The Isle of Skye will ruin scenery for you forever.
You have been warned. There is no place more dangerous for your sense of beauty, especially if you go when the sun is out. After that, no other scenery will seem to measure up. Future holidays will be spent passive-aggressively trying to get fellow travellers to look at pictures of Skye on your phone.
I mean, just look at these photos from Talisker Beach.
Blue skies, crystal clear water, black sand and green pasture behind us. Just shocking.
And the scandalous seafood lunch with Talisker Bay oysters going at ~£1 a piece.
We also visited the Fairy Pools in Glen Brittle, which is a huge misnomer because they were not fair at all. Not to any other place with “scenery” anyway.
Two beautiful dogs appearing at the right place, right time, right pose with sunbeams streaming into the aperture? Well played Skye. Well played.
That’s not all. We took a boat ride out from Elgol to Loch Caruisk and there were dolphins and seals flopping around on the ride.
And again, more scenery to spoil all other holiday plans.
The bottom line is, if you still want to be awed and amazed in this life, don’t go to Skye. You’ll only miss the most ridiculous scenery on earth and I’m sure you won’t mind that.
I haven’t blogged in such a long time! But exams are now finally over, the summer ball was last night and term has finally drawn to a close. It’s crazy to think that this time last year I was moving out of halls. Second year has flown by and I’m frankly terrified by the speedy passage of time. I feel like things definitely go quicker the older you get! So I’ve been exam-free for a week and it’s been great! I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve been up to (and my apologies to the second year medics who haven’t even finished their exams yet… thinking of you guys!).
The biologists take over the Union post-exams!
This has very much been a week of chilling and catching up with friends. The exam period has been long and gruelling with many hours spent holed away in my room or in Charing Cross Library trying to remember the stages of phosphorylation cascades in T Cell signalling or the life cycle of the influenza virus. The Saturday that my exams finished one of my friends had his birthday party which was a lovely way to catch up with people who I hadn’t seen for a while. There was also a trampoline and a dog so it was a pretty great party.
Fun in the late evening sun at the birthday party.I’ve had lots of time to bake since finishing exams so I made these chocolate-greek yoghurt cupcakes for the party.
On Monday I went shopping at Westfield Shepherds Bush in the morning, something I’ve been putting off for ages because I needed new shoes and I really don’t like shoe shopping! After that I met up with some friends for lunch and board games! I had my first experience with Settlers which is a brutal stragey game that involves building settlements and roads and trading your resources to gain the most points. I did not win but hoping to go in strong the next time I play this.
The Settlers board is very odd
On Wednesday I went over to South Kensington to help set up at my church’s annual bazaar. I baked a cake for the cake stand which turned out a bit ugly but the ladies on the stall were so happy when I showed up with cake… apparently there was some kind of disaster and there weren’t enough cakes so some of the mums had to do an emergency baking sesh that morning. Drama! I also had lunch with a chemist friend whilst she was taking a break from the library.
One of the sad things about finishing exams before other friends is that I’ve been hanging out on my own quite a lot. Not wanting to waste the great weather though I went down the Thames path to my fave park and soaked up the rays (through my factor 50 suncream of course. #gingerlife). I also befriended a dog. it was a great afternoon.
That sun tho
My bestie finished her exams on Friday and we went for a lovely walk along the river in the evening sunshine. The Thames is honestly beautiful at that time of day in the sun, I love how it feels like you’re in the countryside even when you’re in central London!
On Saturday we had the annual Christian Union barbeque. The turnout was great and although it was forecast to rain all day, we only got a little bit of drizzle which I’m very grateful for! I loved spending time with CU buddies before we all head off for the summer. A friend from home was also visiting me so we went to the Victoria and Albert museum to look at the Raphael Cartoons room. These are absolutely enormous paintings by the Renaissance painter Raphael of scenes from Bible stories that were comissioned by the Pope in the 16th century to be references for tapestries which were hung in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. They’re very impressive and I find it quite amazing that these paintings are 500 years old and very precious and important for art history and yet I can cross the road from uni and see them any time for free!
This installation is part of a theme that the V and A is focussing on this year – what does it mean to be responsible for a national collection and how does design affect our collective identity?
Saturday (yesterday although time has melted into a blob for me at this point) was, of course, the summer ball. Imperial students turned out in force to enjoy the fairground rides, fireworks, live performances from Imperial groups and a set by Professor Green on the South Kensington campus. At 1am, lots of people headed across the road to the Union to go to the after party. Although I didn’t attend the ball itself, I did go to the after party with the CU to hand out teas, coffees and biscuits to everyone who was coming across for the party. Some people find it quite odd that the CU willingly stand outside in the wee hours to chat to the party-goers and supply them with biscuits and hot drinks but we’ve become a welcome and dependable presence at Union events throughout the year and people seem to really appreciate having something to eat to keep them going. We packed up around 4.30am and I finally got home to bed at 5.30(!)
ICCU survivors post-after party! This was taken at 4.30am!
It’s been a great, fun-filled week and I’m so happy to be done with what was my best exam period at Imperial so far. I’m feeling positive for results days and also looking forward to heading home this weekend to see my family and get started on my summer holidays. My plans, among other things, involve going to Serbia, doing some work experience and (eek!!) turning 20. That’s for another blog post though.
Congrats to all the A2 students who have finished their exams! Enjoy your summers and I look forward to meeting some of you in October when you arrive at Imperial for the first time 🙂
I am a strong believer in the study break. As the weather gets more gorgeous and my exams get closer, I think I would end up hating life if I didn’t make time to get outside and enjoy it. Some people prefer to power through the exam season in the library but that’s just not my style. So here’s a run down of my fave ways to enjoy a break from revision.
Tea at the V and A seems like something that you would only do as a tourist or when your parents come to visit but this amazing, beautiful museum is literally next door to us so I think it makes a great break from revision to have a little wander and enjoy a delicious cup of tea in the café.
I love the William Morris print on the trays!
Dinner with friends is one of my favourite things to do anyway but during exams it’s even better. You all have to eat so why not eat together? That way you can make time to see your buddies without taking too much time out of your day.
Something hilarious was evidently happening when I took this photo
The pub. Again, you have to stop revising at some point in the evening so why not hit the pub for a pint? (Or rosé and dessert if you are as cool as me)
Sticky toffee pudding mmmm
Going for walks. Probably my favourite revision break is to just walk around. I recently discovered that I live much closer to the Thames than I thought I did so the other day I walked along the river with a friend and we had a mini adventure to Fulham Palace. The palace itself was more of a stately home (and wasn’t massively interesting) but the gardens were amazing. Definitely need to go back.
Part of the beautiful walled garden at Fulham PalaceInside Fulham PalaceAnother walk through Old Brompton Cemetry
Just get outside in general. Have lunch on Queens Lawn instead of in the computer room. You won’t regret it.
The Imperials come out in force when the sun peeks through
So results day has been and gone, many of you are now unconditional offer holders for Imperial College…. CONGRATULATIONS! You should all feel very proud of yourselves. I know from experience that A Levels feel like the hardest thing in life at the moment you’re taking them but your hard work has paid off so well done. You can now enjoy the rest of your summer worry-free!
My summer has been great so far. I’ve just gotten back from a week in Alsace, France where I helped out at a summer camp and I had the best time. I worked with a fantastic team of people to serve the camp by washing up, cleaning, serving food and dressing up as an evil gang for a night game so that the kids could capture and ‘arrest’ us (the theme of the week was secret agents and there was a lot of back story going on… I still don’t understand all of it myself to be honest). We also went on a couple of great day trips, one to a lake where we went swimming and ate crepes, one to an outdoor swimming pool (swimming in the rain and ultimate frisbee were both super duper fun) and one to a patisserie. French patisserie is almost my favourite thing in life to be honest, it’s so good.
The beautiful lake! Most of my team decided to swim across the whole thing but I’m not a very strong swimmer so I watched from afar insteadA selection of the cakes available at the patisserie we went to
Anyway, that’s my summer blogging done for now, time to look ahead to freshers week! I was terrified about freshers week to be honest. Prior to starting uni I had never been out drinking or clubbing and was dreading a nonstop week where everyone was expected to go out every single night, get drunk and generally be crazy. This was made worse by the fact that I’d managed to sign up to what I thought was an official Imperial facebook page but was actually one of those that are used by club promoters to try and sell you expensive wristbands to club nights. Oopsy.
Truth is, freshers week is what you make of it. I received a handy booklet from the RCSU about the events they would be throwing during freshers and also found my way to my hall facebook page which put me at ease massively. All kinds of events happened during my freshers week and once I arrived at Imperial I found that there was actually no pressure to drink every night if you didn’t want to. One of the first events that you’ll attend will most likely be the infamous boat party. Every hall goes to a boat party on the Thames and it’s a great opportunity to meet people so I would definitely reccommend going. The only downside is that you’re stuck on a boat for like three hours so you can’t leave and if you want to buy drinks it’s horrendously expensive. I also went to the Mingle (a freshers party in the Union that you’ll go to on the first or second night), an afternoon tea party put on by the RCSU, a pub crawl which was fun because I got to hang out with my biology sister and meet some others from our course, freshers ball, a CU games night and a campus tour. My hall (the mighty Fisher!) also put on loads of stuff like a trip to China Town, bowling, a games night, movie nights etc.
