OOTD: Exam Wear

After four years of exams, I've finally learnt my lesson: the Sports Hub at Wollongong Uni is freezing, and it's a lot easier to concentrate if you're over-dressed than under.

I picked up this trench coat a few months ago on sale from Portmans. It's a lot warmer than I expected it to be, and it has quickly become one of my wardrobe staples this winter. 

My tights are from Zara. I love them, but the quality isn't that great. The first pair I bought had a split seam in the inner thigh. I took those back and returned them, which was fine, but the seam then split on the waistband, so I had to stitch them up by hand. Other than that, the material is thick, and they have a high waistband, which is flattering on everyone.

My top is from Sportsgirl, it's a lightweight jumper, and is great for layering. 

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I'M BACK!

GUYS I'M DONE WITH MY EXAMS!

I still technically have one essay to finish writing until I am officially on holidays, but I'm mostly done with it so I'm starting to get excited about my impending freedom.

I have really, really missed blogging and am glad to be back!
I have a few posts planned for the next couple of weeks that I'm pretty excited about, but for now, here's some snaps of what I was up to in my absence...which really was not that much now that I look back on it...

I had an exam on early Monday morning, so stayed Sunday night in Wollongong. Brad showed Cailin and I the local vegetarian restaurant, much to our protest. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against vegetarian food, but I kinda draw the line at soy pretending to be meat. That dish on the left? Lemon soy chicken. I probably should have just ordered a salad or something. We finished off the night with with deep fried ice cream. Probably one of my favourite desserts ever. 

The weather has been sufficiently gloomy lately, with temps dropping. I've kind of enjoyed studying while it's been raining outside. Makes it a lot less tempting to escape my desk. 

Finished off the semester with a take home exam and a normal 3 hour, open book exam. I do feel kinda bad for killing so many trees to make into notes. I think I did well in my exams though. Which could mean either I actually did do well, or I missed something important and will do very badly. You never can really tell with law. 

Headed off to the unibar for a couple of beers after our evidence exam was over. Also started reading Orange is the New Black. Absolutely loved the TV show, so thought I'd give the book a read. Am enjoying it so far, although it is pretty different to the show. 

Mandatory animal cuddles. 

Headed off to my local Target in my lunch break to check out the new NYX stand. How exciting we get NYX in Australia now!? The prices are relatively cheap, but still about 3x more expensive than everywhere else gets it. I picked up a couple of things, can't wait to share it! 

We've also been eating the beans from our veggie patch in the garden! So satisfying, eating things you've your boyfriend has grown from scratch! Things taste better from your own garden, definitely. 

And have been practicing lots and lots of headstands and forearm stands and handstands. Finally managed to get the pike I've been working on. 

Accomplishment. Feels good, yo. 

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Wordless Wednesday

A little afternoon pole practice to celebrate the end of some major assignments...

Because hanging upside down is how I unwind...

How do you celebrate the end of stressful times? I'm about to waste my night playing Tomb Raider...could not be happier with this!






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My Week in Pictures #30

GUYS I'M BACK! 

I've pretty much just had one of the worst weeks ever in terms of assessments due, commitments and all the rest of it. I've now got two weeks left of semester and then exams...it's all happening so fast it's insane. Anyway, I did take an unplanned hiatus and I'm sorry. I actually had every intention of blogging every day in May, and even have my little blogging calendar up with all my posts for the month planned. But sometimes life happens and you need to adjust. There's a life lesson there, I'm sure. 

This is what I've been up to the past week:

Surrounded by ducks at uni whilst I eat / study on the grass. 

This photo was taken in the midst of a pretty serious essay-thon. I got to the point where I had to reward myself for every 500 words reached. 500 words? Cup of tea! 1000 words? Load of washing! When you're swamped with uni work, even house chores become a rewarding break. 

Got my DIY on and made my mum her mother's day card =D I may or may not have also made one for J's mum...crafting is fun. 

I wanted to buy some flowers to liven up our place a little now that winter's coming, but when I headed to the florist I got persuaded to buy this beautiful anthurium! Unfortunately Rommy keeps trying to eat it, so it has to live up on the top of the bookshelf at night and can only be brought down when it's supervised, but that's okay.  

I also had a little photography date yesterday with Oishee from Rioter's Bloc. We swapped lens and snapped away for most of the afternoon; here's some of the better results from our afternoon together; 

I think those last two are my favourite. Who were all those people who engraved their names on that tree? Did they stay in those relationships? 

And where are those two people in the bottom going? What did they get up to on that day? 

The questions are endless and I've spent quite a while sitting here pondering the answers. 

What did you get up to this week?

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My Week in Pictures #28

It's been a tough two weeks here. Uni has been absolutely mental ... not only was everything due at once, but what was due was Hard. With a capital 'H'. It's all over now though (for a few weeks) and I'm really looking forward to having the coming week off. I want to get re-focussed on my blog, and myself, and spend more time doing what I enjoy.

Here's what I've been up to lately...

J bought me home 'Settlers of Catan' after I finished a horrible take home exam last Wednesday. I've wanted this game for the better part of a year, and it was such a nice surprise to come home to this. J bought it because I was anticipating friends coming over on Friday night to celebrate the end of mid-terms. But unfortunately plans changed. We ended up inviting his mate G over for a roast dinner and playing. SO MUCH FUN. I'm now constantly inviting people over to play haha.

