Second year already!

I've just arrived back at university, after three months in Nerja.

I don't really feel I can sum up my time in Spain in one blog entry without boring you all half to sleep, but i'll say that I really enjoyed the whole time. I was working in an office for a company called Dream Espana. It is a British owned business who operate in Spain and rent out apartments/villas for holiday makers that mostly originate in the Uk. I lived with my bosses Paul and Sally, and they extended every kindness to me they possible could, making me feel like one of the family. They had two young girls, so I was completely in my element, and to their bemusement spent most of my free time playing with their kids (not that they were complaining of course!) Whilst I was there they also got a puppy which was a very fun experience, as I got to see what it would be like to get one, without actually having to do a lot of the work. Having seen how much work Polly was, I think i'll hold off on a dog for a while!!! 

The job has given me invaluable work and life experience and I really hope that it will help me in my placement search for my second year. This has already begun and Sarah and I have been spending the last few days reading up on lots of placements, companies etc and trying to work out how we are going to pass our verbal and numerical reasoning tests. These are really hard, I am hoping the online ones are harder tha the real ones. In other news relating to tests, I passed first year with a 1st! Pretty shocking since I was only aiming for a 2:1. I am still aiming for that overall as the next years will be a lot harder, but finding a placement should hopefully be easier with a 1st in my first year. (Fingers crossed)

I have moved into my new house for this year. I am living at 86 Station Street, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 5EF for anyone who wants to send me post! It is a four bedroom house, and I am living with Sarah, Anthony and Tash. Anthony was in BillMo last year, and Sarah met Tash through Lacrosse in the first year last year.  Its a really nice house, and I already like my room, although it is on the bottom floor and I actually have a front door in my bedroom (complete with letterbox...!)   The entrance to the house is actually around the back, but my door is fully functioning onto the street which is a bit bizarre! No photos yet, but i'll get some up soon :)

Nerja

So, it's summer time. The end of my first year was pretty dull in the scheme of things as we had exams right to the last day, but the last night was fun and it was very sad to see my bedroom all pack up the next morning. I couldn't believe how much stuff I had, it almost didnt fit in the car, and made me very glad that i'm in Spain for the summer as otherwise im not sure I could cope living in my bedroom which now has all the stuff from my two lives in it. This is how my room looked at the end of the year before I started packing, and the a photo showing quite how much i had to pack!

 So this summer I will be working in Nerja, Spain in a rental villa company called Dream Espana. I arrive on Friday 29th June, here are a couple of photos of the lovely apartment I am staying in!

Its really nice, and much better than I expect. The apartment belongs to my bosses Paul and Sally and they are kindly renting it to me for only 40 euros a week. Nerja is a really busy and beautiful place and I was shocked at how many Brits there are out here, I would say it was 50/50 British to Spanish and more people speak English that Spanish when you are walking around. I think you could live here fine without knowing a word of Spanish as they all know English as well because its such a strong British culture. I've been working hard to speak in Spanish though and it does pay off as they are pretty friendly to you if they think you are making an effort. I've had people compliment me on my level of Spanish which is very nice since I would hardly say I was fluent. I might be nearly though as I've not struggled to say anything I want to. for the first few days my wifi wasn't working in my apartment and I had to talk to a Spanish IT guy. We had a convo in Spanish and I kept up fine, apart from occasionally needing him to repeat what he'd said.
I've worked at Dream Espana for two days now, and its been very interesting and busy. They have so many things to around the office but it sounds like one of my most important duties will be making the cleaning rota.  It sounds easy but there are so many things to do and factor in, as there are lots of different types of clean and they have to be done at different times depending on whether people are leaving or arriving. You also have to consider their geographical location as you cant have people driving miles around as it wastes time.
Its very hot here in Spain and its still only June
I dont start work till 12pm most days as its so hot that we work well into the evening and dont finish until 7! its nice though because it means the hottest part of the day is spent inside in the air con.

Easter Holidays

Its the Easter holidays at Loughborough which means im back in St Albans for a while. Im shocked at how quickly this year is flying by. Ive only got about 10 weeks left of the first year and it seems like only yesterday that I showed up to BillMo, threw on my freshers t shirt and jumped into my new life!
With my job secured to go and work in Spain in the summer I went on a Spanish course in Tenerife last week with my friend Hannah to further improve my Spanish. I stayed with a lovely Spanish lady called Maria and i think my Spanish has come on in leaps and bounds. It was a fantastic trip and definitely worth it.
Its been really nice to get home and see Mum,Dad,Ross, Seb and the girls, but im loving uni now and Im looking forward to getting back and getting my independence again. Sarah and Alis really just feel like sisters now and I think its weird how quickly they've become like a second family to me. The first week back I felt really odd and sad being away from them and we were texting pretty much constantly to Sebs annoyance!
Happy Easter all

Birthday

This weekend it was my birthday! I had such a great time. Seb came up for the week which was great because this was my first birthday away from home so it felt a bit weird. On Friday I had my party and lots of people came so i was very flattered that they all made such a big effort. My friends baked me cakes and everything which was so kind :)

Then on Saturday Seb took me out for dinner to a really nice restaurant called La Favorita.

