2014/2015

2014 was a wonderful year. I think, in fact, my best and favourite one yet. Time for a little round up me thinks.
This year has passed by so ridiculously quickly, I absolutely cannot believe it. 

SEMESTER ONE | A ROUND UP

So then. 15 weeks later and I have finished my first semester (and first half!) of my year abroad. I thought it fitting to do a little round up of how I have found it and any things I would change/advise anyone starting their year abroad. I'm also going to write another post about my hopes for semester 2 so stick around for that.

FOOD

So the other day I was sat in my seminar and not really listening (bad student, very very bad) and was doodling on my paper. Next thing I know, it’s been five minutes and I look down to see the results of my daydream. It was a list of all the English food that I miss. Spain just does not compare. Since it’s now less than a week (!!!) until I’m home, I thought I’d write what I wrote down and torture myself that little bit more.

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

Just a quick little post today, to remind me that even when things are really hard here, I have good things happening and can count down until they happen.

UPS AND DOWNS

I’ve written before about the year abroad being a curve, how you either start feeling great and go through dips of hating it or loving it even more. Whilst I agree with that concept, to me it feels like every day itself has one of these curves. At least every day this week I’ve gone from feeling great to awful, or from ridiculously low to buzzing. It’s so odd.

NOVEMBER MUSIC FAVOURITES

I can't believe it's time again for me to write this post, it feels like just yesterday I was doing it for October! Whoever said the year abroad would fly was certainly right. I think this month has the least amount of weird music, times are changing.

CRAWLING TO THE END OF THE SEMESTER

You know as the numbers get smaller they also get longer? In three weeks time I will be on a plane heading to Newcastle International Airport. Also known as the best airport in the world. But I can't keep thinking about my airport whilst there are still three weeks of this term left to go. 

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS | CATCH UP

Hey pals. It's Saturday night and I'm bored and although nothing really of note has happened, I want to write. Maybe nothing will come out, maybe this will be the longest post yet! Who knows. Definitely gonna get an award for the most boring year abroad blog haha, sorry not sorry. I was never going to be the person who went gallivanting to another continent for the weekend or ended up bungee jumping over a river.

FIFTEEN FESTIVE FAVOURITES

So this week Tom Fletcher, his sister Carrie and wife Giovanna have all answered the 'Fifteen Festive Favourites' tag in YouTube videos and I decided since we're only a month (and a bit) away, I would join in via blog post. Also it gives me a distraction from doing my work. Muahahaha.

SURPRISE | A TRIP TO NORWICH

Soooooo last week I wrote a post detailing all the things I miss about the UK because it would be two months until I go back. Haha oops, so I might have lied. About seven weeks ago I bought myself a Ryanair flight to Stansted and conveniently didn't tell my friends I'd be showing up on their doorstep and sleeping on their sofa for a weekend.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS | PALAU SANT JORDI | BARCELONA

Remember at the start of this year abroad I was pure hating life and didn't want to be here and I genuinely considered going home? Not anymore. I love Spain because this year Robbie Williams is touring here and this morning I managed to snap up some tickets to see him next March in Barcelonaaaaaaaaa. I'm only writing this because translation is boring. Someone come over and make me work plz.

WHAT I MISS ABOUT BRITAIN

Now feels like the appropriate time to write this - it's two months ish since I got here and left England behind, and it's two months ish until my feet step back onto English soil. Let's reminisce about all the fabby things that aren't here in Spain.

OCTOBER MUSIC FAVOURITES

Well, this month ended up being very music heavy compared to previous ones! Last month we ended with Meghan Trainor's 'All About That Bass', let's see where October took us.

UEA LCS HIT ALICANTE

I really should have written about this sooner but shhh I'm just rubbish and uni is hard okay. ANYWAY, last weekend, some of my bezzo UEA LCS pals (Georgia, Stefano and Gemma) came down from Santander and Madrid to spend a few days here in lil ol' Alicante. Man I miss them loads already.

