Week 8 (Week 1 of Lockdown)

Welcome to the longest week of my life, Week 8! Since the start of term the weeks have been going by so fast and now that the college is closed and the country is on lockdown and I’m self-isolating trying to avoid my housemates that still have to work, time has just slowed itself right down. It’s maddening.

(by the way if these videos of Italians singing out their windows at each other to keep morale up doesn’t win the argument for more European style urban housing in this country I don’t know what else will convince you.)

Can’t pull this shite of in a housing estate lads

It’s really interesting getting our lectures through Sulis. So far most of mine have taken place live through ‘Big Blue Button’, which I’ve found really engaging. The most awkward part about being on lockdown is the interruption to labs though. The lab for this module especially, as I know I’ll struggle more with the website assignment without someone actually physically showing me how to do it. I’ll give it a go though!!

Really missing the social aspect of college, and I’m not talking the drinking/going out. Just spending time with classmates, going to clubs and socs meetings, it really is such a vital part of the college experience. Video and group chats are fun but I’m a social creature and I need human contact!

The sesh will be mighty when this is all over. Look out College Court…. Roll on Week Nine!!!!!

Week Six!!

Thank the Lord Week 6 is over and campus is now quiet and safe aga- oh wait, we’re on alert for Covid-19?? Oh. Well then…

So I’m officially feeling like the crabby mature student after trying to get my Public Admin group together during Rag Week, but the submission date for that got pushed out til Wednesday Week 7 so they’ve all got time to get over their hangovers and get the work done. This whippersnappers, they’re not used to drinking so much and having to work the next day. Me, I’ve had too much practice on that front. Far too much. Anyway, after next week, LULITMI is dead, long live LULITMI.

A major thing for this week was pre-registering for modules next semester. It turned out in the end that I don’t have to pre-register, but it’s still made me think seriously about which of my two electives I want to stick with for the rest of my degree. I’m currently taking Politics and International Relations, and History, two subjects I’m really enjoying, and it’s hard to choose between the two! On the one hand, History is a subject I enjoy immensely, and would have some use in conjunction with my journalism degree. Plus the research methods that I’ve learned so far in History I’ve already found really useful to apply to my journalistic practices.

My brain, currently

On the other hand, am I wasting my college experience if I take the easier option of the two I like and don’t challenge myself? Politics and International Relations is also a subject that will work really well with my degree, and a lot of what I’d be covering in History is something I can easily read up on in my own time. I’m not sure which way I’ll go yet, but it’s nice to know I’ve actually got all summer to think it over (and by that I mean stress out and twist my mind in circles, cos it’s no fun if you don’t procrastinate!).

We start the website building fun tomorrow for this module (remotely, thanks Coronavirus…) and I’m really looking forward to it but also I know I’m going to try chuck my laptop out the window in frustration. History is on Reading Week, there was an assessment last week in Sub Editing and Design, I am super on top of interviews for my radio package and got an essay in for Radio Journalism too. Overall, Week 6 has been pretty good!!

Roll on Week 7!!! (if we’re not all in quarantine by then…)