So a little later than I had planned, here is what I got up to in New York, last week.

We left on Sunday morning, at a ridiculously early time – just after 7.30 am. That meant I got up at 6 am, showered and got dressed, and then checked I had everything before heading up to the university to meet the bus. It was strange seeing Lincoln so quiet, as if the place had been evacuated and I was the only person left. I got to bridge house nice and early, I was surprised to learn that the first person there, was someone who usually shows up late to lectures. But anyway, I got there, and was one of the last of our group – our group that was easily recognisable as we had gotten hoodies made. Sad maybe; funny yes; easily recognizable in a crowd defiantly.

The coach ride down to Heathrow was interesting, everyone was strangely hyper and the time seemed to fly by. We got to Heathrow just after 12, and were checked in within the next 30 mins and from then we were ‘free’ – no lecturers watching over us, the only rules were don’t get wasted and be at the gate for when it opens. So what did we do – well as soon as we cleared the security checks including a separate scanning machine for people’s shoes, we headed off into the duty free area and took advantage of the free samples – one of baileys, one of whiskey and one of something else...and then we headed off to the bar.

Our flight was at 3.55pm, and the gate opened just after half 2, I think, which left us little time to do anything. I saw some of Nick’s speech and then the clapping at then end, before learning the news that Britain was about to be hit by a massive storm, and fortunately for us, although not for everyone else, we were going to fly around the storm. We had a couple of drinks in the bar, as well as a little bit of food, before it was time to head to the gate, and to break with airport tradition we were at gate number 1.

I’m usually fine with flying, once were in the air that is, it’s the take-off and landings for some peculiar reason that I don’t like. So once we had taken off, and throughout the group had swapped seats so we were all sat in our particular friend circles, the onboard entertainment came on, and the drinks were served. Most of the students in our group were under 21, which meant once they got to America they weren’t going to be able to drink and so everyone seemed to take advantage of the free alcohol, whilst bearing in mind that getting absolutely hammered wasn’t an option.

I watched Juno whilst on the flight and for me it lived up to all the hype that’s been going around about it. I can easily see why Ellen Page was nominated for an Oscar for it, her performance is stunning, and the movie is brilliant – Allison Jenney’s smallish part is perfect for her, funny and serious at the same time, just like CJ in the West Wing. As for other entertainment I watched 2 episodes of Family Guy and 2 episodes of the Class, the Top Gear episode where they had to make their own limousines as well as Stardust – another brilliant film.

Unfortunately the food on the flight was not so brilliant. The choice on both flights was either Chicken or Beef, both of which I tried, and both of which I will never try again. After a time the flight became tedious. People were already tired having been up since 6am (British time) and as we didn’t land till 7.50pm in New York, which in essence was 11.50 British time – we would come to learn, after staring at the clocks in JFK for an hour, that America had moved their clocks forward on the Saturday night so they were now only 4 hours behind the UK, instead of the usually 5.

Once we had landed, we then faced the troubles of immigration. Firstly we were queued for over an hour to get the actual people, and there we had to hand over the forms we had filled in on the plane, one of which includes a question asking if you were involved with the Holocaust. With tighter security after the 9/11 attacks travellers entering the United States now have their finger prints recorded, and their Iris scanned. It didn’t take to long to get through security, once you had got an actual person that is, and for their part the officials were directing people to the American section of the desks (usually for Americans re-entering the country) to clear the backlog of people. So all was going relatively well until one member of our group was taken away to be furthered questioned.

Apparently his name flashed up on some terrorist watch list and hence he was taken to a room away from the rest of us. Two of our lectures went to find out was happening, and stay with him to make sure he would be ok, whilst the third lecturer took the rest of the students passed customs and into the main arrivals building where we waited for news. We waited as long as we could before we had to go and get the coach transfer to the YMCA we were staying out. As it turned out whilst we were on our way into Manhattan the student and the lecturers cleared immigration and customs and were on their way in a cab.

After settling in, to our rooms and ordering take away pizza, we all went to bed at just after 1 am local time (5am GMT). Sleep would have been a great idea, if it wasn’t for another group of students arriving at the YMCA and making an absolute racket for the next hour or so :(

Monday

We got up and got smartly dressed, as we were spending the day at the UN – first for a tour of the building and then for a student conference in the afternoon. We walked to the UN, from west 63rd street where we were staying, down to Times Square which spreads from 42nd street at its southern point to 46th Street at its northern point, and from 46th street we walked east, to the end of the road and there is the HQ for the UN. The tour of the building it self was amazing, although the facts given out by the tour guide were mostly things you can find on the UN website. On the tour itself we saw the UN Security Council Chamber, the UN General Assembly chamber as well as items which survived the nuclear detonation at Hiroshima but had been melted so that they no longer resembled their former selves and for most people in our group the highlight of an AK-47 being turned into a guitar.

