The Adventures of Matt (in Leeds!)

It’s been a few weeks since my last update. I’ve mostly been busy with exams, which are pretty much all over with now. Before we finished lectures, I got my last Poetry essay back, which I got a 69 for, a borderline First, which I was surprised but pleased with. On to the exams!

• Reading Poetry
  • 2 hours long, 2 questions. One was analysing an unseen poem which I prefer since it involves less memorising of poetry like the second question. I felt like I did a good job with this one, even if I made a slightly over the top connection between a line reading “like a star”, which ended up with me making references to astronomy and the nature of space and light years. Without going into too much detail, it did have some relevance to the poem, I promise. The other question was a choice of about 8 which were broad questions about the nature of poetry. I picked one that began with an Emily Dickinson quote (”Tell all the truth, but tell it slant”) which asked about the use of imagery and sound in poems. The stuff I’d learnt seemed vaguely applicable and I was fairly pleased with it.
• Exploring Medieval Literature
  • 2 hours long, 2 questions. Not looking forward to this one as the first question was on the medieval religious lyrics and plays we crammed in right at the end of term, which I wasn’t very confident with. I chose to do an analysis of an unseen lyric for the first question, rather than try to write about them from memory, which was a good decision since I really didn’t know much about them. My second question was about the theme of dreams and visions in medieval literature, which I think I did justice to, ending with a sweeping statement about modern society’s lack of faith and cynicism.
• Introduction to Programming - Exam Paper
  • This was my elective module in computer programming, and was very simple. It was open notes, so we were allowed to take in our lecture notes and slides. I took printouts of the slides we’d had in the lectures and referred to them about twice, leaving the exam half an hour before the end. I was confident with the paper and found it straightforward and interesting.

Still to come:

• Introduction to Programming - Lab Exam
  • This one involves writing a program from scratch rather than commenting on a pre-written one like in the above lab exam. It’s 4 hours long which is good in the sense that I’ll get plenty of time, but bad in the sense that the mock exam took me 1 hour and that was sitting in my room playing music, not in a silent computer lab. I won’t be able to leave early so it’ll be a boring day, but my 12PM on May 31st I’ll be officially finished with the first year of university. It’s gone so fast.

Not much else to say really. We went to look around the house we’ll be moving into in July. It was smaller and (if I’m honest) less nice than we remembered, but I think we’ll make up for that ourselves just by having fun. I’ve been enjoying living in the current flat less and less as the year’s progressed just due to the lack of social atmosphere. I get on with everyone, but we don’t spend time together and there are little annoyances (noise, mess) that don’t make it always fun, so living in my own house with my friends and a communal atmosphere (like, having a TV and couches we can sit on together, or eating meals together) will be really fun. I can’t wait. We also drew lots for the different rooms and I got the one I wanted. It’s on the top floor of the house and has a skylight, and a cool little wardrobe that’s pretty big, not that I need it. I’m looking forward to moving in there and getting everything set up like a real home.

My plans for the summer are like this, very roughly:

• Next Thursday: back to Nottingham for a month to see family and friends.
• At some point in June, have a few band practices, maybe play a few gigs, and definitely finish the recording of our new EP so I can get closure.
• Apparently camping at some point with Joe and Rich if it works out.
• Holiday to Spain with my Dad and sisters, if it’s still going on, in August.
• Move into our house around July 1st and spend the rest of summer getting a job and working off my substantial debt/s.

Speaking of jobs, I finally had an interview (ie, more than just a flat-out rejection or lack of response) with the BPP Law School in Leeds for a job in their library. It sounded ideal; 5-8pm, monday to friday, £7.50 an hour. I’d be making over £100 a week and even though the position was temporary, I’d be able to work off half of my overdraft. I didn’t get the job, but the feedback they gave me suggested they liked my answers. The person who got the job has a degree in Library Studies, so I guess I couldn’t compete on that level. Ah well, hopefully somewhere will decide I’m hireable. Incidentally, they’re opening a Wagamama (best Japanese noodle bar on Earth. Or at least, the UK) in Leeds so I’ve emailed them and asked about work, since I have a good 8 months experience in a similar environment at the Chinese restaurant I worked at.