THE FALL BACK OPTION

Just a quick one today!

SUNDAY FUNDAY

I know we decided Sunday would be my sad day but apparently things change!

YEAR ABROAD APPS

For any of you out there who are on/going on a year abroad and have an iPhone/iPad/iPod/something else that uses apps, I thought I'd share what apps are helping me out here in Spain!

A WEEKEND IN THE TOON

Alternative post title: why going home for the weekend probably wasn't my brightest idea

Why? 
Because my homesickness that was almost tolerable before is now cripplingly bad and I'm counting down the days until this thing is over. That whole living in the light thing? Not happening today. Let's make today my Sunday. 

TATTOO?

I've always toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo. Normally I decide not to but at the minute I feel like I might end up getting one. That's not to say I'm going to go and get one tomorrow! But I'm definitely not against the idea.

LIVING IN THE LIGHT

I'm not too sure what it is but since my last complainy post I've actually been quite happy. Who'd have thunk it? I'm writing it down so that people believe me and so that I believe it myself when I inevitably take a turn for the worse again. You'll never get rid of the sad bit of me.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT LIVING IN SPAIN

A lot of the time when I'm here I am kind of homesick and not really loving it as much as I maybe should so today I thought I'd remind myself of why I do really like it here.

LIVE IN THE LIGHT | YEAR ABROAD STRUGGS

The title of this post actually comes from a post on Robbie Williams' blog. Yeah, if he can blog, so can I. Live in the light or live in the dark, you choose. Whilst I'm here, let's see a photo of him because that always makes me feel better. 

SEPTEMBER MUSIC FAVOURITES

And so, another month has rolled around. THIS TIME I SPENT THE WHOLE BLUDDY THING IN SPAIN.
It's still weird. Anyway, we left August on a mix of Ricky Martin, Coldplay and Pavarotti. Let's see what happened in September, eh?

YEAR ABROAD BLUES

I've been putting off writing this one for a while. I think maybe because writing it down solidifies everything and makes it real. Basically being here isn't exactly the happiest part of my entire life and I think writing about it will help either me or my friends who are away or maybe even people who'll be doing a year abroad in the future. 

MISSING UEA

Today, lots of nervous little baby freshers are moving into halls at UEA to begin one of the best years ever. Someone might even be moving into my little room in flat 6 of Nelson Court. That makes me sad to think about. 

GETTING WIFI IN SPAIN

Dear all people who will live in Spain in the future. If you are living in a flat that isn't part of uni accomodation or has wifi already or with no Spanish people, you are going to struggle getting wifi connected in your house!

I STILL LIVE IN SPAIN, WEIRD

It's difficult to believe that this isn't just the weirdest holiday I've ever had and I can't shake the feeling that I'll be going home soon. It's only when I remember that the flight home I have booked is in 101 days that I remember I'm here for the long haul. It feels like I've been here forever and yet no time at all, like so much has happened since I last blogged but also nothing interesting or noteworthy.

ALICANTE, HE LLEGADO

Well then. Here we are. I LIVE IN SPAIN.

THIS IS IT, THEN

So. In twelve hours I will be on a plane to Alicante, flying using a one-way ticket. Insane.

AUGUST MUSIC FAVOURITES

Like last month, I thought I'd do a little recap of the songs of the songs I've loved this month! However like I said before, I'm not very up to date so these songs are basically just the ones I've added to my Spotify playlist since last time...

YEAR ABROAD INSURANCE

Oh my god I'm actually writing about something semi-useful to anyone needing year abroad advice!!!

MY TOP 10 BOOKS

I know I posted about the BBC Top 100 Challenge but I'm not really a classics reader and would love some recommendations, so I thought I'd roll this in with my top 10 books. If you could recommend any new ones based on these, preferably ones with ebooks I can get for free - poor student and that - I'd love you forever! Well, at least a day.

