Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow …

I’m sure every one of you has heard plenty about the snow over the last couple of days and probably will hear plenty more over the coming weeks, maybe even months but I just thought I would point out once more …. IT’S SNOWING!!!!


Here at the university, its business as normal as possible, there are a few cancelled lectures and some of our offices are closing a tad earlier, but we will still do our best to help where we can. (Keep an eye on the portal and your emails if you are a current student).

Avery Hill Campus in the snow … http://twitpic.com/3buhlz




Bubbles & Boredom
One of the biggest disadvantages to the weather is that the boredom sets in … our phone lines have been very quiet this morning and yesterday spending the whole day at home lead me to feel a bit as though I was developing cabin fever! So myself and Blaze were talking about boredom-busting things to do and here are some ….

Do you feel satisfied every time you pop some bubble wrap? Get the same satisfaction online with online bubble wrap popping …http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml. I pop bubble wrap at 1.66 bubbles per second! I popped 196 bubbles in 1 minute and 58 seconds.Try and beat my score …


Dancing Bush … http://www.bored.com/dancingbush/ … a childish but funny game making George W. Bush dance exactly how you want him to. Snow games …. If your having a snow day off and so are some of your friends and family then how about a snow ball fight? Or making snow angels? Or even a treasure hunt around your garden or a nearby park where you can hide things in the snow and give them clues for where to find it (don’t hide anything valuable in case you can’t find it again or someone else takes it before you get back to it).

Fun, Fun, Fun
Overall, the snow makes most people just that little bit happier, with all its white, fluffy goodness. So go out and have fun and look forward to the fact that Christmas is just around the corner –YAY.
Festive Greetings you all, B :)

Higher Education – All the answers, one place.

If you are thinking about applying to university but aren’t quite sure where to start then higher education events are a great way to go. They happen all over the country throughout the year and are designed so that education institutions come to you, instead of you having to go to all of them.



Design your future

Yesterday as part of my role as an education liaison ambassador, I worked at the UCAS Design Your Future Event (DYF). It is a higher education event that is aimed specifically at those wanting a career in design and creative courses. Universities and institutions come from all over the country to form an exhibition that potential students can attend. This week’s DYF was based in the Excel centre in London and will be repeated in the coming week in Manchester (29th-30th November) – good news for those of you in the North.

https://www.ucasevents.com/design

The event covered subjects such as fashion, graphic design, landscape design, animation and creative teaching among others.

Other events

As well as DYF, UCAS run numerous events throughout the year. If you would like more information about where and when these events take place please visit: https://www.ucasevents.com/ucas/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=273321&eventID=580

Most of the events are free (not all of them) and in easy to get to locations.

Making the most of it

To make the most of any HE event, take a friend along with you and make the day a bit more fun, visit every stand to see what they have to offer ... plus they all gave out some fantastic freebies. Its always a good thing to start a game with your friends and see who can accumulate the most pens, pencils, badges or sweets.

Another thing that you shouldn’t forget while your there is that each and every one of the stalls there will have people – usually a mix of academics and students, so you can talk to them and get a true insight to the course or place and maybe even different perspectives if you talk to different people in different roles.

Also, all of these events usually run interactive sessions and workshops. You can find out more information on specific subjects or general information like how to apply or student finance. Keep a listen out for what is going on over the tannoy, ask someone and get a copy of the program.

Finally, make the most of us. If there are student ambassadors and/or events staff then ask them anything you need to know. How to get somewhere, where you can find a certain piece of information or what student life is like. I can guarantee that if they don’t know the answer themselves then they will do their hardest to find it out for you.



The people in red tops are University of Greenwich student staff, working for UCAS



Enjoy your week blog-land :) B

What the weekend brought

And so it continues …


OK so my run of bad luck decided to continue and Paris didn’t happen yet again :( boo!! But on the plus side, it was the passport agency’s fault not ours so we are being nicely compensated. For messing us around, they decided they would give us … our money back on the hotel plus pay for the cancellation fee, they will pay for another lot of first class tickets for the Eurostar and the hotel next time we go. Plus for a little bit of extra good will, they are giving us flights to any European city that we can use in the next 3 months. So I guess the sun does shine after the rain and I have two holidays to look forward to. It also shows one of life’s little lessons, you only get what you go after, if we had never raised the fact that my friend’s passport had not come through by the promised deadline then we would have just lost out with no compensation. You have to fight for what you believe in.