The conference in the afternoon was for students from across Britain, and took place within the UN itself, in one of the conference rooms that is normally used by the diplomats when they are discussing whatever it is they do. It took the format of three guest speakers and then question an answering sessions with each of them, and then we were meant to have a debate on the powers of the UN Security Council, and specifically should the 5 permanent members of the Security Council have a veto. However instead of having the debate we had a general Q&A session with the man in charge of the conference.

The conference finished just before 6 o’clock and for the rest of the night we were once again free from our lecturers. We decided to head back to the YMCA, so headed off to the nearest subway station, which was Grand Central Station. So before we got on to the subway itself we went into the main bit of Grand central and took a few pictures, then tried to work out how to get back to the YMCA. The plan was simple – get a subway to Time’s Square and from there head north, and the plan worked really well, until we went the wrong way at Times Square and ended up on 14th Street.

So we turned around and eventually got to 66th Street which was the closest station. Quickly went to our rooms to pick up some money and get leave our conference stuff their, then we headed back to the subway and headed to Times Square to find some food. We ended up at an Irish bar just off Times square had a nice meal out, before going back to Times Square and then heading off to Rockefeller centre via another bar. I took a few more photos at Rockefeller, before heading back to the YMCA.

Tuesday

In the morning we visited Ground Zero, and unlike the last time I was there the site has changed and is now no longer more a memorial but a building site. The vender’s across the street are all gone now and work has begun to build the new World Trade Centre. After visiting the site we headed down to the Tenement museum, which looks at housing for immigrants up to the 1930’s. It was interesting to see the changes the people faced in just a short amount of time.

After the museum we went to 34th street where the Empire State Building is, but before going up we went and grabbed some food from diner, with a waitress who could not count to 7. The Empire state Building looked really busy, based on the queue to get in the building, but once we got passed the ground floor there was practically no-one there. Once we got to the observation deck, the view was clear for miles, we could see all over the city, from downtown to the tips of the city.

We stayed up there for maybe half an hour, before heading off to Macy’s, and there we went our separate ways as we shopped. I bought a necklace for my mum, which was a late mother’s day present, and after I got that, I headed up to Times Square, which I walked to. Took a look round the virgin megastore, looked for a few CDs, but it turned out they were cheaper here in the UK, then headed off to the Hershey’s store to get some chocolate for a friend.

After walking from Macy’s, on 34th street to 63rd street my legs finally gave up, so I went up to my room and rested on my bed for an hour whilst I waited for some pain killers to quick and my leg would stop hurting.
In the evening we got smartly dressed again and went to the Marriot at times square, to go to a revolving bar called ‘The View’. We each had a drink, and it was expensive but when you’re not just getting a drink but a spectacular view of the whole city it was incredibly worth it. We saw most of the city while we were up there and pretty much went all the way around, before we headed out, and down to Rockefeller again so that some of the group could go ice skating, which was very funny to watch. It was around 11 before we went for food and being very hungry and wanting somewhere we knew would still be serving, so we headed back to the Irish bar form Monday night. And after that we headed back and crashed in our rooms

Wednesday

Wednesday was the hardest morning to wake up...the jet lag had finally set in and everyone was absolutely shattered...which is why it was kind of sad that Wednesday was our last day in New York. In the morning, after checking out of our rooms we got on the subway and headed down to Battery Park so that we could get the ferry over to Ellis Island. The views from the ferry were amazing, not just of Ellis Island but also of the Statue of Liberty, and downtown Manhattan. Ellis Island it self was interesting. They’ve turned the building now into a museum that not just looks at the history of the Island, but also at the history of immigration throughout the United States. We stayed at Ellis Island for a couple of hours before heading back to the Manhattan, got the subway back to the YMCA and were all ready to go to the airport, when we found out form the travel company that the information that they gave us on our itinerary was wrong, and we had a couple more hours in the city to explore before we were needed to get the coach to the airport.

So we went Strawberry fields and saw where John Lennon was shot, and then explored central park for over an hour before going back to the YMCA and getting a drink in the cafe and waiting for everyone else to assemble before we headed off to JFK. We checked in incredibly quickly, and then had a little over 2 hours in the airport, and after we’d bought some duty free and had a bite to eat it was time to get on the plane and fly home.

