Looking Back A Little..

Back in early March, I remember attending a Student Shadowing activity hosted by Newcastle University. I think they’d devoted a whole week to allowing students our age to have a talk with university students who were half way through their course of choice, and we were also given the opportunity on these days to be shown round the University campus. And of course, I chose Psychology because at this early point in time, I didn’t really know for sure that I wanted to do it, so I thought this would be a good way of seeing what I could be learning in a few years, if I decided to take it.

I’m not sure how many Universities do this for their potential candidates, but I defiantly think it was a good idea. Both for those students around our local area to get a good grasp about what living at university would be like and those who would want to go to Newcastle in particular.
On this day, we got split off into groups. Most of the people in it being people we all didn’t know – which was good as everyone had to start from scratch. I think my group had about six people in it, with one third year student. I really regret not being able to remember her name because she was one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met and she did a really good job of putting everyone in our group at ease.

A campus tour gave us the opportunity to learn which buildings could be used most for our lectures and where the some of the accommodation was. This was probably the first time we’d had the opportunity to really speak with someone who’d been through it all and who new about most of the stuff about university and living away from home. Our tour guide gave some rather humorous stories about how she ended up sharing a flat with a psychopath and a dude who liked to go out, get very drunk, come back with a girl and have very, very loud sex in the room right next door.

I suppose that’s all part of university life..

We also got to sit in on a third year lecture. I think it was entitled Sex and the Brain, or something along that lines. The lecture basically covered how male and female brains differ in their capabilities – like men have better depth perception for example – and the possibilities of what could actually be causing this difference. Some of the possibilities included sex hormones, could these be causing the difference in brain size, does having increased testosterone in the blood effect our capabilities? Also within this point were the skills present over the menstrual cycle, an example of this being that a woman’s capabilities increase and decrease depending on the amount of oestrogen present. I found this lecture absolutely enthralling as it was the first taste I ever had of a proper psychological topic.

Anyways, what made this day even better was the free £4 token we got to use at the ‘Bistro’.. Just because food makes everything better.

In the afternoon, a selection of presentations were also given. Mostly about finance and student living. (I must admit I enjoyed the morning a lot more.) But this was pretty much the day that firmly solidified the idea of Psychology at University for me.

You know you're getting desperate...

...When you apply for a paper round part time job.

Yes readers, I could potentially become a paper boy (or girl since.. you know) and I could be delivering to a house near you!

Lol jokes, probably won't.

Anywho's, this is quite the pinnacle of my desperation to find employment and by connection my own money system, which means that I won't have to rely on the parentals for sustance, which in turn is the first step towards becoming a self reliant individual.

Yey! Independance!!

I'm really hoping for this actually, because it's quite flexible and it won't take up too much time from my schoolwork (which is a really, really, really good thing).

If not, then I'm gonna have to plead to you dear reader:

Please get me a job!!!

BLOG POST: August III

Just in case you were wondering (which you proberbly weren't to be quite honest, but I'd like to imagine you were) here's a troublesome duo who you may find an interest in reading about. Clicky clicky on:

Exhibit numero uno:  http://drunkofftea.blogspot.com/

AND!

Exhibit numbero duo: http://thatreallyawesomeone.blogspot.com/


Have a little look see, and you might just be surprised! :D

HELP! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done - By Oliver Burkeman

I’ve only recently finished this book, and let me tell you, it’s well good!

This book is composed of many different articles on the different aspects of so-called ‘pop’ psychology and Burkeman references a range of different sources within these. Ranging from books to blogs, this gives his writing a good sense of depth, due to both these references and his opinion of them.

His style of writing was very amusing, and I believe he took a good, objective, common sense view to many of the theories displayed. However, the only problem with this being that I am not as well read as he is, so I can’t form my own opinion on the topics he’s talking about. The book is good, also, at directing the reader at other sources of information, because of the vast amount of research referenced in it. I have about 4 pages of notes on books or articles that I might find interesting because of this!

