So.. I've been at Aston for 6 weeks. I have not been home yet, although I am looking forward to having a weekend at home in 2 weeks. I have had 2 accounting exams/tests which count towards my first year grade, a marketing mock, and on friday I have a maths test which also goes towards my first year grade. I also need to write 3 pieces of coursework. All in all I'm a very busy lady! I have also been selected to become a 'student ambassador', doing work to convince other people that Aston is a cool place to live and study! SO if you are coming to an open day, you may just see me!!
People around this time want to know what the positives and negatives of going to certain universities are. I thought I would write my positives and negatives of my life at Aston. Note that these are all my own experiences, and someone else may have completely different opinions.
Positives>
Only having one 9am start
Drama soc. starting the year I joined
Ozren Despic
Organisational Behaviour lectures
Getting on with 2/3s of my flatmates
Being student ambassador
Accounting being the same as AS Accounting
The Heating in Stafford
Power showers
Family I hardly ever see living really close by
Roast dinners meaning more than they ever did at home
Tuesday's off
Discovering dryers which actually dry my clothes
Living a max. 10mins away from your lectures
Main building open 24/7
Aston E-Library
DJ Patrick Tissington
Watching the helicopter land outside your window!
Getting hundreds of emails a day, even if they are largely irrelevent
Changing your facebook status hundreds of times a day
Negatives
Economics, and the fact I have to do another economics module in the 2nd term
Tutorials- complete waste of time
Keysurf internet
Cooking for yourself gets so boring
Running out of milk
Quantitative techniques - I nobly gave away all my GCSE maths books to a charity shop, thinking I would never do maths again. Oh how wrong I was. :(
The bitter cold of Birmingham
Indoor TV aerials
When its too late to call your parents, but you really want to
Thursdays every other week
Rasheeda
The other 1/3 of my flatmates. VILE.
The showers. See above.
Not drinking
Steamy windows
It's been a very long time since I've posted, and the more I think about how much I have to catch up on in the blog, the less I can bring myself to do it, so I am just going to start from what is happening right now, and just leave out the stuff of the last couple of weeks, all you need to know is that it has been good.
Went to the pub last night with my flatmates + our adopted flatmate emily + some of the floor 2 boys. It was soo full because they were doing pound drinks, but once we got a table it was a really good time! I also don't have lectures on tuesdays, so i didn't have to worry about going to bed to get up early the next day, although I do have many many things I need to do today. I have had to print off so much stuff that my black ink cartridge has run out already, and there is no cartridge world to refill it here, so I will be saving all the empty shells to refill when I go home, but I need to find a place to do cartridges in the mean time, even if that means paying over the odds for them just for now.
I am sooooo tired, there just never seems to be a moment to stop here until you get into bed for the night, then you are worrying about getting up again for a fire alarm. I do enjoy the busyness, but sometimes it's like ahhh!
My lectures have all started, and I'm really enjoying them as well, although some of the reading for before the lecture is a bit intense!! The lecturer will tell you to read chapter 1, so you think OK cool that's not too bad, open it up and chapter 1 is 100 pages long! eep! Most people went home this weekend, so there were hardly any of us in the flat, so I did some really good work, which was a bit of a shock to the system! I was writing this assignment thing, and at the beginning all my words were really clunky and I couldn't get my point across, I haven't written an essay in over 3 months!!
Will hopefully be going out for a meal with my flat and the floor 2 boys today, which would be goood, I like eating out hah. Went to Nandos last week for nicks birthday, and we ordered the largest thing on the menu because there were quite a few of us, and it worked out reasonable cheap actually.
I had better go and get ready to go on an ink cartridge hunt, and then a food shop, and I'm sure there were hundreds of other things I needed!
I am in the TV lounge again today, even though I bought the internet yesterday. We have NO heating upstairs, we usually have heating in atleast the corridor but it's absolutely freezing both inside and outside. I had heating this morning for about an hour, and it was lovely, but we are back to having nothing. Also, I want to watch some programs on 4OD, but the internet is too slow even to stream, so I have to download them on here and watch them upstairs later.
