I made it

Finally. My last exam finished.

I think it went OK and hopefully I've done enough to pass.

It took a while for the feeling of freedom to truly sink in yesterday. I think it well and truly sunk in once I got back to my flat, sat down and thought, 'For the next four months I literally have no commitments; nothing that needs to be done, no deadlines, nothing'. The feeling was good.

Before I got back to the flat where I was greeted with this wonderful epiphany, I had some errands to run; books to return to the library; that kind of thing. So on the way down to the library from the exam hall, me and Luce explored the area we'll be living in next year a little. We had a gorgeous lunch at this little Mediterranean place. Cathays is brilliants for little cultural places like that. It has so many non-chain restaurants with food from all over the world, all of which will be at my fingertips next year.

When we got back to the flat, after the epiphany, I beat Ben's ass 7-1 on Fifa, meaning he had to run around the building twice. It was brilliant. Everything that could have went right yesterday did. Me, Luce and Dan went to the Blackweir and I had a few cheeky pints of cider in the glorious sunshine. While we were sat there Luce's friend from school came and sat with us and I called Momin to come and join us. I ended up going to town with Momin and Luce where we met Darsh and Luce's flatmates for a meal at Las Iguanas, a gorgeous Latin American restaurant. For starter I had empanadas which are a gorgeous, I believe Argentinian, pastry and look exactly like the food of my homeland, the good old Cornish pasty.

Then me, Luce and Darsh went out to Oceana which was awesome. It was brilliant to be out and not have to worry about any work that's still to be done. We met some friends from our course, including my flatmate Hannah. We then hit Live Lounge after Oceana and partied on down; me, Luce, Luce's greek friend Alex, Giovanna and Momin. Needless to say, it was a late one. It always is when Live Lounge is involved. It's the club where people go when all the other clubs start closing, spitting their hammered patrons out on to the streets. Everyone there is wasted and the music, which includes songs such as Tenacious D's Tribute really provides one of the funniest and best ends to a night out that I've had in Cardiff.

So now there's one night out remaining on Friday and then on Saturday I'm off home to the hopefully sunny Plymouth.

It's so good to be free.

Maps; a mountain range; a piggy bank

I haven't seen a cloud in three whole days. This weather is bliss.
Struggling through this Spanish 19th Century literature for tomorrow's exam; not so much.
I bought a big dairy milk bar to get me through this revision about a week ago. It has been in my cupboard in that time and due to the recent sun is rather melted. So as I effortlessly chew through it, chunk by malleable chunk, I'm starting to feel rather sick.
I went to the park yesterday with Darsh, Dan and Iona. We had a right laugh with some Frisbee, a football and splashing about in the river.

Yet another plan for the summer has appeared out of nowhere. I got a call from Lucy today inviting me to Sicily with our Erasmus friends, most of whom are Sicilian so it seems the logical place. I had just been thinking this morning that I want to go back to Italy and, having never been to Sicily, I thought why not? It would be so wonderful to see this island which I have only ever imagined through the lines of books, albeit it mostly Mario Puzo books.

Thankfully I got a bit of a kick up the ass from Lucy and the flights are already booked, the day I've been told about the trip. Spontaneity is the best; especially when it involves culturally rich Mediterranean islands. So now my summer is shaping up to go roughly as follows:

• 11th June - 11th July - FIFA World Cup
• Some time between 4th and 20th June - Move into our new house in Plymouth
• 15th, 16th or 17th June - Italian Renaissance Drawings Exhibition with Sam in London
• 22nd - 25th June - Sicily
• All summer - Lots of beaching and barbecuing with friends
• All summer - get back to the gym
• July - Lose my Newquay virginity
• Unknown - Possible trip to Egypt with Lucy
• Late August - Possible trip to Barcelona

It looks like it's going to be a good summer, providing this weather stays as it is.

Just need to get through these last two exams, then ¡Libertad!

As a passing gift, enjoy this trippy song and let it provide a soundtrack to your soothing summer day.

Hello again old friend, alcohol

So here I am, three out of five exams down. My education exam yesterday was the peak of my worries and now that it's out of the way, I feel like I'm on the home stretch, the final descent to the joys of summer. The current chaos of books, paper and notes that I find myself submerged in will only last another 11 days as of today. As the exam period has been rather dull with regards to providing me with material to blog about, I'll allow this post to give a summary of anything worth mentioning that has happened.

My plans for this summer seem to have changed a lot. Mine and Lucy's hitch-hiking plan for Spain and Italy has now gone out of the window due to exams causing a lack of time for the meticulous planning it would require. Instead, she has invited me to go on a free week's trip to Egypt which she won on a scratch-card. Providing it's all valid and there's no catch, she said I could go with her. Egypt's not even a place I would have thought of visiting, but you can't really turn down a free holiday. Also, with the money I have saved for the summer, I'm thinking of going to Barcelona for a week.

It was Nick's birthday yesterday so our flat went to The Bay for a gorgeous Italian meal and some drinks to celebrate.