Another good thing about this book is that it’s not a book that’s promising a better life because you’ve read it. It’s not saying, ‘This is how I can change your life in 7 days!!’, It’s saying, ‘This is what this person thinks would change you’re life in 7 days, but I’ve tried it, and it doesn’t work’. This gave the book a real down-to-earth feel, without becoming totally pessimistic.
The range of topics he covers, I feel, is also a very good thing as he wasn’t repeating the same information over and over again, which normally ends up in making me feel a bit bored. He covered a topic, then moved onto the next one, and this I found kept my attention for longer.
So for any of you out there who wants a good informative read, have a try of this one.
And you might learn something new

Home Sweet, Wonderful, Home!

So, yeah, the adventure is finally over. Our three weeks away as an odd family of sorts has ended, and now we have all returned to our own parents, brothers, sisters and, best of all, beds.


We had a brilliant time away mind, and I’d love to do it again!


First of all we flew to Copenhagen, in Denmark, to spend two days: exploring the city, meeting other UK contingent members, who were also staying in our hostel, enjoying the all day pass into Tivoli (an actual REAL theme park – not something cheap like we’d been expecting), and enjoying what we thought would be our last normal clean showers, that we had access to from our rooms.

The city of Copenhagen itself was quite different to the streets of Newcastle. For example, everything was so clean! I was quite shocked when I got back by the amount of rubbish and gravel that’s covering our paths as I got so used to seeing none of it when I was away. Second of all, the fact that there was a lane by the side of the car lanes, before the pedestrian path, that was solely dedicated to bikes! Like, how much better would life be for cyclists, if we had one of them here?


Well better, I say!

 

Look at that! ^


Doesn’t he look happy?

I think we were very lucky to have sunshine, whilst in Copenhagen, because otherwise, it would’ve brought everyone down, quite a significant amount. Sunshine also has the added bonus of making all of our pictures look absolutely lush! Take a look at this lake (or it could be a canal..):

 

The main event came right at the end of our stay in Copenhagen, where our lovely UK contingent organisers, organised (ha ha) a MASSIVE party for every UK participant going to the Jamboree. Now, that may not seem like a lot, but there were 4,444 people who were going to be attending, and that makes all the difference! So they used a massive courtyard (that locked – in order to keep shady characters entering where they’re not supposed to) and this massive courtyard led into a MASSIVE warehouse with a stage right at the front. And let me tell you, that was quite amazing!! An environment like that really did give everyone the opportunity to meet people who would also be staying at the jamboree. I met loads, and I really regret not being able to remember names, but there were people from our good ole capital, who claimed that we sounded Scottish (it’s called Geordie, by the way) as well as the Welsh who brought with them an adorable blow up dragon. We met people from Somerset and West Sussex, and some who just had weird hair and we thought we should show our approval. 

I did feel sorry for some of the units because they had to leave quite early in the morning to get on the bus to Sweden, and after that party they would have had one heck of a headache.

For us, however, we were lucky because we left as one of the last, at around 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon the next day. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, to get to Sweden. Mainly because of the fact that I live on an island and the only way to reach a different country is through travelling over the sea, I didn’t realise that it was just a bit of a station in the middle of the road where the bus driver paid some money, and then we were through! I just thought it would be a bit more than that..

Sweden decided to have lovely weather for when we got there; nice and sunny for us lugging our bags a rather long distance to our sub camp and for putting up our (should I say) rather gorgeous tents.

Take a look at these bad boys:

Everyone, bar the English, thought they were absolutely brilliant, we, on the other hand, must certainly did not.


We stayed for about a week and a half at the actual Jamboree site. There was SO much going on that you just couldn’t possibly do everything! First of all, the scheduled activities (that changed every day) started at 10 and finish at 3, so that meant that most of your day was gone all ready. Second of all, ‘random activities’ were happening all across the site, for example, each sub camp had it’s own activity that you could try out. Autumn had a climbing wall, Summer had zorbing on water and Winter had its own ice ring. I think I would’ve enjoyed winter’s activity the most, however I don’t think I would’ve been able to find it!

The Swede’s also had on offer a mini on-site theme park too, and it was called Tivoli. Sound familiar? Oh yeah. We thought that was a tad weird too. Anyways, this theme park, instead of being made out of metal and wires it was pioneered, I should mention, out of wooden logs and rope. It was honestly quite amazing! Me and my boyfriend could hardly resist not having a ride or two on them – just to test their effectiveness, of course!

