Taught myself to make aubergine bake. Yum! Went into the kitchen the other morning to find a post-it on the microwave that says "out of order. doing some weird shit" so (naturally) turned it on, started flashing on and off and making weird noises... One of the boys said he turned it on and sparks were flying :S No baked potatoes for a while then.. Been shown a hilarious video of one of my lecturers in a band 20 years ago. Want to kill one of the girls in my lecture because she flirts outrageously with said lecturer and can only shout. Heating is turning on and off randomly, and no water pressure in shower. BAGS OF FUN. Planning to come home at the weekend even though i have shit loads of work to do.

again been a while since i wrote. I have done a lot more washing and hoovering and cooking but none of that is particularly exciting. Woken up my builders this morning fitting a lock onto the corridor doors to "improve security", that no doubt will never be used. My birthday was fun- we had a little drink up in the kitchen and played ring of fire and ride the bus until i nearly passed out. dean got a bit drunk too. the gang bought me a card and some birthday muffins. it was quite quiet but thats what i wanted. I had a birthday do at mums as well- we went to Chiquitos first and had a marvellous experience of waiting over an hour for a table that we had supposedly booked, and watching someone throw up on the table opposite us ! The school gang organised happy birthday to be sung around a cake (which turned out to be a dollop of whipped cream with a candle in the middle, that sunk pretty quickly, and cost them 30p!) we then went back to mums and the rest of the evening is a bit of a blur. We played ring of fire. Drank Skittles vodka vodka jelly shots and vodka jelly orange segment things (all of which i made myself). It was me, Hollie, Tina, Christian, Angeline, Tre, James, Nikita, Mohamed, Michael.C , Jack (michael's mate) and Louis and Guy came to the dinner. I remember we went out to the 24-7 at some point and Hollie was kissed by some randomer (who made sure she was 18 first) and we danced and sang down the street. Overall a pretty good night.

Since then, it's been Roshan's birthday which i missed due to crazy amounts of essays.. Of which, i should be getting back to....

back by popular demand!

been ages since i wrote. i have done my first lot of washing, first hoover, had my work critiqued in front of a whole class and made more than just pasta and sauce every night. still hate that this place is in the middle of no where and that it is colder than London. :( The heating still comes on only twice a day even though it is freezing. working on a presentation for next monday. It's research week at the moment which basically means i get to do nothing all day :) (and still pay money for it. yay.)

The only vaguely exciting thing that has happened recently is the kitchen being covered in post-its with quotes from Roshan on including "bum crease" "they call me T-money because i'm so good at b-ball" "i'm scared of short girls with big arses" "...and Rosies bf is black"

It's also quite fun to see the state of the staircase whenever i come back on a Sunday night. There are usually a few trolleys downstairs, once there was confetti EVERYWHERE, last night i came in and there were 3 beer cans hanging with string down the middle of the staircase. It's fun.

wednesday- spent the morning doing some work and resting my foot. dean took me back to mum's, had dinner, went back to dad's stayed there. thursday- chilled with dad in the morning, came back to uni, did some more work

monday- had a lecture on "working with emotion" which wasn't very helpful but looked at bombings of Guernica and picasso's painting, photos and an article on it. had my seminar in the afternoon, turns out i didn't send the piece to the teacher (because i'm an idiot and i put his address in the subject line instead :/) my group really liked my piece, had a little argument about the last line whether it should be included or not which was quite funny but all in all it was good. after my seminar, met up with a couple of people from my halls and went on an alcohol run. One of the boys bought a battered mars bar looks gross but think i'm gunna have to try it! had a drink up in the kitchen for carolines bday and then they went to locos, dean came over we went to meet them but they decided to go to the club instead and dean wasn't feeling it so we came back and made some pasta and went to bed!

tuesday- i had the world's dullest lecture with the most patronising woman in the world "lets practice turning on the computer and logging in" :/ then went to the medical centre for my ankle as it is killing! the doctor told me that it's probably soft tissue damage and has spread up my leg a bit but just to rest it and support it. spent the rest of the day relaxing

friday- ill. went to my seminar for poetry and prose (lecture was cancelled) learnt about John Donne's "the flea" and Shakespeare's sonnets 116 and 18. was quite a good discussion. had 5 books arrived from amazon which was actually quite exciting (cos i'm sad like that) then went to mum's. me mum and holly went to Catherine's sing a long thing at bar cosa(?) and then got milkshakes.

