Susie's Graduation & A Rainy Day In London

Friday was Susie's graduation day in Oxford. I wore a black wrap dress that actually looked really flattering on me, which makes a damn change. Here's Susie and I looking, I have to say, pretty fabulous on the way to campus:

The weather sucked, but I really enjoyed the ceremony. There were some nice speeches, and it was interesting to see it from the audience perspective (it's very different when you're the one graduating - you don't take much in until afterwards because you're too nervy and excited). I'm so proud of Susie getting her BSc in Adult Nursing - this is her second degree, which is just insane, and she's done so well.

Because I'd already gotten a coach ticket for London, and I didn't want it to go to waste, I amended my return ticket and spent the day in the city on Saturday. My first port of call was an Italian gelato shop in Soho that Susie had recommended to me the day before. It's called Gelupo, and I had a little cup of their berry sherbert flavour. It was delicious, so that was a good shout on Susie's part. Also, it looked totally cute.

I must confess that I had a bit of a shopping spree/retail therapy while I was in London. Now it's out of my system and I must begin saving. I went to the ARTBOX store, with it's adorable TofuCute concession, where I got a few bits and pieces and spent ages looking at all the cute stuff. I went to Cyberdog in Camden and I also visited Oxford Street, where I had a browse in the Topshop flagship.

I was going to have dinner in my favourite Wetherspoons, The Lord Moon of the Mall, located near Trafalgar Square and, strangely enough, The Mall (the long road to Buckingham Palace). But it began slapping down with rain, and the place was packed with people escaping the downpour. It didn't look like a table would ever free up, so I braved the rain and went back over to Piccadilly Circus, where I sheltered in an Ed's Diner and had burger and chips. Delicious! I was soaked through and freezing, but feeling pretty good.

Ended up having to wait two hours for my coach, because I couldn't be bothered to do anything else, and took shelter in the Victoria coach station. The journey was annoying because I had a seat kicker (of course - that always happens to me), and someone on there had absolutely horrific body odour. I didn't get home until after midnight, and I'm glad my taxi was at the station when the coach pulled in because there was some drugged-up chav in a balaclava shouting illegibly. I didn't much fancy being stabbed to death. Anyway, here's my little haul from shopping in London:

Shark, rainbow, and space socks; Puccho sweets; milk carton Iwako eraser; a book on Anatomy; strawberry Pocky; fat hamster stickers; Pusheen notebook with my life philosophy on it; a Tofu Cute panda badge.

Not pictured, because they haven't come off me since I got home, are the super comfortable joggers/lounge pants that I got from Topshop. My Batman leggings are pretty worse for wear, so I needed new loungewear (as I do spend about 95% of my life in pyjamas).

I heard from the Rheumatology Hospital in Bath about my maybe-ME. They've given me an appointment in October. I'm surprised at how quickly they got back to me, and how soon the appointment is. I have to fill out a pretty giant questionnaire to take with me, but I'm hoping this is the next step to getting answers and sorting things out.



P.S. Ashleigh accidentally left the freezer unlocked and caught Ethan munching on frozen Yorkshire puddings. Is there anything that child won't eat??

Graduation

So, the big day finally came! I went with Mutti and Martin to St Albans, where we met up with my Vati. We then got onto one of the uni shuttle buses to go to the Arena. Once there I picked up my tickets and my graduation garb, and then felt like a scholar for the first and last time in my life. I spent a lot of time sweeping around outside, saying that I was a ghoul. It was at this point that I was reunited with Jo! We spotted each other and ran over and hugged, it was all very romantic. We caught up and laughed a lot and it was so nice to see her!

Then, of course, was the obligatory photo session (I also got a professional portrait done but I won't receive that for a while):

We holed up in Costa for a while as it was still around three hours before the ceremony - here I got a white hot chocolate with cherry sauce and it was divine. The walk down to the cathedral was lovely; St Albans is such a pretty town.

That photo is, of course, the cathedral. My crap iPhone photo doesn't do it justice, it's huge and absolutely stunning. Outside, Jo found me again and we were soon joined by Molly - many fond memories of second year ensued. We had a laugh together as we froze to death waiting for the doors to open. I'm gutted that I couldn't get photos of the inside of the cathedral - I didn't take my phone in with me, which I now regret. The ceilings are insanely high, the place is absolutely massive and it's so beautiful. I got this photo from Visit St Albans to give you a bit of an idea of how amazing it is:

This was the point that my nerves kicked in a little bit, although I was pretty calm for the whole thing. It took bloody ages to get everyone into the place, there were so many of us. Luckily the students all got sat down pretty quickly because we had allocated seats (we were called up to the stage in alphabetical order). The ceremony started with the academics coming in and sitting on the stage. Our vice chancellor stood up and welcomed everyone, before awarding an honorary doctorate to a guy who basically told his life story - seriously, he talked forever. The students all started sniggering because we were all thinking a combination of 'he doesn't even go here!' and 'remember when this is our graduation'.

Finally, the names began to be read out, and people started going up to receive their degrees. Spoiler alert: You don't actually get your real degree on the stage - you get a fake one and swap it for the real one at the back of the room. I was shocked and appalled. There was also a piece of paper on all the students' seats telling us where to walk and what to do when we went up, it was all very efficient. There's not an awful lot I can say about people going up onto the stage when their names are called, apart from the fact I saw a lot of gorgeous shoes.

