School stuff

I got a comment by John Sam Jones!!! *giddy* He’s the guy who wrote Fishboys of Vernazza and he signed my copy when he came to give a lecture about it. This is so cool! o/

So far, I still have 1400 words or so to go on my essay, but it’s getting easier to write it now that I’ve gotten into the swing of things. On the downside, I’ve been talking to a load of people and we’ve all chosen the same question. I want to make my essay different from theirs. I like being original. At least for my portfolio I was told that it was really interesting to read and if I had more time to work on my pieces, they’d be really good. Last semester my grade was 68, now I got a 61… it’s a different teacher, so it’s possible that my way of writing just appealed to my American teacher more than it does to this Welsh one. *shrugs* Not too worried about it though. :)

John Sam Jones, Fishboys of Vernazza, essays, creative writing

Yayness! I’ve completed my next essay which is due next Monday. I was talking to some of the people in my seminar and they stayed up until like 4 am writing the essay that was due today. I dunno, I guess I sorta feel like a nerd for having finished things early. But, if I want to go away two consecutive weekends, then I need to get all of my work done beforehand so I can enjoy myself. Oooh, if I’m feeling really productive, I might be able to finish off the essay that’s not due for another month! XD

So this morning I filled out the application papers. Since I don’t have a credit card, I had to borrow Oliver’s. Again. Grr, annoying not having one. I did pick up a form to fill in to get one though.. (the Yahoo money smiley would be really appropriate here).

And on my way to the bus stop, I saw some really really cute boots. Didn’t have the time to stop and actually see if they had any in my size or even their price. So I’m going back into town on Wednesday to check them out again. The same time that I go drop off the credit card application, the bank statement for Montana and I have a doctor’s appointment then too. Well, will have. I tried making one today and found out that they have a new system that they only take appointments for the day that you call. So I gotta call them on Wednesday again. Anyway, the reason why I’m going is that I got a letter today saying that I need to get a cervical smear test done and the place over here that does it is booked until June 14th. Plus, I want to talk about going on the Pill..

When I tried describing the boots to Krisi, she couldn’t remember the shoes I was trying to compare these boots to, so now I’ve made a pics page of all the shoes I have here with me. With the exception of sneakers. No one needs to see those. XP

essays, shoes, boots, credit cards

I got in!! I’m going to Montana next year!!! *happy dance* Penn State withdrew from the program, so Montana’s my next choice. *grin* Horseback riding! Cowboys! Ranches and stuff! :D:D:D Just gotta get all the paperwork done by Monday because they need it in by the 1st of March. Which means that since my stupid laptop is being a pain in the butt right now, I gotta hoof it over to Carol’s office early Monday morning and fill them out there before my 12 o’clock seminar. >_< The cool thing is that it’s like over a thousand pounds cheaper to be there for a year than here. And I’d be staying in one of the more expensive rooms too. ^-^

Ah well. I’m going!!! :D:D:D:D Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

University of Montana, UWA, exchange program

Okay, so today I went down into town after my 10 am seminar just to see how long it takes to get to the place where the interview will be tomorrow. My guess is about 30 mins if I don’t rush. I’m only estimating how long it actually does take because once I got to Great Darkgate Street, I couldn’t find Laura Place anywhere. I spent 40 mins wandering around, trying various little alleys/streets to no avail. I got so frustrated I went shopping to calm myself down. Retail therapy really does work. *grin* I got a shirt, skirt and pants for under £15… Anyway, I decided to find the place after my shopping because it really wouldn’t be a good thing for me not know exactly where it is tomorrow. So I wander around again and this one man asks me if I’m lost. Er, no, I know exactly where I am (on Vulcan Street) but I don’t know where Laura Place is. Does that count as lost? Anyway, I didn’t say that to him since he was being really nice and all. I told him I was looking for Laura Place and he showed me this tiny little gap between a stone wall and a green house and said that it should be right down there. So that’s where I went and voila, there it was. But seriously, no obvious street name signs or anything. How the hell are tourists supposed to find places? And there weren’t any street maps either. Grr… I hung out at the beach for a bit, just watching the water change colors and the clouds move. Stopped by the Ceredigion Museum. Free entry so I figured why not? I think I spent an hour and a half in there just looking at stuff from all ages. I mean it, from the Stone Age to like the Victorian age and turn of the century electrical appliances.. Really cool. And I listened to tapes of different types of bagpipes and the tunes they used to play in different countries. :)

Oh and I finished my essay draft last night! Go me. ^-^ My tutor sent it back to me with suggestions so I’ll just tweak the bits she suggested and then print it out. :-D

traffic signs, museum, lost

My interview’s on Thursday at 3:45pm. I wonder what they’ll ask… what should I wear? Since the interview’s down in town, I think I’ll take a pair of heels with me and swap shoes once I get to the office. Need to look neat. Gabriel, from my Creative Writing class, has also applied to go. His first choice is U of Pittsburgh, while mine is Penn State.

