Reflections

So the first year of university is well and truly over. It doesn't seem at all long ago that I started this year a month or so into my freshman year. Now it's gone already.
During the exams my mind had been hell-bent on getting the exams finished and getting home to Plymouth. But now that exams are done the parts of Cardiff I will miss are starting to come back to me after a month of being locked into a mundane revision routine. Mainly I will miss my friends and the city itself. But I can't wait to be reunited with Plymouth, its glorious coastline and countryside and my lovely friends.

The au-pair trip to Italy I mentioned a couple posts back? Well.. that's not happening any more. Che peccato! The only families left for the trip all wanted females students only. Sexism in force.
I am not a paedophile. I have had a CRB check for when I worked in a school as a cleaner. That is probably more than the girl who ends up replacing me will have, you sexist bastards.

Oh well. As is my style, there is an (albeit obscure) Plan B. Me and Lucy will probably go to Italy for a month staying with various friends of hers. She just happens to have friends dotted around Europe like that.

And I still want to get to Barcelona for a week. Afterall, seven years studying Spanish without having been to the country is rather ridiculous!

I had my last night out as a fresher in Cardiff tonight. Hit the pre-lash hard with Nick, Ben and Nick's lads. They are true lads. As I haven't drank at all over exam period, it was a rude awakening having them shouting 'See it off fresher!' at me. It probably contributed heavily to the drunk state I am in now. After the pre-drinks we headed to the Union for Boombox. It was a right laugh although I was pretty hammered. Then we head to town for a well earned Burger King. Nothing sobers you up like an XL Bacon Double Cheeseburger.

Then me, Nick and Ben headed back to the flat, played a bit of COD with the speakers up really loud as a bit of revenge for all the times pricks have kept us up. Then we played a bit of FIFA. I beat Ben 7-1 so he had to go around the building twice. A good ending to the year really.

I'm going to miss my friends and the new life I have founded for myself up here.

However, my parents are picking me up tomorrow so I simultaneously cannot wait to get home!

Bring on the summer.

L'estate

I am excited.

I could have yet another thing planned to ensure that this summer will not be a boring one.

Giuseppe (Italian lecturer) is offering places for an au-pairing trip to Italy. I have been put on the reserve list in case anybody drops out - because I was late in replying to the email- and when I saw him the other day he said I'll probably be able to go and that he'll email me soon.

The trip would entail going and staying in Italy with an Italian family for a month. He mentioned that it would be by the sea and that during the day I would be going to the beach with the kids and speaking English to help them. Then in the evenings and when I'm with the parents I would speak to them in Italian to help me improve. There would also be time to look around and stuff.

Just the prospect of more time on Italian soil is exciting enough, but getting to stay with an Italian family would be a wonderful experience. One whole month eating homemade food dalla Mamma italiana would be pretty sweet to be honest.

If this whole au-pairing thing doesn't go ahead, I'm sure I'll book something else. Lucy's already throwing the idea around of going around Italy and staying with her Italian friends, one of whom lives near the beautiful Florence which I would love to visit again.

I hope I do get a place on the au-pair trip though, but I won't get my hopes up just yet.

Either way this summer is going to be awesome.

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 slice of home

In honour of the recent string of sunny days we've been having, we had a barbecue today. We went to Bute Park, this lovely great park a stone's throw from our halls. It was me, Lucy, Darshni, Darshni's boyfriend Dan and a handful of their friends. We were sat there in a circle with our instant barbecue's and our burgers and buns. It served as both a precursor of what I have to look forward to this summer and also brought memories of last summer rushing back. We were all so independent back home in Plymouth last summer; with our cars, on the beach every other day and night. And tonight reminded me of those summers back home. Especially the next part.

When the sun had gone down and the flames on the barbecue had done the same, the coals slowly smouldering away, embers gently twinkling as the breeze caught them in the dark twilight air, we decided to fill the barbecues with some little twigs, working our way up to bigger sticks until we had built ourselves an ever-growing fire as we took trip after trip to get more sticks. Everyone had left the park by this point and a few members of our group had peeled off and gone home, leaving the eight of us there, in a circle, snuggled in blankets, my speakers blasting out music, providing a soundtrack to the conversation and crackling of firewood. It was absolute bliss.

I had pangs of nostalgia of those summer nights on the beach back home, this feeling an all too familiar scene to me. I sat there in my element, warming my hands on the fire, drinking cheap rum, a simple coastal town boy in his comfort zone, surrounded by big city-folk to whom this was a rarity. I felt miles away from everything; a safe and secure isolation from everyone outside of our paradise. For those few hours we were the only people in the world, sat around those comforting flames under a sky speckled with stars, a moment so perfect in its simplicity and intimacy. The kind of moment that brings friends closer. Moth's Wings by Passion Pit came on at one stage on the speakers while we were all laid there around the fire. It was the perfect song for a perfect night. Have a listen and imagine you're laying there. We're definitely going to do it again soon.



Of course, we then had to return back to the real world and burst our relaxing little bubble of carelessness; back to the lights of civilisation and the noises of the city. But now here I sit typing this in my humble, cosy little box room, where a night of slumber awaits me.

The only thing tonight was missing was the sand and sea, something which I will be able indulge myself in when I finally reach this well-earned and fast approaching summer. On the topic of summer, after discovering that I won't be going to Spain with Allin any more, I have discussed travel plans for the summer with Lucy. We might be going hitch-hiking around Spain and..... Italy! Her having lived in Spain before helps because she will be able to show me all the best places and secure us places to stay with friends in Spain and Italy. So, whatever happens, it should be a good summer. Provided I get through these exams.


Sam

The last push

Well here it is. I'm back in Cardiff and uni starts up again tomorrow. We're the only uni that seems to have gone back this early (I think because we finished for Easter a week before everybody else) so everyone I know at home is still there enjoying their Easter.

My light at the end of the tunnel is the glorious, almost 4 month long summer that awaits me. But between me and that summer lies a 2 month minefield of deadlines, essays, books and exams. My last exam is June 2nd. I just need to make it to that date and then everything will be carefree and wonderful.

I was looking forward to coming back here to my friends and the awesome Cardiff night life but something tells me that there isn't going to be all too much socialising between now and summer, especially when we're into May and exams are well and truly on.

One of my flatmates, Emma, recently decided to drop out of uni. I have no idea why. I just heard through another of my flatmates, Hannah. Emma was due to live with us next year so now we have a spare bedroom in our house next year. Thankfully we haven't lost the house and if we can't fill the room then she still has to pay; or so we believe. We will need to check that..
We are thinking if we can't find somebody to fill the room we'll put an advert up for a Spanish or Italian ERASMUS student. That would be awesome. If we still can't fill the room, we'll turn it into something cool I guess, like a zero-gravity chamber.
My flatmate Cathie's friend, Lou, is going to be taking the empty room Emma has now left behind in our flat due to her current nightmarish flatmates. So we'll be having a new roomie soon. I have only met her once and I think I tried to get with her. I'll try and be a normal human being this time.

We've been getting a fair bit of sun and blue skies recently in Plymouth. I hope it carries on here in Cardiff as the weather has really been boosting my mood. There's nothing like opening the blinds to a pure blue sky.


Well, that's all for now really. Just giving a prelude to this final stretch of my first year at uni.
Let's get to it.




Sam