sat- went to a nice french cafe with mum in holloway. chillaxed dad came round watched x factor

sun- went for a walk to highbury fields watched where the wild things are but fell asleep :( hurt my foot/ankle in the morning, still hurting now bit worried about whether i will be able to walk in the morning.

tidied my room today. yay.

just had the dullest lecture of my life. "Academic practice" is easily the worst module. Spent 2 hours talking about chicago/harvard style referencing furiously taking notes and getting confused to be told at the end that its all in the booklet so we don't really need to remember it.

monday- went to a lecture called "punctuation is our pal" which was pretty dull... was told i could stay in the seminar group that i went to for the first week. Bareka wants to change to my group :/ gave in my piece of creative writing which went down surprisingly well. everyone thought it was really good and praised me for setting the scene so well etc. suggested that i added dialogue. Assignment for next week is based all around dialogue. dreading it.

went to lecture, was really good, focused on the book of margery kempe which is actually really funny. looked at a scene where margery's husband asked if they could break their vow of celibacy. she asked god. god said no... talked about how it was rather convenient etc. did some creative writing. had some chips. dean's gunna collect me later and take me to mum's/

Today is a crap day. Slept really badly due to crazy noise levels and again someone drunkenly screaming for Elijah at 2am. Woke up and it was rainy and crappy. Had some cheese and crackers for breakfast then went to my lecture. A whole group of us got lost, as the room was called "council" and we had no idea where that was. i followed a girl who thought she knew and it ended up just 3 of us. Called Bareka and she was with the big group who got lost and they found it. We went to try and find it and walked past. eventually turned up 25 mins late to a 1 hour lecture :/ missed all analysis of Beowulf, listened to a bit about the other two.

This week: Beowulf (the fight with grendel) the pardoners prologue and the book of margery kempe (margery sees the host flutter at mass)

next week: the english bible from 1 Corinthians 13

the opening of 'The Faerie Queene" by Edmund Spenser

William Shakespeare Sonnets 18, 71 and 116

John Donne "the flea" "the sun rising" "batter my heart, three-personed God; for you"

Aemilia Lanyer "Eve's apology in defense of Women"

On wednesday i woke up, did some writing then went to mum's and chillaxed. went to catherines house for a bit then went back. had ROAST POTATOES(!) and watched mama mia! dean came round. Thursday morning we went down to hackney and went to primarni and bought some lush stuff. went to the worlds scariest pound shop, a cafe then came back. had to rush back. got a bit lost on the way back and mum had to give me step by step directions. gunna have a baked potato and finish reading my extracts for tomorrows lecture

Today i thought i had an 8 hour day, but turns out it was only 2 hours. went to a lecture in the morning about 'academic practice' learnt about punctuation and what we're gunna do for the rest of the term. Learnt about the "oxford comma" Went to a library induction, their self service book station is mad, looks like something from startrek. library is actually massive, and looks impressive. then came back, had a sleep and eat. had a kitchen meeting where student mentors just went over the rules. started my assignment, played some card games in the kitchen. went to downstairs' kitchen for a bit but everyone was really drunk and we were sober so it didn't really work. gunna sleep and think about what to do for my assignment.

yesterday i just had a wobbly day, after seeing everyone i realised how much i missed home. just chilled all day, persuaded dean to come over in the evening. everyone had gone home for the weekend, but they all came back around 9. this morning i had a lecture from 12-1, was all about generating ideas and was really interesting. they played music, showed us pictures and gave us objects that we had to write about. came back to my room and chilled with bareka for a bit, then had a seminar from 4-6. was really good, touched on punctuation and grammar, but mostly intro's. we have to produce a piece of writing for friday and send it to everyone in our groups. my group was me, alex and adrian. gunna have a shower, make some food and chill with music and movies?

