I'm Back. And I'm Moaning. UEA STUDENTS READ THIS.

After a longer break than intended, I'm back to blogging. Firstly with a rather big moan.

I was aimlessly scouring my Twitter feed this morning when I come across a tweet from the Union of UEA Students (@UnionUEA), coming out in support for the Associate Tutors in Philosophy, who were effectively kicked out of their office with three days' notice at the beginning of June. They released this statement:

On Tuesday 4th June 2013, Associate Tutors in the UEA School of Philosophy were informed by the university that they will no longer have access to an office, and were asked to remove their belongings from A0.25 (sic) by Friday 7th June 2013 (3 days' notice).The Union recognises the important role that Associate Tutors play in the University both through their research and their teaching and as such we support the ATs in the School of Philosophy in their campaign to win back their office space. The idea that they are so undervalued that they are not deemed to warrant office space within their own School is concerning. We support the right and the need of these members of the University to have their own office space where they are able to carry out their work. We believe the loss of this space will have a detrimental effect not just on those research students who have lost their workspace but on taught students as well. Associate Tutors undertake a large proportion of teaching and other work. We hope that the decision to remove a vital resource from these Associate Tutors and the School of Philosophy itself is taken into reconsideration and put out to wider consultation.

Quite frankly, I was horrified to hear so late that my tutors, who have been fabulous this year, have been told that they are not valued highly enough to deserve their own office where they can work and hold office hours. Soon after @UnionUEA tweeted, I received an email from a mature student who was equally as angry as me. Not only will this have a detrimental effect on the Associate Tutors (who are research students), but it will also affect the students who are being taught by them. This year, all of my modules' (except two Literature modules) seminars have been taught by research students, so I have often had to go to see them for help with essays and, because of my ankle injury, help with catching up with the course. Whilst my Literature tutor had access to an 'Associate Tutors Office', not one of my Philosophy tutors had round-the-clock access to their office, meaning I met them in coffee shops (not the most quiet of places) and the Arts HUB, and any UEA student will understand why that is a completely unsuitable environment to have a private and in-depth conversation about an essay or concern. And this was all happening when the Philosophy Associate Tutors had an office!

Now that they have been told that they no longer have access to an office, students with concerns will have to constantly meet their tutors in public places where noise cannot be controlled. The tutors will not be able to set concrete office hours, which I think will discourage students from coming for help with their coursework. Neither will the tutors have a place to actually mark the coursework from their students once it has been completed, which is surely going to have an effect on how quick students receive their coursework back. The quality of teaching students receive will be greatly reduced as tutors will have to try to plan seminars and mark work in other places such as the library, which, whilst relatively quiet, is away from other faculty members who may be needed for advice. I was shocked once when I saw my tutor sitting at a desk working, wondering why she didn't have an office. It wasn't until I arranged a meeting with her that I found out she doesn't have access to her office all of the time!

Unfortunately it is not just the School of Philosophy that has had their work space taken from them. The School of History Associate Tutors do not have access to an office and tutors in other schools who do may have to share desks with others and not have a key or access whenever they like. As one of the students in the first year to pay £9000 per year to the UEA, I am horrified that my money is not even being used to provide my tutors, who are the people most involved in my learning and academic development, with a space to mark my work, give me extra help, nor a place for them to carry out their own research. As they are members of the teaching staff at the University I expect my money to be spent on giving them the right tools they need to be able to teach me to the standard of the 'top-ten' rating the Philosophy department has apparently been given. If the UEA do not reconsider their decision to take away the work space from the Associate Tutors, I think I can safely say that we will see a drop in student satisfaction with the Philosophy department and UEA in general. As a university who is 17th overall in the country (The Guardian University Guide) and first for student experience (which they do not fail to tell me on a weekly basis through a number of emails), they should be ensuring they maintain these positions and consistently trying to improve student satisfaction.

A Facebook group has been set up in order to protest the University's decision, and if you are a student at UEA, whether you are a student in the School of Philosophy or not, please join and support the cause. From the information that the group is beginning to gather, it sounds like this is not a problem that is just going to affect PHI. It could be your school's Associate Tutors left without an office next.

I REALISE I HAVEN'T BLOGGED IN A WHILE.

I thought I would explain why.

I am freaking out about revision.

Expect me on the 10th May. I shall be back with a vengeance (and hopefully calm hair).

A Word of Advice: Never Break Your Ankle.

I AM BACK AT UEA AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL.

I am currently writing this in a practically empty flat as everyone is at Clique at TAO in the city. It is wonderfully quiet and I've got loads of work done. Unfortunately I'm not really staying a home out of choice - my foot resembles an elephant's right now and it's not particularly wonderful. Sigh.