Yesterday I went to Cadbury's world. I went by myself because none of my friends wanted to go, so I was a bit nervous about turning up on the guild steps by myself, but before I'd even got on the minibus I'd got chatting to 3 other people, so I had someone to sit next to. It was a really fun day, we started it off by going into this room with loads of sweets like jelly babies, rice crispies, marshmallows and biscuits, and then you pick one, they put it into a cup for you and pour melted chocolate over the top. I had marshmallows, and it was SERIOUSLY good but very very sickly! we also got buttons, dairy milk and a curly wurly bar, the dairy milk I ate today at lunch mm!
Yesterday I had rebecca come over which was nice, she brought her friend round and Grayum came round aswell, as none of them had tickets for the evening event. It was good to see them and they stayed quite late, until my flatmates came back atleast. Then we all sat in the kitchen and talked for a bit, then Henry and the old Floor 7 gang came (as per usual :p) then left, then we ended up staying up until 4am just talking in our PJs. A moving party came and started banging at the door, but we didn't feel quiet dressed for the occasion so we just left it and eventually they left.
Today we all went to laser quest, which was well good fun!! You go into this room with a pack on you with a target, and you run around this big dark maze thing trying to shoot at others targets, whilst avoiding getting shot yourself. I was rubbish but still had a wicked time!!
I need to go shopping to get some bits and bobs, and we are advised not to go on a Saturday because it's just soooo busy, but I really really don't want to go today because it's so cold!!! I really didn't realise the difference between where I come from (watford) and birmingham, but now I really do. At night the wind really beats on around the towers, and there is a horrible draft under my window which I have to sleep under. Do they still sell those fluffy snakes you put under doors you stop drafts? I may need to get one for my window. I slept in my hoody last night as well, because we had no heating :( :(
I can't believe freshers week is already drawing to a close and the real work begins on Monday! Next week everyone will be walking around like zombies because they are so tired, I'll bet.
Yesterday I went bowling which was really fun, I came 2nd in the first game and I think 3rd in second game? It was good fun, and i didnt actually know the people on my team, so was good to get to know people. I'm going to Cadbury world tomorrow which I'm really looking forward to!
I should have the internet all set up by tomorrow, so then my blog entries might be a bit longer, but we're about to get kicked out of the TV lounge so this is me done
It is driving me nuts not having the internet, seriously. I was all ready to write big emails to both my parents, check my emails, check my facebook, update my blog etc etc etc, then I discover that the TV lounge where I can get free internet access closes at 10pm so I had to leave. Just to make this clear, I am writing this on word on the 29th September at 11pm, and have pasted this into blogger.
My last entry was very rushed, all my flatmates and a few others were sitting behind me and I just wanted to write it really fast and get back to what I was doing. Today I have more time, as I have decided not to go out. This is me being anti-social, but also doing something to make myself happy. I have not really enjoyed the last couple of evening events, mainly because I don’t drink, and make no apologies for it. I wouldn’t say I’m completely tee-total as I perhaps have one drink every three or four months, but coming to an environment where drink is the main feature for the week was a bit too much. However, I don’t think I’m loosing out on any friends doing this, my flatmates completely understand, and anyone they’ve met over the past two nights haven’t remembered them in the morning so what was the point? If you enjoy nightclubs and stuff then that’s fine, that’s a good time for you, but a good time for me in the evening is just chilling out, because I’ve usually done a lot of stuff in the day and it’s not a good plan to burn the candle at both ends, better to pace yourself, particularly as this is just the first week of uni, we’ve still got a whole term to go before we can have a break yet!!
Last night was quite fun though, I’ll admit. Our Auntie (the 2nd/final years who are there to help you out at Aston) took us up to one of their friends flats, who were having a party. This party just happened to be on a final year floor, and boy to they know how to drink and play games and have some fun. I really really did not want to drink a)what they were drinking b) the amounts they were drinking, particularly as a forfeit when someone lost the game, so I had to make really really sure I didn’t lose so that I wouldn’t have to drink, but seeing as I was sober these games weren’t really hard haha. Then we went to the guild but I didn’t stay long atall and came back and had an early night. Been quite a two days last weekend so I felt that an early night would really do me good.
Then, at about 2:45 there is SO much noise on our floor I was a bit like unfghh what is that. Turns out it was the people who lived on our floor last year coming to pay a visit. I personally didn’t get out of bed, but they stayed until 3:30am or so, but looking back on it I think it’s quite funny, I wasn’t quite sure last night!