Also caught up with one of my friends who used to work with me over Max Brenner. So good seeing her after about a month and catching up over delicious tea and hot chocolates.
I'm reading a new book; I've been on the hunt for this one for about a year and finally saw it in my unishop last week so snagged it up. I'm about 6 chapters in and loving it.

Bus stop Vogue. Funny story; the same morning I was reading this, I stopped into Coles on my way to work to pick up some breakfast. I was paying at the self-help cashier and one of the Coles' employees came up and yelled at me for not paying for the magazine! I was like "uhm I brought this in with me?" She said "NO I saw you bring it up to the register, you have to pay for it!!" I won the fight though with a simple "well...this magazine doesn't have a barcode on it, so it's not from your store" and I walked out. I love when I get the better hand in an argument and walk away graciously winning.
Also bought myself some new boots for winter. Retail really is therapy.

On Thursday was J and my anniversary. We went out to a Turkish restaurant in Newtown. I loved the decor of the place, really authentic and pretty. We chose to sit at the small tables with cushions, which later revealed itself as being a mistake. It was kind of impossible to get our long legs comfortable and poor J had to put up with my squirming for most of dinner. J ordered the meatballs, and I ordered some lamb cutlets. Unfortunately the rice from J's dish took longer than they expected to cook, and my lamb ended up slightly cold and way overcooked, which was a shame. The waiter was really lovely though, and we got some free dip for the extensive wait. J tried 'sour cherry juice', and I had a much-needed glass of wine.

What's your favourite board game? What's your best "winning an argument graciously" story?



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My Week in Pictures #13

 

 

 

It's been a busy week. Found a copy of Metal Hammer in the Unishop for $3.01. I'm always one for a bargain so picked it up. Enjoying some iced coffees in the warmer weather with Cailin. I've been so busy with uni I'm eating dinner at my desk again which is something I try to avoid. J and I spend most of our time doing our own thing so almost every night (usually regardless of how busy I am) we eat dinner together. Unfortunately not this week. Also finished off my find-a-word puzzle book I bought for the long train rides to/from uni. Great timing, as the semester ends.
And chilling with my study buddy. Rommy is really adorable - we've trained him to sit on our shoulders, like a parrot. HAHA.

Do you like find-a-words? Or are you a Sudoku fiend? What crazy things have you trained your pets to do?



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Organisation Tips! - Back to school!

Who else has just started / is about to start Spring semester?

My uni started back on the 23rd July, but I know some Sydney unis are only just going back. 

Today I wanted to talk about organisation! University is SO different from high school - even if you had a fail-proof organisation method for high school that doesn't mean it will necessarily transfer over smoothly. I mean, you have lectures, tutorials, seminars, pracs, a multitude of assignments and quite a few heavy textbooks to carry around. 

I'm currently in my third year, and it's honestly taken me about this long to work out a system that works for me. Throughout high school I relied on binders and loose leaf paper. They allowed me the flexibility to change things around that books don't. When getting to uni though I realised that binders can be too heavy - and I didn't like carrying around more than I had to for that day.

So today, this is what's in my aresenal backpack:

That's right! Display folders!

Display folders are incredibly versatile, lightweight and if you colour-code them to your subjects you will very quickly begin to associate "pink for politics" for example. This means that if you're running late you can pick up the right folder quickly and won't have to worry about getting to class to find you've got the wrong one. 

Labelling is always useful when organising. I used my Dymo label writer to print these out. 

Always make sure you have your subject outline with you. This contains important information as to assignment dates, teacher details and general protocol. 

At the beginning of each semester, you should read it and mark all the important dates in your diary:

Not only does this mean things are not forgotten, but it also helps you to see what weeks are going to be your busiest and let you plan accordingly. 

As for writing down things in class? That's entirely up to you. 

Personally, I always carry a larger notebook with me to jot things down. That way I can rip out the perforated pages and slip them into my display folder easily. This saves me having to carry around one book for every subject and keeps everything in order. 

For my language subject, I also carry a smaller notebook in my display folder:

It is in here that I write new words that we learn that aren't part of our "textbook vocabulary" and write down important grammar points. 

But I also like to bring my laptop some days. I use Microsoft OneNote to record my notes in class and lectures. Then I can print them out and slip them right into my display folder in the corresponding week. Which is also why display folders work better than binders - lecture slides and class handouts can easily and quickly be filed away without having to worry about having a hole punch on you. 

And if you're like me and bind your notes for your end of semester exams, then you can easily just pull them out and take them to be bound - no need to worry about re-printing anything because of creases / holes. 

How do you organise your uni work? Do you use folders or books? Or are you "paper-free" and have everything on your computer?

1 exam down!

After copious amounts of studying...

and a few too many skype study sessions ... 

Torts is now done!

I finished the exam on Wednesday night, at 8pm. 

I ran out of time, and I'm absolutely positive I won't get the mark that I wanted (*sniffle*) but I will pass the subject, so that's something. 

I find it so frustrating that such a huge amount of my marks rely on my performance in the end of semester exams. It just seems like such a silly way to test someone's knowledge. I knew the content, I just didn't have time to apply it all properly!

/rant. 

Anyway, that night I celebrated with Brad:

We had some beers and played a Harry Potter drinking game. 

We ordered pizza. We were told to expect a 40 minute wait. So we punished the pizza man and payed the $23 or something all in shrapnel:

The best part about exams is when they're over. 

I spent yesterday arvo and most of this morning reading non-uni related books. 

And tonight I'm spending the night starting to study for my next exam, next Thursday. 

So close to freedom, I tells ya! 

I'll leave you now with this funny graffiti-ed poster we found at uni: