To Be A Busy Bee

Oh, the academic life. I've missed you!

I am finally building the sort of life I originally had expected when I first moved to London in 2009. It may have taken the best part of 3 years to get to this point, but I'm finally pro-active, sociable and studious!

I've began volunteering for Education For Choice, an amazing little project keen on providing factual advice to young people on sexual health and choice. The people there are incredibly intelligent, open-minded and so funny that I get migraines from laughter. From two meetings, I already feel more confident in myself and I'm even throwing myself into involvement for the 20th birthday party for EFC! I applied for funding from Think Big with O2 and was successful, isn't that brilliant? So if you're curious and love a good party, follow the progress we're making with it here: http://www.o2thinkbig.co.uk/Projects/Project-Home/?clubId=2690

I also began my beekeeping adventures last week. On Wednesday, I hopped on the university bus to the Kingston Hill campus where I don't often venture due to being based at Penrhyn Road. I ended up wandering around for quite a while, feeling lost until I saw a lady in full beekeeping gear walk past. I ran after her and next thing I knew, I also had the beekeeping suit on! I must say, I looked so cute in it. I have to get a picture one day. The whole task only took about half an hour but I learnt so much about honeybees, how to check for infestations, eggs and larvae, and I even spotted the queen bee in all her glory.

I began Italian classes where everyone is a little embarrassed and shy as I am but our teacher is very warm and encouraging, so making a mistake feels less daunting. I have classes twice a week and the homework is pretty fun, it reminds me of French lessons in high school which I always remember fondly.

I've found myself with a social life in this big, scary city. I've signed up to a few social clubs through my university and already I've met some wonderful people who have embraced me into their groups, such as the Feminist society, the LGBT society and the Wine society. This is a wholly different experience to what I've had in the few years before so I'm pretty excited!

Kind words that warm my heart.

My favourite social event (tied to university) so far has been the icebreaker session. The evening was focused on us getting over our shyness and feeling more comfortable around each other. The first event, I ended up linking arms with a boy and we were wrapped head to toe in toilet paper in a race against several other groups. Our group won and we had an entire bag of sweeties as our prize. The best activity of the night though was like platonic speed-dating, involving every person having a sheet of A4 sellotaped to their back and everyone mingling for 60 seconds per person before writing a nice compliment on their back. My sheet of A4 paper (see above) had such perfect comments on that I nearly cried, oops...

The weekend just gone, I also finally got the chance to meet up with a few people I knew from online and we ventured to How Does It Feel To Be Loved?, a night that embraces indie pop, Motown and jangly 60's classics: my dream! Calum and Emma are the loveliest people and it's going to be swell having friends with similar music taste as I do so we can dance wildly to Belle and Sebastian without feeling excessive. We've already planned future gatherings, such as a Motown night this Friday. I can't wait.

This week is all about buckling down for my dissertation, planning the framework for my three big essays and working on my self-esteem. I've also got plans to meet up with my new friends over coffee, a trip to the bowling alley in town and maybe go watch a film if I can manage to keep awake. Bless me with all the energy in the world, dear reader; being a busy bee is tiring!