MY TOP 10 TV SHOWS

As a student I don't really watch TV the conventional way - I always watch it online on catch-up, or on Netflix, or downloading the whole thing and marathonning it. It means coming home for the summer watching actual TV with the adverts just annoys me. Following on from my top 10 films, today I'm going to tell you about my top 10 TV shows! I have most of them downloaded to my external hard drive so I may end up rewatching them in Spain.

HOPES AND PLANS FOR MY YEAR ABROAD

Until I'm actually there, it's difficult for me to actually write about my year abroad. However my creative juices are flowing hence all the posts about other things. I do hope they're interesting. Anyway today I wanted to talk about what I hope to achieve whilst I'm out in Spain!

INDEPENDENCE

It's now less than two weeks until I move to Spain. Even though I am deathly petrified about the whole moving to a different country and having to study in a different language thing, I cannot wait to have some independence again! Being at home with my family is nice but they're so annoying. It's just going to be nice to have a space that is all mine again, a room that is just mine, a sitting room where I don't have to hoover it until I want to, a kitchen where I choose when to do the dishes. I sound super ungrateful and I'm really not but once you get used to having your own house and then having to come back and live under someone else's rules is just so annoying.

A NORWICH REUNION

Been a bit silent on the blogging front recently, but for a good reason. I spent the last weekend, Thursday to Monday back in my lovely lovely Norwich, for a last visit with my amazing pals, to celebrate James' birthday and to have a nice pretendy birthday for me. I can't even explain how fab it was to see everyone again. I'm just going to relay the events, mainly so I can remember. I know not everyone will be interested in our hourly movements but it's the last time I saw them before Spain and waaaah sad. It's now two weeks before I go which is insane.

DECORATION

One of my biggest issues at the minute (other than the fact I move to Spain in less than three weeks whaaaat) actually concerns what happens when I reach my room in Spain! I'm looking for ways to make my room feel homely without bringing my lifesize cutout of Robbie Williams. In first year of uni one of the walls provided was basically a giant pinboard and mine was covered in photos and other bits and pieces. 

TIMELAPSE

I saw two videos the other day that made me realise just how lucky I am. As the title suggests, they are timelapse videos.

CHILLI & GARLIC CHICKEN | RECIPE

I love cooking so much and obviously I'm great at it because Gordon Ramsay followed me on Twitter. Since being back home for the summer, I've stuck to the same few dishes. Mainly because I don't do my own grocery shopping and have to contend with what's in the house! I think I've probably made this at least 14 times since June. My nana came round the other day and asked for the recipe so I thought I'd stick it up here!

WISHLIST

Yep. I've become one of those bloggers. Doing a wishlist. Well, my birthday is coming up and I'm about to leave for Spain sooooo gotta push my luck somehow. Also my student loan comes in next week so that's dangerous and it's better if I make a list!

HOME

As one of the few people in my hometown to actually leave and become a student elsewhere, I've since felt disassociated from where I grew up. It's not because here is awful (it kind of is awful, but that's not why) but being at home doesn't really feel like being home.

MINIMALISM

I come from a family of hoarders. My stepdad is the worst. He keeps EVERYTHING. I used to be the same but recently I keep having the same compulsion to get rid of everything. The last time my Mam cleared out our shoe (and coat and tool and other crap) cupboard, I was there saying "bin it!" to absolutely everything. Also quite often I have to dust our sitting room and there are all sorts of little trinkets everywhere. Like paperweights. And empty vases. And a wine glass covered in glitter. I don't even know. They annoy me so much! Recently I've been watching more property programmes (I'm an unemployed student, shush) and they always buy stupid little trinket things to decorate. What is the point! They just collect dust! Oh man, it annoys me so much. I am having ZERO trinkets/ornaments/things in my house.

