There's just been so much going on, I haven't really had time to take a breather and do this. Again, apologies. But here goes!
Our second semester has been way, WAY faster paced than last semester... but I think we've kind of got the hang of what's going on now, so it's not really as bad as all that. It HAS reached the stage, however, of us feeling a bit useless when we're not doing...well, something.
For instance, weekends. Last semester, I adored weekends because they were periods where I didn't need to work. Our major crits happened on Fridays, so that meant you had to weekend to chill and recuperate from all the hard work. This semester, however, I've been feeling like I need to work on the weekends as well - as if I should be doing something architectural, it's not right when I'm not.
We've had a tutor-change this semester as well. While I was very happy working with my first tutor, I was also kind of looking forward to the change for this term. Unfortunately, my current tutor is only available on Fridays, meaning that I don't really get the chance to work with him as much. To make up for this, I've started going to see this other first-year tutor, who has honestly helped me progress so much with my work. He's always available in his office to help, and while he does tell it like it is (his catchphrase seems to be "that's shite"), he also goes about telling you exactly how to fix it. And then, when you eventually get it right, he'll follow with his second catchphrase ("that's f***ing amazing").
If I'm going to give future architecture students any advice, it'll be to really go to your tutor (or a tutor, really) for advice whenever you think you need it. Don't be afraid to go and ask them questions - there's no stupid questions. Or, if there are, they'll be really nice and won't tell you.
I can't believe that it's already mid-March. I mean, we're almost done with the full academic year! I mean, yes, I know that we've technically got until the end of May for the actual end of all this, but...well, we've got the 3-week Easter break in April, so it honestly just makes it feel like there's nothing left.
Right now, we're doing a bit of flat-hunting. I'm moving in with one of my best friends here, and we're really excited to be living together - we've already started planning what the living room will look like, etc. And two-bedrooms are so ridiculously cheap for each of us when you compare to three- or four-bedrooms, for some reason. We're finding really good flats for around 200 pounds PCM, and since we're just two people, we don't need to think about an HMO license or anything. However, we're being extremely judicious about the hunt - we're very particular that we be close to the uni, since we'll be carrying models and such to and fro from the studio and we don't want to make our lives any tougher than they need be. Another thing we're looking for is a fair-sized kitchen, and a balance between the bedrooms and living room - for instance, if the bedrooms are small the living room should be larger, and vice-versa.
The main obstacle we're running into is that all the flats we arrange viewings for seem to be getting snapped up before we even make it to the actual viewing. This is frustrating, but we're not really all that disheartened. We've heard from agencies that really amazing flats turn up somewhere in July or so, which is really leaving it very late, but we want the best flat we can get. Neither of us want to "settle".
In my personal life, things are going quite well. Another of my best friends here and I cook together at least once a week, which is turning out to be quite fun. We don't actually have a set date, but we'll just decide one day to go the shops and pick up a few ingredients, and then have a meal at mine. The results generally turn out well, although we tend to criticize ourselves - but we end up making the next dish better, so I don't see the problem. And the criticisms turn out quite funny because we make such stupid mistakes - we tried cooking coconut rice the other day, and ended up making way too much - but we couldn't bring ourselves to throw the food out. So we ended up just groaning on the couch for about an hour, swearing to never cook rice again.
I promise I'll try and update more regularly.
Ja ne.