For some reason I assumed that the minute I had my cast off I would miraculously be able to walk properly straight away; this is really not the case. I am toiling away moisturising three times a day, coping with stretching socks, grotesque bruising and having to leave my flat half an hour before a lecture rather than fifteen minutes. It really is not much fun - today my ankle started aching after four hours of lectures; that really is not on is it? Especially as I have seven hours straight tomorrow. Not fun.

So this is my advice to you all out there - please do not break your ankle. Don't even do anything to risk breaking your ankle, such as wearing insensible shoes (is insensible a word? I hope it is). Or, if you really have to wear those eight-inch heels or whatever they are these days, at least fall hands first and break your wrist instead. Preferably not your writing hand, but honestly it would be far less debilitating to have a broken wrist than a broken ankle (although neither are particularly fun I am sure).

Consider this - are these:

Worth having a face like this once you inevitably fall?:

I will hope that most of you will say no. But I know that we will all go on wearing these ridiculous things.


And I'm sure after a couple of years I will be one of those people.

Photo courtesy of DivaScribe

THE CAST IS OFF!! (Photos included, beware) And a Little nod to the NHS.

I sorta want my cast back on.

My appointment was at Basildon Hospital at 4pm. My dad and I left a bit late but I got there promptly at 3:59pm. I'd brought two of the books I'm studying for Literature with me because I thought I'd be in for a long wait, but sure enough about ten minutes later a short and loud lady called "ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO? THAT'S ONE-TWO-TWO" (that was my raffle ticket number) and I was off and ready to be faced with my shockingly hairy leg.

So I sat there and the health care professional explained to me about how the pizza cutter-esque blade won't cut my skin. She then started to cut the cast down either side, and I was uncontrollably giggling - it really tickled! She snipped down all the fluffy stuff inside and took the cast off in two halfs; as she lifted it off a waft of unwashed smell caught my throat. Lovely.

I looked down at my withered limb and couldn't quite believe it. It looked like my brother's leg, all hairy and gross. I said this to the lady and she said "Well you can't plait the hair yet so it's not that bad." Imagine if I could. I would be so ashamed.

I have photos of my hairy leg but my mum thinks they're too disgusting to put online. She made me shave my leg the minute I stepped in the door, but more of that later.

I went off to X-Ray and again had to hardly wait at all. I sat on the bed in the X-Ray room and I had a funny turn - it was so odd - I couldn't hear very well and I could see black spots in my eyes, and I felt all dizzy like I had mega head rush. Apparently it can be because your circulation changes once the cast comes off, so that was a fun experience. After my X-Rays were done I went back to wait in the fracture clinic, and again was hardly waiting any time at all.

My doctor, Mr. Haniffa, took one look at my leg and went "Ooh there's not even much swelling there, it looks wonderful." He is now my Valentine. I love him.
He signed me off work for another week and gave me a sheet with some physiotherapy exercises to do and I went and got fitted with my 'moon boot'. It's pretty awful. But I can inflate and deflate it with a little pump which is quite cool. Trying to walk in it is not though, it's not actually flat it's curved, so you sort of rock backwards and forwards on it. Very odd.

I got home and mother sent me up to the bathroom to shave my leg; she couldn't stand the sight of it (thanks Mum.). She helped me wash it all nicely and moisturise it, but it still looks pretty grim. Here is a lovely photo for all of those wondering:

Believe it or not that is after shaving it. My leg's just got all weird marks on it. Beautiful. And look at that bruise! It's still pretty swollen but I guess that'll go down soon. The only thing is, I can't really walk on it too well. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get up and down stairs in the next couple of days. Hmm. Well I shall have to work it out as I am back in Norwich on Saturday! Hooray!

I do feel a little lost without my cast though. I've got used to walking on one leg.

The rehabilitation begins.

Oh, and people should not speak so harshly about Basildon Hospital. Every time I have been there I have been given the best care I could be, and so has the rest of my family when they've been treated there, in any department. There are a lot of rumours going round about whether it may be in the pipeline to close, but people should just think: where would the people of Thurrock and surrounding areas go if Basildon Hospital closed? And also, what would it be like without the NHS all together?

Crying Over my Coursework 2.

Crying over my coursework again. Working from home really is not ideal. Seriously. Don't break your ankle when you're at uni if you live in a first floor flat, it's really not useful.

I thought I'd have more to say, but honestly there's not much going on here at the moment. Apart from my wonderful friends keep visiting me to stop me from going insane.

I will post a long and detailed account of what it is like to get a 6-week old leg cast removed next Thursday. I'm sure everyone will be looking forward to that.

