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.