Eleanor’s Blog – 24 May

Hello again, and it’s been another busy week in Manchester, and it’s been uncharacteristically sunny! Unfortunately for me, I’ve spent most of the time revising for my exams next week, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the city has. This week has seen a win for the University of Manchester at the annual Manchester vs Salford boat race, held at Salford Quays. The Great Manchester Run also took place this week, with 40,000 runners, both professional and amateur taking part with a 10 km route around the city. Unfortunately I was at home in Derbyshire revising away so could only watch from the TV, but it looked amazing and I wish I could have been there cheering people on, or even better, taking part!

Revision is the focus of my days at the moment, and the more I do, the less scary these exams get. They’re not bad if you go in prepared! It just so happens that my family will be moving house from my childhood home where I’ve lived for 18 years, ON THE SAME DAY AS MY FIRST EXAM. It’s going to be a stressful day to say the least! I’ll be spending the night before the exam in my flat in Manchester, then hopping on a train afterwards to go and see the new house for the first time. It’s only on the other side of my town, so it won’t be too much of an adjustment but I’m still quite sad to leave my old house for good!

It marks the end of what has been a pretty dramatic year, first my A Levels, starting University, moving away from home, changing accommodation and now my family moving house. This year has been quite hectic and sometimes challenging but I’ve still enjoyed it immensely and would recommend university to everyone.

Anyway, that’s my little rant and sales pitch over, back to the revision!

Ps, here’s a picture of a hedgehog that was in my garden this week. I missed the Great Manchester Run but at least I see woodland animals out of the kitchen window.

Eleanor’s Blog – 17 May

Exam time is upon us again, which means I’ve been working hard trying (and in truth, mostly failing) to revise. I’ve only got 2 exams this semester which isn’t too bad, and so I’ve got a lot more chance to revise for both of them. But it doesn’t make it any easier! With lectures over, I’ve been at home in the hills this week, popping back to Manchester now and then to use the library, do some ambassador work or hand in assignments. A lot of people have stayed in Manchester until their exams, but seeing as my home is 45 minutes away and I get free food there, I’ve been there most of the time.

The end of the year means I should start thinking about packing up all my stuff in my flat, it seems like just yesterday I was moving in! The contract in halls goes on til 21st June, which is handy as it means there’s a couple of weeks after the exam period to pack up and sort everything out. I get the keys to my house on the 1st July so if I want I can be straight back to Manchester! Lucky for me I only live down the road so taking everything home for a few weeks won’t be too much of a hassle. For people with a lot further to go though, there’s summer storage options in Manchester which don’t cost too much, so you can leave anything you won’t need at home safely in Manchester until you come back for it in September

I also met up with my future housemates again this week, to decide who’ll have which bedroom in our house next year. All of them are quite big rooms, but we decided to just put numbers in a hat for who got which one. The owner of the cafe where we met in Withington took a picture of us for her Facebook page, so here’s a picture of us all feeling bit awkward having a camera in our faces. It was a nice little cafe though and I had a Mars bar milkshake which was probably one of the best things I’ve ever had in my life.

Eleanor’s Blog – 10 May

Hello again!

Another week in Manchester and my first year is drawing to a close, it’s all gone by so quickly. With just 5 lectures left, it’s not started to hit me yet that I’m one quarter of the way to becoming a Speech Therapist. It’s quite scary actually! I’ve just got two exams to look forward to (ha) and then a lovely summer ahead!

For now though, I’ve been focusing on revision and getting the last few pieces of work done before the end of this year. In a break from revision (and what I really mean is a break from attempting to tidy my room with lecture notes nearby) I went to the cinema to see The Avengers, which was pretty good. I haven’t really been to the cinema the whole time I’ve been in Manchester and I’ve missed it! We went to The Printworks, in the city centre behind the Arndale Shopping centre. There’s a couple of cinemas in Manchester, mostly with cheaper student ticket prices so you don’t end up spending too much.

I’ve also been spending a couple of evenings in the library, as at this time of year its open 24/7. It’s still busy though even at 10 o’clock at night!

When all my deadlines and exams are out the way, I’ve got quite a lot planned for summer, including a trip to Seville in Spain, and volunteering at a couple of festivals. If you’re wanting to go to a festival but haven’t got the funds, volunteering as a steward or a litter picker is a really good way to get to see the bands for free. Most, if not all, festivals have some kind of volunteer programme where you get to enjoy the festival for free in exchange for a few hours’ work a day. I’ll be working at the Y Not Festival in the Peak District, near to where I live. This will be my fourth ynot and I’m looking forward to it a lot! I’ll also be working at ynot’s sister festival, 2000 Trees, in Gloucestershire. I’ve never been before so it will be a bit of an adventure! I’ll hopefully also be doing some Student Ambassador work over the summer, with lots of summer schools and things taking place. All this stuff, along with being able to catch up with some friends from home mean it’s shaping up to be a good couple of months!