But in the meantime, please head over to my friend Alicia's Facebook page and her website to learn all about her trip to Cambodia with Reach Out Volunteering. She's going to be doing some amazing things for people who really need it out there, so if you can donate even a small amount or come to one of her fundraising events it would make so much of a difference! She's holding some fantastic events and auctioning off some amazing prizes so head over to her sites to see what you can do.

Global Audiences, Exam Results and the Snow

I found out where people worldwide are finding my blog, and it's not exciting at all. Strangely enough, people from all over the world do not care about the mindless ramblings of a 19 year old student. They're looking for pictures of broken ankles and casts.

All of the referring sites have been from Google-dot-something-forwardslash-images (in various languages). Well there goes my little five seconds of fame.

In other news, I found out today that I got a healthy 2:2 on the Philosophy exam I genuinely thought I'd failed. I was ecstatic to say the least; 58% will do me especially as I literally blagged the whole thing. And I got 65% in an English essay which I also thought went pretty badly. It's my highest mark in a Literature essay so far and I'm quite happy with a mid-2:1 for my first year. Hopefully I'll still be able to bust the essays out even though I'm taking part in not-so-well-organised distance learning.

Oh and that's another thing. I was supposed to be going up to visit my Norwich friends this weekend, but that of course has been put on hold due to it looking like this up there:

Now I know it looks beautiful and all but it is not good for a woman on crutches. Also bearing in mind that I can't fit a shoe on my left foot I think my toes would get frostbite pretty quickly, even with a very fluffy sock on. So now I'm stuck indoors for another week. Very frustrating! I have had two visitors this week which was lovely and a very welcome break from just the conversations with my family (not that I don't want to talk to my family, but I needed to gossip.)

The snow is beginning to fall here in Essex now, although nowhere near as much as it has done in other parts of the country. It seems to have really missed us this year. But I for one am definitely not complaining.







Picture courtesy of Alex Hey!

Hello, People of the World Wide Web.

Expect my posts to be few and far between until I get this ridiculous thing off. I literally do nothing with my life that is worth reporting. My day consists of being deposited downstairs at 8am by my family before they go to work and school, then I sit in my chair surrounded by uni work. I struggle into the shower with a bin bag on my cast to keep it dry and sit on a special stool made for old people to sit in the bath on. Honestly, it's pathetic. What I really wanted to write about today was that in the past week or so I have been getting pageviews from these countries: United States
South Korea
Switzerland
Germany
Sweden
France
Italy
Poland
Australia I am so interested as to how you are finding my blog. If you are actually real people reading it and not just robots, please leave a comment! I'm rather inquisitive. (I have a lot of time on my hands, after all.)  Let me know!

A Rant About My Course and Tuition Fees, a Couple of Years Late.

I AM SO DEPRESSED.

I HATE that I'm stuck here indoors all the time. I left my house for the first time in a week yesterday, and that was only to go to the Fracture Clinic. And do you know what they told me? Instead of having my cast on until 30th January, I will have it on until 14th February. Happy Valentine's Day, me.

I am trying to keep up with all of my uni work but it's so hard when some of it is so dull. I have to read Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, which is no mean feat. It's so bulky and full of places that don't exist any more. Trying to read it and actually take in what you're reading is so hard. I mean, it was written over 2000 years ago. Someone needs to remind me why I agreed to do Philosophy.

Another thing I realised is that people are so ignorant. And that universities really do expect you to do everything for yourself. I'm a strong believer in independent learning and I think students are far too reliant on 'spoon feeding' now, thanks to GCSE and A-Level courses, but I HAVE A BROKEN ANKLE. I can't just depend on my friends to write my notes for me for six weeks, it's not fair. As much as I love UEA, my Literature tutors have not been that accommodating. Basically everything I ask in an email gets a reply of 'You need to discuss this independently/directly with ____' or 'We cannot do this for you. You need to make your own arrangements.' Whilst I completely understand that they can't suddenly give me one-on-one support, how difficult is it for a tutor to give me a quick update on what's going on in the course, or find me someone reliable to help me get lecture notes (I don't actually know anyone in my seminar group)?

To give the Philosophy department credit, they have been absolutely brilliant, directing me to online resources and offering to send me lecture details if I need them. Why is that so difficult of LDC? Who knows.

I realise this post is now completely irrelevant to most people. I'll stop with that now.