It quickly became clear how much of a lightweight I have become as the drink went straight to my head. I hadn't been drunk in quite some time due to exams so by the time we got in the taxi to leave I felt pretty sozzled.

The taxi was by no means the end of the night, however. Instead of going home, me and Ben got the taxi to drop us to a restaurant to meet Lucy and the Erasmus lot. Gael is back over from Spain this weekend so I had to see him while he was in Cardiff.

When we arrived at the restaurant they were just paying the bill, after which we headed to Vagelis' house where he generously laced us with vodka orange. By the time we all left Vagelis' to head to Buffalo, me and Ben were well and truly fucked due to foolishly drinking at the same pace as everyone else who had just started drinking, despite the fact that the two of us had been drinking for hours.
We ended up staggering home at 5:00 under a pure blue sky. It was the most surreal experience because it was so light. It felt like mid day. Ben stubbornly decided to walk a different way from me, Lucy and Giovanna, with his reasoning being that his way was 'quicker'. His plan backfired, however, seeing him getting lost for over two hours and ending up on the total wrong side of Cardiff, meaning he didn't get home until gone 7:00. 'Quicker'? Really, Ben?

I had to suffer Ben's new Fifa punishment again yesterday afternoon, doing a total of three underwear laps around our building. This time it was in the middle of the day, with loads of students outside sunbathing. A rather sizeable group was sat right outside our building so, as it turned out, I had quite the audience.



Sam

Broken Embraces

I like the idea of exam period being the last thing before the summer. It's a kind of poetic idea of that last final push where you consolidate all your efforts to reach the reward on the other side.

My days have been kind of blending into one, like watercolours on a spoiled canvas making a dark mess. The concept of time has gone out of the window recently.

I've never been the type to stick to revision timetables which would have provided some reference point as to what time it is (i.e. when I'm revising a certain topic I know what time it is due to the timetable). Instead I just tumble out of bed too late and end up with my head in a book an hour or so later. This revision is interspersed with eating, a few brief chats with flatmates and, at the end of the day, perhaps some Xbox with Nick and Ben (my male flatmates for readers who don't know me) or a film, followed by sleep.

This has been my 'routine', one big continuous week where every day has felt the same. The furthest I have been in the last week is the Tesco superstore across the road.

Ben came up with a new rule recently to make FIFA more entertaining when we play it. If one of us loses by five goals or more they have to run around the building once in their underwear, doing an extra lap for every goal more than five scored. Needless to say, I lost.

So it was off with the kegs and round the building I went. Ben went round with me doing his three laps he owed us from back when he lost 8-0 before we made the rule where we add a goal for each lap.

Tonight I watched Los Abrazos Rotos, or Broken Embraces to you folk. It's Almodóvar's most recent film that I'd been wanting to see for ages. It's pretty good. Penelope Cruz's tits are in it so I was in.

Sam

A small update from behind an Italian history book

Revision is bogging me down. Fascism was not a good idea.

I popped my sushi cherry the other night. I enjoyed it very much. I haven't quite acquired the art of picking it up from the conveyor belt. One dish nearly ended up in a friend's lap as my clumsy butter-fingered club hands fumbled at it. However, I liked the simple pick-up-what-you-want style. It was quick and efficient, just what the modern man wants. Although eating chocolate cake with chopsticks was far from efficient. Or quick.

I'm back home in Plymouth at the moment. I corrected my Spanish tandem exchange partner's English essay today. It's interesting to see what parts of the English language foreign people find difficult. It probably isn't for you though.

I should be going hitch-hiking through Spain and Italy this summer with Lucy. I hope we don't get raped. I don't know if I had mentioned that plan before. I think I have.

Now here's a music video. At least if I talk about something that isn't my life, then you may not be bored. If my life's dull, the blog's dull. So problem=solved if I don't talk about the revision and exams that will be no doubt dominating my life for the next four weeks. But this blog was made to talk about my life. So I just won't talk. There's no way Italian history revision can be made into something fun for my readers. Unless I had some kind of kill-the-Mussolini game. That would just be rotten and obscene. Maybe I'll talk a little, about the little things, with little musical treats and such-like to make the tiny (and I mean tiny) gems of interest in my life over the next month of exams seem more rewarding.

So without further ado, here's the video. Darwin Deez - Radar Detector. Have a cheeky little dance to it. He's like a skinny Jesus.




Thanks for sticking with me through this boring patch.

Sam

One less plate in the circus act

I've finally vanquished that bastard of an essay, and therefore Psychology of Development and Learning, from my life for good. It weighs in 2,914 words and comprises of a substantial amount of waffle, but hey; Psychology isn't my forte. I'm a languages student!
This has now wiped a lot from my plate, meaning I can now concentrate on Tuesday's Italian oral exam, which I should have no problems with.
Then Wednesday I should be going out for Sushi and hitting the bars with friends. I've never had sushi before, so it should be interesting.
Thursday brings with it a much needed trip home to Plymouth until the following Wednesday due to the fact that lectures will be over. I should get to view the new house then too. It'll be nice to see the family and friends again. It has been quite a stressful week, and I will be grateful for this brief trip home before everything goes into mega busy revision/exam mode.

