If you're reading this after speaking to me this Friday morning, hello! Welcome to my blog. I plan to update it at least once weekly with news from university, and hope you will find it useful.
Please feel free to read the posts below, and speak soon!
Thursday 23 September 2010
Monday 13 September 2010
Preparations, College Parents and Forms
Preparations for uni and uni life continue apace, punctured by far too much listening to Sky Sailing (a side-project from Adam Young, a.k.a. Owl City). We went to Ikea the other week and bought some of the essentials - after all, who wouldn't enjoy shopping for plates and cutlery?
Most of the actual work that I've been doing so far, though, relates to just two of the papers: for my ab initio Use of Spanish paper I have to complete exercises from nine separate chapters of a grammar book, while for my post A-Level French Literature, Film, Linguistics and Thought paper I've got five books and a film to digest. At the moment I'm about halfway through the grammar exercises; even with a GCSE in Spanish the intensity with which some of the grammar is thrown at you is a little surprising. As far as the French goes, I've seen the film (Cléo de 5 à 7, 1962) and it does provoke some interesting questions. I'm almost done with the first novel, Thérèse Raquin, which I'm finding more of a challenge. Although I studied film at A-Level in the form of François Truffaut, I've got no real experience of French literature, and even though the paper's designed to be introductory, I'll be quite proud of myself, I suspect, when I've finished reading a full-length novel in French!
Apart from the course, one of the reasons I applied to Cambridge was the strength of the collegiate system. This was brought home to me the other day when I received an email from a second-year student at Clare who is to be one of my college "parents" for the year (older students who look out for you; you also have a "sibling" in your year). This really made me feel more relaxed about the "whole university thing", since it's nice to know that there is someone you can talk to and ask questions about any part of the university experience.
That's not to say, though, that Clare College hasn't been in contact. I've had to return an awful lot of forms recently, both to them and to the wider University, covering everything from music arrangements to student health. I also received welcome packs from both Cambridgeshire Police and the UCS (Union of Clare Students), both of which have genuinely been interesting reading. What I haven't heard about yet is accommodation: I understand that I'll find out about my room when I arrive.
So, all things considered, I'm getting there. There are just three weeks to go until I leave, but I'm confident that I'll be ready when it's time to go.
Most of the actual work that I've been doing so far, though, relates to just two of the papers: for my ab initio Use of Spanish paper I have to complete exercises from nine separate chapters of a grammar book, while for my post A-Level French Literature, Film, Linguistics and Thought paper I've got five books and a film to digest. At the moment I'm about halfway through the grammar exercises; even with a GCSE in Spanish the intensity with which some of the grammar is thrown at you is a little surprising. As far as the French goes, I've seen the film (Cléo de 5 à 7, 1962) and it does provoke some interesting questions. I'm almost done with the first novel, Thérèse Raquin, which I'm finding more of a challenge. Although I studied film at A-Level in the form of François Truffaut, I've got no real experience of French literature, and even though the paper's designed to be introductory, I'll be quite proud of myself, I suspect, when I've finished reading a full-length novel in French!
Apart from the course, one of the reasons I applied to Cambridge was the strength of the collegiate system. This was brought home to me the other day when I received an email from a second-year student at Clare who is to be one of my college "parents" for the year (older students who look out for you; you also have a "sibling" in your year). This really made me feel more relaxed about the "whole university thing", since it's nice to know that there is someone you can talk to and ask questions about any part of the university experience.
That's not to say, though, that Clare College hasn't been in contact. I've had to return an awful lot of forms recently, both to them and to the wider University, covering everything from music arrangements to student health. I also received welcome packs from both Cambridgeshire Police and the UCS (Union of Clare Students), both of which have genuinely been interesting reading. What I haven't heard about yet is accommodation: I understand that I'll find out about my room when I arrive.
So, all things considered, I'm getting there. There are just three weeks to go until I leave, but I'm confident that I'll be ready when it's time to go.
Friday 3 September 2010
Books, Grant and Cutler, and Choosing Papers
So I'm now in the middle of the "waiting period": before going off to uni, I'm getting ready for things like accommodation, finance, furnishing my room in College, meeting people on Facebook...
...oh, and reading. Lots of reading.
Now, please don't get me wrong here. I love languages. I love reading. But I'm sure I'm not the only person who's slightly daunted by their reading list. Particularly scary for me is the French literature on the left - as someone who's not studied any literature before I am concerned about my ability to absorb so many complex ideas in a foreign language. I'm confident that I will eventually succeed, but it will take some getting used to.
We'll all, doubtless, suffer from this as we see our reading lists for the first time and come to terms with the differences between school and university. But I can't deny that, in spite of all of this, I am looking forward to the challenge, as I'm sure many of us are.
Most of these books (apart from the Spanish dictionary, which I already owned) were bought either on Amazon or in Grant and Cutler, the massive foreign languages bookshop in London. If you're a fan of languages, I'd recommend checking it out since it has a massive selection in a huge variety of languages. I'm making an effort to keep the receipts, since Clare College operates a really impressive money-back scheme where you can get upwards of 50% of the money you spend on essential book purchases returned to you. The catch is that you need receipts and that there's only a very narrow time window in the second term to apply! While in Grant and Cutler, I was also delighted to be able to meet someone else who was buying the books for French, so we had a lovely chat.
I've also been thinking about my first-year papers. Owing to my options (post A-Level French and ab initio Spanish) I don't actually have to make any choices between papers. For me, that means that in 2011 I'll have exams in: Use of French; Translation and Oral for French; French Literature, Linguistics, Film and Thought; Use of Spanish; Translation and Oral for Spanish; and Introductory Spanish Literature.
It will be a lot of work, and, as with the literature, I'm certainly nervous. That doesn't mean, though, that I'm not eagerly anticipating actually going up to university in October. Because boy, I am.
...oh, and reading. Lots of reading.
Now, please don't get me wrong here. I love languages. I love reading. But I'm sure I'm not the only person who's slightly daunted by their reading list. Particularly scary for me is the French literature on the left - as someone who's not studied any literature before I am concerned about my ability to absorb so many complex ideas in a foreign language. I'm confident that I will eventually succeed, but it will take some getting used to.
We'll all, doubtless, suffer from this as we see our reading lists for the first time and come to terms with the differences between school and university. But I can't deny that, in spite of all of this, I am looking forward to the challenge, as I'm sure many of us are.
Most of these books (apart from the Spanish dictionary, which I already owned) were bought either on Amazon or in Grant and Cutler, the massive foreign languages bookshop in London. If you're a fan of languages, I'd recommend checking it out since it has a massive selection in a huge variety of languages. I'm making an effort to keep the receipts, since Clare College operates a really impressive money-back scheme where you can get upwards of 50% of the money you spend on essential book purchases returned to you. The catch is that you need receipts and that there's only a very narrow time window in the second term to apply! While in Grant and Cutler, I was also delighted to be able to meet someone else who was buying the books for French, so we had a lovely chat.
I've also been thinking about my first-year papers. Owing to my options (post A-Level French and ab initio Spanish) I don't actually have to make any choices between papers. For me, that means that in 2011 I'll have exams in: Use of French; Translation and Oral for French; French Literature, Linguistics, Film and Thought; Use of Spanish; Translation and Oral for Spanish; and Introductory Spanish Literature.
It will be a lot of work, and, as with the literature, I'm certainly nervous. That doesn't mean, though, that I'm not eagerly anticipating actually going up to university in October. Because boy, I am.
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