Plan B for the weekend …

So we didn’t want to waste a weekend that we had already booked off, so we decided to just do something in the UK instead. After a couple of hours of trawling the net for inspiration, we decided to just stay local and get a hotel on the other side of London and be tourists for the weekend. The plan was to do touristy things like go to The London Aquarium, do a river cruise, hit Oxford Street and have dinner in the West End…. But guess what ...? Luck decided it wasn’t my friend again and when I got to the hotel I didn’t have my debit card. We found a way around checking in though and spent the whole weekend making the most of the facilities there as we could charge them to the room


So my friends …

I apologise for my blog being a bit gloomy again this week, but at least I’ve gained some positives from it and my luck seems to be improving a bit. There’s lots going on over the next week or two so I will be happy and chatty again by next week hopefully.


Ciao for now.

B.

The world hates me

I said that I wouldn’t write a blog this week because I am moody, but then I was told that I should share my mood with the world. After all, we are all trying to give you a true picture of what student life is like which means sharing the bad right along with the good.

So, this week … the world hates me. One thing after another is going wrong and I am starting to think that I have done something seriously bad to upset Karma, although I haven’t a clue exactly what.

Don’t get me wrong, life in general is good and I think a lot of it is that I just need a good rant as I haven’t had one for a while. But amongst some of the things to happen to me this week, here are just a few:

1. My car was hit by someone in a public car park and the person drove off without leaving any details.

2. Opened the cupboard to get a drink and a glass fell out and smashed.

3. I fell out with a member of my family on my birthday and it upset me a lot.

4. Witnessed a criminal offence and being called to court as a witness.

5. Received a tax bill for £1500 as one of my two jobs as a student didn’t charge me tax as I earned so I owed that much over two years.

6. I am getting old.

7. My trip to Paris for my birthday was cancelled due to the political riots in the country.

8. I am so poor I had to get my Mum and Dad to pay for my bills because I couldn’t afford them.

Anyway, rant over and I hope you are all having a better week than me, will blog again soon when I have some happier news to share.

A problem shared is a problem halved

I have been sitting here all day long trying to think what pearls of wisdom to share with you all today and again and again I get distracted and turn to other things on my mind. The truth is, I am really struggling this year. Everyone gets warned that the third year is hard for a variety of reasons and the ones that are getting to me most are the amount of independent work that you have to do and the fact that my graduate looms in front of me and I still have no clue what it is that I want to achieve in my life and where I am going to go from here.


I know that many of my friends and colleagues are experiencing the same kind of feelings and I know that I am letting things in my personal life affect me even more, money problems, relationships, friendships, it all accumulates together to make things harder.

On the plus side, there are so many people around me that I know I can turn to and everybody no matter who they are and walk of life they are from will always have someone. It’s just a case of realising who they are. Never under-estimate the power of venting a problem, the old phrase ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ is definitely a motto I believe in.

It’s not just friends and family, look around you at colleagues and service on offer in your school/college/university. There are your lecturers who, although are there for academic purpose, often care about your well-being. There are counsellors in the university support centres. There are student reps both the newly elected ones within the schools at Greenwich but also general university student reps that work in association with the student union.

Finally when it comes to my fears about graduating and the future, there are people to turn to and resources to use. I am going to take action myself tomorrow and attend the Autumn Graduate and National Internship Fair. It provides opportunities for 2nd and 3rd years to get internships and placements and gives support for those who are soon to or have recently graduated and are looking for employment. Check out: http://www.internfair.co.uk/ OR http://www.autumngradfair.co.uk/index.php for more details about the events.

