Canada has gone :(

Hello Readers,

I know it's been a while but I've been living it up in North America having the time of my life. Now it's been a week from returning from Canada, life really does seem bleak. The Canadians are a much happier people and the landscapes and shops in Canada are so good. Canada to me will always be a second home and I will definitely return there one day!.

In Canada, I did many things including going New York, watching Ice Hockey, Eating pancakes and so much more. Canada is so much different to the UK then you'd expect and to any student reading this thinking of whether or not to study abroad please do!. 

Right now I'm applying for Jobs within caring to get into my aim of finding a placement in Graduate Medicine, hopefully tomorrow i'll receive news from my emails and all will be good.

Now I'm back i've been visiting my friends from Uni all over England, over the last 6 days i've visited Birmingham, Manchester and Stoke and been on a night out in my home town of burton!. 

That's my update for the last 4 months!, i'll post soon

Canada

Hello Patient Readers, hope you're all enjoying your holidays. I'm now in Canada studying at Guelph University. 

The beginning of my Journey was pretty stressful, there was an altercation at the US visa desk that basically means due to faults of their own I was not allowed on the flight, meaning i had to pay an extra £450 for a direct return flight that didn't go through America. Which was very annoying i'm currently in the process now of getting a refund!. 

Immediatly when i got off the plane into Canada, I went to the immigration desk and they'd ask me questions about my course to see if anything didn't add up! I was naturally pretty nervous at the time which was probably detected as I was starting to wonder if i wasn't meant to go Canada after what happened with the US but... when i get past there i went to baggage where i saw a friend I had been talking too from Keele who was going, that was nice being with someone who was going through similar things that i was going through. After getting our luggage we both went to an international students desk where a man from Guelph greeted us and took us to where all the other Guelph students were waiting. Toronto airport was so much more advanaced then any airport i'd ever been to they even had a monorail to take them between terminals!. Manchester you had to walk about 20 minutes to each terminal!. Although I have a feeling they are more gun concious as all of them there were equipped with body armour and what looked like concealed firearms. 

But anyway meeting people at the airport was nice we got talking, we were all pretty tired after our long journey and we were all relieved after the about 2 hours of waiting at the airport that we could get on a bright yellow school bus (Commonly used here) and depart to Guelph. Upon being on the Bus i noticed how much larger the buildings were here, how people all drove on the right and how each village signs each had populations of each city which was nice!. Anyway i think i've talked alot about all that... Don't want to bore you guys!. 

So those of you who are thinking of studying abroad and might be reading this blog, the process is a long hard one but if you get to the end of it it's worth it!. The classes are actually easier!, other than one where i have to present a paper every week (Something i've never done before and i'm nervous about) But confidence is my middle name (Kinda) (not at all really) so i'm looking forward to it. 

The campus here is much better than Keele, cleaner, bigger, happier, and the weather is suprisingly hot! 34 degrees. I am starting to miss little things about home like the friends at my university and in Burton but... I've made alot of new friends here which is nice!.

Right now i'm in my room revising neuroscience!, Yesterday i went niagra falls... I've done an awful lot while here so if i did it all i think you'd all be bored so maybe i'll post next week. Bye Bye readers l

Sun, Sea and Canada

Malia
So i've returned from Malia, I've added a picture from my holiday return as i told you I would! :). It was a pretty good holiday, I've just been struggling to recover from a week of alcohol, guess i'm not as young as I once was in 2 weeks time i'll be in my last year as a teenager and that'll be scary...

Canada 
Well everything to do with Canada seems to be going well.. I've been in contact with my 3 housemates for next year they're all Canadian, been speaking to a few Canadians on Facebook, Sorted my insurance out running me into another £180..., I'll be living on my overdraft during this period of study abroad! and eating a pure noodle diet!. 
I'm just questioning what to pack now as the United States has such a strict Immigration Procedure that i'm scared about what i should bring also i need to make sure i have all the apropriate documentation with me if i lose any of that i am screwed!.
 I'm considering getting a study permit while over there so i can work while i'm there but i'm unsure about that idea
Recently
I haven't been up to much... on the friday and saturday I was out with friends at night clubs and house parties. On the sunday I was playing football with friends but since then i've been doing nothing! and the nothing is driving me bloody crazy.
Perhaps i'll start revising a bit of neuroscience to help with my course :). Ah well that's all i have to write thanks for reading

International Worries

Hey Folks, my results came back and they were all pretty damn good!, much better than I expected so it turns out i'm actually going to go Canada. After the revision and the study abroad module, it's all paid off!.

So now because of that i'm organising Health Insurance, Dental Care, Bus Passes, Banking, Currency, Modules & International Orentation programs, All done within the month :) which so far has been going reasonably good, I recieved resisdence in a place that is a similar size to my first year resisdence but the only difference is rather than 35 people there's only 4 people there!. Everything is cheaper in Canada :D.

Also as well as all that I've booked a holiday with my friends as i did a year ago for all those regular viewers of my blog!, I'm going to another greek island Crete, going to the beautiful town of Malia so as well as all that organising i've been sorting out my currency!. 

