This is a short one as I’m writing on my phone. There is no internet again so this is being written on my phone. After the dissapointment of stupid ‘Lads’ at Don Broco last night me and Ali decided to go home and watch How I Met Your Mother and then take a walk along the river this morning. I had the treat of being taken to Frankie and Bennie’s for lunch too. Now I’m back in the flat and bored out of my mind, the Ouzo certainly looks good right now…
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You’re kidding, right?
I trudged back to London today with a miserable face, I hate going back alone. Unfortunately I had a lecture which I don’t normally have on a Monday so I had to go ahead of Ali. Luckily I bumped into my friend Jen so the journey wasn’t as boring as I thought. I went ot a fair bit of effort to get back for this lecture, one which I believed to be important. It was, but not for the right reasons. I have just learnt that the work I have spent so long slaving over now counts for nothing, absolutely nothing.
I’m going to keep this post short, purely because I’m now going to go and do things I wanted to do while I’ve been working on the stupid module!
Uni sure is a crazy place
Today had been quite abnormal for more than one reason and sometimes you realise that moving from a town to a big city wasn’t your smartest move. Ok so let’s start with Surbiton where I currently live (and will be swiftly moving out of come June). There are two parts of Surbiton the nice part which is stunning and a weird grubby part, I’m kind of in the middle. Today after getting off the bus at the station I was shocked to find a woman look at me and start screaming at me. She ranted and raved at me and nobody batted an eyelid she she told me I was ‘f***ing miserable’ and to ‘get my tits out’, because apparently if you do that you get a fella…according to her anyway. Nobody stopped, nobody looked, nobody wanted to help, they just kept their heads down. So I done what any normal human being would do…I went and bought a whole pizza for myself and dessert. Well it is Friday. Plus I’m sure you guy would find me boring if I was on a constant diet like someone I heard today who is worryingly on a diet where she replaces food with cigarettes… something I will never understand.
Apart from the Surbiton divide halls have also become an odd place with reports of fights breaking out again and some drunk loser taking a s**t on the stairs outside our flat after we wouldn’t let him into the flat. It’s just becaomse accepted that people will get drunk or high and that is a ‘good time’. Now maybe it’s time I got into my granny pants but doesn’t it get boring? Maybe it’s just me.
Either way the most abnormal thing today was the way people reacted to a lack of internet. 15 universities internet was knocked out, meaning my presentation went to pieces. I’m not good with presenting anyway unless I’m singing, not having material made me want to hide under the table ( I didn’t you’ll be pleased to know). Still everything just seemed to shut down for some reason, people completely panicked. I wont lie and say I wasn’t irritated that some moron stole the server but it just proved how reliant we are on technology now. It wasn’t all bad though I ended up spending the morning with my lovely tutor group after our tutor bought us hot chocolate and muffins today, due to not being able to do our online work (yeah we’re not grown up enough for coffee yet, well we don’t think we should be anyway).
Now I’m off to a very loud and messy Christmas party…let’s see how this goes!
Tick Tock, Tick Tock
Look around any lecture halls right now and you will see the anxious faces of students when the lecturers start talking about assignments. Uh-oh we need to do actual work now, that might be a problem. I was lucky enough to have all my deadlines in the same week of term oh and one due in on the last day before break…score!
I don’t want to write a magical post about how calm and relaxed I am because I’m just as stressed as everyone else right now! I think I’m going to end up dreaming about Queer Theory and referencing tonight seeing as I’ve spent almost 4 hours on this assignment. You see I don’t buy into this whole thing that ‘first year doesn’t count’. I am paying £9000 a year for this course, EVERYTHING counts. So while others are currently getting drunk outside my building I am sitting here trying to work out where this damn book was published and thinking about monologues. To put it bluntly this degree better get me a decent job because I can see lots of these long nights stretching out ahead of me for the next three years.
After a hellish day yesterday, I have managed to cheer myself up. Ali and I will be meeting one of our influences in February and eating pizza with them, as you do. We also have Don Broco on Saturday as the tickets FINALLY arrived!
Now I’m going to go and try and wake myself with a shower and read through this all again before tomorrow morning!
Strike!
As many students will be aware across the country today many lecturers went on strike again today (with the threat of it happening again before Christmas). Now I’m torn over the strike, yes I support the majority of my lecturers and appreciate how much work they do when working with us but I find the whole concept of a one day stroke a bit odd. I’m not saying they should but surely a complete strike until they get what they need/want would work better? I just think it’s silly that it’s come down to striking, it reminds me of when I was a stubborn kid who didn’t want to do something. According to some lecturers I have spoken to this was the last thing they wanted to do but nobody is listening to them, something which I believe.
I haven’t had any terrible experiences today with the strike, I generally stayed away and let them get on with it. It’s not because I didn’t want to support them, I was just a little put off by the student unions attempts at ‘supporting’ the lecturers. There were flyers around telling us not to use the library. I’m paying £9000 a year, I’ll use the library whenever I want. Although I personally just avoided uni all together today, some of my friends braved it for many different reasons. Some students joined forces with the lecturers and stood peacefully with them. A friend of mine had a test that he needed to take, he walked in with no problems what so ever. Another friend of mine was blocked by some moronic student when he tried to walk through uni to our doctors (which is located on the main campus) and was asked about his ‘excuses’. The worst case though is that one of my friends needed to go to the library and a woman actually stood in front of him, lecturing about why he shouldn’t enter the buildings.
I know that if this happens again before Christmas there will be chaos and I doubt the students will give their full support. It’s so close to deadlines and everyone is starting to worry. After talking to one of my lecturers they explained that it is our choice, nobody is forcing us to stop going to the library. In all honesty I’m finding it all a little awkward, I think I’ll just head to band practice and hope all the rooms are open!