I will keep you posted about how I get on and will work on getting myself fully back on track to complete my final year and get the grades I so badly want and deserve.

Take Care

Just a little bit … unmotivated!

Motivation … Oh where art thou hiding?


Ok … it’s been a month since my last blog and I am very sorry to those of you who actually take the time out to read my thoughts. I have been so stuck for what to write about and kept putting it off and putting it off. So I finally decided, the topic of my blog would be motivation.


Its quite ironic really as I’ve clearly shown a lack of it in recent weeks, but I think that it’s the time of year. September and October are two of the busiest months in any academic person’s life. It’s a new academic year, new classes, maybe new tutors, in my case, new people in class so new friends. Then there are all of the things that you got used to doing over the summer that you now don’t have any time to do. All of that combined with the fact that you need to start writing assignments and keeping up with reading schedules after 4 months of summer mean that things can be a bit hard going.




It’s out there somewhere …


So how do you find yourself some inspiration when it seems to be hiding somewhere far away?


One tactic of mine is to become a bit too much of an over-organised freak and print out all of the assignment information for the coming year. I then stick these on my wall with the deadline dates clearly highlighted so I cannot help but stare them in the face as I aimlessly play Farmville for hours pretending I have nothing more important to do in the world.


Another method of mine is to set myself little goals and rewards. So if I was to complete my blog tonight then I get to gorge out on the rest of my tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream sat in my freezer whilst watching an intensive amount of girly programs and films all night. OR if I am to complete a section of my dissertation research, then I can reward myself with a new pair of shoes.




How do you find yours? …


Everyone struggles to find motivation sometimes, especially at this time of year when there are so many other things going on (fresher’s parties, UCAS applications, Halloween, Christmas round the corner). The important thing is to find out just what keeps you focussed and make sure you reward yourself for doing well. After all, it can’t be all work and no play.




To make it up to everyone for being a bit absent recently, I am going to try and do some extra blogs, so keep your eyes peeled and prepare yourself, because once I get talking, its hard to stop me. Ciao for now x

The Student Bucket List

Myself and a friend were talking the other day and assessed we are getting on a bit and there is still so much more that we want to do with our lives, so we decided to make ourselves a bucket list. What on earth is a bucket list some of you may be saying ... a bucket list is a list of life goals, things to do before you die, before you ‘kick the bucket’.

So ... my inspiration for this week is to create a student bucket list, a list of things to do before you graduate. I have asked a few others what they think should be on it too and this is what we have come up with:

1. Stay up and party all night with no sleep at all.

2. Use your student discount somewhere posh.

3. Go on a random road trip to somewhere totally unplanned with your buddies.

4. Borrow a book from the library and actually read it cover to cover.

5. Sign up to at least one society and make sure you attend at least 2 meetings.

6. Learn a new skill or language that is nothing to do with your course, just enhances your personal profile.

7. Go to Fresher’s Week at least twice.

8. Build a portfolio of work to show to future employers.

9. Pull an ‘all-nighter’ doing an assignment.

10. Stay in the library until midnight.

11. Go to lectures still in the clothes you had on the day before.

12. Claim your free McFlurry from McDonalds with your NUS card.

13. Eat a Pot Noodle if you have never experienced one before.

14. Claim every type of student finance available, apply for every bursary, fund etc and see what you get.

15. Get a job.

This is the start ... I will post another list up at a later date, feel free to comment to add your additions.


On a FINAL note:

I would like to take this opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to Richard – our current blogmaster, colleague and friend and wish him the best of luck in his PGCE English course at Goldsmiths.


Have a good week cyber-space :)

New Month, New Term, New Changes

OK ... so its September already and I have no idea where the last few weeks have disappeared to (probably somewhere hot and sunny on vacation ... which is probably where my brain has gone too). Here in the Clearing office things have been madness; we have found ourselves inundated with applications and, for the first time ever, the University of Greenwich have closed clearing by the end of August. Fantastic news for us, but I fear it will be bad news for those who still don’t have a place.


