It’s all go!
Wow! I love the autumn here in Lancaster, everything is so beautiful. I don’t think I appreciated how pretty the campus is last year, even though I was living there! I’m able to look out of the window on the bus in the morning and huge open spaces are lovely and autumnal – the colours are just wonderful. I love it as the nights draw in early and I have an excuse to wear warm jumpers, but the days where the sun is shining through the clouds and it’s just cold enough to justify taking a flask of tea are the best! Aaah, autumn is definitely well and truly here and so is that feeling of things mounting up as we come to the middle of term!
You may recall my telling you about my mentor in the last post? Well, she asked me if I would give her a phone call this week, just to have a chat about the sorts of things she has done in her career and the sorts of things I would like to get out of the programme. What an incredible lady! I am genuinely quite astounded at how much she has done with her career – and what is better is that she did her studies here at Lancaster! Victoria works for the BBC as a senior broadcast producer and her job sounds absolutely incredible. The sorts of things she was telling me were just surreal; Victoria has worked for with the team covering Nelson Mandela’s death, she’s interviewed Justin Bieber and she works on the production and the cue for BBC Breakfast each morning; it is genuinely incredible! She made it very clear that the journalism and media industry is tough and that there are lots of things they will expect of you, but it can be one of the most rewarding careers going. Just having a little chat with her has made me so excited to learn more about the industry and we are already working on ‘operation work experience!’ – I am hoping to get a ‘sort-of-mini-placement’ at my local newspaper at home over the Christmas or Easter break, so I need to perfect my CV and I am looking forward to going over Victoria’s feedback; it’s all systems go!
This week saw the first couple of meetings for me as an academic rep too. I was really intrigued by the sorts of things that might come up at the consultancy meetings between the faculties and departments. It is clear that there are some issues up for debate at the moment and it’s nice to hear and be part of such a vibrant discussion on concepts that will matter for current and future students. The Faculty Forum was so interesting and it was great to mix with students from different year groups and listen to the issues that they’d like to raise – especially the third years, as it is good to know what they thought about second year when they were in this position last year. There were definitely some really valid points made in the meetings and it was really encouraging to see how the work and campaigns of the LUSU full time officers comes to fruition. Our full time education officer made it really clear what his policies were and that he wanted us to discuss the means of enforcing them within the department. I loved the fact that the wall between the students’ union and the students was broken down a little in these meetings – I felt like I understood how things were operating, rather than just hearing through the grapevine the sorts of things that the Union were trying to put in place for students. Working closely with members of the History Department was really beneficial too and it made me realise how much attention is paid to the various courses in the ways that they are structured, taught and examined. We were able to give module specific feedback, which was great as it’s a way of making the educational experience here at Lancaster the best it can possibly be. We were also able to discuss issues that would spread across the department to help improve students’ quality of learning and it was pretty clear that the members of staff were really keen to get feedback and establish some worthwhile changes. I really do look forward to the next few meetings!
The things I have been covering in my course this week have made me so, so, happy! Sometimes when I’m talking to people about my course I fear that they think I’m a little strange…! The themes that I have been able to draw out of my modules so far this term are concepts that really matter to me and capture my interest. In my Paris lectures this week, the key focus seemed to be on the breaking down of social constructs and understanding the mentalities of the revolutionaries and it something I find really fascinating, especially in light of the ways we look at Paris and its history today. This lecture and our compulsory module Hist.250 are really helping me to reflect on the ways I view events in history and they are offering me new historiographical techniques that I really hope I can pursue when considering ideas for my own writing. In weeks 5 and 6 coming up it is definitely time to start essay planning, so maybe I can employ some of the new skills I am (hopefully!) absorbing. My PPR module seems to tie in really well with some of the concepts discussed in History and I love the fact that they are so intertwined; I feel like I am gaining a new perspective on each of the subjects due to the interdisciplinary notions that crop up from time to time. The value of religion in society over various periods is definitely something that has taken my interest, and this module has allowed me to develop a better understanding of the changes to Church structures and their effects on society – the complex implications of a monastic or monarchical structure is something that seems to crop up in a few of my modules and it is fascinating to see how different disciplines borrow from one another to achieve a sense of understanding. (Again, apologies for the rambling…I will stop now and return to a slightly lighter subject!)
I haven’t spoken very much about my time in Ballet Society so far in the posts this year, surprisingly! We have been up to quite a lot of things together and being part of the exec has been really, really fun! We had our first social a couple of weeks ago and it was adorable; we all wore pink and then headed to Sugar for the evening. Spending time with the girls is such a laugh and everyone is really sweet too. We have vamped up our fitness classes by trying lots of new exercises and different styles. A couple of weeks ago I taught a Zumba class and it was hilarious, but since then we’ve done fitness and flexibility as well as body conditioning. In the next couple of weeks I think we’re going to try our hand at yoga and aerobics; it’s going to be a real laugh, I hope! Speaking of which, the President of the society, Emily, and I took part in an LA1:TV programme this weekend and it was one of the funniest things I’ve seen this term! The show was in a team games format and we were given the opportunity to play an equivalent of Family Fortunes, with hilarious results and we also did teach the presenter, which involved us attempting to show off our ballet skills… (How effective that was I don’t know, but we tried; I think Darcy Bussell’s place as Prima Ballerina is safe for now!) I will try and get the link up on the next post when the oh-so-talented LA1 team have done the editing for it. I was so impressed by the knowledge these people had of running a production and using the tech; it was so cool!
Before I close, I must say that I hope you all had a lovely and spooky Halloween! Experiencing Halloween at uni is one of the best things – people go all out with their outfits: there’s fake blood, face-paint, wigs, matching outfits, liquid latex; you name it somebody probably has it sorted! My friend Becky and I decided this year to go as aliens, I don’t think we were very scary, but dressing up and putting on all our make-up was really fun! We met up with some of our friends from our old flat last year too and we had a really lovely night in Sugar, finished off with cups of tea and food! Spending time with my friends like this is something I really love. When I imagined coming to uni I could only but hope that I would find a couple of really lovely people to be close with and I think I’ve been very lucky in that respect. As were sitting in the flat laughing and drinking tea I couldn’t help but smile; I haven’t been ‘out out’ in quite a long time and just dressing up, busting some strange looking dance moves and enjoying some time with my friends made me think that while I am ready to take on these next couple of weeks, which I know will be tough, I have some fab people to go to for a chat, a giggle and a cuddle when I need to.
I hope you have a lovely week guys – enjoy Fireworks Night on the 5th!
History Hugs,
Eleanor