The flight home was quick, just under 6 hours, and very turbulent but it was fine although I got practically no sleep, which basically meant that I slept on the coach back to Lincoln, and then slept for 12 hours Thursday night.

So, ive been in New York for he last few days, and have had an amazing time. I'll write about what i got up to, sometime in the next fewdays, but for now here are a few photos from the trip;

so im back here in lincoln just in time for uni to start. sometime this weekend i will blog about conference (it will probably be in two parts) but for now lets talk about uni.

enrollment is usually the time for long ques in the sports hall, and thats how it was for my first year. a 9 o'clock enrollment time, the day after one of the Student Unions events (which meant that i was quite hungover), along with the 200-300 other students in the sports hall. to make matters worse the sports hall was boiling hot and the whole thing lasted 3 maybe 4 hours (and almost all of that was stood up)

so with that experience in mind no-one was all that hopefull for would happen last year (for the start of my second year). fortunatly our time to enroll was late afternoon, after 4 oclock which meant by then that almost all the 2nd years had already gotten through so there was practically no ques. so compared with the 4 hour wait in 2005, 2006 enrollment took all off 10 mins :)

This year has been a little different. firstly the university had sent everyone there enrollment forms in advance, compared with other years where you had to fill in and check the form before you could advance (to enrollment). secondly because i was in brighton i couldnt enroll with the rest of the 3rd years (which apparently was a good thing as there was a power cut yesterday afternoon which stopped it completly for a while) so that meant instead f quing up for ages yesterday with the rest oy my faculty, i got to enroll this morning (when there were no ques :P )

so compared with 4 hours in 2005, and 10 mins in 2006 this years enrollment took 2 mins :P

which meant ive had the rest of the day to do some odd jobs, like find where the university shop will be this year (they've moved it every year ive been here) and go to the uni library (which was full of freshers for some reason. one of my ex-housmeates was shocked at this as she didnt go in to the library till the middle of the semester) to try and find out my timetable, which i havent got yet :(

this weekend, apart from blogging about conference im probably not goanna do anything, and enjoy my last weekend of freedom before uni starts up properly (and avioding lincoln city center tomorrow as lincoln are playing grimsby)

You know you've been at Lincoln too long when.....

1. You really believe the swans are out to get you.

2. You don't blink when you walk through a huge gaggle of half turkey/half duck things

3. You begin to think the walk from the student village to the Spar is just way too far to bother.

4. The people in Cypriana/Topkapi/Poppins know what you're going to order before you've even walked in.

5. You know the accommodation people by name.

6. your housmate emails you to tell you you have post

7. Scream, and it makes you think the Backstreet Boys really are cool again.

8. You remember all the dance moves to those cheesy 90's songs.....

9. And you don't get embarrassed when you do the said dance moves..

10. We all hate the Scream bouncers

11. Many of us have decided we don't mind risking disease and contamination by going to Sugarcubes regularly.

12. Wednesday and Saturday = Engine Shed!!

13. You start getting taxis back from the Engine Shed... even though you only live in the student village.

14. Staring out your bedroom window at the view of the Cathedral becomes a reasonable way to pass your time.

15. You can now just about find your way around the Architecture building, but still curse those damn architects that built it.

16. You've stopped being appreciative of the fact we live on a river.

17. And start moaning about chavs overtaking Lincoln...


18. Then go home and realise just how nice Lincoln is.. and just how chavvy our home towns are in comparison

19. 10 degrees is considered a warm day

20. And you sit outside the shed pretending Summers here, even though it's still really freezing.

21. You go home and ask for a treble treble jug and wonder why they give you a weird look, and then charge you over ten quid :(

22. You know the people who work in the Shed by name and have your own seats.

23. You get out the shower and don't bother to shut your curtains cos you know everyone in the court next door has prob seen you naked through your window anyway!!

24. Facebook, Deal or No Deal, Neighbours and Hollyoaks become your life.

25. You are determined to one day reach the island in the middle of the Brayford.

26. You haven't yet visited the cathedral or the castle cos you know that they, or you, aren't going anywhere any time soon.

27. You start to hate train journeys cos you know the only place you're guaranteed to get to is fuckin Newark.

28. You go out at night without a coat risking hypothermia but think nothing of it because you're used to the minus temperatures.

29. You start to appreciate just how cool the Scream toilet attendent Steve is.

30. Something breaks but you don't bother reporting it because you know no-one's coming to fix it for you.

31. You walk into the Engine Shed and think you know everyone in there even though the place holds 1600 people.

32. One pitcher in the Glasshouse isn't enough anymore!

33. You meet people you think you know but really you only know them through the Myspace Uni. Lincoln message board, or Facebook.