What can I do now? I don’t have a place ...
Many of you may be in the situation of not having a place and having no idea where to go next. So, here are a few ideas and links to help you. If you have been unsuccessful, think about the reasons why, was it the grades that you have? Was it the quality of your personal statement? Was it the lack of volunteering or experience within the field? If any of these are the reasons – they can be worked on. Try doing a one year access course to improve the quality of your qualifications (www.ocn.org.uk), work on your personal statement – use how-to guides on UCAS (www.ucas.com), volunteer your time (www.volunteering.org.uk) or get some work experience or a job (www.work-experience.org) and finally if you still need someone to turn to, visit your local connexions adviser (www.connexions-direct.com) or check out government advise for young people at: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/index.htm .


For those who are on the way ...
For those of you who are successful enough to hold a place at a university, congratulations. It has been much harder to actually gain a place at university this academic year and you have been lucky enough to be one of those who have made it through. Getting ready to start university is a pretty nerve-racking time, you need to prepare yourself for getting to the uni, be it travelling or moving out, making sure you have everything you need to start – pens, pads, books etc and going through the endless paper trail involved in administration for your place.
BUT, don’t be disheartened, there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s nearly ....

FRESHERS WEEK!!!!
 
Fresher’s happens over the first week ... or two ... or three of university and consists of a series of events to welcome you to the university and to get to meet other people.

For what is going on at Greenwich, take a look at http://www.suug.co.uk/freshers2010/events/ to find out what’s going on.

Once again, congratulations to all of you successful applicants and welcome to the University of Greenwich!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Blog time again, my my, this time of the week certainly comes around quickly. I have found myself having a generally uninteresting, uneventful life for the last week or so, but I have decided to write about the reason why it has been so rubbish as I have nothing better to write about.

The bain of my life this week is ... money!! Surprise, surprise, a student with money problems.

During my job as a CRS ambassador I often go out to schools and colleges and give presentations about student finance and budgeting. The problem is, I am very bad at following the useful information I am disseminating to all of them. So my blog this week is to tell you about my shameful over-spending and to hope that you do not follow in my footsteps and end up with no money.

All new students LOVE that first day of term when you get to your bank account and see that loan/grant money sat there waiting for you to spend it. Some people may have best part of £3000 at their disposal and with the addition of a student overdraft this figure could be even higher. So obviously with that amount of money just sat there, it would be rude to not spend it, just a little, the money would feel insulted right? Wrong, start as you mean to go on. By all means treat yourself to a few moving in gifts for your flat, a few nights out with your new friends and some gorgeous stationary and folders for your new education. But also be sensible and think ... “how long will my money actually last like this?” The answer is, not long at all. During the first term you will have trips home, birthdays, Halloween, fresher’s events and the all important Christmas and all the costs that go with it.

So as dull as it sounds (unless you’re a bit of an organisation junkie like Emily) you need to make a rough budget plan of outgoings and incomings. It doesn’t mean you have to have every penny accounted for, but do yourself a favour and plan a little bit.

In my second year, you would think I would have learnt from my mistakes and with more money coming in from regular work, things should have been much easier. WRONG. The problem is, once you allow yourself to become an addict, you cannot stop yourself. I will make a confession to the world right here, right now ... “My name is Bryony and I am a shopaholic!”

A few of the people I work with here now know just what a sorry state my finances are in and several are trying to help me, but I cannot stop spending. I know as I write this that Laura is going to kill me, but even as I had the last few pounds left on my credit card last week, I found myself buying something on Play.com (sorry, sorry, sorry, bad person, doesn’t listen to good Laura lol). The most important thing though, is that I recognise I have a problem and have asked for help.


So my pledge to you fellow bloggers is that I will no longer spend my money on things I do not need and I will come back to you a success within the next month or two. Leave your messages of support by all means to help motivate me. I CAN beat my addiction!!