I’ll miss Manchester though over the summer, and the end of first year approaching means it’s almost the end of my time at Whitworth Park. I’ve enjoyed living here and I’ve met lots of new people, but I’m more excited about my house for next year now! There’s been a couple more forms to sign for the house but sorting it out has been really easy and a lot less stressful than I imagined (so far). Call me a geek, but I’m quite looking forward to be able to sort out my own bills for next year, it’s quite scary but I feel all grown up!

Eleanor’s Blog – 2 May

Just a short post this week, as I’ve been pretty busy beavering away for my assignments and exams. I’ve also been home in Derbyshire quite a lot of the time (although still managing not to miss a single lecture, I’m proud of myself!) as my mum’s been poorly. She’s alright now though so it’s back to Manchester for the final 2 weeks of lectures. It’s gone by so quickly!

As I said last week, I have a phonetics assignment and a presentation coming up this week, so I’ve been working to get these done. The presentation hasn’t been too tricky, it’s about the clinical placement I did before Easter. As part of the placement we had to do a presentation so luckily I already had slides to work from! I’ll be presenting it in front of a group of students from my class, and we all mark each other anonymously (I feel like I’m on Come Dine With Me) with criteria that we’ve chosen as a class. Once that’s over it’s a mad rush to get my Phonetics assignment done!

Thankfully on this one, we don’t have to write a reference list as we have to use information just from the lectures we’ve been having. This is a real time saver as writing the references usually takes me longer than writing the essay itself. When that’s done and handed in, there’s just one assignment and two exams to go before I’ve finished my first year. It’s unbelievable how quickly the time has gone, but at the same time it’s all so familiar now it’s like I’ve been here years.

Anyway, I’d best go, I’m writing to you from the John Rylands library and my keyboard clicking away must be annoying some of the people around me trying to revise.

Until next week!

Eleanor’s Blog – 24 April

Hello, remember me? I’m back after rather a long absence, with a lot more to talk about.
The past few weeks have been the easter holidays, meaning I went home for a few weeks to be able to catch up with my friends and do some work in the peaceful countryside. That was the plan, anyway!

I started the holidays with a bit of ambassador work, helping out at a Manchester Access Programme event. MAP is a programme for 6th form students living in and around Manchester which helps them prepare for uni life and the type of work that will be required. I was a member of MAP myself a couple of years ago so I’m more than happy to help on it now and see people in the position I was in back then! The scheme is funded by alumni; former students here at Manchester, as well as friends of the university who may be from around the area or just want to be able to help young people. I got the pleasure of meeting one of the people who have donated money to the programme and had a chance to thank them in person for the great work that’s able to be done with their donations. The scheme helps people from low income backgrounds whose parents didn’t go to university themselves. I loved it and it really helped me out. For those who aren’t local, other scholarships and bursaries are available from the university which you may be eligible for.

Easter itself was quiet, with my mum away on holiday in Spain. I spent time with my Grandma and saw my brother as he was back from University for the holidays too, before embarking on a trip with my friends to the VERY rainy Lake District!

We set off on Easter Monday, after much umming and ahhing about whether or not to cancel the trip due to a lot of rain and bad weather, but ended up braving the adverse conditions anyway. We took the train, which was really cheap, only about £6 in advance with a rail card to Grange-Over-Sands, and set off from there. We arrived at our campsite a few hours later soaked to the skin and ready to just go to bed. The nice man who owned the campsite took pity on us (we all looked like we’d jumped in a swimming pool with our clothes on) and only charged us a tenner for the campsite. What a decent guy! We stuck it out for one night, but in the end decided to cut our trip short and go home on Tuesday, instead of Thursday as we’d planned. It all ended up a bit of a failure but we still had fun (I think). Getting back home to dry clothes and warm food, it felt like we’d been away months rather than just one night!

The week after, it was back to Manchester as lectures were restarting. Only four more weeks of lectures to go, I can’t believe how fast the time has gone! As well as lectures, I worked on an NHS cadet open day, as my degree is healthcare-related. I’d never heard of NHS cadets before, it’s a scheme for people doing a Btec National Diploma to get experience of working with the NHS and with healthcare professionals. The other ambassadors were all doing healthcare degrees as well such as nursing or midwifery, and we were there to present workshops and answer any questions about studying healthcare subjects at university. The day was really busy and everyone was keen to ask a lot of questions and learn more about university. Hello if there’s any NHS cadets reading this!