OTHER BLOGGING PALS

If you're reading my blog you're either a family member or you think a year abroad is interesting or have nothing else to do, so you may as well read some other blogs by my fellow LCS lovelies who are also being flung across the world to pretend to know what they're doing! Only a few people are doing them so far but I will definitely update the list if more people decide to. If you're an LCS pal reading this then please make a blog so I can read it and stalk you and miss you loads because I already do aw pals.

JULY MUSIC FAVOURITES

Since we've just got out of July, thought I'd write about the songs I was loving last month! I'm not even going to pretend I'm up to date on music. I haven't known what's in the charts since I started university because I stopped watching music channels. Heart FM is my favourite radio station and all I listen to is my Spotify playlist which is full of Robbie Williams and 80s power ballads and 00s boybands like Blue. However I thought I'd do a post on a few of the new songs I actually found this month. I promise none of these are Robbie Williams.

DAFT MYSPACE QUIZ

I'm in one of those moods where I want to write but have no inspiration so when I saw this 'myspace quiz' type deal in my Tumblr drafts I decided to answer it here. I haven't done one of these for aaaaages.

• 1:6 of the songs you listen to most?
• At the minute? Outgrow - Lewis Watson, Bloodstream - Ed Sheeran, She's Like the Wind - Patrick Swayze, Bubblin' - Blue, Latch - Disclosure, XO - John Mayer. I'm so weird.

L'ÉCUME DES JOURS | MOOD INDIGO | FILM REVIEW

On Friday when I told an Oxfam campaigner I was going to see a French film, all she responded with was 'why?' So many people miss out on so many films just because they're in a different language and it makes me sad. Anyway. I saw 'L'Écume Des Jours', translated as 'Mood Indigo' at Newcastle's independent 'Tyneside Cinema'. I do love an independent cinema, they show some really good films that the big chains don't, like anything in a different language or something like 'Boyhood' which I saw a few weeks ago.

PALS DAY OUT IN YORK

Yesterday my bezzo pal and ex-housemate (waaaa the ex makes me so sad) Beth came up to my glorious North and met me in York. Even though it's only an hour away, I definitely don't go often enough because it's such a lovely city!

FIVE YEAR DIARY

It's not really something a lot of people know, but I've kept a diary for the last two and a half years. Well not exactly. I use this one, the one line a day, five year diary.

MORE FORMS

Don't let anyone tell you anything different; the year abroad is the year of the form. SO MANY FORMS.
Our Study Abroad office just sent me another four to fill out - an arrival form, a departure form, an address form and (the most exciting) the ERASMUS+ Grant Bank form. They're all pretty straightforward which is a godsend after the nightmare of some of the others. I have a Spanish one to fill out for on campus insurance but I'm waiting a while to do that. My brain is not in the mood for a Spanish form right now.

OH UEA IS WONDERFUL

I'll just say it. I miss UEA. 
I'm really sad that I won't get to study at UEA until September 2015 but hopefully UA will live up to our magnificent concrete jungle (where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't dooooo).

MY TOP 10 FILMS

I know this is meant to be my year abroad/travel blog thing but I'd also like it to be my proper blog which isn't just social justice and beyoncé reblogs on Tumblr. I've decided to start this 'series' of my 'top 10' favourite things, starting with films. Hopefully I can make it to 10! I plan to do albums, books, tv shows and then other sorts of things, maybe my top 10 favourite places/restaurants in Alicante or things like that to incorporate it into my YA theme. Who knows, I'll probably not even get round to my top albums. ANWAY enough rambling, onto the actual post!

BBC TOP 100 BOOK CHALLENGE

I've always wanted to complete the BBC top 100 book challenge so I thought I'd mark my progress on here. So far I've read 14 which is pathetic. I'm hoping to up that to 20 before it gets to 2015.

