This was a tough week! Probably because the preceding three seemed like a breeze. That’s mainly because I didn’t do much in those first three weeks, which was a big mistake, because those weeks are the time when you should be doing the most. Well, I didn’t. But it’s all done now so what can I do!
I’ll tell you what I can do: go for another walk. So today, on Sunday (let’s start from the end this time), I spent a couple of hours on my report which is due Thursday, and then after lunch I took the train to Uphall to meet a friend. We were deciding between going to Rosslyn Chapel and River Almond, and we opted for the latter because it was closer. It was my first time at River Almond and it was very pretty and autumn-y, and it was completely cloudy the entire day but it was still nice, even with the autumnal chill. We were in the Almondell and Calderwood Country Park area.
Yesterday (Saturday) I worked for a bit, then went to get coffee and groceries for the next few days, then got back home and did more work, and it was all for the report due Thursday. I’ve got 1000 words to write by then, and it’s only formative assessment but it would still be useful to do them well. Also on Tuesday we have to do presentations of our research projects in our small groups, and I feel like my group is pretty pointless about what we’re doing. It’s fine though, I tell myself, we’re meeting tomorrow for a short FaceTime about the presentation. I’m sure we’ll nail it.
In the afternoon I left for a wild yoga session I had booked weeks before. It was cold and on top of a hill, and I hate hiking but in the end it was worth it; the instructor was brilliant, and so were the views, but most of all I enjoyed the moment of peace and quiet and being out in nature. It made me feel connected again and I got a certain clarity, which came in as a blessing after the preceding period of absolute brain muddle.
We were gonna do pizza night with my flatmate, but we didn’t. Instead, he made pumpkin pie. I didn’t complain.
On Friday I was meant to have a tutorial, but I didn’t really; our lecturer released the lecture (Ledoux and Boullee) only at 10am, which was atypical as other lecturers released theirs a day or more before the supposed lecture time. The live tutorial didn’t happen; it’s meant to happen after the next ‘lecture’, though. At least the recording was more engaging than any other; I do love a John L.
I had a PT meeting, though, that was meant to recover me from my dreadful misery, and it kind of helped. PT meetings always do this for me. There’s the opportunity to laugh a lot, and that’s great, it’s an opportunity to release steam whilst still being embedded in the academic context, so it’s all nice and gives me better confidence, like struggle at uni is normal.
Rest of the day: walk along the Canal.
Thursday was somewhat dreadful, and not very productive in terms of uni work. I spoke to SSO during the drop-in hour and it was somewhat helpful, I was encouraged to break down my ‘problems’, and the lady at SSO is just so nice. The rest of the day I spent with Robin just kind of hanging and talking and we went and got snacks at ZWH.
Wednesday was kind of busy, I saw my PT in the morning (I don’t remember what we talked about, frankly), then had AoL workshop in the afternoon, and straight after – a meeting with my supervisor. The workshop got quite boring/mildly frustrating because we spent ages waiting for a staff member to come talk to us, once we’d run out of things to talk about. At 6pm I tuned in to a webinar organised by UCL Bartlett students titled “Can architecture be more horizontal?”. Then I was going to ‘go’ to an RSGS talk, but instead I cried and wailed about my supposedly squandered future (it’s not). Until early hours of the morning!
Tuesday – a live workshop at 10am, a live tutorial at 12pm (kind of boring… Perrault wasn’t as intriguing as Hawksmoor), and then spent some time transcribing interviews I did on Monday. Another day spent almost in its entirety in my ‘office’, which was until now the vacant room next door, but now is the new room of my flatmate who’d decided to switch rooms. (It will be annoying as hell. He listens to opera music non stop).
Monday, busy day! I did two interviews, one with my friend Michael and one with an absolute gem of a woman, a friend of my friend, who knows her from church. My interviewee is a fantastic lady around the age of 70, who’s more active than a lot of people my age, and certainly a lot more cheerful. I wish I was an old lady like her when I’m old. (If I’m ever old). I guess you don’t get many women like that in Poland, everyone’s just so tired and sick. Oh well. Generational and geographical difference.
That’s the wrap-up of week four; as I said in the beginning, it was a tough one, but it’s one that’s done now. Here’s to next weeks hopefully being free of dread and anxiousness about the future. (Oh, did I say I’d spent a lot of time this week looking at masters programmes? Well I did. But that’s to be continued).
kotersey 