Have a look at this one:

Quite an impressive feat of pioneering, eh?

As well as the structured activities, many other places were open to experience. By this, I mean the food houses and the country tents on time avenue. The latter being a street where the tents along it (as the name may suggest) contain information given by the different countries, about how scouting works for them. Also in these tents, small activities were available. Some wouldn’t have taken more then 10 minutes but they were fun to try out. Examples of these being, in the English tent, mini-golf was there to play, the Indian tent was giving out free henna’s (which many girls scrambled at the opportunity to get – including myself) and the Irish tent was giving out Irish bracelets and challenges for beads. One of these challenges included ‘making 6 new Irish friends’ which just gave more encouragement to those who wanted to go out and make a few more friends have something to work towards.

The food houses, as I mentioned before, also sold… well.. food, obviously. But they gave you a much wider variety to choose from than the shop did, as the food in the shop was aimed towards making meals rather than tasting different food cultures. Quite a few countries had their own little restaurants and cafes, but by far my favourite was the Swedish cafe which sold THE MOST delicious tasting cinnamon roles ever! A close competitor for this title was the Hungarian food house which sold THE BIGGEST PIECE of candy floss, I have ever seen. It was so big that it was actually bigger than my head! (And my head is pretty big mind!)

 

There was also the tower that I got quite a lot of lovely views from:

And that ^ was only a third, maybe a forth, at the most, of the entire Jamboree site.

One of the days I most enjoyed was the Culture Day, this was when camps were advised and encouraged to dress in traditional clothing of their countries and set up stalls outside their camp gates in order to let others taste the food they eat in their country. I really enjoyed this day because I like food, and I like food quite a bit, and having the opportunity to just walk down the road and talk to the different countries about what makes their food so them isn’t an experience I’ve had before, and I doubt I will ever again. With this food feast came cultural dress, our unit dressed up as the coal miners and coal miners wives of the ‘olden days’ (what we used to call it when we were young). The girls from our unit, also had the chance to go and try on some kimono’s from a Japanese unit that our leader had kept in touch with a few months beforehand. They were really beautiful, I’m really glad I got the opportunity to wear an actual real one!

I’m pretty sure I haven’t covered everything that happened at the Jamboree, because there’s just so much to write about! What I am also sure of is that when I do remember something, I’ll post about it. Just for you of course.

After the official Jamboree in Sweden, our unit also had the chance to go to home hospitality in the Czech Republic. This was where we would go to stay with some of the locals, either in a home or a scout hut or even a hostel. One patrol of ours (ten people) already knew where they were going, this was because their Czechs had gotten in touch with them early on in order to tell about the rather specific happenings which would be occuring over the camp that they would be attending. For example, the fact that it was Sherlock Holmes themed, that they would be living in tepee's and that there would be no running water available. The rest of the thirty of us, however, were still quite clueless until we reached the actual place we were staying. This, thankfully, was a scout hut, and we were staying with around eight Czech scouts and two leaders.

Over the next five days, they took us everywhere! (Which mainly involved a lot of hiking!) To the nearest town with a shop, the lake and the national park, which I must stop and just say: wow. It was absolutely lush! 

Take a look!

How beautiful is that?

I’ve defiantly never seen that before in England…

We also had a tour around the local landscape by a park ranger, and he told and showed us about how the plate tectonics had moved and shifted to create the environment seen there today. It really was quite definite. I took a few photos, but they don’t seem to show the depth that was present in reality, which is quite a shame.

Another thing about the Czech Republic, that everyone took advantage of, was the cheapness in comparison to our English pounds. So I have no doubt that many of the unit may be going back there solely for that reason alone!

On our last day we were taken on a 15km hike, to a town called Varnsdorf. The town where our Czech friends come from. This too was also a very pretty place. Here, we had three hours of spare time to shop and explore, which is really where the ‘cheapness’ comes into it, and everyone bee-lined it to the nearest supermarket to fill up on lot’s and lots of nice, tasty, foreign sweeties and chocolates. Including myself of course.

After this they showed us their local churches, school and brewery before we headed back to there scout hut for some much needed rest and potato soup before the long journey back home.