, doing A levels, just as I am, was killed in this brutal terror attack; and what had these innocent people done except go and see one of their favourite artists in concert? For a lot of people, this was their first concert and many had been looking forward to it for months. A concert should be remembered for the music and pleasure you feel from watching and listening to your artists, not for fear and tragedy. 

Ariana Grande singing live

Despite the horrendous actions of Monday night in Manchester, there are a handful of people who are not showing sympathy for the people affected by the incident. For example, The Daily Mail has attempted to blame Ariana's choice of clothing for the terrorism. Other than being the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, it is also disrespectful to the 23 year old artist who is traumatised by the terror attack upon her concert on Monday. The star tweeted "broken. from the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words", apologising for what had happened even though none of it was her fault, it was the fault of an extremist, sadistic group motivated by evil and ignorance. No one deserves to go to a concert to not come back, end up severely injured or fear for their lives. This was nothing other than a brutal attack on innocent people. Ariana Grande has offered to pay for the funerals of those who lost their lives to this tragic incident. How can anyone blame somebody who is willing to show this generosity?

However, this radical attempt at dividing Britain has failed because Manchester, and the United Kingdom are stronger than ever and there is so much support being spread through the communities. Support has been shown not just by the British people but from people all over the world. Unfortunately, I have never been to Manchester but the sense of community there that I have seen on the news is unreal, especially at yesterday's vigil. This just goes to show that nothing is going to break Britain no matter how many attempts of terror there are and the support in Manchester recently such as taxi drivers taking people home, hotels giving those targeted a place to stay and even homeless people helping the wounded makes me amongst many others, proud to be British.

Thank you so much for reading. RIP to the beautiful 22 whose lives were taken from them too soon. 

Manchester vigil for Ariana Grande terrorist attack


MY EXPERIENCE AT AUSCHWITZ - BIRKENAU

Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp used in the second world war by the Nazis. It consisted of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz Birkenau (II) and Auschwitz Monowitz (III). Auschwitz I was originally used for the Polish army but in the 1940s people began to use it as a concentration camp. It was decided that this camp was not large enough for the mass extermination of not only jews but homosexuals, Jehovah's witnesses, gypsies, etc. As a result of this decision, the Nazi's built Auschwitz II especially for the holocaust. Here, the living conditions were significantly worse than the first camp and seeing these conditions was unforgettable. Auschwitz II was also overwhelmingly larger than Auschwitz I or III although, some of it was blown up by the Nazi's to try to hide the terrible things that they had done. It was so empty and quiet, there were no birds, just visitors.

Entrance to Auschwitz Birkenau
Birkenau watch tower at Auschwitz
Some of the exhibits in the Auschwitz museum were absolutely heart-breaking. For example, the shoes that had been taken from them were displayed; even the hair shaven from their head was displayed. The people sent to the camps had all of their belongings with them as they were lead to believe that they were travelling to some sort of resettlement, a new life for them. When they arrived at the camps they would be judged and selected but they weren't aware of this. They would either be pointed in one direction for a "shower" or another direction to work. The people who were sent to the "shower" were also told to remember where they had put all of their belongings for when they come out of the shower but the shower wasn't really a shower; they were being sent to the gas chamber. There was an exhibit of the gas chamber at the museum with empty cans of the Zyklon B gas which was used. Seeing this was a very emotional experience but it was nothing compared to what it would have been like 75 years ago.

Image exhibition at Auschwitz

Another one of the many thought-provoking exhibitions in the museums was audio clips of Nazi's exclaiming their hatred for the Jews. They likened them to vermin and said that they should be exterminated. There are so many things wrong with this. 1. The Jews and all of the other millions of people murdered in the holocaust were all PEOPLE. Just like the Nazi's were (arguably) people just like I am a person. 2. This was only 75 years ago, that is not a long time. 3. How can a political party influence the genocide of 14,000,000 people?

I have not included all of the details about the concentration camps I visited because it is something you'd need to experience yourself. I would recommend for people to visit a concentration camp if possible because seeing it for yourself is honestly unforgettable. If you can't get a chance to visit one then I would also recommend even researching facts about the holocaust and concentration, labour or death camps because it is a thing that people should be aware of to make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Thank you for reading.

APPLYING TO UNIVERSITY - PART 2

Monday

In my most recent blog post I told you all how I went about applying to university and that I had finally done it. Since then, my application for uni was sent off to my college lecturers for them to write a reference for me. Once the references were finished, the final, completed application was sent by UCAS to all of the different universities of my choice. I applied to 4 different universities in the south of England for more or less the same course of BA Media and Communication.

