Graduation

On Thursday last week, I had my graduation ceremony. That means I now have a BSc in Psychology with upper second class honours! It's odd that my four years of university have both dragged and flown by.

The ceremony itself was in Bath Abbey. I was really worried about falling over, walking there my heel got caught in my dress and there were grates we had to walk over in there, and we had to walk around the whole room to go up to the front! It was fine though, and no one tripped! The robes were uncomfortable and it was really hot all day, and it drizzled before the ceremony so my hair went a bit mad. Plus they didn't bother telling us lower-classers that we needed to wear buttons, so I stupidly wore a fancy dress and had to look scruffy and be strangled by my cardigan all day as the collar kept pulling it up =[


The ceremony was online so I capped me shaking hands with the chancellor haha. I don't really have many photos from the day as nobody has bothered uploading any yet, and I didn't have anywhere to put a camera so I couldn't take any myself.


Afterwards there was a reception in a church a little way down the road. It turns out I won an award! The Helen Haste prize, which was apparently a lot more bigged up than I thought it would be. It was awarded to me because the essay I wrote for the optional exam was the most creative and original one. I think they were rewarding me for a being a weirdo, really. But I got to accept the prize from the legend herself, and I also got £250! Winning.


We didn't stay long after that as we were staying away from home, but it was a much nicer and less boring day than I thought it would be, and I'm glad I went. Don't regret not getting pro photos though...waste of money!

Final Year Begins

Apologies for this having become more of a music and personal blog at the moment, but I have no room for more clothes so I haven't had any hauls to post, and there haven't been meets for a while as everyone seems really busy (and hardly anyone lives in my city anymore!).


This week was my first week back at university. I hate to admit that I have been very lazy already, avoiding doing the readings and putting off going to get my lab key as I am very reluctant to start testing again (I get so anxious when meeting people, it's horrible). However I kind of expected to be this way since I have done nothing all Summer (I should have been doing my dissertation) and little over the past year and a bit. At least I have a new tote bag for uni! My Meta one was suffering.


As such I have been exhausted all week just from having to go out for a few hours! My first lecture was on Monday morning at 9.15am, so I had to get up much earlier than I had wanted to. The bus queue was huge and was taking forever to go down, but luckily another bus pulled up and just ushered us on for free (lucky, since my bus pass didn't arrive until Tuesday).

My first subject was Foundations in Psychoanalysis. To be honest I chose this subject at random, but it seems quite interesting. We're supposed to keep a dream diary all week. I don't even dream usually, but this week I've had loads of crazy dreams and very interrupted sleep as a result. Boo!

Straight afterwards was Attitudes & Social Cognition. I'd thought it would be interesting but the lecture was slow and I'd already been in 2 hours of lecture so I couldn't concentrate very well. Turns out the essay we have to write is very open and thus looks IMPOSSIBURUUUU. Tried to get a lab key from my supervisor but apparently he doesn't have them anymore and I was too wussy to go see the person who does have them (I'll have to go on Thursday *sigh*). I walked home, so I didn't get back until quite late. I was too tired to even do anything when I got home!


Tuesday I didn't have lectures until 2, so I was lazy. I was still tired for my History of Psychology lecture though. Half of it was a talk about the library which was super boring and pointless, and we didn't get out until 4 Dx eheh.

Because my course relies largely on reading outside of lectures, my time in uni is nowhere near as much as for most of the other courses. So I've had today off. I stayed in bed until midday because I was so tired and my dreams kept waking me up again, although I was much less successful in remembering them to write down. I did download a bunch of papers I need to read...does that count as work? And I'm going to a movie screening (Megamind) on campus later just to make myself get out of the house. Otherwise I'll just go to bed now.

Tomorrow I have my last lecture of the week. Yes, I only have 4 lectures a week =3 Psychology of Pain at 11am, which will either be really interesting or really boring. Hope it doesn't give me a headache! And I think we're expected to go to a meeting late in the afternoon too, but not sure I want to hang around on campus all day. Even if there *is* free wine and food.

Hope I get used to being back at uni soon. I can't deal with feeling this tired and hungry all the time, especiallt when I need to start eating less junk and exercising more!

Stress!

Today was even more stressful than I thought it would be!

Today was the first day we were able to choose our final year options. However, they didn't bother telling us what time the webpage would go up. I checked at midnight, and then got up at 7.45ish to keep checking. The link to the page kept appearing and disappearing, it was so frustrating and my heart-rate would go crazy every time and make me feel sick! The page didn't go up until 3pm in the end, so I was refreshing a page for seven hours. SEVEN. HOURS. Ridiculous. And we won't know if we got our choices until after the registration ends in May Dx


Here are the options I went for in the end. I spent hours yesterday trying to decide on the first semester ones as none of the modules stood out to me, so I just went for a variety of things I thought would be interesting! The worries come about the second semester ones though, as there are only 18 places on Cyberpsychology which is the module I want to do most. That's 18 places between around 200 people. Even though I submitted my options about 2 minutes after the page went up, it's still such a slim chance because everyone who wanted that module did the same! Hoping I got Clinical too, as pretty much everyone wants to take that. Hopefully the course is big enough that they have a place for me!

Dreading next year even if I do get the modules I want. Will be so much hard work, and most of the modules have essays and oral presentations instead of exams. I feel like the one person who'd rather have exams =|

In better news, since I was up so early I was able to snag some Frank Turner tickets as soon as the priority page went up! I'm going to the show in Bath, although if my friends decide to go to the Brighton show too I might see if I can tag along =P

Phew! I'm pretty exhausted now. I finally get to have my shower now, and then I might have a nap ^_^'

Magic & Modules

FINALLY, Pottermore is open to everyone! I already sped through The Philosopher's Stone yesterday ^_^' My username is WingRiver6774 if anyone wants to add me. I'm a Ravenclaw, not that it will come as a surprise.


In more Muggle-y news, I have to pick my options for my final year on Wednesday. Although registration is open for two weeks, places are on a first come first served basis (one module has only 18 places), so I want to get them done as soon as registration opens if possible. Which may mean sitting on my laptop refreshing SAMIS all night!

But I don't know which ones to do! I have an idea for second semester (though I still need to look back over and consider it all), but no clue at all for semester one. Which means I'll have to spend all tomorrow (after my meeting) Googling all the topics, trying to figure out what everything is and what appeals to me most. I don't really have a clue what interests me though! And topics such as psychoanalysis are really interesting, but not really relevant and I did terribly in my essay about Freud last year Dx And I wish I could continue with Neuroscience, but it's just too difficult and they didn't give us enough help. I find it interesting and it makes me feel brainy, but too much work and waaaaay too much risk, especially when you consider that I need at least a 2:1 and my current grade is only just that.

I think I'll have to try to see what will be most relevant to my dissertation topic. Boo. My poor dissertation! I am behind on ethics as I was unable to do any work last week due to being at home and thus being lazy, and now I'm just panicking about options. I think I'll have to go up to campus afterall, as here I just keep procrastinating!

I'll be so stressed out on Wednesday morning though, worrying that I picked the wrong things or that I'll miss out on my Cyberpsychology and Clinical Psychology places, and also I'll be buying tickets to Frank Turner's gig in Bath that morning too. Eeek!