First post of 2010...

So, FINALLY here is my first update of 2010. I would have updated before now but things were very hectic during exams and then I was at home for a few days, and I thought it was inappropriate to update my French blog from England!

Well, exams were basically horrific. I came back to Bdx on the 3rd Jan, I had an exam on the 7th, one on the 11th, two on the 12th and one on the 13th, then an oral exam on the 18th. I have never been so stressed in my life as I was in the first week, to the point where I actually considered giving it all up and going home and forgetting about the rest of the year. Obviously, now, I'm SO glad I didn't do that, but I did come pretty close. It was a mark of how stressed I was that I lost half a stone in a week - I NEVER get so stressed I can't eat! But yeah, at the end of the first week I decided to book flights home after my last exam which was on a Monday, so I had 6 days at home when I could properly relax, like I couldn't do over Christmas because I was either revising or seeing friends but feeling guilty about not revising. It was SO nice to go home, it was exactly what I needed. Geo came down from Manchester for a couple of days as well, which was lovely. And I bought some snazzy new running shoes so I'm very motivated to get back on the running - in fact, I went for my first run in them last night and they do actually make a difference, they knocked about 5 minutes off my time to run 5km.

So after 6 lovely days in England I came back on Sunday and was actually really looking forward to the term - and I still am. When I was talking to my mum and dad during stressful week of hell, I worked out that I think that part of the reason last term tended to drag on a lot was that I had nothing to do at the weekends. It sounds really silly, but in Nottingham I look forward to every weekend because I've got my singing. Here, I have no structure to my weekends at all. So the weekdays go quickly because I have lectures but the weekends drag on. In fact, because I don't have any of my music, all I'm really doing is going to uni, doing uni work and seeing friends, which is strange for me because for the last however many years I've been busy and on the go all the time. So what I've decided I need to do is try and make sure I have something to look forward to most weekends, and do something different if I can. I'm going to see the Magic Flute at the Grand Theatre with Helen and Mel for Mel's birthday in a couple of weeks, hopefully I might be going down to see a friend in Pau with another friend who's in Bdx the weekend after, then the weekend after that I'm coming home for a week. By the time I get back it's pretty much March, then the second weekend of March I should be going to Toulouse with my friend Hannah who's living in Nyons this year, Geo should be coming down for our anniversary, Kim and Charlie are going to come and see me at some point in March, and hopefully I'll be able to organise this St Mary's tour for the second weekend of April. Then I'm home for 10 days or so at the end of April so that I can revise properly in my own space, then 3 weeks of exams and then I'm done! So when I look at it like that it seems really short, and it actually makes me feel a little bit sad that it could be over before I know it - which is why I'm determined to make the most of the time I've got left and make sure I enjoy it as much as I can. So in some ways I think I needed my little week of panic to kick me up the arse, and I definitely needed those 6 days at home to recharge my batteries!

So yeah, now I'm back and into lectures again, doing the same amount of modules as last term but this term I have to do two third year ones rather than just the one like I did last term - so that could be a little bit harder and will mean I have slightly more to learn for the exams, but I'll be so much more prepared for the exams next time round that that shouldn't matter too much - I think part of the problem before was that none of us really had any idea what to expect from the exams, and even now none of us know how they're going to mark it or how well we have to have done to pass. I guess we'll find out on the 16th Feb. Incidentally, that's my mum's birthday so if I fail she's going to get a tearful phonecall on her birthday ... oops. Nothing much else exciting has happened in the couple of days I've been back, watched two films already, had McDonald's with Hel on Sunday night (massively off-track with the diet but there was no food in the house), and then it's just been lectures the last couple of days. So there's not really much to report, except that I'm much more chilled out and really looking forward to this term now, which is good! I will update again when I actually have something exciting to say. Ciao.