I'm sleepy

One of the first things I heard before coming Keele was this: "At university you can pick only 2 of these: Sleep, Good Grades or Good Social Life" Of course there's the chance of balancing social life and good grades but soon as I seem to get a good social life it's going out on the nights before my 9am lectures and getting about 4 hours sleep to attend my 9am lectures!. Of course this method is extremely painful and I would not recommend it to anyone as obviously it appeared today that I sacrificed sleep!.

Maths
A happy day for me was that I submitted the last maths assignment of the year yesterday, overall my assignments have come to a percentage like 70% which should give me a boost for the janurary exams (The exams count for 60%), although for maths they're going to include a class test on the last week before christmas vacation which will go towards our degree to stop us from slacking!
 Biology
For Biology, They have set a scientific paper on the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) (Used to amplify DNA/RNA) last week which will be due in for the 19th and there will be a our 6 minute presentations due in for that last week as well so dead lines are fast approaching!.

AU Ball
This saturday as well I had the AU (Athletic Union) Ball which was amazing, it was basically a ball just for the sports teams (I was with Lacrosse) so we all came dressed cleverly and enjoyed a 3 course meal, the dancing on the Keele Hall dance floor and the after party in K2 afterwards. It was a pretty amazing night despite me spending quite a bit!, £35 on the ticket, £9.50 on a bottle of wine, £5 on other various alcholic beverages but despite the massive hole it has put in my wallet it will be a night I will remember for ever! and by far the best night out so far at Keele

Going Home

 Home Life

So far I've been home twice in the month and a half period I have been at university, it seems too me it is becoming evidently clear that all the people I considered friends while in Burton, are now slowly growing apart. Which to be fair is not at all that suprising as prolonged periods apart and everyone is now busy after sixth form with their jobs or university life.
Of course there will always be online interactions over skype and the occasional text but I suppose it's not as close. I'm sure at christmas though there will be alot more interaction time.

After the first two weeks at Keele I went home, where we all decided too come home from our universities too go to a local pub and meet with one and other, which was a nice way too catch up, a month after that i came home again with my friends at university deciding not too come home and lead their lifes, I went out with a different set of friends too the burton nightclubs which was nice too catch up with different friends but there is still the feeling that we are all growing apart

Assessment

So far in Biology we've been set no work, no homework or anything that could be moderated. It's just been lectures refreshing us from A level, then practicals on the lectures we've had which is a nice technique too help us learn the Biology. At the end of each Lab Class we have questions on the experiment which we can hand too the lecturer too tell us ways we could improve our answers.
In Maths I've had one class test, one Assignment and have been set another assignment that's due in for next week. These tests and assignments count towards 40% of the module while the other 60% will be decided by class tests in the Janurary which i'm fearing!, as the content is pretty harder than A Level which means I will have too revise harder!, The bad thing about the Biology side is that I've not seen much example questions that could come up on the Janurary test.

Halloween



Our whole Block decided too go as zombies too the Haloween event at the student union where a band called Theme Park (Amazingg) was playing and after that a seperate DJ played for the rest of the night, my costume is in the picture below:

As you can see my facepaint went prettttty wrong, I decided too go as a trangender zombie, what you cannot see in that picture is I'm wearing tights with a suit, and torn shirt as I thought I may as well add a bit of variety too the costume, It was a pretty fun night and everyone looked awesome, there were even some people in the student union on stilts!

LacrosseThere was a tourtament last week called a freshers tourtament which was pretty fun as everyone had the same level of talent really there were no very good people playing, I played in all 7 games without getting subbed off which is a pretty good achievement we played birmingham city uni, Nottingham trent uni, coventry uni, warwick uni & loughbrough uni, some of these unis at both first and second teams as Lacrosse was more popular in other unis compared too ours, we placed forth which is a pretty good achievement and we had loads of fun while playing in the tourtament but were so tired on the way back!.


Current Situation


At this moment in time i'm currently watching batman, the dark knight, while looking puzzled at this assignment that I'm trying too make some good progress with, my first assignment went pretty poorly so i'm going to put my all into this one too ensure I get the result a actually want!.

Adapting to University

Hey Guys sorry about the lack of activity it's just I've just been really busy with social life and education mixed, at the beginning they talked about balance of studying and social life and it's just dawning on me how important that is going to become

Mathematics

Now this is going reasonably OK, I feel like what i hear in lectures I get it breifly but most of the time i'm just taking down notes to review later in the day so i can actually fully understand what is said!, as well as lectures Maths consists of 2 'Problems classes' where a lecturer will go over the problems we have heard in the lectures with example with a small group (about 13) students,  So far we had one practise test on the first week so we could see how much we would need to revise from A Level, I achieved 11/20 which is OK I suppose motivated me to revise more of my past A level but really from the lecturers i've had so far i've not really needed too revise from A Level.
We have had one class test as well that counts towards 10%  of the first year, I achieved abvout 60% in that and as I needed 40% I think that is a pretty good achievement.
So far there are two modules in the semester i'm in now for maths the cleverly named: Algrebra 1 and Calculus 1, Algebra oddly enough seems to be more about how to write down the obvious and seems more like English at the moment! and Calculus is pretty much just a similar extension to A Level

