HIDDEN AWAY

Hello,

Just a quick update to show I am still alive. I would apologise that I have got out of my habit of my weekly update but my hands are quite full with stuff at the minute, so really it couldn’t be helped. 

University

So yes, I have returned to the North and am currently habituating in a beautiful rented house in Portstewart with five other girls. I really like it, though I don’t know if I love it yet to be honest. Like second year is rather average compared to first year - where everything is new and exciting. Last year was all about making new friends, this year I think it’s more about maintaining the friendships that matter. This is an odd adjustment to get used to, it’s more settled and in some ways, less exciting.

Although I’m definitely enjoying myself, I’ve had many hilarious moments and terrific memories so far, and quite a few pictures to prove it too.

The work load for my course is quite noticeably heavier than last year and it takes a lot of effort to stay on top of it. Lots of reading, writing and practical work. I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep track of it which could bring my mark down. I’m trying my best though, I don’t want to to start getting stressed out. Like I’m only here for another year (my course is a 3 year course) then I’ll be graduating, it’s really flying in, so I want to enjoy every minute!

Life

My life seems to be revolving around two things at the minute: university and my own life. That may sound incredibly selfish, but I’m trying to get my life into order. I’ve been spending a lot of time by myself praying and pondering, because I feel there’s so much I want to do, but I don’t know where to begin.

After working and socialising, I just want to sleep. It sucks. Any other spare time I have, I put into over-analysing everything and it’s actually cracking me up because my brain doesn’t have enough power left to THINK that much. It’s preventing me from enjoying the moment and loving life. Aragh! It’s so hard to explain. When I make more sense I shall return to this confusing topic.


Things That Aren’t Nice:
I shall start with the bad list then we can end the post positively. 

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s make-up in Looper - NOO he doesn’t LOOK right, why mess up his beautiful face? 
• Confliction - Although we have great times together, a six person house can be... let’s say...tense. Especially with girls . Sometimes I feel a negative aura, where people are just in a mood for a good complain and I hate it! It brings me down. Also unnecessary shouting and noise in general within the house is unpleasant.
• Posters falling - My Portstewart bedroom is exposed to various temperatures throughout the day - from ice-cold in the early afternoon to moderate heat from 7:30pm-8:30pm. This has a horrible effect on the blue-tac which holds my posters in my room up. At least one poster a day has fallen off my wall since term started. The slight dent in the Inception one breaks my heart.

Things I Like:

When I’m not being crazy, sad or self-reflective, I do like some things. Recently I like:

• Josh Groban - I started listening to Josh Groban’s albums on Spotify and now I am totally hooked! Yes, I have a free month subscription to Spotify and now have realised I cannot live without it.
• Tumblr - Eugh why is this website so addictive. I have 17 posts of Joseph Gordon-Levitt queued from now to Sunday - that’s not normal behaviour, Claudia.
• Weather - it's now my favourite time of year again! It's dark and cold, it makes me happy, despite the lack of heating in the house. Hat season has begun!
• New Friends - I’ve built relationships with people that I’ve realised I no longer can live without. I look at them and think, wow, you are SO amazing - I actually love you! (In a friendly way of course, haha)

Yay I feel better after blogging!

Night night,
Claudia

ROOM

It’s funny, I’ve been at university for a month and I haven’t blogged about it yet. Anyway, I took some pictures of my room just to give you an idea of where I'm living, since it's unlikely my friends will want to stay over up here - there's very little to do. I completely adore it though, and it's probably a blessing there's no shops within walking distance or else I would be completely broke. 

Yes, this is my bed. I love my duvet, got it in Dunnes Stores. Also have my Andy Warhol cushions here too, making it as homely as possible. I wish I brought Flat Eric with me because I miss his smiling face.

Woo work area. I don't think you're allowed to put pictures or posters up on the wall incase it chips the paint, but I done so anyway because you all know I can't stand looking at bare walls. The Camp America wall planner came in our welcome pack and it's very very handy.

 A small selection of my many Snapfish photos I ordered in early September! It was difficult picking a selection which are my favourites but also don't make me look like a weirdo if anyone is ever in my room visiting.

Incredibly poor selection of DVDs up with me but I don't have any good ones at home either so I took ones I knew I would watch sometime on my own. Completely HOOKED on the Doctor Who series at the minute. It's so so GOOD! I don't know what I'm going to watch when I finish watching it all. Can't view any dramas down here because the internet is incredibly slow and dislikes buffering videos.

I bought this little guy at a fair in Belfast and I never have seen anything like it since. Think it's meant to be some kinda Japanese or Chinese dog? I never named him because I could never think of a one good enough, anyway he makes a cute decoration. 

This is my timetable! The highlighted blocks anyway. I'm very impressed with it - late starts on Monday, finish early on Fridays and off Wednesdays. It suits me perfectly. And it's screanings AKA film night every Monday which is just awesome. My favourite class is Digital Imaging - where I'm FINALLY being taught how to use Adobe. I LOVE it :)

Look! I bought this at the poster sale last week. It's so pretty and printed on amazing quality of paper. And it was 3 posters for £10, I'll show you the other two in a minute. Again, this probably shouldn't be up on the wall but I hope I shall get away with it.

This is the view out of my window. The place where I live is called Cranagh Village. I live in the top floor which means I can SPY on people!! Or.. people watch would be a better way of putting it. There's always a lot of activity round here, although on Wednesday nights I can hear everything that's going on outside, which is annoying.

Another view of Cranagh. 

My wardrobe - pitiful because I like hanging all my clothes up and that is difficult to do because it's rather small. I also bought a Bruce Lee poster - I might give this to Jared for his birthday but I haven't decided yet. 

Third and last poster - Japan - I think Hazel has this too? Anyway I thought it was very pretty. It might have to be moved though because inside the bathroom door is not a wise place to put stuff up. :/ 

- Claudia

POST

Hello! I am postponing my Gaga post yet again because I want some of the photos Kerri took before I publish it. So it says on my to-do list “Blog something” which technically, I did do last night, but I may have caught the blogging-bug again so I will write another entry when I’m in the mood!

Okay, last week, which was an absolutely amazing week for me, was enhanced by receiving two, TWO! items in the post. I would be lucky to get one letter a month, never mind any packages! So the first thing that arrived was 4 posters from HMV Pure. If you haven’t heard it, it’s the HMV store’s rewards scheme: you save up your points you get from purchasing something in the shop. When you finally save up enough, go onto their online store and choose a gift for yourself. These products are absolutely amazing, like you can get signed guitars, concert & movie premiere tickets and props from movie sets- but you need a lot more points for that! I have been collecting for about a year and last week skimmed through the site to see if there was anything worth spending points on.

I chose a Emma Watson poster, Wizard of Oz and two Gaga ones. All were reasonably cheap, I picked Wizard of Oz because it was rather pretty, not that I particularly like that film.

However, when they arrived on Tuesday they were packed in a massive flatpack box! (Free packaging by the way!) The Wizard of Oz one was MASSIVE! It was one that would have been hung in the HMV shop. The two Gaga ones came in rolls and Emma Watson was A3 size. They all look so good!

To add to the excitement, I got more post on Wednesday. I and ordered Snapfish photos because I had 100 free prints, many thanks to O2 Surprises. So I spent Wednesday evening sticking them all up round my room. These prints are another one of my many obsessions.