* * * * * * * * * * * * *



It’s the day before payday and everyone is looking at sales and online shops in preparation to have money to spend ... this is hard already ... argh!!! :’(

Working for the University in the Summer

During my summer months at uni, I don’t get to spend my time as a lazy student, tucked up in bed all day watching Jeremy Kyle and This Morning; instead, I spend mine on the top floor of the Queen Mary building in our Greenwich campus. I work as part of the Enquiry Unit staff and it is up to myself and my colleagues to deal with any calls that come in to our free phone telephone number. During the summer months our job gets extremely busy as we take on the mammoth task of ‘Clearing’. For those of you who don’t know, Clearing gives the chance for students who do not already hold a place at university to make a late application to those courses with spaces still available.

A day in the life of …. A Clearing officer
The main task for the teams during Clearing is to answer calls and try to solve enquiries. The things that we deal with could range from simply giving someone directions to the university, to fighting to get them a place on a course so that they can fulfil their dreams of attending university.

Some days we have a lot of fun and talk so extremely friendly people; these are usually the people that are most grateful for your help and hearing their happiness really helps us to get a sense of job satisfaction. There are many cases during Clearing where applicants are putting all of their hopes into an application and we will do everything we can to support them.

Obviously not every customer is a happy one and we do deal with some extremely difficult calls during our work in the summer where people are emotional and unhappy. But at the end of the day we are all experienced in customer service and do everything we can to turn the person’s unhappiness around and solve their problems to the best of our abilities.

During this time we also work in a team, which means that we can share a fantastic bank of knowledge among us. If an enquirer calls and wants an honest opinion about a certain course, then the chances are that someone in our office has done that course or a very similar one and we are able to transfer the call to them for a personal perspective and more information.

All of the staff that work during Clearing and also throughout the year in the Enquiry Unit are current students. This means that we not only know about the information given to us during training, but also personal insights that we have gathered along our journeys. We all come from a variety of backgrounds and have unique university experiences. You can read about many of us in the ‘Student Experience Blogs’ page. Our blogs are a new task for us at work. We wanted to pass on some of our experiences and advice to new and perspective students as we have first-hand experience at all aspects of university life.

The University of Greenwich also has an active Twitter account, which you can follow at @UniofGreenwich.

WOW, what a week!

Ok, so last week I was struggling for things to tell you about in my extremely boring life, but this week has been go, go, go!

The Emerald IsleLast weekend we did what students do best and took advantage of a great bargain. We got cheap flights to Dublin, Ireland and a cheap hotel, perfect for a girls’ weekend away. If you book your trip more than 30 days ahead of departure, you can get some great discounts – so always be on the lookout.

While in Dublin we did and saw plenty of things. A few of the sights such as the cathedral, temple bar and the city centre. We then made our way to the Jameson whisky factory where we willing volunteered to be whisky testers and were treated to rather a large amount of free whisky. On Sunday we went to the Museum of Decorative Arts, which much to our disappointment wasn’t much about art, but rather about the uniforms and lives of soldiers and about battles and wars. But still, it was a free day out and lots to see.

After landing home late Sunday night, it was a long drive back to London ready to be here for work bright and early in the morning.


London Life
I know that in last week’s blog I spoke of doing a restaurant review each week, but instead this week I am going to tell you about a really nice area to go for a few relaxing drinks and food. On Wednesday night I met up with a friend at London Bridge and as I didn’t know the area, allowed him to choose our venue.

He took me to a really nice area on the river, just ten minutes casual stroll from the station. If you follow the river along, past ‘The Arc’ building and the fountains and you eventually come to a very rustic looking cobbled street. If you take one of the arches in the building then it leads down to a row of restaurants and bars with fantastic views right along the river and all with outdoor seating.

I won’t lie, this area isn’t exactly cheap, but if you want to go somewhere a little different or somewhere to remind you exactly how beautiful London can be, then this is the perfect place to do so.

Monkeying Around

Yesterday I went on a day out with fellow student ambassadors from the university. A selection of us had been asked to go on the trip as a reward for continual good work and dedication to our jobs throughout the year. We went to Go Ape in Leeds Castle, Kent.