The other point I made was that I realised that people are so ignorant. Let me explain. I posted a status on Facebook in the hope that I would find someone in my Literature seminar group (I didn't.), but in my frustration I added at the end "I don't know why I am paying £9k a year to a uni who can't even send me a list of names." or something of the like. A few minutes later someone comments on my status, saying "You didn't pay shit". This comment set me thinking. Yes I may be borrowing from the government at the moment, but once I start work I will be paying them over £42,000. I know some of you will be saying "Yes but that gets written off after 30 years and you won't start paying it back until you're earning £21k blah blah blah" But it's the principle that there are students who are a matter of months, even weeks in some cases, older than me who will be paying back more in the region of £24,000. Because the Labour Party saw the importance of education and in making sure it is accessible to all. Some lucky students will get help from Mummy and Daddy in paying back the £42k, but I certainly will not. And why should my parents help out really? It is my education after all.

This is where my opinion on tuition fees gets rather blurred.

Whilst I completely disagree with the amount students have to pay for their education, I don't believe it should put people off. If they planned to go to university when they thought they'd be paying £3.5k a year, they should still go now. And they should try and think of the debt they will be in as more like paying an additional tax (I guess like the graduate tax Miliband suggested) for 30 years. No one should let financial worries be the reason to not go to university. I've already said today that it is so sad to see people without ambition, and we can't let this government take away our aspirations by not supporting those from poorer backgrounds.

Rant over.

MY CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN EVENTFUL. WARNING: PICTURES OF A BROKEN BONE INCLUDED

Well, I am back after a rather long break.

Unfortunately I do not bear good news.

I have broken my ankle. In three places. THREE.

How? I hear you ask. Well...

It was Friday 28th December. Four of us from work had finally managed to get together and decided to go to Basildon (Yes, Bas Vegas) for the night before we all departed again for uni etc. Now I'd never actually been to the clubs in Basildon, due to the many horror stories I'd heard, but I wasn't apprehensive. I've been in Norwich on a Saturday night, and Norwich locals are somewhat... Grotty. So I got dressed up, I bought a new skirt and put on the wedge shoe boots that have become my signature piece of most outfits.

George (he is very clever, studying Maths at the University of Bath) rounded us up from various parts of Thurrock and took us back to his place for pre drinks. It was all going so well, Georga (not a spelling mistake, Georga is a wonderful lady who will be studying Paramedic Science next year) and I were drinking Cosmopolitans and Dave (a completely mad guy who is doing History at Manchester Met) was putting on various embarrassing dance tunes from the past. We got to the wonderful place that is the Festival Leisure Park around 11ish and went in. Now I appeared to be rather giggly by this point. Georga and I decided that we needed the loo. So after we paid to get into Jumping Jacks (at least I thought it was Jumping Jacks), I started down the stairs, very sensibly in my rather high heels. All was well until I actually walked in to the toilets, not knowing there was a slope. One second I was looking at the cubicles, the next I was looking at the floor.

Georga and I were in hysterics. She went to the loo and left me on the floor, as you do. I tried to get up but for some reason my left foot wasn't really co-operating with me. As I got up, the pressure on my left ankle was to much to take. So I hopped to the loo. And then had to be practically carried out of the toilets by Georga.

I sat down on a stool and George put some ice on my ankle, which was beginning to swell pretty rapidly. I couldn't even feel the ice, which was probably a sign that I should not have any more to drink. But of course because of the pain I was taking swigs of any drink put in front of me.

 Yes,  I know it's a hideous picture. But I have no shame. And it is on Twitter anyway.

Now seeing as by this time it was only about 11:30 I was determined not to give up yet. So I had a little dance with my shoes off until I could take it no longer. And the next thing I remember is being carried to a taxi. And then ending up in a wheelchair in Basildon A&E. Poor old George had come with me and waited with me for about six hours whilst I had various X-Rays and examinations. At some point I took this rather lovely photograph of my swollen foot:

Ew. Isn't it gross?

 

 

After about four or five hours of waiting, a doctor came round and told me I had 'signs of a break' and that I would need a cast. Now I didn't really understand what that meant. Did it mean the x-rays were inconclusive? Later on I found out that was not the case. I had managed to break my ankle, falling off my shoes, in three places. When I was shown the x-ray I was sick (to be fair to me, it turned out I also had tonsillitis and adenoiditis. I'm generally okay with medical things. I mean, I love Casualty and ER.). 

So I had this lump of a thing put on my leg to start off with:

It was sooo heavy.

And now I have this wonderfully pretty thing:

 

So now I am stuck at home for at least another four weeks whilst this thing heals. And everyone else is back in Norwich having fun :(

 

So that was my Christmas and New Year pretty much. Besides working the busiest NEXT sale of my life and also being sick on New Years. At midnight, 1:30am, 2:30am, 3am, 4am and 5am. Wonderful.

 

I hope your holidays were better than mine.