My first week back studying!

Today is Thursday and almost the end of my first week back studying! So far it has been really cool having a timetable, a routine, new classes, new textbooks...I'm sure I will be thinking a little bit differently in weeks to come when my assignments are due...but for now I am as happy as a pig in mud (or a nerd studying shakespeare, which is what I actually am!)

Last Sunday, before my lessons started on Monday, Beth and I went out and bought some new stationary. Stationary is another one of my obsessions, so I was pretty excited about this, but I was disappointed to find that there was a lack of cute notepads and pens to be found in Sunderland. What we thought would be a quick shopping trip turned into a huge stationary hunt that lasted hours. Beth also shares my passion for cute stationary, so she wasn't going to settle for any old note pad any sooner than I was! Finally we found some good stuff for a reasonable price. I bought my favourite pens and three notepads- one for every subject! People who don't care for stationary won't understand all this fuss (or why I am writing about it on my blog), but if I have to look at a notepad for 5 months, I want it to be pretty!

Anyway, enough about stationary! So far everything has worked out really well for me! I got into all the classes that I wanted and also ended up with a pretty good timetable! I have Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at uni, and Wednesdays and Fridays off...I forgot how good the life of a uni student can be! My subjects are Shakespeare, Studying and Writing about Literature, and Writing Genre Fiction. They are all my elective subjects, which means they are the fun ones- which is awesome! Only thing is, once I get back to Adelaide I will have to do a whole semester of all the remaining boring subjects! Oh well!

It has been nice to have some sort of routine- the one thing I have been craving for weeks! It has been easy to fit in studying, exercising and socialising because all of these things revolve around the uni!

My typical day consists of me walking the 15-20minute walk to uni, going to the gym for about an hour, eating my packed breakfast, going to a lecture, studying in the library and then sometimes going to the gym again on the way home! I really love that the gym is on campus- so convenient! 

I have also been doing other exercise besides the gym. I have been for a few walks and found some really beautiful parks!

But when it is too cold or raining I just go to the gym- it is especially awesome when the football (soccer) is on! The other day Arsenal was playing and I had to message my brother to tell him I was watching them while at the gym (they are his team). It turned out that he was also watching them play on TV all the way from Australia!

And, of course, I had to find the swimming centre! I usually swim twice a week back in Adelaide, and I am planning to swim every Wednesday morning while I am here. It wont be hard to stay motivated to do this with such an amazing pool to swim in! The Sunderland aquatic centre has an Olympic standard pool! Everything is brand new and really clean, so I had a really nice swim yesterday morning. The free uni bus also stops right out the front, so it is super easy for me to get there!

On Wednesday the Uni had a 'clubs day' where you can go and sign up to any of the clubs that they have on offer. I took flyers for the swimming team, the women's football team and a few others, but I am not sure I will join any yet.

Clubs day...so crowded!

I have also been going out a bit, but no huge nights as of yet. I have been sticking to just 1 or 2 beers so that I still feel ok the next day- anyone who knows me can tell you how much I hate hangovers!

On Monday night we discovered that Mondays are a very busy night to go out for Uni students- so busy that we just turned around and went home at the sight of the line (shown above)! It was probably a good thing, because I have started to get a sore throat this week and should take it easy!

AND THE MOST EXCITING NEWS OF ALL: I got my hair done- FINALLY! No more regrowth! It cost a fair bit, but since I was desperate and don't get my hair done very often, I was happy to pay! They did a really good job- my hair is back to being super blonde, and even has a purple rinse that will last a few washes! Loving it!