After piling off the coach we were greeted with a fantastic breakfast of pastries, teas, coffees and juices. Then one group at a time were sent off to get harnessed up and ready to go. We had been assigned into pairs and each girl was labelled a damsel and had a guy that was her knight to make sure she was ok. This meant we had a lot of fun doing it and no one ever got left behind on the course.





You then get a safety brief and the instructor guides you through the first zone that is a training ground of mini equipment. From zone two onwards, you are on your own! The course is made up of a series of rope ladders, zip wires, Tarzan swings, cargo nets and a lot of swinging around in trees. The day was very hard work, probably the most physical exercise I’ve had in years, but so enjoyable and most definitely memorable.

The course is around £30 per person but extras like breakfast and BBQ lunch will cost you more. If you think you could take on the challenge, then go for it!

Boredom, Barbie and Beautiful Food

Bored.com ...

OK, I really enjoy my job and sometimes I love the fact that we get spare time between calls to amuse ourselves, but right now I am bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. So please can I have some suggestions of light entertainment and links to amusing (office-friendly) websites. I will check them all out and give feedback if anyone sends me anything interesting.


Entertainment News

On another note ... I went to see Toy Story 3 the other day and it was brilliant J I think I would even go as far to say that it was my favourite Toy Story film so far. It made me laugh, made me cry (I know, what a loser!) And some of the new characters were great. Ken being a camp bloke that loved clothes because he is indeed a girls toy was hilarious and the film brought back those fond memories of knowing that Barbie and Ken should be together forever lol!

Munchies ... For those of you who live in the Greenwich area or are soon to move here, I thought I might write a little food guide for you and take it upon myself to try a variety of different things (what a hardship haha). So, this week’s favourite is Mambo Latino, a Cuban restaurant in Greenwich town centre. This tasty place offers a really wide variety of foods ranging from Jerk Chicken to jacket potatoes to tapas and sangria, and all at a pretty reasonable price. Look out for their offers such as Monday’s Spanish night where if you buy 4 plates of tapas you get free sangria. Or their pretty reasonable vegetarian set menu consisting of stuffed veggies, potatoes and a glass of wine or soft drink for 2 people for £20. Good music, good hats and tasty food. Enjoy some Latino culture in this fabulous restaurant.

The week ahead...
This weekend I am off to Dublin for a couple of days, (yes I know, I’ve just got back from Spain and I’m jetting off again, but that’s the hard life I lead!) So news of our travels and hopefully tons of pictures will follow next week.

Spain, Sunstroke and Stress!

Viva Espana!

So it’s my first day back at work after a fantastic week in Spain. The weather was fantastic and we saw and did so much. I and my flat mate went to Torremolinos, Costa del Sol for a week of relaxing before working full time in clearing for the rest of the summer.

We did some amazing things including a visit to the water park, a trip to Gibraltar to check out the monkeys and do some duty free shopping and a really cool Spanish horse show and flamenco display. It was beautifully hot hitting 43 degrees on our last day but unfortunately relating in me getting sunstroke and suffering all the way home :(

Monkey business!
Apparently people love stories about monkeys and the ones in Gibraltar were rather troublesome little devils, so if you ever get the chance to see them then definitely do it. They have been living in the country for hundreds of years so they believe that the territory is theirs. They often rob the shops in the national park of sweets, postcards and whatever else takes their fancy.
One lady on our tour group was silly enough to have open her bag when it had a couple of bananas in it, which were speedily robbed by the cheeky primates, the lady stupidly tried to steal them back but there was no way they were letting hold of their loot.

Another idiot was the man who had left his car window open then had a fit when a rather large male ape decided he wanted a little sit down in the comfy driver’s seat. As they guy came back shouting and screaming the monkey dived out the other window nearest to the man and he jumped a mile – what a tough nut haha.
So remember folks ... when visiting monkeys, please refrain from taking bananas in your bags, leaving windows open and just generally providing them with entertainment by being idiot tourists.

Here are some monkey pics for your amusement:

Monkey mastermind with a stolen postcard:






















Monkey jail where he belongs haha (alternatively known as railings)

Car thieving monkey:

Monkey!!

