Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Big Wide World

Well, now that I've finally accepted that Guernsey is where I shall spend most of my time for at least another 18 months I am being faced with the issue of deciding where I'd like to go when I do finally escape. I had an interview with the school careers advisor the other day and he gave me countless pieces of paper telling me what grades and UCAS points I need to get in order to go to a whole range of institutions - I got lists of universities for french and/or english degrees with varying requirements, ranging from 360 points down to 80 points - I hope to get more points than that.

I guess you know all about these dreaded points so I'll not list the grade boundaries for each point range or anything, right now I'm predicted AABB for my final A Level grades - how they can tell that with another 18 months to go I don't know, also I plan to drop one subject so I'll only end up with three complete A Levels and one AS Level. If I were to get ABB at the end of year 13 then that would leave me with 320 points, plus a good few extra points from music exams and Young Enterprise exams. However I think the presence of any A grades in that line up is just a little too ambitious - three B grades I would love, but again lets not aim too high...
This Tuesday is the Higher Education fair, whereby about 75 universities come down and set up stalls in our school hall and we get to talk to admission tutors and students, plus collect prospectuses for places that we're interested in - preferably whittled down to a top ten. Taking into account predicted grades I have got a list of 8, with varying entry requirements - to allow for fluctuating final results. These are; Warwick, St Andrews, Exeter, Bath, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kent and Southampton - although Southampton and Portsmouth would be my insurance, to be honest they're only on the list to keep my parents happy for the moment.

It's a little under three weeks before I go over to France now and I have to admit I'm getting irrationally nervous - I have been to France tonnes of times and I know all the language necessary to make myself understood. I'm staying, along with Eilidh, in a french family and attending a french university for five days - the university will be all morning and in the afternoons we're going to various local places, and Paris for a daytrip. I've never been to Caen but we've been told that it's a nice town by previous participants so I am excited, in fact it's very strange for me to be nervous before going off island - usually I can't wait to get away, as you know.

Within a week of returning from France I will be going off to Barcelona, in Spain, for a trip with much the same format. We'll be staying with a friend in a spanish holiday and attending a language school for non-native speakers in the morning, before going to random local places in the afternoons and out in the evenings. The parental consent form was pretty funny - it had in bold letters that alcohol would be offered to us by the host families (this is in France and Spain) and also would be available if we went out. It was however stressed that we were not to sit in cafés and bars and simply sit drinking. Not that I will be anyway, but I still thought that it was funny.

These two trips will be followed by the easter break, which I will have to probably work for most of - which is a pain because I had hoped to get away by myself before summer. We (year 12) will then return to school for a further two weeks before going on study leave for a month before returning back to lessons for a month before the summer holiday. Why the fuck am I telling you my plan for the coming months? Sorry.

I haven't written a really good, long post for ages - I think that's why I started this one, with the intention of getting a good idea and just writing and writing for ages, but I don't seem to be able to do that. I'm in a bit of a writing crisis at the moment because I haven't written anything for the whole of February and each new thing I start, I hate. Just the first line of a poem at the moment, if I write it and read it then I hate it and screw it up - my bin is absolutely full with one sentences written on little bits of paper. I can't write any more of my book because I'm scared of ruining the few thousand words I have already, even this non-fiction post is going downhill and I think now might be a good time to transfer it to memory stick and possibly post it a school tomorrow.

Hope you're all ok
xxx

10 comments:

Gordon Strachan said...

Woah, a literary downward spiral there! Niki, you should really start looking at the content of the many other blogs floating by, they are all filled with shit, so not sure where you're getting your standards from, but what you do write, the poems when they appear, are quite spectacular, honestly!

I had no idea you were going to Barcelona, I loved that city!!

As for University, yay! Three choices all in Scotland, let alone the triangle of our existence (sorry felt like some hyperbole - I meant the area we're all usually at) groovy!

Nikita said...

yuh huh, watch out Barcelona! I'm staying with a couple and their five year old daughter in central Barcelona!
St Andrews is now out 'cos there's no way I'll get the grades, Glasgow might not do my course - I'm waiting on it, Edinburgh looks very good though.
Exeter and Keele still in the running though, along with Warwick...
MUST WRITE, if nothing else I must do some coursework

Gordon Strachan said...

I wouldn't worry about St. Andrews, it is apparantly the least cost effective place for a student to live, plus you'd be surrounded by posh Americans.

Nikita said...

Ok koke.
I really must stop checking blogs at school

Lolly said...

No no, not at all!

Don't stress yourself out, it'll all be okay in the end. :)

That's cool that you've put some Scottish unis down. Edinburgh IS a good university, it's got good accomodation and good reputation with people.
St.Andrews love thier international students, so I'd still apply :)
Seriously though! I'm doing a temp job at st.a and NOT ONE SCOTTISH STUDENT has walked in! DO you know how hard some peoples names are to pronounce? I have had to say Tzing Zarwhan and Toli Olli Fnkhfripgfg on the in the last 10 mins. THat was interesting..

ANyway. I'm rambling.
(But those ARE cool names.)

Nikita said...

wow! Those are some names...
Well done on the temp job too, I didn't know you were working!
Grr, I'm in a flap

Lolly said...

:( What's wrong?

Thanks xx

LauraEllen said...

Dont worry about your uni applications. Just get them whittled down to six, then send off the form online. nothing more to do until all six have replied, then chose the two you want. then just hope you get the grades. go for 2 high ones, two middling ones, and two lowish ones considering your grades. it usually works! have fun abroad. none of your uni's are near me :( ah well. each to their own!

Nikita said...

I don't know, I'm just all fired up at the minute and it's whirling round and round in my head. Hence I am sleepy.
I make no sense.
xxx

Lolly said...

:(

*hands Niki a pillow*

I hope you're okay.
I'm here if you need to talk.
xx