Hey kid, don’t grow up too quick
When you go to uni you realise that you need to start acting like a grown up. After years and years of wanting to finally be able to do what I want I moved out, I started paying rent and making my own decisions. Now I want to curl up in my bed with my teddy bear and stay at home, as I’m sure many of my fellow students do at times. It’s not because we’re incapable, it’s because we realise that being an adult isn’t the easiest thing in the world.
When you start out you think I can do this, what’s all the fuss about? Then you get responsibilities, deadlines, money that your supposed to budget with. On top of all that everyone asks you a million and one questions as well as shit advice, most of which I want to give really sarcastic answers too. Take some of these for example
Question : What do you want to actually DO with that degree when you leave?
Answer: Oh yeah I forgot I haven’t filled you in seeing as I have every single aspect of what I’m going to do with my life planned out. I’m going to run the f***ing world, you know? Because I really came to uni already knowing everything..that’s why I’m here.
Advice: ‘Oh yes [insert useless experience] will look fab on your CV’
Answer: Oh really, I bet it will look great on absolutely everyone else’s CV too..
Question: Oh Chloe have you lost weight again? – this one REALLY annoys me.
I realise I seem a bit angry with these replies but oh my when you hear the same thing every.five.minutes. You generally get a little bit hacked off. I mean being an adult has some advantages, you go to bed when you want, get up when you want, eat what you want. I absolutely love my course as well as the independence I get at uni. At the same time though it a damn scary and anyone who says it is not is a damn liar! So if you haven’t started uni yet enjoy living at home as much as you can, you really don’t realise how much you will miss it.
So many countdowns…
Here we have it, we are finally at the 1st of December, so many things to count down to. There’s the obvious count down to Christmas (24 days) , the count down until the end of semester (12 days), the count down until all my work is due in (nope, not counting that one) as well as various other things I am counting down till this month. I’m at home at the moment and if I’m honest leaving is going to be a little hard. I miss feeling comfortable around people, being in halls is hard work sometimes.
I don’t know how erratic my writing will be this month, there is so much to do meals to plan, presents to buy, packing to do as well as the damn assignments. I’m hoping everyone else feels this panic so I might actually get a little bit of sleep. You have to remember though this month has one daily treat. I think my advent calendar(s) might just get me through all the stress this time…
My Dog
Sometimes you run out of things to write about, I guess this is one of those times. I thought I would all give you an insight into one of my favourite things. This ,my friends, is my dog Lottie. It may seem odd that I am writing about my dog on a uni blog, but let me tell you the thing that most people miss at uni are their pets. I have friend that are counting down the days to go home just to see their pet. You see it’s different with animals you can’t just call them up, they don’t understand!
Lottie is a lurcher cross and the most adorable dog ever. She has been following me around constantly since I got back and she will until I got back to uni on Monday morning. I swear there is nothing better than the unconditional love you get from your pet when you come back from somewhere. My flat does feel pretty empty in the evenings when I don’t have her sitting on my bed.
The thing is about a pet is that they never question you, they trust and love you with no thought. When I’m on a bad low I am certain that 90% of the time my dog can make my day that little bit brighter. In fact after I was a bit down today just cuddling up to her while she was asleep made me feel better.
So there you go guys, something a little bit odd but still very valid to uni life. Now you can all admit that your more excited about seeing your pets than your family this Christmas, they wont ask you endless questions, although they might steal your turkey!
Poison, thank you and goodnight!
As many of you know music is something that is incredibly important to me. I’ve been performing since I was around seven years old so the sudden anxiety attack at sound check tonight kind of threw me off guard. After a truly awful sound check where I forgot most of my words, it’s safe to say I was a little upset. Ok, try absolutely freaking out. It’s been well over a month since I’ve performed and coming back to Basingstoke wasn’t helping my nerves.
As we watched the other musicians I started to relax as well as freak out (an odd combination). I had the honour of watching my beautiful friend Nicole play and she writes such stunning music you can’t help but relax and enjoy it.
In the end the night went incredibly well and the new songs got great feedback. As a result I was quite angry with myself because despite ALWAYS getting stupidly nervous, I hadn’t had a proper panic/anxiety attack in quite a while. I think it’s because of a pressure I feel to prove that we can move on from For All That Goes. As stupid as it sounds the break up really made me doubt myself as a musician and generally as a person so this gig meant a lot to me.
So now there will be no more under 18 nights at Poison due to it being closed and it upsets me as I have good memories of the place. So really this is an entry about moving on I suppose. I’m hoping that I wont be as panicked next time and instead I will be excited next time I perform which will be open mic night… let’s wait and see!
Going to bed at 3am
Let’s just start this post by pointing out that going to bed at 3am on a Friday morning is a bad idea, especially when you have a 9 am start (good one Chloe). At the time, I didn’t feel this way as I was talking to my flat mate for most of the night and I thought oh yeah it doesn’t matter I’ll get up in the morning. I was wrong.
This mornings bus dash (which isn’t uncommon anyway) was probably quite comical to any one watching me. I was running for the bus, arms flailing about in odd clothes. It is definitely the greatest way to turn up to your seminars in dungarees, tights and Ugg boots. To all my friends who said I looked fine, I know you lied, but thanks. After the first initial hour I was actually okay on 4 hours sleep and even during the car journey home I stayed awake. Right now though the combination of a lack of sleep, being at home and having been fed is getting on top of me and I don’t feel that great… I think it might be bed time!
Chloe Metzger 