What can I say? My first year at Queen’s University Belfast has officially ended. Well, maybe not officially – I’m tempting fate and presuming that I have in fact passed. I hope I’ve got my 40%, if not then this Blog (and my current state of happiness/relief) will be null and void. But I digress, let’s get back to the important stuff – first year is over and I think I’ll sum it up by borrowing a few words from my main man Charles,
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”
Ok, now just ignore the latter half of that sentence and you have my first year experience – it really was the best of times. Like the McCune’s before me I decided to live at home. This decision had its Pros and Cons but I’m glad that I stayed at home – I saved lots of money, enabling me to spend all the money I borrowed from the government on important things like Boojum and DVDs from Play.com. Yes it would have been nice to be living in Belfast, calling in to see the Anthropologists whenever I wanted, but free-ness trumps everything and my current living arrangement is pretty sweeeeeeet.
As for the course, Social Anthropology with Modern History, that was pretty sweet too. Italian History was hell on earth but this semester I studied American History and really enjoyed it – who knew Americans actually did stuff?! Anthropology is PURE BEAUT... We study a little bit of everything - Globalisation, Christmas Markets, Fertility Treatments, Gossip, Symbolism, Cults and thanks to the Expressive Cultures module, people who dance around, sing some songs and kill pigs. I feel full of wordly wisdom after just one year of Anthropological studies!
The people also deserve a little mention... I managed to befriend an excellent bunch of people. They're an eclectic bunch, some are from Norn Iron, some from England and Emma, well, she’s from Genovia (like in the Princess Diaries). Despite their varying (and in Emma's case, made up) geographical locations, I still like them. In fact, I really like them. I could tell you that I love them all, but I find declarations of love to be a strange thing. Anthropologists – you know who you are. I’d like to think that we’re tight and even if I don’t leave you hundreds of Facebook comments, know that I’m thinking of you and yes, missing you – but shh, don’t tell anyone how much I actually like you, I don’t want to ruin my reputation.
I also became involved in the QUB Surf Club and what an excellent decision that was! With JJ as the founding member and President I didn’t really have a choice, but it was definitely one of the best Queen’s related decisions I made. Surf Club is full of babes, both male and female. You don’t even have to surf to be in the Surf Club – you just need a good attitude and an appreciation for the art of spooning. The people in Surf Club are also worth mentioning – I’ve made a great little group of friends, The B Team are PURE BEAUT and the rest of them are full of great BANTAH. So yes, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Surf Club is my absolute favourite!
A great deal of other things happened throughout the year, but they would take far too long to write down. I just wanted to throw something together to document this momentous occasion and now that I have I will wrap it up...
Despite being rubbish at everything, QUB got first year spot on. I made lots of friends, got involved in extracurricular clubs, went to a few lectures, learnt some interesting things and in general, had a really good time. I don’t think there’s anything I would change... actually I would have gone to Josephides lectures... NAT!
Xx