Dean picked me up from mums in his new car, then drove me to uni via his work to pick up the satnav (even though he swears he knows uxbridge like its his home) got here and unpacked the shopping, dean got some car insurance quotes then we went for a walk to the cash points across the other side of uni. Came back, met Caroline and her bf, then watched pursuit of happyness. cut out in the last 20 minutes but we were both dead tired by then so just left it. went to sleep, dean left about 9 this morning to go to footy. i'm gunna chill today, eat some food and sleep!!

Thursday night, got drunk.. you know the dealio.

Friday morning woke up, made lots of phone calls, went back to sleep, woke up and went to mums. took me about 2 hours to get there, was madness. Had REAL FOOD!! dad came round, had chats. mum and i watched 'cougar town' which was really ridiculous but quite funny. dean came over, was so happy to see him. went to sleep watching some shit film. woke up at about 11, dean went to collect someone and mum and i went to sainsburys where she bought me real food!! :D we got locked out of the van but managed to get back in eventually, went back and had cheese on toast, dean collected me. Feel so much better for seeing people, but kinda making me miss everyone more at the same time.

Woke up this morning feeling fine just a bit tired, went to a lecture about Brunel school of arts and crime prevention etc. University is like a gym apparently, so i'm screwed. Some women in a gross lime green jacket was talking but i have no clue what she said. Gunna attempt to tidy my room a bit. missing everyone a lot today.

Yesterday, i hung out in the kitchen most of the day. Got my oyster card through and all my photos so my room is a bit more homely. want to bring home my camera and rings and bring a shit camera i think, bit worried about what i have in my room. in the evening, went to a house party downstairs, watched a couple of drinking games then went to Locos with Crystal, cathy and Yasmin. shared a jug of blue skittles. came back, they went to a different house party in our building. i ate some food and chatted to dean.

"whats that egg thats round in the middle of the pan and flat?"

...

a fried egg

on sunday, it was like yeahhh i've got this this and this so i can tick it off of my inventory. today i wanted to shoot whoever put a fire alarm in my room. I DO NOT APPRECIATE BEING WOKEN UP WITH THE LOUDEST NOISE I'VE EVER HEARD. nor do i appreciate having to go outside in just my P.J.'s looking rough as hell whilst i wait for you to turn it off. that is all. thanks.

had a meeting with my personal tutor David Fulton today, told us a little bit about the course and we met everyone else who's doing the same course. met Daniella and Melissa who i'd spoken to on "yougo" and went to the freshers fayre with them. got loads of freebies including a can of hotdogs haha. showed Bareka my room. had a little sleep. went into kitchen and had a talk with Lydia, Jennifer and Shareef. went and got some food. hung out in the kitchen chatting for ages with lydia, elijah, roshan, crystal, caroline, jennifer and shareef. went for a late night walk to try and find some parties with some of them. bumped into several other people who were doing the same thing and said hey. strong smell of weed wherever you go. going to bed now (around 2).

last night put a note on Roshan's door telling him couldn't find him earlier and to let me know if they're meeting up later. Got a knock on my door telling me to go to the kitchen, went, no-one there. came back and had a long convo with dean, fell asleep on the phone. heard knocking on the door answered they said sorry about earlier they had to take the girls friend back and told me to come hang out. 6 of us, elijah, Crystal, Roshan, me and another girl and another guy from this floor all sat around the table. Talked about many things including how hilarious Titanic is, paired with impressions from the guy with the name i can't remember "come back jackkkk" and from Elijah about when she blows the whistle. Crystal is a tribal princess in her country and has been promised to marry a few people and is studying anthropology, the girl i can't remember is studying psychology, roshan is studying I.T. Caroline (my next door neighbour) came in quite drunk and told us how she had to be walked home by a contact. They're a really nice bunch of people, though slightly weird at times (elijah claimed there are a group of people living in Egypt that live in camels, and drink camels, we know what he means now but he worded it crazy and we couldn't stop laughing). We all went to bed at about 4.