After my application was sent to the universities I applied to, I had to wait for them to reply which was slightly nerve-racking to say the least. Although, it turns out I had nothing to worry about because I have been accepted into all 4 of the unis that I applied for and even got an unconditional offer from one of them. If the offer is unconditional it means that they will accept you onto the course and it doesn't matter what A-level grades you get. The remainder of my offers were conditional which was on the condition that I got certain grades at A-level.

The university I would most like to go to unfortunately isn't the one which gave me an unconditional offer and want me to get the amount of UCAS points that is equivalent to getting BBB at A-level, which means I will have to work really hard in order to get those grades. But, I feel like you need to work to achieve something because then you feel more like you've earned it.

Now, I just need to keep working hard with my A-levels and we will see how I do in my June exams. Wish me luck :) thank you so much for reading!


APPLYING TO UNIVERSITY

Tuesday

I am in my final year of college and will be completing my A-levels next year so now I want to move on to bigger things; bigger things being uni. I have recently applied to 4 universities all in the south of the UK. This turned out to be quite a lengthy process as I had been visiting the universities of my choice since July and I honestly had no idea how to go about applying to university. Going to visit the universities on open days was honestly the best thing to do as they really show in detail what uni is actually like and the uni you choose might look good on paper but you may find that when you actually have a look at it that it really isn't for you. Looking at a few really helps because it shows you which ones you like best so you can order them into a sort of hierarchy.

Deciding what to study at university was also quite difficult for me as there is so much choice, maybe even too much choice, and I am the most indecisive person ever. Eventually, I decided that I was going to do a BA Media and Communication degree. This was a hard decision to come to as I also wanted to study Philosophy and Ethics but I preferred the look of the content covered at A-level and having looked at the course at different universities, it just wasn't what I was expecting. The media and communications course covers both practical and theoretical content which is good for indecisive me. Funnily enough, I also don't know what my plans are after uni and all of the people I have spoken to about the course said that it is the right one for me because it could lead you into a wide range of careers, unlike a degree in fashion journalism for example, which is more specific to a career choice.

Before choosing my top universities I had to consider the realities of it like how I'd get home, where I might look for part-time work, money and boring things like that. I didn't want to go too far from home which is why all of the universities of my choice are only an hour away from my home. There are no closer universities because I live in the middle of nowhereland, walking distance from Stonehenge. Once I had chosen my top universities, it was time to do more boring stuff like making a UCAS account in order to apply to them. UCAS the website used when applying to university where you store all of your details and write your personal statement. After completing the requirements from UCAS, the application was then sent off to my lecturers at college so they could write references for me and then send the applications to the universities. BORING.

I am now waiting to hear from all of the universities. I will either receive an unconditional offer, a conditional offer meaning that I will get in if I get the grades required, or they will decline me altogether. HOPEFULLY, I won't get declined as I have worked really hard at college to achieve the goal of going to uni and I got good grades last year so if this year goes well too then I'm all set! It's weird to think how this time last year, I had no idea what I wanted to do after college, now I have gotten to the point where I am waiting for replies from universities. Just goes to show that even me, the most indecisive person in the world decided on something. If I can do it, you can do it too.

Thank you so much for reading and I will keep you updated on the uni situation :)

20 GENDER NEUTRAL CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS

Wednesday

I know it's not quite Christmas yet but it's beginning to be the time of year where people start thinking about buying their Christmas presents if they haven't already started. Buying gifts can be so hard sometimes because you might not have a clue what to get some people, or ANYONE. If that is you then hopefully this list of gender neutral gift ideas will help you in some way.

Gender neutral Christmas gifts
1. Favourite chocolates /sweets or any other food favourite
2. Books
3. Stationary
4. Novelty mugs
5. Clothes
6. Accessories
7. Jewellery
8. Hobby related items e.g.
9. Tickets e.g. concert tickets, theatre tickets
10. Socks (it's not Christmas without socks)
11. Games
12. Gift card for their favourite shop
13. Picture frame (with or without picture in it)
14. Perfume/aftershave
15. Bath & shower stuff
16. Ornaments
17. DVDs
18. CD/vinyl
19. Adult colouring book & pens
20. Art

I hope this list helped you in some way and maybe gave you some ideas. Obviously there are other gifts that you could get people that are typically tailored to just one gender but this is just an overall list of things that could suit anyone. Let me know in the comments if you have any other gift ideas. Thank you so much for reading :)