Back to reality!
Now I’m back and getting into the swing of working for the summer, it’s also had me thinking about going into my final year and what lies beyond my degree ... I’m finding myself contemplating whether or not to do a PGCE (teacher training qualification), this could give me a great back-up career but should I distract myself from my dream career for a year to do the training? With the realisation of many of my friends finding it difficult to get jobs as graduates, it pushes me towards considering this new direction for my career, but I’m still feeling a bit lost ... does anyone have any helpful advice for me?

Other thoughts ...

This week in my little bubble ® …

OK … so I am a self-confessed saddo and in the last week have been to see Bon Jovi live not once, but twice in the o2 arena. I have to say though that they were amazing. I have seen them perform in the past and I think that they get better with age, believe it or not. The set contained old and new material and they played for more than two and a half hours. The atmosphere was electric and on my second visit on Saturday (the closing night) my seats were only 12 rows from the front – an unforgettable night for sure.

Sunday however wasn’t quite such a happy day. After driving back to Essex we ended up in the pub just in time to see the whole nation’s hope washed down the drain in the world cup. Don’t worry, I’m not going to dwell on it, we all know it’s horrible and we all know it was bound to happen… It’s over now, so breathe.

The beginning of my week has been quite a sad one. The end of my second year is feeling more and more official as I prepare to start work full time for the summer. I had to say goodbye at the National Maritime Museum where I have been working as a volunteer since February. I will really miss working there as it has been such an interesting experience and I’ve learnt a lot about my future work industry. I am hoping that I will be back there in September though, depending on my timetable.
The rest of the week will be spent working in the office and getting everything ready for my holiday next week – yay J Myself and my flatmate are off to sunny Spain for a week so expect a nice travel-blog to appear the week after next to make you all jealous haha!

¤ Take care for now and enjoy the sunshine! ¤

Working For Admissions

Working for the university can be great fun and gives me lots of really interesting opportunities. So far this week I have been to a community event in Eltham, a college in Southgate(North London), a college in Colchester (Essex), in the office and tomorrow I am headed for a college in Tonbridge (Kent).

I don’t usually work weekends, but this week the chance to work at a local community event, representing the university arose. So myself and Mag attended all day in the blissful sunshine. The ‘Eltham Great Get Together’ and other similar events in the area, are designed to be a free event for families to entertain, educate and inform. Stalls there included education, employment and careers organisations, health-based information, crafting and more. There was also a large range of entertainment such as music from local groups, Charlton Athletic Football Coaching, stunt bike demonstrations, hula-hoop workshops and lots and lots of bouncy castles (apparently they are only there for the children, much to Mag’s disappointment). It was a fun day out and I think I will go to it again next year whether I am working it or not.

Monday morning was a horrifically early start, having to leave the house just after 7. As I set off in my girl-racer car my journey came to a stop far quicker than I thought. Someone had broken down just inside of the Blackwall Tunnel and I got stuck in the queue for it for about an hour. Then, just the other side of it the A12 was closed by the police because of a security risk at one of the local tube stations, resulting in another hour of delays; just proving that it is SO much more sensible to use public transport than drive in the city of London. Once I got to the college, my day got much better as I managed to help a few people find alternative routes into university when they feared they were not up to scratch.

Tuesday, and I was on the road again. Back to the ‘homelands’ of Essex this time. I used to be afraid of giving presentations when I first started university but after working for the Education Liaison Unit and giving presentations about higher education, I no longer feel the stress and nerves I did before. I had one of our new recruits with me to help her train to do the job and by the end of the day, she seemed to relax into it and I’m sure in no time at all she will be just as hard to shut up as the rest of us in the ELU (we LOVE to talk :)).

The rest of the week looks set to be just as busy, but in my opinion, that’s only ever a good thing. I like to keep busy, it keeps me out of mischief and with the experience I gain and the fun that I have, I plan for my schedule to stay this packed for as long as I can make it happen. After all, university is for making the most out of every opportunity that comes your way.