'Ear.' Like what you hear out of...

Hello!!

Firstly, sorry for 'deserting' this blog. I realise it's been a long while since I've posted anything - which I suppose isn't very surprising considering the amount of times I've actually not posted anything in months...
But, this time, I'm not going to make any false-promises, and say that I'll be posting regularly or anything like that. Because, let's be fair, you all know that I probably won't...

There's been a fair bit of change in my life since I last posted - moving to a new city (in what is pretty much a new country), starting university, making new friends, trying to successfully adult...

So, I thought I'd give you a bit of an update as to what's been going on in my life...

The last (almost) 7 weeks of university have been a rollercoaster of emotions - beginning on a high, with a few lows, but currently careening higher and higher and higher because - not gonna lie - I'm having the best time!

Ok, so I have quite a lot of work set. And I've already had to sit an exam worth 25% of one of my modules. And I'm missing my family and friends back home.

But uni life has served me well so far.
My course is great (though full-on!), my flatmates are lovely, the city is beautiful...
As clichéd as it sounds, I've already begun to learn so much about myself, and about life.

And about my accent...

Allow me to explain...

At home home (i.e. Wales), my friends refer to me as the 'posh one', because apparently I have a 'refined' accent, and I'm very eloquent, and say 'baaath' rather than 'bahth'...

At uni home however...

The other day, I tried to say the word 'ear' to the nurse who was giving me a vaccination. Safe to say, she had absolutely no idea what in the world I was going on about.
You see, since arriving at university (and particularly over the last few weeks) I've realised that I pronounce 'ear' and 'year' in exactly the same way. Which is very confusing to anyone who doesn't pronounce 'ear' and 'year' in exactly the same way...

I then tried to explain this incident to one of my flatmates, who also got very confused by my pronunciation!

My accent's also begun to weirdly fluctuate. I've heard people say that if you live with someone for long enough then you'll begin to pick up parts of their accent - but I never believed them. Until about 3 weeks ago...

My parents and brother came to visit the weekend before last, and the first thing my brother commented on as soon as he saw me was that my accent was - and I quote - "very weird"!



Also, one thing that I'm finding hard to get my head around is the fact that I need to decide where I want to live next year.

Like, right now.

I've only been at uni for 7 weeks, and already people are talking about moving into houses together, and flat-shares, and private accommodation....

And I don't really know what in the world I'm going to do...

I've been really lucky this year in that my university guaranteed on-campus accommodation for all 1st year students, but it pretty much means that I have absolutely no experience in having to compare student housing, and find housemates, and pay rent to a landlord every month...

I've been looking into private flat accommodation that's about a 10 minute walk from campus (something that a few of my other flatmates/friends have been considering), and - at the minute - this seems to be the best option for me. Particularly seeing as my course is partly placement-based, which means if I have to travel far, I might not be around to pay rent on a monthly basis - which could be problematic if I'm in a house-share [the private accommodation lets me pay for the whole year in one payment, or allows me to pay for more than one month at a time - which is great for me - as long as I can afford it]

The only thing is, I'll more than likely be living with people that I've never met/spoken to before. So, basically, it'd be like doing freshers week all over again [just without the excessive alcohol and marker pen-ing people's faces], and although I'm really up for meeting new people, there's a tiny little part of me that's quite anxious about it!!


Afterthought: This is written on a poster pinned to a noticeboard outside my uni's laundry room, and obviously I had to take a picture.
Truly insightful words...