Life as a student
So it has now been about 4 and 1/2 weeks since I came to the University Of Kent, and it has been great so far. One thing that hasn’t though has been my responsiveness to people asking me how great it has been. So… I plan to answer everyone at once (I hope). I will be using a letter (hand written as well which makes me feel a little cheeky typing this response), that I was sent by my godfather (hope you don’t mine), as a template for what to put in this post.
Here goes…
tl;dr
I’m well, having a great time, and keeping busy.
How are you settling in? What’s your accommodation like?
I’ve settled in quite well here, the room I have here is bigger than that I have at home which is nice. I have a nice, and long desk which I have filled with my new computer (15" mbp), a printer (£10 (thanks Apple), my TV (not being used for TV, only films and a second monitor), and my Hi Fi. I brought a large amount of my stuff with me so all the homely touches are here too, as well as something that I did not have up at home due to a lack of space, two rather large, Mozilla posters :D. Best of all, unlike in some places this room is completely my own right through till June 2012!
The house is 6 bedroom, two shower room, and kitchen/diner. It is nice enough for the money I am paying and all my house mates are really nice too. There is a bit of an uneven split, two girls + 4 guys, however we all get along so no big deal.
What’s your timetable like?
12 hours of contact time a week in short. I spend more time doing the Java (the particular programming language that the university teaches first years here) with 2 x 1 hour lectures, Monday and Friday and a 2 hour terminal (class) on a Friday. I also have 2 x 1 hour lectures for Maths and Information Systems each, accompanied by 1 hour classes for each. Finally I have a business component on “Managers and Organisations” which I have a single 1 hour lecture on as well as a 1 hour seminar.
The lectures vary in interest depending on what they are on, and whether I have done similar work at A-Level however they are starting to level out on interestingness (yes that is a word).
So far there has not been much in the way of assessment however this is set to change with a presentation soon in business, and a group project in Information Systems. That combined with reading (you want to see the size of the books I have to ready by Christmas) means that I will be busy enough, however the load is light enough to allow for some social time.
How are you keeping in contact with people?
Not very well… it is hard when you have so much to do, and at the same time when I am free there is still a lot going on. There never seems to be time to stop and think about who you have and have not spoken to for a while. So that is something I am going to have to work on. I don’t think Facebook will help much either as I never really check it… need to find something better. Twitter maybe, however I would have to convince some of my friends to get accounts.
Have you joined any societies?
Two. I am now a member of the UKC Magic Society which is great fun, however as you might expect it is behind closed doors… all I will say is expect me to know a few magic tricks next time we meet. On the other hand however I am also a member of the much less hidden Tinker Society. This is…
“…for people who love to share their creativity with like-minded people, and collaborate in designs and projects that are, simply, awesome. Having people from a variety of different backgrounds gives us the chance to look at problems from various different perspectives. We welcome everyone from every discipline, whether you are a Law student or an engineer we can guarantee you will learn something new and have fun in our events!”
I have done a presentation about Mozilla at one of the meetings, and last night we made bottle rockets which was a lot of fun (more on that to come once I have finished going though the video footage).
All in all things are nice here. The campus is beautiful (in some places :P), the people are nice, and life is good. The only thing that could be better is my sleeping habits and eating habits. There is not much of a routine in those areas yet. Its more sleep when tired and eat when hungry. Oh well. As a good friend of mine told me:
“Its when you have no routine that life is interesting”