Pffff
Finally finished and got a good feeling about the past four weeks. Glad it’s over with, learning is fun, but studying..
I’m feeling really tired now, but the Shippie Social should solve that tonight. Not much more to say actually, so time to get me piraty outfit, aaarrghhh
Ciao!
Well first two exams here in Soton are history, ‘only’ three left. I can’t say it’s been easy, practising old exams and doing one is very different and then two hours is really short. On the other hand most of my classmates have had the same problem; just not enough time to get everything down you know about the questions asked. So scores are not going to be 100% but both went pretty well.
When I made my planning for revisioning and two weeks of exams I scheduled Tuesday afternoon off and wow, did I needed that. I’d been studying for two weeks of 10 hour days (that’s 9am start, 23pm finish and if you do the maths you see I take the breaks into account) and with almost an entire day off… WOW I used it to do very little and do things like checking out the performance of the yachts racing in Key West Race Week. My friend on a Swan42 has been ill, but the team performed well with a third place as the best result of their day in the CS42-class. The Dutch Farr40 Mean Machine is sailing pretty well again and is second overall after three races (including a bullit). Monday and Wednesday saw racing being cancelled, but Thursday should be good again and I wish Koen (CS42), Sander (Farr40) and Fred (Melges32 I think) a great day and the best of luck!
The result of doing very little… This morning when I started I absolutely was flying and at around 5-ish was done for the day (in other words done what I had planned a couple of weeks ago). Had a nice dinner tonight before heading down to the pub to watch the Chelsea game (Carling Cup). Good fun going out with my house, but the match was boring.
For tomorrow there is a change of plans in my planning, or more an addition. With a couple of fellow shippies we’ve booked a group study room to work together in getting answers to several questions and through that way try and help each other out. Should be well good fun as well as good for revisions.
Oh and whilst I was doing nothing I bought a new pair of shoes. The label says they’re stylish and flash, all I know is they’re the right colour and (being Dutch the most important thing) I got a great deal on them:
That’s it for now, all is well. Life is good, though this revisioning thing is not the most pleasant and having al kinds of people around you finishing all of their exams already is maybe slightly demotivating. Then again their degree isn’t half as cool as mine…
Ciao!!!
..I’ll have done my first two exams here in Soton.
And that then just leaves three more.
I have finished all the coursework for the first semester and from what I can tell it has all been pretty good. This should help during this time of revisions and it actually does seem to do that, scary…
In the mean time the days are long and intense, but the daily schedule has become a routine and as a result the long hours are not that much of a problem. However I still can’t see how someone could survive and actually needs to be kicked out of the library at 2 in the morning but it happens. Then again I tend to be here shortly after it opens so I guess that explains.
Distraction wise it is a poor showing; the weather is horrible (there are floods throughout this country, luckily my place is near the top of the hill) and no racing (to participate in nor spend too much time following). Student life seems to have come to some sort of stop as well and thus it’s just eating, sleeping, studying and relaxing by reading “The Undutchables”.
I’m going to start my final stint for today, so I’m off.
Ciao!
A week has almost gone since I returned home. Southampton has done England proud with mostly rain the past week. Quite windy as well and with the temperature around 10 degrees just not that interesting. It was however great to see everyone again (even though some of them only arrived halfway through this week) and hear all the stories.
University life itself has changed a lot for many people over the break, going out every night just isn’t possible with the exams looming. For “us Shippys” this means that our regular schedule now has to be combined with revisions and as a result is the library starting to fill quite nicely with classmates. Talking about the library, since exams are coming up it doesn’t close at midnight during the week (as is usual during term and then 7 days a week) but at 2am. So the midnight break is looking interesting.
Personally I am confident, but realistic for the coming three weeks. My schedule/planning is tight but keeps the goals realistic, coursework is on schedule and the work I have to do is pretty well organised. The fact that IT-wise everything should be back to normal from tomorrow makes the last parts of the coursework that is due pretty easy. And I do not need not having a computer as a reason to head down to the library, so that should be no problem.
In the mean time I’m absolutely amazed by what Francis Joyon is showing. At the moment he is the second fastest boat to have been sailing around the world. Faster than fully crewed Maxi-Cats! That is just amazing… So my daily routine now includes visiting these links:
http://www.trimaran-idec.com
http://trimaran-idec.geovoile.com/tourdumonde2007/
http://trimaran-idec.geovoile.com/tourdumonde2007/positions.asp
That’s it for now, I need to finish some work and well, my planning doesn’t allow for more of this useless stuff.
Ciao!
Ps. The cold I got when my break started is almost completely gone after a week’s hard work…
I’m home safely in So’ton. Got some IT-related issues though, so both e-mail or instant messenger won’t be the fastest way of contacting me. Text or call will.
The University stuff is getting accessible again, so that’s really impressive (and nice).
Ciao!
Friday morning I’ll be heading home, back to Southampton. I really am looking forward to seeing everybody there and as a result won’t be wishing all you lot a happy new year from this spot.
With the IT services offline in Southampton, it is the perfect time for finishing some work that is due next week and for which I do not rely on the IT infrastructure of the university. Tomorrow is also the kick-off for not just revision but getting deep in to the material for the exams coming up later this month. That is all for after I have done some shopping and I actually have some food again and maybe a trip to the gym to get rid of the three weeks of easy living at my parents’ place.
I had a great time visiting and talking with everyone here in Dutchland (as the Brits still like to call it at Uni), but not knowing when I’ll be around again made it all the more enjoyable!
Ciao!
Ps. I think the comment function is not working properly, so you will have to send an e-mail or text. You know the address/number.
Time to wish everybody a very very good start to 2008!
2007 was a great year! The first half of the year was maybe a bit tougher but the second half made more than up for that. The new people I met, the people that I had met and kept in contact with, all my old and new friends I spent such great times with and of course the start of the new adventure in Southampton.
It is going to be hard to beat ’07, but looking forward into ’08 it looks very promising indeed:
– Getting deeper into the study-material
– Exploring the British Isles with all my new friends
– Sailing a lot on hopefully a variety of locations and boats
– Meeting more new people
And that’s just a start! Really promising and really challenging. So even though it is a shame the lovely yeaar 2007 ends, with a year as promising as 2008 waiting there is no time to waste.
A big thank you to everyone who has contributed to the great year 2007 was and I will do all I can to make everyones 2008 just a bit better than 2007!
For 2008 Love Life and enjoy every second of it!
Ciao!
To be Jolly!
So Merry Christmas to all!
And that’s actually all I got.
Enjoy today, tomorrow and the rest of the holidays.
Good luck to those who will set sail tomorrow in Sydney (I envy you).
Have fun to those who are in better places (be it snow or sun).
“Love Life”
Ciao,
Even though there is no snow (and it is not likely we’ll see snow during Christmas) Holland was pretty white the last couple of days:
Not much more has happened, if I’d wanted a specteculair time during the holidays I would have gone on a proper holiday… Relaxing though, so I’m not complaining.
Ciao
A big thank you to North Sails NL, for helping me fast and good when I had a small issue with some of my stuff. Good quality work, high quality service… Thanks!
For more info on North Sails NL: http://www.northsails.nl