161 PLAYLIST

One bad thing about a year abroad is it will inevitably tear you apart from your uni friends who don't study languages. My housemates of second year will be continuing to live together for third year while I'm away and when I get back they will have graduated meaning we never get to live together ever again :(

YOUTUBE

Sometimes I forget not a lot of people watch YouTube. I don't mean like not going on to search for music and stuff but actually repeatedly watching certain people. Over the last few years, YouTube has grown so big and it's definitely a business now. Most of the people I watch are signed to a management company and make big money for their videos. They take sponsorship deals and are paid to make appearances at events and have people paying (and queueing for hours on end) to meet them. A lot have a certain schedule they stick to and have names for their 'fandom'. They have merchandise and apps and millions upon millions of subscribers. It's not a surprise that to many they are the future of entertainment.

COKE ADDICTION

No, not that kind of coke. If you know me you'll know I'm not really an alcohol drinker but I have always loved Coca Cola. How much I drank it was okay until I went to uni and had total freedom and had nobody to stop me. So I usually had at least one bottle a day. That's at least £1 a day! At the shop on my uni campus it was actually cheaper to buy the 1.25 litre bottle rather than the standard (500ml? I don't know) bottle. It meant I used to go through coke like my flatmates went through Tesco everyday value vodka. 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

I feel like New York is the place everyone wants to visit; I've never heard anyone say they're not curious to see it or have bad things to say after being there. It's always been one of my dreams to go there but at the minute my desire to go there is on par with how much I'd like to hire Robbie Williams for a private concert in my garden (for those interested on buying me a present, he recently played at a wedding for €3m). It could be because I've watched 'Casse-tête Chinois' four days in a row and rewatched all six seasons of Gossip Girl in the last month, both of which are set (and filmed) in the Big Apple. Maybe it's because I sang 'New York, New York' with Robbie Williams three times in June. Maybe it's because it looks like one of the most beautiful and interesting places on the entire planet.

SIX WEEKS TO GO

I am already awful at updating this blog. Maybe I'll be better when I'm actually in Spain!
Anyway, as the title suggests, it's six weeks until I'm off to the Costa Blanca for at least ten months. Madness.

SCRAPBOOK PRIDE

Hey pals.

Today I want to talk about my scrapbook. 

I've always been surrounded by creative people and been jealous of what they could create. I have lots of ideas in my head but they never really work how it's supposed to. Plus Pinterest ruins my entire self-esteem in the creativity department. 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS | SWINGS BOTH WAYS LIVE | GIG REVIEW

So, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it (haha, lol no) but I'm quite a big fan of Robbie Williams. And this month, I saw him live three times! I saw him for the first time in 2011 and on June 23rd 2014 I hit my 10th show, so I'm very happy right now.
This is not going to be an unbiased review of the three gigs I went to and I won't apologise for that. I had the best time! I'm going to split this post into three parts, because each of the shows I went to were very different.

I FORGOT TO BLOG AGAIN

Hey gang!

Well. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’m now home (in the north) for summer so I thought I’d ease back into blogging with somewhat of a catch-up post/basically a write up of my life over the last month. It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind for me; I feel like I’ve been here, there and everywhere so hopefully this post can help organise my mind before I have to think about, yknow, MOVING TO SPAIN FOR A YEAR.

OOPS... SPANISH ADMIN SO FAR

So, as could have been predicted, I let blogging slip for about a fortnight. I am terrible.

I thought today, as a different method of exam revision (I've already washed my bedsheets, gutted my bedroom and made chilli salmon for lunch) I'd write about the administrative stuff I've had to do for my year abroad so far.

BUCKET LIST

Like everyone in the world, I have a few hopes and dreams. Given that I'm not actually abroad(ie) yet, I thought I'd write about them because what else are Sundays for?

THE INFAMOUSLY AWKWARD FIRST POST

Hey pals. 

I'm Katy and this is approximately my 672nd attempt at blogging. Odds are 43/1 that I stick to it this time.
The main point to me blogging this time is that starting from the second of September, 2014, I will be living in Spain and studying at la Universidad de Alicante. Scary, I know. This blog is basically just another medium for my mother to stalk me on. The blog title is incredibly hilarious isn't it though. Go on. You know you want to laugh.