On my birthday, i woke up really early and opened all my lovely presents and Seb cooked me a big fry up which was VERY yummy.

Also, on Saturday morning i checked my results for my exams:
I did very well, i'm so pleased with my results, I am averaging a first which is the best mark you can get so i'm very pleased with that. My best mark was in Organisational Behaviour and i got 77%
(To interpret: 40% is a 3rd, 50% is a 2:2, 60% is a 2:1 and 70% is a 1st)


My new modules this term are: Spanish 6, Marketing Mix, Financial Framework, Business Modelling and Personal Effectiveness. So far I'm not exactly enjoying any of them (Whereas last term I loved Organisational Behaviour)

Back at Uni

After my exams, we had refreshers which was where Loughborough gives us all a week off to chill after exams. Our hall put on loads of activities including my personal favourite 'Take Me Out'  Take me out is a game show on ITV which is run by Paddy McGuinuiss, basically there are 30 girls with red lights and a guy comes on and tries to get a date by talking about himself, showing a video and doing a talent. Then if the girls like him they keep their lights on, and if they dont they turn them off. It was a hilarious night, especially because our blockmate Harry was on it. Another boy who lives upstairs with us made his video and Im actually in it so check it out if you are bored

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-vOYeL19aI

In other news yesterday was a great day because I managed to get a job!!! Over the last two months I have been thinking about trying to get a job in Spain over summer in order to help me improve in my Spanish but also to put on my cv so that when it comes to applying for my placement, for the third year, in the first term of Second year I will have an advantage over my peers and should hopefully get a better job. The thing about my third year placement is that if i get a really good one, its likely they would offer you a graduate job, which in the current climate might be the best thing for me. Even if I decide not to go with wherever i do my placement will, having a good company to my CV will definately help me to succeed in other business's. SO i decided to start looking for things to do in summer in spain. However most of the stuff i could find was holiday camp work, which while it would be fun, doesnt really add much to the CV of a business school student. Then, my careers office sent me an adverty type thing for a job with a company called Dream Espana. They are a holiday rental company who are based in Nerja (Costa Del Sol) It sounded perfect because the job would be run mostly in English (Nerja is full of Ex pats) but occasionally i would need to use my Spanish for Spanish clients and also obviously i'd be living there so i would need to use it. Not only did it have typical intern like jobs, but it also had two spe cial projects just for the intern to help them have something extra for their cv.  It sounded great so i sent them my cv and cover letter and to my excitement they replied reasonably soon after saying they were impressed with my cv and wanted to give me a phone interview.

I did the phone interview last friday and the woman on the phone (Sally) sounded so nice. It is a family owned business and Sally and her husband run it. A few days later she emailed me to tell me I got the job so im really chuffed about that!

Also, of course, yesterday was valentines day!

Seb and I couldnt be together on the actual day but we did manage to have a 'skype date' which was fun. We both got Pizza and a nice pudding and i also decided to invest in some apple juice that actually needs to be refridgerated (luxurious times....) so it was all very nice. Its fun when we can do things together even though we arent physically together but he's coming up soon because it is my birthday pretty soon. Im going to be 19 which i cant quite get my head around because 19 is nearly 20 which is when I cant really pretend im not an adult anymore. Im still the baby of the flat though which everyone except Sarah being a lot older.
Alis is 20 this friday, Chris is 21 and our new flatmate Yvonne is 23! Shes lovely, shes German and she moved here from Frankfurt on Sunday. She replaced Chris who has moved to Hong Kong. 

Anyway, have a good day, I have to go read some chapters on Financial Framework... woo....

Exam time

Its exam time at Loughborough, and for me that means the first exams i've ever done at university. Its definitely been in interesting experience,especially because of the difference between this and my IB.
So far ive taken 3/5 exams, so just two to go. I think all three have gone ok so far thankfully, now i just have Economics and Organisational Behaviour left.
Over the last two years, my exams have never had more than 20 or so people in because there were so few of us doing it. For my higher economics exam in year 13 I was the only one sitting the exam! However at uni they run something like 4 different exams at once.... in the gym hall which is a hall the size of a football pitch. In the exams there have been more than 900 people sitting an exam at the same time! its crazyyy! Ive never seen so many desks in my entire life! The quiet is odd as well. 900 people sitting in silence... its quiet but its also kind of loud. There are 900 people sniffing and coughing and writing so its very strange. Before you go into the exam you get a seat reference so you know where to sit. Ive been M30, and G40 so far. when they let us in its crazy because 900 people are walking to their desks, and there are 900 bags at the front.
I managed to find a photo of it but it doesnt really sum up how massive the hall is, think this time about 6 as there are a-w wide and then 1-40  long.

