Exam Season!

I realised I haven’t blogged for a while.  My life has been a mêlée of revision and exams, mixed with keyboard playing and a little writing every day to keep me sane.

I’m beginning to think beyond my final exam next Monday.  It’s extremely exciting.  I have an interview for a company called ‘Babylangues’ on Wednesday, which, if I get the position, may see me back in Nantes (where I spent my first semester of the Year Abroad) for a couple of months.  I’ve been applying for other jobs here and there, with differing levels of language usage.  I’ve had a couple of rejections, but that’s okay: the Olympics will last several weeks and it’s a long time to wait for a member of staff.  And teaching French kids English would be fun!

I’ve been doing a little research about Venezuela in my spare time in preparation for July and August.  The more I learn the more excited I grow.  I’m waiting until my Spanish exam is over before I look more into the differences between Latin American Spanish and Castilian (Spanish) Spanish and their different customs and idioms are.  I know there are some subtle differences, and something said innocently in one can be offensive in the other.  I don’t want to cause an international debacle! 

I’m finding the pressure of everything lifting a little as my degree completion bar looks more and more full, and I’m definitely starting to feel like myself again.

I’m starting to find ideas for post-exams – and, funnily enough, they’re all creative.

The list so far:

·         Write.  This is my passion (outside languages) and something I have missed doing since I finished a novella called The Conscription last summer (which is available on request!).  Luckily I’ve helped my longing by writing short 100-250-word flash-fiction in the evenings (which is also available!).  It’s been like nibbling on something when all you want is a big three-course meal: it just makes me hungry for more!

·         Cook.  Okay, so I can cook well enough to survive and feel good about what I’ve eaten every day, but I want to broaden my horizons a little.  Be able to cook something special.  I received a French Cuisine Cookbook for my birthday last month, and I want to learn to make tapas, too.  And desserts.  I love making desserts.

·         Sew.  I want to learn to make clothes.  I started to take the first steps last summer, but for some reason time sort of ran away from me.  My mother used to make my clothes when I was little and I’m still in awe of her.  I have a couple of patterns for tops I want to make.

I also want to make Spanish and French into a pastime.  It’s so much a part of who I am, and I want to enjoy it again.  I mean, with the amount of music I listen to and movies I watch I’ve never really lost that love.  But it’s always been part-enjoyment, part-studying.  I just want to be free to love it!

By the end of the summer/ my unemployment (whichever comes first) hopefully the creative juices will be flowing and I’ll have something awesome to do in the evenings and weekends!  I can’t wait for a life where I don’t have to worry about work after 5pm.  Of course, I am well aware that I am possibly speaking too soon.  Oh!  The delights of the unknown!

The unknown’s on my doorstep.  It’s so exciting!

It's Getting More Real

A very big blog update today – in length and importance.

Yesterday (May 3^rd) saw my return to London’s East End for my fifth Games Maker training meeting, otherwise known as the day I found out the country I was going to be linked to in July and August.  Alongside six others, I’m going to be an NOC (National Olympic Committee) Assistant to Venezuela.  I’m so very excited.  I love learning about new places!  The two girls I met are really lovely and I'm really looking forward to working with them and meeting the rest of my team. 

Any chance to speak Spanish is a godsend to me.  After enquiring a little and reading around the Internet, it looks like a great country.  I really can’t wait to represent the UK, and to be a cog the massive machinery that’s going to make the Olympics go smoothly and amazingly.  I’m truly excited.

Obviously, I have to pick and choose what I post here, but I shall share my experience, for people who are interested and for my own future reference.  Everything I put here will be honest.  In other words, if I’m positive, it’ll be me saying it and not just in case LOCOG find the time in their very busy schedule to find this blog and read it.

Today I returned to London – this time to the UDAC centre to pick up my uniform.  This is one of the many things that has convinced me that the Olympics are going to run very smoothly: if a simple uniform collection can be planned so well, with so much thought through, then the events are going to be marvellous.

I admit I was nervous about the Uniform.  It had received bad press and opinions, and I wasn’t too sure about the colouring.  However, I don’t know what it is, but it’s a lot better in reality.  It could be the excitement; it could be having adjusted to it.  But it’s wonderful.  It’s so, so comfortable and practical (non-iron!).  There’s something about knowing that it’s so sustainable (made of recycled material) that’s comforting as well. 

 

I also got my identity/access card, which is exciting but nerve-wracking.  I don’t want to lose it!  The photo on it is incredibly serious.  As photos are when they tell you not to smile!  It’s not quite as murderous as the one on my passport and driving license, more… ‘Don’t you dare mess with me’.   Ha ha ha.

On the way home, I took a detour to find one of the only two or three Chipotle restaurants in London.  It’s an American Mexican restaurant chain that does things like burritos and tacos, but the best thing there (that I can’t believe they didn’t invent in the UK yet) is the wonderful burrito bowl.  It’s literally a bowl full of burrito filling, without the messiness and calories of a tortilla wrap.  If I had some spare cash I’d certainly start a business!  It was as tasty as America, most definitely, if not as big a portion size (thank goodness!).

I’m genuinely very happy to be alive and British this year.  I came home to amazing plans for the Jubilee weekend (I’ve always wanted a street party!), and the Olympics are so, so close (according to the website, just under 84 days until the Opening Ceremony). 

It’s going to be a great summer.

Anticipation

4 exams down, 5 to go.  It's been a bit of a mix.  One terrible (apparently I came out looking pale), two good and one I feel great about.  So on average pretty good, I think.  Last night almost resulted in disaster due to our next door neighbours’ partying antics at 4am, but this morning’s exam turned out to be the best so far.  I think this was partly due to the desire for some form of (very) passive revenge, and, of course, mostly because of my excellent study regime!  And tea.  The importance of tea can never be forgotten in times of need.

At this moment in time I just can’t wait for the exams to be over and for the rest of my life to begin!

Tomorrow following my exam I’m back off to London's East End for my fifth module training for the Olympics.  This is the big’un, when I find out which continent and then country I will be a part of during the five and a bit weeks I’m working there which until now has been kept as a big surprise.  I’m really excited.  I don’t really mind who I get.  I just can’t wait to represent this country the best I can, and to be unofficially a part of another.  

I return to London to get my sexy Games Maker Uniform (including bag and the all-important umbrella) and Pass on Friday as well, so it’s a big week for me Olympics-wise.  Everything seems to be stepping up a gear, which is wonderful as it makes it become so much more real and gives me something to look forward to.  I booked my driver training for after the exams so I don’t have to freak out either thing anything more than I have to.

I’ve also applied for a couple of jobs – one in London, one in Nantes and one in Hastings – but I’m not really holding much hope because of my commitment to the Olympics.  Except perhaps for the one in Nantes because that wouldn’t start until September.  Plus, I mean, it’s Nantes.  If I could live in Nantes or Oviedo I think my life would be complete.

In the meantime, music, writing, friends and family are helping my plough on through my exams.  I can’t believe I’m so close to the end!