I’m actually quite impressed with my room at Aston. Despite the fact that I had no water last night and this morning, and my wardrobe is now hanging off it’s hinges but won’t open fully, it’s actually an alright room. It’s more spacious than I thought it was, and there is plenty of room for all my stuff, and feels nice and bright. There are still a few things I need to get for it, such as a throw for one of the chairs that looks like one of those chairs you would get in a hospital/nursing home, but in a few weeks it’ll look seriously good!
I had one of the girls I’d met over to my flat today whilst we waited for enrolment, as they turned us away at our allotted time because they were too busy. We chatted and stuff, and that was nice, then we went back to enroll, and it took about two hours to get to a guy sitting infront of a computer just to say “so there’s no capital A in your surname?” “no” “ok, pick up your card tomorrow from room blah blah” Rar more waiting tomorrow then! I also need to register for the medical centre, as well as having a welcome talk at 9am tomorrow and then going bowling at 12:30. Such a busy week!
Overall, I am having a brilliant time at Aston so far. We’ve had various Auntys and people coming to visit our floor and they are always very nice and helpful. The only thing that was bothering me slightly was the drinking, but I’ve also realised there is hundreds of other things to do, they are just not necessarily being the most heavily advertised. I am praying that we don’t have a fire alarm tonight though, so far we have been very very lucky, our Aunty told us she had one on her first night in Stafford, and I was dreading going out in the cold for over 2 hours apparently. I have to make sure there is jeans and a hoody next to my bed so that when it does go off, I am atleast prepared and a little warmer!
I arrived at Aston yesterday, with, for the first time in my life, comparatively little stuff. It all fitted in the car nicely, and my mum and I had a nice trip up there. We got there, got my keys from the stafford TV lounge (where I am now as I don't have internet at Aston) and then went and visited my room. I was all ready for it to be a awful, but really it wasn't that bad. I went and took all my stuff up (with the aunties help!) whilst my mum sorted my room, which was a massive help as it meant that I didnt have loads to unpack this morning when I wanted to be out meeting new people.
I went and did my last shop with my mum, and then thankfully Lidge (one of my friends at Aston who went to my old school) called me to tell me to get my fresher wristband ASAP, thank goodness I did as the queue outside the Guild was HUGE! Unfortunately this meant a bit of a rushed goodbye with my mum, but I spose there wasn't a lot to do except for hug each other (and cry!)
When i got back from getting my wristbands, some of my flatemates were in the kitchen, so I went in there and we had a good chat, two of them don't live in Stafford though. We all went over to this girl's flat (Emily) for dinner, her mum had made her a HUGE lasagne so we all had giant homemade lasagne and everyone felt like it was going to be alright.
Later we went to the guild for the first event of the week, but I didn't stay too long as I was so so so tired and it wasn't all my scene. But today I got my tickets to go to cadbury world and to go bowling, which should be fun, as well as a great opportunity to meet new people
So yes, I'm having fun. I feel like I've met some cool people already, and although everything takes a while to get used to, everyone is friendly and I know that I will get used to it.
I'll post some pics of my room etc later, my flat wants to make dinner :)
Everything is finally getting real now, with only 4 days to go!
I have finally, apart from ONE thing, bought everything I need. I can safely say that there is no chance of me blowing my loan on shopping because I NEVER want to go again! I've been shopping almost every day for the past 2 weeks, and it's definitely become tiresome
I've started to pack a few things at, my room looks like a bombs hit it, but as I keep reminding everyone, it will be gone on Saturday along with myself! All my worldy possessions into these boxes, definitely don't know how it will fit a) in the car b) in my room, which is quite small.
I've finally had everything through (the post rarely comes these days 
I actually cannot deal with the amount of ironing needed! I have considered taking my huge pile of clothes to a professional ironer it is that bad! But needs must! Don't want to have to waste my time ironing when I'm actually there
It's really cool how many more people have said they want to start blogging, obviously onto something here! I wonder how blogging during freshers is actually going to work out though, we'll see but I will definitely update as much as possible
Hi, I'm Nikki.
I'm about to go into my first year at Aston Uni,to study Business and Management.
I'm easy-going and energetic, I'll try anything once. Anything you want to know, just ask.
