The Last Eight Weeks

Technically this is about the last ten weeks, since the last decent post about this was before  Fresher's week and we're also one week into the holiday, but uni term length has already got me seeing life in eight week blocks. My first time at university has been a hectic couple of months, but something I want to share.

University life

It's brilliant. The texts we're doing (read about them here)  have all gotten better with studying, and all my tutors this term have been helpful.  There's been a lot of socials and chances to meet some lovely people. My college full of people who are extremely friendly, and we have some beautiful surroundings- just look at my library!

What I'm Taking to Uni

So this past few months, many exciting things have been happening for me, which have been better documented on instagram and twitter. I had another packed Edinburgh Fringe, full of brilliant comedians, poets, and theatre pieces. I've had some great times with my friends, which is just as well because we're now scattered across the country and the continent,  because we're all off to uni! I can't believe I was in Year 8 when I started this blog and I now I've got a place at my first choice university to study Classics and French, but hey, time flies!

Along the many bags of clothes and equipment I have packed before I move into the college tomorrow, obviously, I have books, and I thought I'd share what I'm taking. But first, exciting news... 

I got nominated, alongside Sally of The Dark Dictator, and Andrew of The Pewter Wolf, in the UKYA Blogger Awards for Champion of Diversity! Thank you for everyone who nominated me, in despite of the fact that my championing of diverse books, at least this past couple of years, hasn't really been via my blog, more in person- see my TEDx Talk on why you should read diversely, which I might vlog some day seeing as I'm not sure what happened to the footage, the We Need Diverse Books board we put up at my school that stayed in a main corridor for over a year, and anyone who has read Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda because they asked me for a recommendation and that's been my go to book to pass on. I hope to be able to step up both my blog and my promotion of a range of books in the future, and it's nice to have a little spur to do so. And congrats to everyone else who got nominated, in all categories! You can find a list of all categories and nominees here (until it gets buried when they tweet other things).


The main post is under the cut- the books I'm  taking-and hopefully keeping up there, if they fit on whatever shelving they give me!

Blog Awards + News

Hey! Things are kind of getting sorted in my life right now.

News! 

There's going to be a chat tomorrow (19 January) on twitter about  teenage mental health at 7pm GMT. The hashtag is #gdnbluemonday. Go join in.
Also, Tom Pollock wrote an incredibly brave and powerful post. Go read it. 

I'm really glad that mental health is something that's being talked about more. It might feature a bit more on this blog, I don't know yet. But, like many other things that we need to talk about, it is being talked about more, and maybe slowly society can do the same.

Happier news! I discovered Judd Books, and independent store in London, because I saw Stacey (The Pretty Books) and Jim (YaYeahYeah) by chance while trying to visit the Gothic exhibition in the British Library (I failed. Why did my teachers, who knew we'd be studying  Frankenstein all year, only tell us that it was on and it would be highly useful the week before it closed?)  Anyway, I got two non fiction books because non-ficion second hand books tend to be rarer so I got a book on the history behind the Trojan War and on LGBTQ rights in the Middle East.

Also, I'm thinking of attempting to do fortnightly vlogs. Would anyone be interested?

Main post time! I got nominated for two blog awards over the past few weeks- the Liebster award from Jo, who writes the Eclectic Feel Blog, and the Infinity Dreams award from Holly, who writes Holly Quills and Ivy. Thank you, guys!

From Eclectic Feel Blog. wordpress.com

• Describe your blog in 3 words. So much work.
• What’s your favourite smell and why? Rum and vanilla tea because good memories of times when it was there- see birthday party involving tea duelling
• Name an unusual skill/talent you have.  Less a talent, more proof of my brain being a jumbled mess- randomly slipping correctly conjugated/declined Latin into French lessons or mostly incorrectly conjugated French into Latin
• If you could only choose one – books, music, art, craft or photography? This is evil. Book s or music... books. Just. Evil.
• Oranges or lemons? Organes.
• Your top 3 ambitions for 2015? Sort out my physical health and mental health and sleep pattern. Get decent grades.  Not mess up too badly.
• What was your last holiday destination and what’s (hopefully) your next? Edinburgh  (Fringe festival!!) and Spain (not sure where).
• Trilby or fedora? Fedora
• What was the last book you read/album you listened to (and rate it out of 10)? Last book completed- Love, Sex, and Tragedy- 7.75 out of 10. Last album listened to: Spring Awakening Original Cast- 7 out of 10
• What’s your favourite cheese? Whatever it is that goes on dominoes pizza
• Will you be rocking Pantone’s colour of the year “Marsala” in 2015? No, since I have no idea what it is.

From HollyQuillsand Ivy

Required 11 facts

• I can’t stick to plans about what to read next
• I love my Latin lessons excessively
• I have illustrated my Latin workbooks with daleks, corsets, and a graphic body count of Titus Andronicus
• Underneath my bed is a lot of food
• Current teas on the go: Russian Morning Kusmi 24, and Lapsang Souchong.
• I can’t drink lapsang souchong at night or the caffeine keeps me awake
• I have no idea where I want to start writing my TEDx talk
• My to-review box is overflowing badly
• I keep random bits and bobs in pretty teacups
• Miscast cabaret/backwards broadway nights on youtube make my life complete
• I really want to become fluent in at least two more languages.

