a day off in architecture? never heard of.

it's my day off. my lecture was kindly cancelled last night. fantastic. means i have more time to study (i.e. facebook) & clean (i.e. facebook).  last night was 'miss nottingham', which meant lots of drunk/half naked girls doing ludicrous things in the name of a figurehead position. it was entertaining, to say the least, and UQ would never allow such a thing, but pretty much pointless.

the uni work is piling up. i don't want to be stuck in january with so much work, so i am aiming to start now, but failing. it's so incredibly difficult to get into the right frame of mind.

last night, ben, simon & i edited wikipedia:

good times. they're no longer there (thankyou, wikipedia censoring) but it's funny nonetheless.

today, i am to wrap sam's present. do laundry. have a shower. buy urban design text book. have a healthy lunch. clean room.

wish me luck.

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flobo

"No nightclub floor was too adhesive for the Florence Boot freshers. No '80's rock anthem proved too corny to sing along to at a deafening volume, no fancy dress theme too obscure, no novelty item from Portland Atrium too ridiculously overpriced, and bollocks if they were ever going to get tired of Week One's mandatory, 24 hour-a-day, anti-any-other-hall-which-happens-to-be-nearby-chanting. Bollocks if they were going to back down in the face of any of the bigger halls on campus either: FB seems to have quite a reputation for being a bit quiet, a bit sultry and mysterious, skulking round the West Entrance, loitering just outside Beeston like a chav on a BMX, but this year, by God did we hold our own. It's worth noting that one of our freshers in particular took our good-natured (ahem) anti-Rutland banter to heart more than any other in living memory, and in no way am I condoning what he did as a result of his feelings, but suffice to say it will remain the stuff of Florence Boot legend for many years to come. If I was allowed to, I would say that the man in question's act of vandalism was brilliant. But I'm not. So I won't."

 - Gabriella DeMatteis, week one rep

the other side of the world

it has been quite a while since i have blogged, i know. 
how slack of me.


but what a perfect excuse - i am now in the uk! how exciting. the last few weeks have been a complete emotional rollercoaster (to be completely cliched). i went to so many international student talks about culture shock and how to deal, blah blah blah. but honestly, nothing can prepare you for being on the other side of the world, completely by yourself (fortunately in the same language as yours) and having to make friends - quicksmart.


fortunately, i have been lucky. i've been popped into the smallest, arguably most beautiful hall on campus with my now-best friends literally two or three doors away - florence boot hall. it's a half hour walk to lectures (i choose to take that as a positive - massive campus university which allows me to exercise whilst walking to my lectures?) but definitely the nicest part of university park. the people are great. of course, they are all eighteen year old high school graduates who constantly want to get drunk, but they are great fun. the food, however, not so great. i have never missed asian food so much! (and eaten so much sweet corn for that matter...the english are nuts about sweet corn). 


freshers week a few weeks ago, was intense. every night was some kind of stupid themed party, starting at the ripe hour of seven pm, meaning i was wasted, and in bed by about one. unfortunately, that has meant that even now (third week), i have been unable to stay up past twelve when out. highly embarrassing story #1 - i may or may not have fallen asleep at ocean (student club) on friday night...


architecture is fun, but not quite what i am used to. firstly, there are 180 of us in second year, almost double what i am used to back home. we have been separated into 'units', and i have been lucky enough to be selected into unit one - solar decathlon! we are the only UK entrant in the european solar decathlon in madrid in june 2010. how exciting! it gives me a fantastic excuse to come back in june, providing it doesn't clash with uni work back home.


travelling plans are going better than i could ever imagine. i was in london last weekend with one of my oldest friends, charlie. it was a truly amazing weekend. we managed to fit in all the main sights on london into four very short days (thankyou for the great weather, london!) and went out as well. the londoners certainly know how to have a good night out. i don't remember much, i am sad to say, but i believe we were out in mayfair. not this weekend coming, but the weekend after, i am off to dublin, to visit daen, a fellow UQ architecture slave. it's also halloween at this time - so we might head up to derry (northern ireland) to have a look around. then a few weeks after dublin, is rome with gordon, yet another UQ student over here on exchange. it should be good to have a look at the architecture, now that i know what i am actually speaking about. and then - a massive winter/christmas trip with grace, sina, ben, simon and matt: berlin, krakow, barcelona (with sam), vienna for christmas, amsterdam, edinburgh for new years, glasgow and perhaps back to dublin for a little before uni starts again in mid january.


it's past midnight here, so i will call it a night.
more stories from notts to come!
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