My last free weekend before things get exciting!

Here I am at the end of my fifth week living here and I just cannot believe that time has flown by so quickly when I've not even been doing much, part of me is looking forward to how fast the next month or two are going to fly by with all the plans I have, but the other part of me dreads to think how quickly the end of May is going to roll around when all I'll have left to look forward to are my exams- and of course going home.

Today has actually been a really productive day, I got another 800 words of the translation for my dissertation under my belt so I'm really pleased with what I've done today.  I think part of what has kept me going so well for the day was listening to Campus Festival 2012 at Uni on Bailrigg FM (The Lancaster Uni student radio).  For those of you that are nothing to do with Lancaster uni, Campus Festival is an annual event that was started a few years ago and is getting bigger and better each year it seems.  All of the clubs and societies are given the chance to perform, run a stall or give demonstrations of what they do.  There is a really big stage which sees performances from all the main ULMS groups as well as a whole host of others like the dance society and the ballroom dance society, the Gospel Choir and the Glee Club.  Later in the evening there are loads of bands and then it all ends in the orchestra playing to fireworks.  Obviously this year I can't be there, but I've had the chance to listen to it online which I'm so pleased about.  As I write the last act of the afternoon/evening session has finished (It was LUGleeC and as I'm totally and utterly not biased of course.... I'd like to say they were brilliant!) and the evening session is getting under way.

I have been having a think today and have decided that going on a year abroad is harder to do the more involved in university life you are.  If you're the sort of person that doesn't really do much then you probably don't feel like you're missing out terribly.  If, however, you're the sort of person that likes to do everything, take every opportunity and really be a part of what is going on it can be particularly hard at times!  Take today for instance, I've listened to a band that I usually play with performing which has made me realise how much I really miss playing my sax and hearing a group that I helped to set up singing the best I've heard them.  Last week were the students' union elections too which I'm interested in and as much as it's great to have been able to watch/listen/read about everything that is going on it's just not the same as being there!  That said of course I am living in Spain and getting to see and do other things, it's not that I don't appreciate that, of course I do, it just makes me realise quite how much I appreciate Lancaster and everything I spend my time doing there.

I've been running thin on the ground for things to write about recently.  I've started really enjoying writing and would quite like to do it a bit more if only I had topics to write about!  I know there are a few people reading this blog now that are going on a year abroad next year so maybe if you, or anyone else for that matter, have any suggestions of something I could write about please let me know.  It feels really odd to be writing something and expecting a response, usually these are just my ramblings to myself but I have become somewhat aware that there are actually people out there reading this so why not?

The shortest working week ever.

This week I only had classes on Wednesday and Thursday because of the long weekend and the fact that I don't have classes on a Friday anyway.  Not really sure where the weekend went to as it is now Sunday night again!  I'm getting in the swing of things with my classes now, and am pretty ok with them all.  Latin is pretty hard, well it would be hard learning the basics of another language whilst being taught in your second language wouldn't it?!  I'm having to come home and look it all up again in English and then transfer that back into Spanish... it's ok, just going to take a bit more work than the average course for an Erasmus student I guess!  I've also got an exam this Wednesday for my history of women course, because the teaching is split into 4 parts with 4 different teachers we've got different assessment styles for each, of the 2.5 points available for this part I can get 1 point for just turning up to 4 classes and writing any old answer to a question he gives us at the end of class which is really handy!  I hope the next 3 teachers are just as helpful on that front and I'll be fine to just about scrape myself a pass even if the exams go badly.

Friday evening I went out with Jade, Abbie, Jack, Mike and Aimee to a tapas bar where had it been daylight we would've been able to see the Alhambra outside I think.  I paid 10.50 for everything I ate or drank all evening, and I had enough tapas to constitute a meal so that was plenty, plus we were drinking sangria, not fulfilling enough Spanish stereotypes here am I?  Shall I go to a flamenco show tomorrow and then to a bull fight just to top it off?!

As for today and yesterday I've not really done much, I've been over all my notes from my classes and got a substantial bit of work done on my dissertation so I'm happy.  I'm hoping to know by this time tomorrow the results of the Languages Society elections in Lancaster so I can stop boring you all with stuff about that, in case you've missed it I'm running for President, so wish me luck!  For now I'm listening to a live stream of the ULMS Wind Band and Choir concert from the Great Hall in  Lancaster, it's great how LA1 TV are doing this, I know a few more people on their year abroad streaming it tonight, it's great, can't wait to be back there in October playing with them all again myself though, my poor saxes are very neglected these days....