My first day of College

This was it, the big day that I have been dreaming about for many years.. and it completely and even more, lived up to my expectations. 

I've wanted to do Veterinary Nursing, go to an actual college and be a qualified Vet Nurse for as long as I can remember and even though I just had my first day, I still can't believe its actually happening. 

I have done two years of courses previously, which I refer to as college as I did stay in student accommodation and had the college lifestyle, see my slightly embarrassing college post here. But for me, this is real college its an actual degree and it's in a huge Institue of Technology, and it's very scary but exciting. It's been a challenge for me to get here as I missed my last two years of secondary school and then did two PLC courses, but whats important is I am here... and loving it. I was selected for advanced entry into 2nd year, as I had done my two years PLC, so this means I am in with people that know each other for a whole year and have already made great friends, and it was one of my worries about joining, although I and a good friend of mine were very lucky as we were both in the same PLC college last year and were both selected for this course in LYIT so at least were not totally alone and lost.

It was a huge deal for me to walk into a massive college (3000 students) and a large class of students (32) but I did it and had the most interesting day...

It started off practically running for 25 minutes to college, even though I was up an hour and a half early I still managed to be late. And then not knowing where the room was and being 20 minutes late, but I made it to my now favorite class ever! 

 I know what you're going to say, this is what we do in college? play with teddies and pretend they're real! but no this was just introduction/revision for the first day and a little bit of fun between the mad busy lectures ( I already have 6 A4 pages of notes and 5 handouts. This was only the first day and there is already SO much information and studying today, I guess I should have expected this as a science/nursing degree. 

Me and my lost buddy went the whole day without interacting with the other classmates as they all really kept to themselves and we're so excited to reunite with their friends that they didn't really pass much head of us, until the very last class of the day...

Professional, Regulatory and Ethical studies... ugh. The minute I saw this I thought this is going to be my sleepy time class but surprisingly was actually very interesting as we were thought by a lovely new teacher who is actually a registered Vet Nurse herself so she can show us her own opinions and examples of experiences she had.  As the title may explain, this is more of a talky class where people give their opinions and debates ( I think every course has one of those communication type modules) and we were split into groups of 8 for this. I was separated from my buddy which was great for both of us as by ourselves we had to interact more and the group of girls I was with were so lovely introducing themselves to me, asking about me and helping fill me in on the things I missed from 1st year. Turns out some are actually from my hometown and will be doing work placement with me so it's great getting to know them now.

It turned out to be a really fun class and even more importantly I got to talk to the others and meet some great girls who I hopefully will get closer to in the two years (and have some going out buddies). I left class walking through campus ( which  I dreamed about while watching college movies) with a beaming smile (which probably won't last for long with study stress) as I am doing something I am completely 110% interested in and after finally meeting some nice people.

I hope to update the blog on my college journey as I go. What are your expereinces with college? I'd love to hear your stories (even the wild nights) let me know in the comments below.

My Week in Photos 11th-17th August

This has been one mad crazy week as we moved, and found ourselves in disaster after disaster... 

Starting off with a dislocated jaw and four hours waiting in the hospital.

Major problems with the new apartment and no electricity to have hot water or cook... until four days later we finally got to cook our first dinner (was freaking delicious if i must say so myself), Kurdish style turnip cooked with tea bags,  and have a hot bath (extra bubbles), the thing that was taunting me since we moved as we've only showers at home and couldn't wait to relax in a bath.

From there on things got much better... yummy salads became a daily occurrence, we would usually go out for the morning and do shopping for the last of the things we needed and then came home and cooked up this hearty lunch and then there was major lie-ins ( I'm taking 3pm here), the perks of not being back to college yet.  

Towards the middle of the week, I really started to notice Autumn arriving and think I expressed that in my outfit. 

After walking 30 minutes to Aldi (and back) we treated ourselves to a major treat- yo -self -movie night. We re-watched the Perks of Being  A Wallflower (I baled) and then watched a comedy called Losers which was hilarious (just what we needed after the emotional tugging of POBAWF). 

Lastly this evening, again after a really big lie in, we wanted to explore our new town while it was such a nice day and we took a 4km walk around (I am now on able to move my legs) some beautiful sights of old cathedrals and right out to a beautiful town park and home again. 

I love the idea of keeping a short and sweet picture diary each week to look back on in the future, what are your opinions? do you keep a diary or take each day as it comes and look forward to the next?  

Homeware Haul

Being the proper new home owning adults that we are, we had to go shopping for some essentials that we'll be needing for the next two years. We are students and that means getting everything on a budget and finding those deals and boy did we search every place to get the best deals we could. It was actually quite enjoyable going around stores checking things off our list and gathering up our new supplies. It truly felt like Christmas when we got it all home to unpack and organize into where we'd keep them working together to plan out where everything should go. 

 The first great deal we got was an amazing find in Argos for a 50 pack kitchen starter kit which was perfect for us as there were some bits in the flat but not everything ( and me being a neat freak preferred my own) and this made it easier to get everything we did could possibly need for the kitchen and will last us many years hopefully in where ever we may live.







My absolute favorite thing we found was this kettle and toaster set. We hadn't planned on getting a toaster (to save a bit of money) but had been looking in many places for the best deal on a kettle. Just by the off chance, we were in Adli recently and they have a big range of homeware items in and we spotted this great deal for just €25. Now the price was amazing, buts what even more amazing is the color. I, of course, went straight for the blue, by- passing the pink and red because obvs blue is my favorite color but it's also more neutral for my boyfriend to be part of his home too and also I find the color is really relaxing and interesting in a kitchen.

From there, we had a base color to choose other things we might need but actually, we (Richard as a joke) picked the blue dustpan and brush before we even had the kettle. I choose a blue bath mat and some kitchen utensils we might need to kind of have some matching color in the house. Although Richard insisted on the lime green toilet brush (even though we later found there was one already in the house).  After that, we just gathered up little things we needed such as extension leads, clothes drier, dehumidifier etc. 

I really wanted to include this popcorn maker as a homeware item as I was given it as a present a while ago and kept it specifically for when I got my own place. It also was another cool thing to unpack and plan on putting somewhere.

I forgot to get photos of one of our great deals, a duvet and mattress protector, because we were so eager to get the bed made up and chill out (we live up 6 flights of stairs and had quite a bit to move in with no lift so many runs up and down the stairs). Again it was something we had been looking around many places for and just so happen to pass Harry Corry and they had a 70% off sale which was amazing as I have never even been in one of these shops before because I associated it with being quite expensive. I can't quite remember how much it was but I'm pretty sure we came out with both for €20.

Lastly we got a water filter jug as were both spoiled at home with water filters and don't like drinking straight from the tap. We got this great deal in Argos for €17 ( €12, when we used a €5 voucher we got buying the kitchen kit) which came with two spare filters. 

After all this burning a gigantic hole in our pockets the rest of our necessary homeware items came second hand (stole from our parent's homes), such as the smoothie maker seen in the background above, blankets, Tupperware, coffee tables, mugs, plates etc. And after all that, our home was built.

It can be quite expensive or quite affordable to kit out a new home, it all depends on how much research and planning you put in beforehand. The key is to really shop around, don't impulse buy, search a number of shops for the best overall deal.

Following the Haul here on the blog will be the apartment tour once we've all completely in place.