Human Biology

At the moment i'm finding this verrry interesting, it's similar too A level work in the "Cell and Molecular Biology" module I'm doing in this semester, we have lectures about the organelles of the cells, and then have a about 2-3 lab session to go over what we learnt in our lectures with a pratical, such as  observing the organelles we learnt through a microscope which is actually pretty interesting. The other module I'm doing this semester is entitled "Introduction to human physiology" Which is again enjoyable at the moment what we are doing in that module in neureoscience which is interesting we actually went to the medical school the other day and looked at some interesting stuff (Which can't be explained due to laws and me not wanting to get into trouble) :)

Original Questions

When I first started this blog I listed my main worries I will now answer each of them to tell you what uni is like compared to my worries: 

Will I be able to make friends at university?- Yes. there will be loads of ways to meet new people your halls of resisdence will pretty much become your second family, you'll meet people on the course who you can relate too as you are studying the same subject and of course socities which I would say is the best way to meet new people fast.
 Will the course be too hard for me?- No. First year is pretty much just a small extension from A Level so the Second and third years tell me it's just a year too make as much mistakes as you want and enjoy yourself!, I do of course still revise but there is nothing that I find so hard I cannot do and at the same time I do manage to balance out my social life
Will I be able to cook myself meals? - What I'm eating at the moment is just literally loads of fried food, such as fried chips, bacon, sausage and the occasional pizza all fast food that fair enough is easy to live on but I have a feeling I should probably improve my diet so in the near future I'll be looking onto how to improve myself
Will I be able to keep track of my finances?- this is difficult I am a frivilous spender I will spend alot of money on things I want, most people I'm sure have control but at the moment I have not kept in good control of my finances mainly due to a massive chunk took out in the first accomodation payment leaving me about £800 for the 3 months then there is lacrosse which so far has cost me about £300 in membership, insurance and kit, (I predict more as i still need to get my own stick!), but I do have a large overdraft thanks to Santander and I'm not that worried
Will I lose contact with my friends?- Well about 2 weeks ago I went back to Burton for the first time and met up with my friends, all the people who went university all came back to burton for that weekend which was nice but obviously there  isn't as frequent socilisation as everyone is normally busy but when we do meet up it's very nice!

Current Situation

At the moment I've got back from newcastle with some of my block mates, we all went to newcastle to buy a Halloween costume and we purchased a white shirt (to tear up), fake blood, white face paint and tights, so we've decided to go as transgender zombie

I am also recovering from a bad hang over, I played a game with the Lacrosse society called pub golf, where we got tied to a member of the girls lacrosse team (couldn't unbind for any reason other than toilet) had to go to the bars around campus and down about 2 pints at each in the amount of gulps taken recorded on a sheet so least score wins!, as you can guess it did not end well as it just ended in a bunch of drunk people

Now at the moment I'm currently listening to The Fray and will probably go upstairs to the kitchen soon to talk to my block mates or either just get some rest! or in an unlikely circumstance revise!. Thanks for reading guys, I will post again not every week but I'll post when I have interesting things to say.

Societies

I understand this is a late post but i've been really busy recently with work and socieities so now I finally have some free time I'm going to write this blog sorry to keep you waiting!

Societies

OK freshers week is over, over that week i've got to get to know my 35 blocks mates and we are like one big disfunctional family, I've met so many new people in class that I cannot even remember there names!. So too socilize outside of my block I decided too sign up for a number of societies which were Archery, Poker, Student Magazine, Snapshot, Refereeing, Swimming, Rowing, Lacrosse, Drama, Life Sciences & Mathematics, Out of all the ones i've signed up for I've only found the free time to attend Lacrosse and Drama.

Lacrosse is a violent game that is basically like Ice Hockey but in the air with violent tackles with long sticks, it's got to be one of the funnest games I've ever played!, and the people in the society form a "lad" mentality, with their drinking games & pub forfeits and such. I've certainly met some interesting people!.

The drama society went well, although as you would expect I did meet some odd people, but some of people I did get to meet were lovely and cannot wait to see again!, I did not manage to get a stage role but I'm going to help out back stage

Finances

 Now I receieved my about £2,300 in students finances, within two days I had to pay my accomodation fees as well as paying back my £450 in my accomodation deposit leaving me with about £900 for 3 months, which sounds like quite alot but then I have to sign up for the Athletic Union with Lacrosse about £20, Sign up for Society membership about £50, signed up for the gym for a year for some reason £100, soon i'll have to buy my Lacrosse kit £130, then there's the lacrosse stick £50 & as well as all that I have nights out where I have to pay for entry and drinks which leads to about maybe £40 a week!, After all that it's just food and the essentials so it really does dawn on me that I will be relying on my overdraft towards the end of the student year!

Work and Free time

My first week was pretty easy it was just introductory lectures and laying down the rules but now i'm in my second week the amount of work is dawning on me after every lecture there must be at least an hour of questions to follow in maths and in biology there is so much information to go over!, I must say though i'm enjoying it much more than sixth form being away from Burton is so refreshing and meeting new people is brilliant.

Current Situation

 I'm going over notes as I have a maths test next week that goes towards my first year of my degree!, tonight I understand people are going out to the student union to watch some crappy house music, for the first time i've passed on that event to catch up and type up my work. University life is finally hitting me that i'm going to have to do loads of revision perhaps more than A level!,

thanks for reading I'll aim to get another one up for sunday but... I may not have much to talk about so It may be later :)