It’s time to get my head down for a couple of weeks now, as we have a few assignment deadlines looming. Although I’d planned to do work over the Easter holidays, of course it always happens that you leave it to the last minute (well I do anyway!). I’ve also got to do a presentation next week about the placement at Oldham that I went on this semester, which I’m nervous about! I’ll talk more about that another time for anyone who’s interested.

Thank you for all your lovely comments, whether it’s hopeful SLT students, prospective students for Manchester or just interested parties. Please ask me any questions or let me know if you think there’s something I’m not talking about which you think I should be!

Bye for now! Eleanor xxx

Eleanor’s Blog – 29 March

Hello again! It’s the Easter Holidays which means I’ll be back to Derbyshire, seeing all my friends and family. I have been spending quite a lot of time there anyway with my mum moving house, but it’ll be good to see my friends who’ll be back from their universities too and spend some time in the hills. With this lovely weather as well! I’ve been spending a lot of time with my friends, catching up and just sitting around in fields. Quite a change from Manchester life! I’m glad to have a bit of a rest, from lectures but also from having to do my own washing and cooking, thanks mum! I’ve not got a lot planned for the holidays, just got a couple of essays to be getting along with, and some revision.

It’s not all work though, my friends and I are also planning a trip walking in the Lake District. It may not sound too exciting, but I’m looking forward to it. We’re getting the train there and back, and staying at campsites around Windermere, so it won’t be as expensive as another holiday might be. I love walking as well, something I don’t get that much chance to do in Manchester. Not sure how well I’ll be able to do after 7 months of eating mostly only toast and cereal…maybe I should start cooking a bit better for myself. I’ve also been helping out my grandma with her gardening, it was hard work! All I did was dig a few weeds out and cut some branches and I was shattered, I should probably start doing more exercise. There’s loads of gyms and sport centres around the university that are cheap for students…something I think I should look into when I get back!

Until then though, have a good Easter and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks

Eleanor xxx

Eleanor’s Blog- 23 March

Apologies for the extremely late post this week, I’ve been beavering away as it’s the last week before the easter holidays!

Last week was National Science and Engineering Week, so I was working as a student ambassador helping out with activities. I was helping out at the science fair, which saw over 700 high school students from around the Manchester area over 3 days, busy busy! It was held in the massive Sackville Street building, on the North campus of the University of Manchester. It’s about a 20 minute walk from the main campus, and is where all the engineering subjects are based. The fair itself had loads of stalls and interesting exhibits on loads of different science and engineering subjects and it was a lot of fun! From making model DNA from pipe cleaners, creepy crawleys under microscopes, infrared cameras, balancing robots and recycling-based dancemats, there was a stall about everything. I don’t know a lot about science (I tried Chemistry AS level and didn’t do too well…) but it was  all really interesting. The kids seemed to think so too, and all three days were a great success. Hopefully it inspired some people to consider it when choosing a career! There were also workshops on things like boomerang making and giant biology-boardgames which I was pretty gutted to be missing. Each day was finished with a lecture about a specific area of science or engineering, which I didn’t get to see any of as I had lectures of my own to go to, but I’m told they were amazing too.

As well as the science fair (which took up a pretty hefty chunk of my week) I went home to Derbyshire yet again, this time for a reunion party! I play the flute, and used to be part of a flute ensemble called ‘Flute Salad’ which I unfortunately had to leave when I moved to Manchester. This week was the 25th birthday of the Music Studio, where I had my flute lessons and I had group practice since I was really young. It was so good to see everyone again! There were speeches, and many embarrassing photos and videos shown of when I used to be a member and of previous students, as well as live bands and a lot of cheesy dancing. I really miss playing, especially as part of a group and I’d really like to have joined the university orchestra at Manchester, but I never got round to it there’s always next year! It’s really easy to join and even start your own societies at the University, our Students’ Union is the biggest in the country and is the home of all the societies. If you’ve got an idea or a passion, and there’s a group of people who share your vision then you can start your own society! Some of the people on my course are doing it right now, organising a Speech and Language Therapy Society which should be fun! Hopefully it’ll mean we’ll have organised events and socials, something which we don’t get the chance for as a subject at the moment. Exciting stuff!

I’ve also been trying to revise a bit of my anatomy module, which we’ll have an exam in at the end of May. As I said before, science isn’t really my strong point but it’s all very interesting and I’m going to try my best. This week also saw the end of my weekly placement, and I’ll miss everyone there! We ended with a presentation of the projects we’d been working on, which went really well. Learnt loads of helpful stuff on placement, and this being a Speech and Language Therapist thing is looking a bit closer in the distance!

After all my work and revision, a night out was in order, this time with our new housemates for next year. We ended up at Factory (yet again!!) with a few of their friends and they were all lovely. Looking forward to next year!