My turn came eventually (curse my surname being in the latter half of the alphabet!), and I had to walk across the stage and shake hands with the vice chancellor, who congratulated me. I then took the fake degree from a woman on the stage, walked down the steps without falling over, and down the (extremely long) centre aisle, past everyone's friends and family. I then, finally, got given my real degree. It was a really surreal moment - all that money, everything I'd worked for, three years of my life, was all summed up in this one certificate that I now held in my hands. It was an amazing feeling, and the first time I've felt properly proud of my degree and of myself.

After everyone had collected their certificates, we were congratulated yet again by our vice chancellor, and then one of the students made a lovely speech about how well we'd all done; everyone was smiling by the time she finished, and she got a huge round of applause that went on for ages. She couldn't have summed up student life and the trials and tribulations of getting a degree better. Finally, mercifully (because my back was killing me from the ridiculously uncomfortable seats), we were dismissed back out into the freezing night.

I had a really nice time at my graduation and am so grateful to Mutti, Martin and Vati for coming to it. It hasn't really sunk in that I have my degree (even though I bought a nice frame for it today).



P.S. I found Jackson like this yesterday, peeping out of his house like a small furry spy:

8 Days Till Final Exam

Here I am, back at uni again - I've been back for just under a fortnight now. I ended up locking myself in my room for days to get my assignments done, but they're finally finished and that's all that matters. They're out of my hands now. I've already received marks back for two of the three pieces I had to finish - 2:2 for both, not bad considering I did them in a matter of days.. Kids, never grow up to be like me. DO UR WERK.

Anyway, the night I was finally free of my work, which was Friday 25th, I decided to get absolutely blotto to celebrate. I haven't been properly drunk for a very long time, probably not since the ending-up-in-Manchester fiasco, and it was a very amusing night. It started with Jas, Sophie and I popping over to Club de Hav to have a few jars while they played a few rounds of pool and were crap at it. It was nice to sit in the bar and put my feet up though, without the thought of all the work I had to do weighing on my mind. I was quite content with my pint of dark cider and glass of whiskey and coke (yes I had two drinks at once), watching Sophie and Jas.

We returned to the flat, where we were joined by James, Anand and Jake. I got my water speakers and laptop, and the whole night consisted of Spotify playlists and random requests from all of us. I can't remember much of the night, but I think it can be summed up in its entirety by the most beautiful photo I have ever taken:

For my America trip, I have everything sorted apart from my visa - this will be sorted very soon though, as my appointment at the US Embassy is on Tuesday! I'm still waiting to be placed, but there's still plenty of time for that. I'm getting a bit antsy, just because I want to know where I'm going! I'm so excited and scared. It's gonna be such a big adventure, I can't wait!

As for Spain, I just need to tweak the Powerpoint I was required to make, then I can send that off and that's it - it's entirely up to them after that. I hope I get the internship, it'll be so awesome! One of my bucket list items is to teach English in a foreign country, and Spain is such a beautiful place. I am also incredibly excited that I will be learning a new language when I go over there, and experiencing a different culture for around 8 months. Plus Spain will be warmer over the winter than horrible England, which is always a bonus.

Also in September, between coming back from America and (hopefully) heading off to Spain, I have two exciting things. The first is going to London with Caz to see Kate Bush! I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm amazed that Caz managed to get tickets. The other exciting event, which is coming up a mere four days after the Kate Bush gig, is Arron and Kim's wedding. It's gonna be lovely, I adore weddings! So, by the look of things, the rest of this year is going to be a busy one, considering I also have my graduation ceremony in November (more on that later).

As the title suggests, I only have a Clinical Linguistics exam on the 12th, and then I am completely done with university. All the blood, sweat and tears (not to mention the mountain of cash) that I've put into this will have finally paid off, and my police certificate will no longer be the most expensive piece of paper that I own. I can't believe uni is pretty much over already; at times it felt like it was dragging out forever, but now... I feel like I've only been here for five minutes. Funny how time goes. I have to spend this next week revising my backside off for the exam, but that's no real hardship because Clinical Linguistics really interests me and I had the best lecturer ever for it as well.

I was looking up my graduation the other day, eeeek! I know a bit more about it now - it's going to be on November 20th. I will be there in a gown and one of those stupid hats, and it's going to be brill. The students at my uni get to graduate from this absolutely beautiful place (St. Alban's Cathedral):

I am so excited to graduate. That'll be the final closure of my university career; it'll also mark the last bit of education ever ever (unless I decide to do post-grad someday).

If I get the Spain job, my German friend Sou and I have hatched a diabolical plan to visit the Berlinale Film Festival in February. We're going to go there to try to catch a glimpse of August Diehl, and I am also excited to go because a) Berlin is a city I've wanted to visit forever and b) finally meeting Sou in 'real life'! I hope this all works out. We also have a not-quite-normal plan to scale the Brandenburg Tor, something Sou claims she's always wished she could do. Either way, it'll be hilarious and I'll get to spend time in a beautiful city, with a fantastic person (and hopefully see August Diehl too lol).

Today, it's Caz's birthday. Being the best friend that anyone could hope for in the whole bloody world, I sent her a card with dead flowers on it, and told her to die :)