My point is, there is loads of stuff going on during freshers week but no one will come to your room to make you go. It’s really hard at first, but it’s so important to get along to as much as possible and just mingle and chat with people. You won’t necessarily meet your best friends immediately (although I actually met my current housemates by gatecrashing the conversation they were having when the people I thought I was hanging out with left from campus without me…) but sitting in your room feeling lonely is no way to spend your first week in London when there is so much going on!
I’m so excited to get back to London and see all my friends and move into my house! I’ve got to get down to IKEA pretty soon and buy last minute stuff for my room and I suggest you all do the same! Definitely bring stuff to make your room feel more homey, I think there’s nothing more sad than an undecorated halls room.
I’m also excited to meet my new biology children. I’d definitely reccommend signing up to the Mums and Dads scheme which is run by the IC Union. If you are lucky enough (hehehe) to get me as your mum, you will also get one of my best friends, Adam, as a dad and three siblings. Your mum and dad are there to answer your questions about student life, help you settle in and buy you drinks when you decide to skip the family scavenger hunt that the department organises wait I mean help you win the very exciting and fabulous scavenger hunt that the department organises. I’ve found it really useful having my bio family this year, my two mums were great at answering all of our questions and it was good to have my sister to hang out with in the early days where we didn’t know too many people.
That’s about all I have to say on the topic of freshers at the moment, please do comment if you have any other questions you’d like me to address more deeply! Getting comments is what makes this blog so much fun 🙂
Stay safe during the rest of your summer friends, can’t wait to see all you biology guys in October.
I’m about a month in to my long summer holiday and to be quite honest, I don’t know what I’ve been doing all this time O_o I feel like I should be as busy as I usually am at uni but to be honest it’s been nice to kick back a bit and chill at home. The novelty of free food and laundry is starting to wear off a little but once I move in to my new place in September I expect I will sorely miss it! More on that a bit later though.
This might sound a bit sad but I decided I needed to start a new hobby over the summer since now I’m not thinking solely about biology and CU committee 24/7 and my life seems to have lost it’s meaning. SO I’ve started knitting again (don’t judge me). My first project is this Gryffindor scarf:
And y’know, you can think I’m ridiculous for knitting Harry Potter themed clothing buuuut I get a super awesome scarf out of it so LOOK WHO’S LAUGHING NOW. I also went on a yarn buying spree with one of my friends who can knit a thousand times better than I can (we enable eachother’s yarn-buying habits, it’s not healthy) and I have stuff coming in the post to make a beanie hat.
I think the knitting habit will come in handy when my flatmates and I move in to our new flat in September and are too broke to have the heating on over winter. I am sooo excited to move in, it’s such a nice place and it fulfils all my criteria for where I want to live. Finding a place to live in London has been a steep learning curve to say the least. It’s very strange to think that less than a year ago I was living at home, almost entirely financially dependent on my parents and oblivious to the workings of running a household. Rent? Bills? Naaah. But now I have been to house viewings, made an offer on a property, signed a contract, almost ended up in a contract race (that was a stressful 48 hours), paid an insane amount of money (they’re really not lying when they tell you it’s expensive to rent in this city!) and begun to set up house bank accounts. WHAT. It’s fun though. I can’t wait to live with my flatmates and decorate our flat and have like, Mexican nights. Ok we haven’t discussed Mexican nights. Guys if you’re reading this, please can we do this.
BUT there is still about two months until I move in, so what am I doing in the meantime. In a couple of weeks I am flying out to the East of France to be an animateur en formation at a bilingual Christian summer camp for a week. An animateur en formation (animef for short) is like an assistant leader and we help facilitate the camp, so washing up, cooking, cleaning, organising games etc. We also do Bible studies together and generally have fun. I’ve not been to this camp before but I’mvery excited! It’s an opportunity to practice my francais and travel abroad without my parents… another adult experience that I need to get over!
When I get back from camp I have a couple of weeks and then I’m off again to Oswestry in Shropshire for a five day conference for Christian students who are going to be serving in Christian Unions at their universities. SO EXCITED FOR THIS. I went to the regional weekend version of this conference back in February and it was unbelivably fun so I can’t imagine how great it’s gonna be spending a week with all the other regions and also getting to see my Imperial friendlies again after a long time apart.
Not long till results day for all you Year 13s! My tip for results day is to check track before you go in to collect your paper results and to take the phone number for the admissions office along with you in case there’s any problems. I actually missed my Imperial offer by a grade (happens to the best of us) but had already seen on track before opening my results that I’d been accepted, which I was able to verify when I called the admissions office.