made myself some pasta and met roshan (male) in the kitchen, had a longg chat, he put speaker phone on when his mum called so i could hear what an asian family was like haha. sorted out his internet because i'm a genius and then met Cristaline (not sure how you spell it) sorted out her internet met her friend (Cant remember what her name was) we treked all the way to her house, it was in a part of the uni that i didn't even know existed, across a pedestrian crossing. she had a lot of hello kitty stuff. went to Locos didnt have I.D. so came back to get it, annoyed some bloke because i didn't stop for him to attempt to chat me up (very badly i must say..!), couldn't find them in Locos wasn't really feeling the atmosphere so came back. think i'm gunna hang out in the kitchen with them later. kinda vibe-y on campus tonight, and a lot busier cos the off-campus people started today. keep forgetting i'm not in a safe school or something, feels weird at the moment..

i just had my first shower here, it was scary. i dropped the shower head and it did that thing in movies where it jumps about like a snake, its crazy powerful and to top it off, i couldn't get out at the end, just thought i'd let you know.

went to collect my welcome pack this morning, it told me who my tutor is and gave me tips on how to write essays and who to go to when i'm stuck. I came back to my room for a bit because i was feeling home sick and then went out to the quad (a big square of grass with steps around it) there was netball, football, rowing and tennis tournaments and a stage where they played pimp my contact. contacts (like mentors, but they mostly organise parties) were auctioned off, and the person who won them could dress them up however they wanted (or undress as the case seemed to be) and do a catwalk in their new outfit, the person with the loudest cheer won. I then went to my subject meeting. They told us a bit about how the course is split up and gave us the name of our PAL contact (like a student mentor) i then finally bought some food and am currently enjoying my first meal of student life - a nutella sandwich with ridiculously salty butter and mountain dew energy drink. yay. I'm meeting up with Nicole later to go to caught again, and then maybe to Locos because i didnt buy tickets for tonight at Academy

Oh yeah, i also saw 3 people running across campus in only their boxers...

LOSERVILLE.

So i'm officially a loser. i lasted about 3 hours at the bar (if that) before i came back to my room. Today has just been exhausting with moving in and meeting new people and trying to remember the hundreds of names! It's been pretty emotional too..

Since my last post, i've gone and met the "FSC" crew (faraday, Saltash and Chepstow?) and learnt their chants against the other halls. They did something called caught where they write down the names of people who have been caught out doing stupid things and make them stand in the middle of the circle and drink, really funny to begin with but eventually got old when we realised we were just watching everyone else get drunk. Then we were taken to Locos (the bar) and i met Raphael (german volunteer), George (close up magician) and a few other guys, most of them called John i think. Gunna have a quick snooze and see if i can be bothered to go back out in a while

moving in!

Today i moved into university!! Mum, Holly and Dad stayed with me for a while and helped me unpack and we had some lunch together, when they left i went to the marque where we met other people from Faraday halls. On the way to the freshers BBQ i bumped into someone i knew from Haverstock. She introduced me to her friend Nicole. We sat around at the BBQ for a while and then joined in with some games. I met a few nice people including some guy who claimed he was jesus because he was doing physiotherapy who was hilarious and his friend Connor who had a funny laugh. It's weird being away from home, it hasn't really sunk in yet, but my room feels so empty and quiet. I don't really like not knowing where i am or how i can get home but i will work it out. I'm off to the freshers welcome party in a minute. Everyone i've spoken to so far has told me they're going so it should be good... if we can get in!

24/08/2010-19/09/2010

Yesterday, i signed my tenancy agreement, paid my deposit, registered online for Brunel, opened 2 bank accounts and bought some cups and pans in Ikea... It's mad how much has changed and how quickly this is all happening. The other day I didn't even know if I had got in to Uni, but now i'm stressing about things like toilet brushes and moving trucks. My sleeping pattern has completely changed as well and I have about 6 lists on the go of things i need to do.
List 1:

• Sign tenancy agreement (x)
• Pay deposit (x)
  
• Open student account (x)
  
• Give bank details to student finance (x)
  
• set up direct debit to Brunel
• Buy things for accommodation
• Ask what i can steal from mum/dad
• take passport photos (x)
• print all important documents (x)
  
• sort out turtle
• set up contract phone
• buy some new clothes
• visit costco
• buy printer ink
• print registration summary/key release form
• print e-tickets for freshers
• get boots reheeled
• set up oyster card
• book arrival time for accommodation (x)
• sort out turtle lamp
• buy stamps
• call about transferring phone number
• pay cheque in
• iPod rebate form
• get injections (x)