Last night a group of us went out and went to a fairly cheap and cheerful Chinese buffet restaurant then went on to go bowling. At the restaurant we probably annoyed people by being loud and stupid, culminating in Hayley smuggling a prawn into Lee’s melon and ice cream at my sneaky suggestion. Lee responded by putting the soggy prawn all over her cake, and feeling guilty for being responsible, I helped Lee by adding soy sauce in large quantities to Hayley’s cake and ice cream. The waitress looked less than impressed with our bizarre leftovers.

After the food we went on to the bowling place, where last time I came last in a disastrous match that saw me barely score 50. This time I did much better and came second in two games and a close 4th (out of, er, 4) in the third game. Hayley used to be in a bowling team so she came close to 150 each game, so I was quite pleased for vaguely keeping up. Justice was done with Lee playing as badly as I’d done the previous time, coming last in two of the games. Ahhh, karma.

Okay, so two weeks into the haircut, I’m getting used to it, and quite liking the results, so all is well. Unfortunately, I foolishly chose to shave off several months’ beard growth on Monday, losing my wonderful facial hair that everyone except me so hated. I regretted it instantly, partly because I looked about 12 years old afterwards, and partly because I gashed a chunk out of my face with the razor by accident. I remember thinking “damn, that’s going to hurt” as blood began to seep over my lip, and here we are almost a week later and there’s still a visible cut. Thankfully, stubble has reappeared now and I feel a tad more manly.

The best news I’ve had all year came in the form of an essay result: my first First! For those of you not familiar with the university mark scheme, your degree/work related to it is graded from First class to Third (I think below that is a fail), and between those you have a 2.1 and a 2.2. I’ve gotten 2.1s for everything I’ve submitted this year, the closest to a First being my last Medieval Literature essay, a 68 (1 mark off the borderline). I got the second Medieval Lit essay back on Tuesday, and to my immense surprise, got a 74. I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t think it was better than my previous one, and didn’t even think I’d answered the question fully. Not that I’m complaining, I guess it’s good really. The best part was the validation, since I’d set a personal goal to get a First at some point in my first year, and I managed it right at the end. I’m due my second Reading Poetry essay next Wednesday, but I don’t have as high hopes for that one.

Speaking of uni, we’ve essentially finished now, it’s crazy. I have my Reading Poetry exam on May 17th, and the Medieval one on the 22nd or something, then two exams for my Computer Programming. They’re gonna be awful, the mock exam paper I did took me 15 minutes (it’s an hour and a half) and the computer lab exam took me an hour (we have 4 hours, and we have to stay for all of it to prevent talking to the other group who are taking it). By May 31st I’ll be done properly, although as of this week I’ve finished all lectures and seminars anyway.

We also had to enrol for next year’s modules online on Thursday. I was by no means averse to this, since at the start of the year I had to do this in person, which involved a ridiculous 3 hour queue for the sake of 2 minutes of actual interaction. This year, we had to pick from a list of core modules (2 for each semester), and pick an Option module for each semester too from a fairly long list. Here’s what I had to choose from (and what I chose):

Semester One

• 2012 - Civil War and Restoration Literature (I picked this since John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is on the reading list)
• 2021 - English in Time (Didn’t pick this)
• 2013 - Medieval Renascence: Chaucer, Langland and the ‘Gawain’ Poet, The (Picked this because I’m doing pretty well at Medieval now, and I like the tutor)
• 2011 - Renaissance Literature (Heard this was poor so didn’t take it, plus it sounded boring)

Semester Two

• 2014 - Eighteenth-Century Literature (Didn’t choose this, was put off by Jane Austen’s presence)
• 2020 - English in Space (Picked this, sounds interesting. I hope I can do some kind of study on language use on the internet)
• 2015 - Literature of the Romantic Period (Chose this, sounds just as bad as 18th Century but Lee loves William Blake so at least one of us will have enthusiasm)

For my options I picked:

• 3213 Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic (Taught by Lee’s Medieval tutor who’s apparently cool, and includes Harry Potter for some reason)
• 32660 Creative Writing (Minimum effort course.)

I was pretty happy with my selections, and I’m quite looking forward to starting them in September. I’m less looking forward to buying all the stuff on the reading list.. bah.

Oh, and finally, we went bowling last night and I got absolutely destroyed. In fact, the whole day was a mess of my failures: we played pool first, I lost, then bowling, I came last (of 4 people), much to Lee’s pleasure, then I played Lee at air hockey and lost at that too. Not my day really.