Speaking of interviews, Oliver has one next week. ^-^

So far I’ve gotten over 600 words of my first essay written. Another 1,000 to go. Went to the library today with Kayla. Showed her how to find stuff. XD Really need to get a move on with this essay. I want to send my tutor a draft so I’ll have the weekend to tweak it.

essays, exchange program, interview

So yeah, woken up by the fire alarm again. This morning it was at 7:30 and it turns out that it was a fire drill. We were so not happy. One guy even complained at them for choosing to wake all of us up today. Mainly because we were woken up yesterday morning at 7 a.m. because the fire alarm went off (most likely because of someone’s shower). Their reason for doing this drill was to count all the people and make sure that everyone got out. The complaining guy pointed out that they should’ve been here to count everyone yesterday morning when it actually did go off. And obviously, this counting business isn’t very effective because Dani’s boyfriend spent the night in her room (and therefore wasn’t present in his own building when they had the drill) and Oliver’s over here too. How are they supposed to know who’s gone home for some reason or another?

fire drill

Deadlines! O_O;;; Okay, so in two weeks I have an essay due on the Monday.. then a presentation on the Wednesday, then a week after it another essay and a week after that one more portfolio. Looooovely.. So today I finally kicked myself into action and got books so I can prepare the presentation. I might just wing some of it though. Like I usually do. XD And for some reason, I seem to do okay when I wing it. It’s kind of a scary thought actually. What if I can’t come up with anything? I did write on my personal essay for the exchange program that I thrive under pressure. That’s when I feel like a genius.. but it’s not good when I just freeze. Eh.. -__-

So, now I’ll definitely be going to work on my presentation. I will. I will. I will.

P.S. I’m gonna start cross posting to the other blog because this one is very tempermental. Just in case y’know.

deadlines, essays

..from my essay and portfolio that is. I know my tutor said that it was my best work so far which made me think Okay, so that’ll give me a grade of like 63-65…. But.. I got a 69! A 69! That’s almost a 1st. :-D Then I got my portfolio back yesterday and today my teacher e-mailed me the coversheet which had my grade on it.. 68! I am doing so well! *grin*

Had my first Aspects of Genre lecture today. It still sounds like a boring module, but the lecturer told us the funniest story (that still had to do with the module). So the topic is genres and how they affect the reader’s expectations. Now, in the story, this woman is alone in a hotel and wants something to read. So she goes over to the local library/book store/something and heads to the crime section. Somehow, Shakespeare’s Macbeth had wound up in there and she takes it back to her room with her. The next morning at breakfast, she proudly announces: “I’ve solved the Macbeth murder!” A man nearby asks her her reasoning (since we don’t really view Macbeth as a murder mystery) and she explains that an innocent person doesn’t act the way MacDuff (? not sure who, since I haven’t actually read it) does when he finds Duncan’s body in that room. So therefore MacDuff was the one who killed Duncan. The man thinks: “Okay, well that’s a bit too easy of an explanation.” He reads the play that night and the following morning he tells the woman that he has solved the identity of the murderer. There’s a scene where Lady MacBeth says that she would’ve killed Duncan herself except he looked too much like her father when he slept. The man’s explanation is that it was Lady MacBeth’s father who killed Duncan because the man the lady saw really was her father! The Old Mr. MacBeth (that’s how the lecturer said it :P) had killed Duncan, heard someone in the hall, stuffed the body underneath the bed and climbed into the bed himself. So the man Lady MacBeth saw really was her father and that’s why she didn’t kill him.

results, grades, MacBeth, genres, mix-ups, murder mystery

But not that big of an achievement seeing as I only had one of them. XD Anyway, French exam was this morning. Seemed to go fine. The only bit that made me go O_O;; was putting the verbs into the imperfect tense. I couldn’t remember us covering that in class but it did eventually pop into my head. Then afterwards I met Roisin for coffee and we discussed the exam. She couldn’t remember us doing the imperfect tense either. Later on I saw Mike online and he said that he wasn’t sure we did them in class either. But he did remember them from doing his GCSEs so he got them in the end. ^-^

Gonna go see my personal tutor in about 45 mins about my Woolf essay. I’m guessing I got something like 60 from it. That seems to be the grade I get for my essays. I’m also gonna ask her about the North American Exchange Program. The guidelines say I need to discuss the suitability of the courses offered over in the participating unis so that’s what I’ll do. I can’t really go to Utica or Washington State because they don’t offer Creative Writing courses. So Penn State, U of Montana and U of Pittsburgh are my choices. In that order also goes my preference. But unless my dad gets a move on and gets my old boss the reference paper he needs to fill in, I won’t be able to apply. Annoying. >_<

I’ve also taken out three books from the library today. Just to get a head start on the reading that needs to be done for my courses. At least 16 books this semester. Urgh… But on the bright side, I’ve already read two (The Franklin’s Tale by Chaucer and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen). 14 to go.. Still better than taking Beginner’s French this semester. XD

rambling, school stuff, exams, French, exchange program

Go me. I’ve now gotten all my school work done that’s due on the 9th. o/ No need to worry about will it get lost in the mail or anything like that. Now I can relax during my holiday. ^-^ This portfolio was a bit easier to write, I think. Got two long-ish renges and one multiple POV story plus a vignette where I tried the stream of consciousness that Woolf used. I’m happy with it. And that’s what counts.

Got my Wordsworth essay back today. Another 60. So basically I’m on a good standing of getting a 2.1. If they gave out actual grades this year that is. Not just the simple Pass or Fail.. XD I’m hoping that for my Woolf essay I’d get a 63.. my tutor did say that it was by far my strongest essay yet, so.. *keeping fingers crossed*

essays, portfolio, Creative Writing, grading