And questions...  

• In your opinion, what book has the most beautiful cover ? Current favourite, liable to change: This Book is Gay just because its cover fits it perfectly.
• What is your favourite song? Another current favourite , liable to change, is Touch Me from Spring Awakening.
• Why did you start blogging? Stephanie said she did it and she loved it. I decided to go.
• Would you rather be in The Hunger Games arena or in a zombie apocalypse? Zombie apocalypse
• If you travel anywhere where would you like to go? A tour of all the capital cities.
• What celebrity would you fangirl over most? Hmm...... there’s many..... I have love for Haylee Atwell, Kat Dennings, Colbie Smoulders, Scarlett Johanson.... all the ladies of Marvel really... and Sebastian Stan.... and James Dawson.... and Kim Curran... and Patrick Ness.... and Tom Pollock.... and Laura Lam... and Rainbow Rowell.... I don’t know!
• What is one skill you wish you had? Apart from languages, consistently decent violin skills.
• Narnia or Neverland? Neverland
• Is there one film you can quote word for word? Repo! The Genetic Opera. And the play version of Rent (not a film, but I can do that as well)
• What was your worst read of 2014?  I can’t think of an absolute worst, but I couldn't deal with Game of Thrones.
• What was your best read of 2014? Probably A Kiss in the Dark.

OK, I’m sorry I don’t have time to nominate people or write questions, because I can’t deal with going and seeing who’s won it already and such right now and my interview conducting skills are zero,  but if anyone wants to  tell us a bit about themselves, please do! 

Things I would like to do this year

I have plans for this year. Some are definite, some are hopeful. All have a slightly higher chance of being achieved if I make my intentions public and there’s  people who can shout at me if I don’t do them. Normal blogging service will resume next week. As for my goals for this year, here you are!

• Blog  at least twice a week. I think this will have to be a case of “schedule things so you don’t get a full week of posts then radio silence” thing,  but you should start seeing regular content from now on
• Be involved in at least two theatre projects. I know there are two theatre projects I’d like to be involved in because one  (Spring Awakening with the fabulous Renegade Theatre Company) is auditioning on Monday and the other is one I’ll be doing myself (see next point).
• Do a Latin play! I have this all planned in my head. There’s a play called Menaechmi, which is like The Comedy of Errors but marginally simpler. I have the Latin text and an English translation. I need to edit it down so it’s shorter. We rehearse the play and produce as normal. We perform it, speaking Latin and having a PowerPoint in the background surtitling the English like an opera. This is ambitious, but it should work!
• Do TEDx! I’m a confirmed speaker at my school’s TEDx Youth Conference, which came about because one of my friends is just brilliant and decided to hold one and so we’re having one. I’ll almost certainly be speaking about diversity in teen fiction, because that is what I somewhat know about. And there’s some bloggers who’ll be coming for a bloggers’ alley and an author will be speaking too(probably)! It’s exciting, it’s happening in July, and you can find more information on Twitter and Facebook.
• Read at least 52 books and review them. Without letting them pile up.I'm setting targets low, because this will be a busy year. Hopefully I'll do more. But low targets to start with are good. 
• Keep on top of emails.  Not just read them, say "I'll reply later" and look back a month later and think "Would it be awkward to reply now?"
• Connect with bloggers even more. I’ll make buttons to find me elsewhere in the coming weeks, but connect on the blogs as well. I’m terrible at commenting, both because of time and because of lack of knowing what to say, but I’ll try. Also,  I should be going to the Fire Sermon Blogger event later on in the month, so anyone going should say hi. 
• Survive the year without doing anything permanently stupid.
• Sort out my sleep pattern. I try and get off screens by 10 and be asleep by 11, to wake up at 6.25, but it's not working to a ridiculous extent and it's messing with my life too much. Any tips would be appreciated!
• Become somewhat healthier, both physically and mentally. 
• Decide on a uni course! I think want to go into law. So do I do a law degree, or go  do classics and a conversion course after? Because classics would be awesome, and I love classics, but then that’s another year of my life in training and who knows what’ll happen to training fees? But then, coming out of a classics course, I have few more options if I decide not to do law. Choices!! Anyway, this decision WILL be made by October, because I’m applying for Oxford if I get the grades and early applications must be made by then and so yay UCAS?
• Connect more with writers. I like the idea of maybe going into editing (writing’s hard. Improving it is something I’m much better at) and I’d be happy to help anyone with any writing that they want going.
• Get good grades on my AS levels, but also not stress out over them excessively! French, Latin, Government and Politics, English Literature, and Critical Thinking. Exam time gets nearer and nearer and I do not feel prepared. Yay!
• Have a good year! I know it won’t be all brilliant, but hopefully the good times will outweigh the bad ones. 

These aren't resolutions, because if they were, they would not happen. Just things I shall be attempting to do. Anyone who also has things they would like to do this year, I wish you success. Happy New Year, everyone!