My finances are getting stretched with resisdence and this holiday so i may have to dip into my overdraft regrettably but when i get back the return payment should reimburse it all. I normally have alot of extra money from my student loan!.

Over the last month i haven't really been doing that much, went to the odd night club, watched Dawn of The planet of the apes which is an AMAZING movie, finished House off a medical TV series and on tuesday i'll be going crete so i guess i'll be packing soon!

I haven't included much photos in my blog recently due to the fact i'd have to get permission from the people which is pain due to the fact i signed off on something as a program with Keele but... seeing as I haven't recieved the small cash payment i was promised i  may chase that up 

Thanks for reading folks,

Oliver 

What really matters is what you believe

Hey, sorry about the unexplained title, as with some of these titles you may notice they're quotes from films. They have no meaning, I'm just lazy so I quote the film out of an effort to get out of making a title this one as you may have guessed is the Da Vinci Code ( I love Tom Hanks)

Not much is new with me but I like to keep you all updated and I had some spare time, I'm facing a dilemma this week I placed a £20 deposit to play a lacrosse tournament with Keele Lacrosse in Croyden and a music festival all lasting three days, this will of course cost a hell of alot. Another option is one of my friends invited me out for a night out in Manchester will be a much cheaper train and he'll even house me. Question is what do I choose? Hmmmm

The fact I have been doing nothing for a month has really got me down, I've been going out with friends but my days lack meaning I literally sleep until 12 because of lack of things to do. I've been to two job agencies and having heard anythign from them since, i've applied to some stores heard nothing from them. I think i'm just going to use the government website tomorrow and send CVs where i can and perhaps rewrite my CV.

Other things i've been doing is replacing my iPad screen involving me dismantling it and putting it back together, watching a hell of alot of House a cool show with Hugh Laurie. And I have been eagly awaiting the finale of the best show ever Fargo!.

Oh and i've also been watching alot of the world cup, which has been slightly disappointing for England but we will be beating Uraguay on Thursday and i'll be watching that with friends so should be a good drunken night out :)

That's all sorry if i've been rambling or have alarmed you with my bad Grammar (Like some of you have complained) but i'm tired and am hoping you can overlook it, thanks for reading

 

First Year is over!

My first year of Keele is over it's had some ups and downs but the fact it's finished is certainly a up!, no more exams, no more stress from revision just a care free 3 months of catching up with friends and doing nothing :), well not nothing i am job hunting to get more money!.

My exams went pretty damn good i haven't been able to post due to the fact i've been revising so much!, I decided to leave ont he smae day as my last exam deciding not to stay for the festival in about a week from my last exam, the festival was hosting John Newmand and Gorgon City but all for the cost of £35 and with alot of my block mates leaving, I didn't see much point in going myself.

You find out the results from your exams on July 14th, only at that point will I  find out whether I'm going canada or not, it's difficult to say the required grades I need as study abroad are really unclear on that but from what I understand the subject leaders of your degree have final say nto matter what study abroad say and they haven't made it clear either!, so really the only point i'll know whether i'm staying or going will be when i recieve those results and keele send me an email saying whether i can go or not!

I'm going to miss Keele, i've had loads of fun here with all the new people i've met! and the new sports and the new methods of learning!, it's all been a great laugh.

If i don't go Canada, I will be pretty in toruble for accomodation but I believe i'll be able to find somewhere witht he friends i've made at uni, One of them is bound to have a room free!. If i do go canada finding a room second semester will be very hard!, I can find a room with the rest of the people on study abroad or commute pretty much. We will see what my finances will be like at that point!

Anyway what I'm doing right now is preparing for work tomorrow, probably will go out playing football throughout the week at the park near my house and probably one saturday go out into town :), sounds like the stressfree environment i enjoy!. Thanks for reading

Revision Again

For the last 3 years, my main worry throughout that time has always been exams. I've always been stressed out about them and always have been trying my hardest to revise and have always come out pretty good. Some people may call me clever for going university or doing a course like I do which is deemed hard but really I never really think of myself as clever because I try really hard to do well in my exams and that effort pays off. I find the people who are clever are the people who don't really have to try as hard

Motivation is also a big issue at this stage, sixth form it was all about ensuring I don't have to live with my parents after the 2 years, now it's all about Jobs and I feel everything is starting to turn much more serious was my worries!. 

Revision

For the first time ever I've tried revising without a plan, as normally I feel i disregard it but now I feel as if the plan helped me keep organised as mainly i've been doing what interests me most the Human Biology module and have been doing very little of the rest. So today I'm going to make another plan.

Jobs

Keele often post Job oppurtunities onto their notice boards relating to the field of study and I noticed something tutoring younger people Maths which I used to do throughout my sixth form years voluntary, so i'm going to try and take that up

Holidays

Over time I've thinking i'd be losing contact with my friends but I don't think that's really the case, I mean I still see my friends perhaps less often but we haven't lost contact or feel less close, which I'm pretty happy with. 

In one more week I'll be going back to keele, for the last 2 weeks of lessons then we'll be going into the 2 weeks of exam period which will decide whether i stay on for Canada or not, I need 60%!. So I best get revising