Thursday/Friday

Sorry I didnt post this yesterday but I went out in the evening so I didnt really have time

 Same as always for breakfast

 A tuna mayo sandwich with a yogurt and a cupcake for lunch

For dinner I made sweet and sour chicken with vegetables and rice. mmm

In the evening we went to Revs which is a club in town. It was really fun especially since we've all been revising like nutters. This photo is me Tash and Sarah, they are the girls I am living with next year

And today breakfast was the same (with strong coffee!)

lunch was beans on toast but i forgot to take a photo so you will jut have to take my word for it

and for dinner I had Pizza because its Friday. woooo :D

Wednesday!

So this is what I ate on Wednesday!

I eat the same thing for breakfast every day here rice krispies, granola and tea again

 For lunch today I ate, smoked mackrel pate on bread with cucumber yogurt and a pear

 and for dinner, pasta with homemade sauce with bacon in it. And i had a cheeky banana dipped in melted chocolate for pudding! yum x

Tuesday!

Today I have treated you to a photo of all three of the meals I ate!

 here is what I ate for breakfast: Tea in my brand new cup, rice krispies with granola and raison topping

This was my lunch :) Cheesy omelette with cucumber

 And for dinner, steak (medium rare), roast peppers, carrot chips and mash poetatoe 

Yumyumum!

Dinner on Monday!

Here is day one! I had Salmon, homemade chips, roast pepper and mushrooms. YUM :)

January blues?

Well, I am back at uni after an AMAZING break over Christmas. It was so great to see my friends and family again, and it was pretty cool having dinner prepared every night. Its january blues big time here at uni because in the next three weeks everyone has their exams so every one is mega stressed out. Sarah is literally locked in her room revising like a maniac, and i'm revising loads too. It gets a bit claustrophobic just always being stuck in your room revising so ive been trying to give myself lots of little treats to keep motivated. My friend Kate from hiphop came over yesterday for coffee and i'm going to be going to dance today for the first time since ive been back.... 

Ive been trying to keep my room a bit tidyer than last term, because im getting a reputation of having to untidyest room in my flat! I think im doing quite well so far! What do you think?

I was trying to think of things that might be interesting for you all to see so ive decided to take a photo of what I eat for dinner every day this week so you can see how a uni student eats. Obviously i wont be eating dinner now so i will post todays later but that might be something interesting for you all to see!

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, hope you are had a lovely holiday. Luckily for me, I still have a fortnight to go as Loughborough gives me a month off for Christmas! Not so luckily that means plenty of time for revision for my exams this month! I go back on the 16th and then there is a week of revision lectures followed by two weeks of exams, then I get another week off! Loughborough calls this 'Refreshers week' and its a chance for us all to blow of some steam after our exams.

Its been really weird being back for Christmas, but i settled back into the way of home pretty quickly and now it almost seems like Loughborough was a very long and exciting dream but didn't really happen....or perhaps that it happened but now its over... I don't know, when I left i missed it masses and especially my flatmates Sarah and Alis who i've got used to seeing almost every waking hour.... but soon home cooked meals, a dishwasher, live TV and a bath took over that and it feels pretty comfortable here. 

To make things even better, we just got back from a gorgeous week in Dubai which I had to share with you because even though its not related to uni it was perfect enough that who knows-perhaps I might go and live there for a year? 

 This is the view from our window during the day, something I had to cope with trying to ignore whilst revising in the mornings when everyone else was asleep!

I went the the desert on safari(above) and this is the camel I rode on, he was really chilled out. Definately the highlight of the holiday!

 Our pool! So beautiful!

This was definately how I will remember Dubai, it was amazingly beautiful at night, all lit up. I think i probably even preferred it to New York which is supposed to be the true "city that never sleeps"!

Christmas dinner in BillMo hall!

I am feeling rather proud of myself because today I pulled off a 12 person Christmas Dinner with very little help! We had two chickens, two beef joints, roast potatoes, roast sweets potatoes, parsnips, honey glazed carrots, roast onions, yorkshire puds, sausages in bacon and beans! It was so hard to do it with such little space. We had to use three different ovens!
It was such a lovely afternoon though and I really enjoyed it, although the washing up hasnt exactly been fun! We swapped secret santa presents and Sarah had me and she got me some cupcake cases and pink decorations for my baking cupboard! hehe :D
This is the last week of term, how quickly its gone is crazy! This last week will be very busy though as I have two exams and lots of other stuff to do. I shan't be writing over Christmas so I will leave you with some photos of our fab Christmas Dinner!