Once I'm back here in Cardiff, I imagine I'll be taking a bit of time out of blogging. Nobody wants to read about me revising and struggling through exams. I'll literally be coming back on the 5th May, voting Lib Dem on the 6th, then just hitting the books. If anything interesting pops up in my life, it'll be put up here no doubt. If not, it means I'm miserable and probably drowning under a weight of books and distractions.

I've got a formspring, ever the slave for trends. Ask me a question on there if you want. Nothing too philosophical, or dirty. That might keep me sane. I'm gonna have lots of free time due to having no lectures, so keep me busy in my revision breaks!

Sam

The Finish Line

The exams are done; banished from my head and leaving my mind clearer. And I sit here back in Plymouth once again, typing this. My proper return to Cardiff will be this Saturday. Until then I can relax.
The exams all went really well, and I found out today that I got a B in my Spanish assessed grammar test which I did before Christmas. This was one of the best marks out of everyone on the course so I'm pretty happy and have nothing to complain about right now.
I read the whole of Pasta per Due, a little Italian book we had to read over Christmas, on the train today. Even though it's a laughably simple and short book, it's still satisfying to say you have read three books in Italian when you have barely been studying the language for three months.
Right now my head is filled with dreams of travelling to Spain in the summer. I have never been so I am planning on going for at least a month and making it a brilliant trip.
I'm thinking of possibly setting up a travel blog when I go, which I may use for all posting while travelling; especially on my year abroad.
Also my trip to Italy is at the end of the March.
I think this year should be a good one.

First Hurdle

I had my Italian history exam today.
I sailed through it I think. The question I had ruthlessly prepared came up. So I basically just regurgitated my pre-prepared material from my brain onto paper.
In search of some form of celebration, me and Lucy decided to head to The Woodville for a couple pints and some lunch. We were joined by Giovanna, Momin and Lucy's friend, Rosie. It was nice to have a little moment of relaxation. I should be going to a party with my Erasmus student friends tonight.
Then tomorrow it's back to religious studying for my Education exam on Monday.

Sorry guys. Not much to blog about right now. There isn't much interesting going on my life as of late due to exams being at the forefront of everything.

A Sunday Smile

There's nothing like a decent cup of tea. Heralded mascot of Britain, the humble cup of tea never fails to boost morale during these cold winter months. Its fellow cupboard-dwelling cousin, coffee, looks on jealously every time I reach for the tea bags, wishing it was in America where it would truly be appreciated.

I retract my statement from my previous post about the snow being shit down here. It was a classic case of saying something too soon, as over the last few days Britain has been blanketed in beautiful white powdery layers of snow. A few days ago, I woke up and looked outside my bedroom window to behold the results of a night where mother nature had been working hard painting me a beautiful picture.

The novelty soon wore off.
Snow seems to make Britain come to a stand still. Transport became erratic with delays and cancellations everywhere. And what better than to have this than at a time where I need to be travelling up to Cardiff in a couple of days for exams?

But the cup of tea tells me in its warm reassuring voice, "Relax, it'll all be fine." And I believe it.

I got a haircut yesterday and it no longer resembles a bush. On the way down from the salon, I stopped off at University Bookshop, a small and cosy little book store where as many books as possible have been crammed in. It's like an Alladin's cave of literature and knowledge.

Naturally, I headed straight for the foreign language section. On perusing the dusty little wooden shelves, I selected my first victim, Crónica de una muerte anunciada. Another piece of glorious Spanish fiction for my linguistic quest for self-improvement. I also purchased a copy of Marcovaldo, an Italian fiction book which looks to be at my level of reading. I will tackle it in the summer when I have more time on my hands.

I then went to Drake Circus in Waterstones. I still am yet to finish La Sombra del Viento however I am almost half way through and have fallen in love with it so much that I chose to buy the English version, The Shadow of the Wind, which will serve two functions. Firstly, rather than having a dictionary by my side as I read the Spanish version, I will merely cement my understanding of the Spanish version by taking a glance at difficult passages in the English version. Secondly, I plan on one day reading the English version all the way through because it is such a wonderful book.

This blog came in a moment of procrastination from my Italian history revision. I better get back to it.

That's all folks.

Goodbye old friend

We took down the Christmas tree yesterday, and with its departure came a feeling of disillusionment as I shook off the last remnants of glittery tinsel and magic I had been submerged in for the last couple of weeks.

Life is back to normal. It's got to that stage when the cold weather (and what little snow we get down here on the coast) isn't welcome any more and I just want it to be summer again. I've finally finished my essay for my Education & Society module which is a huge weight off my shoulders but with the disenchantment that came after we lovingly boxed up the Christmas tree and put it in the loft, where it will wait patiently until next year, I realised that I will be returning to Cardiff soon. And that means there are exams to prepare for; something which I plan on doing from now until I go back up there.

In other news, I'm still reading La Sombra del Viento. I'm almost two fifths of the way through now. It's a slow but satisfying achievement and I'm trying to work on my foreign reading technique to make me read faster yet still understand the plot.