34. You only used to walk in late to lectures in the JLT cos you could sneak in the back... but now you don't care about disrupting the lecture by walking late into Cargill or Coop.

35. You begin to notice the parallel universe that is behind Wilko's and beyond (and often wonder if your at home)

36. You automatically think low of people of they STILL go to Ritsys on a Wednesday night

36. You don't understand when other friends explain about getting a bus to uni

37. Begin to appreciate how one small bridge can make such a huge difference in your daily travels

usually im not looking forward to taking exams, but this year is diiferent. partly coz i only have 3 of the blooooody things to do, but also coz my 3 exams are spread out over the 3 weeks of examination time, which gives me loads of time to revise :)

im also kinda happy that didnt have to do a presentation this week :) which is good as we havent actually finished writing it yet :P

so week extension, plenty of time to revise for exams.....alll is right with the world....well at least at uni :)

so spent this weekend in harrogate, for the Spring Lib Dem Conference. it was good, and interesting despite the fact i got a masssive case of man flu while i was away :(

we left friday afternoon. i went with Heather and Ryan, Lincolns 2 Lib Dem councillors, and we (i use the term we very very loosely) drove up to harrogate. took a couple of hours to get there, a fair bit of it in ques levaing Lincoln, and Ques going into harrrogate. our hotel was just down the road from the conference centre, and convientlly next to a wetherspoons :)

after settling in @ the hotel, headed down to the conference it self, picked up the holders for out id badges, and took a walk around the exhibition, which wasnt all that big b4 going over to the conference bar, in the holiday inn attached to the centre. we stayed there for a bit, had a very overpriced drink, and saw Ming campbell coming into the hotel, b4 gonig to the 'rally' in the evening. it was on crime, not how to cause crime, instead how to cut crime. it was OK, Nick Clegg is a good public speaker, funny at times, there was a video, made by one of ryan and heathers freidns, about how local lib dem authorities were cutting crime and then there was Mings speech, whcih was.....well it was ok. nothing special. we left there around 7.30 went to wetherspoons for some food, met up with a few people b4 going back to the confreence bar, where everyone goes during conference, and began to run in to various MPs including Sarah Teather MP, tiny tiny person and Lembit Opik - without a cheaky girl

saturday morning went round harrogate town centre, to find a pharmacy, b4 going to conference, taking advantage of the free copy's of the Independant they were giving away, b4 going to the trident debate. B4 the debate listened to Vince Cabel speech - listened here used in a very loose term, as i wasnt really paying attention which led to me and ryan being very surprised to find out he had announced new tax policy during the speech. trident debate was interesting, lots of people very pastionatly talking about nuclear disarmemant, and one party activist using the limelight to complain about head office.

next we went to a meeting about how to attract european citizens living in the UK, to vote for the party at local and european elections. we mostly went coz there was the promise of free food, which we took full adavantage of. in the evening we once again went to wetherspoons for food as well as several drinks, then went back to the conference bar. where i almost saw the public lynching of Simon Hughes MP - basically he said something a while ago that pissed off alot of the party members, and he made the mistake..well actually he made 2 mistakes
1. he tried to explain what he said
2. He hasnt learnt how to quit whilst hes ahead
so public lynching neally took place. also saw Lembit Opik playing the harmonacha

sunday. i was very hungover and very ill. having a man flu when u think your goanna throw up isnt fun. we packed up the car, b4 heading back to the last day of conference. we didnt actually go to the leaders speech, for the main reason of we didnt think that a photo of us sleeping while he was talking would do any good. and also it meant we could get on the computers and just watch the speech on TV

got back to lincoln about 3 oclock, i unpacked then went to bed. just didnt have the energy to do anything, and went to sleep at like 9.30

monday woke up at 6 in the morning tried to get back to sleep, gave up after 7, put chris moyles on and stayed nicely wrapped up in bed whilst playin on the ps2. took the day off uni, to try and get rid off my man flu. also took tuesday off which has basically meant ive missed two thirds of my uni weeek with man flu :(

ok so yesterday is my busiest day in university - 4 hours back to back. a lecture on comparative politics - this week on helath was fun at the strat as the lectureer made us work out.rank countries in order of life exectancy, infant mortality and obesity levels. the result if this was basically live in japan you'll live longer.

second and third hours are double IR. now normally its a lecture followed by a seminar for the week befores lecture. however for the last 2 weeks the lecture has opverran so weve had less of a seminar, which all of were fine with...well not really all bar one of us are fine with it.

theres about 20 people in the group, including a couple of exchange students one from latvia and one from franc. now it wuldnt take a genious to work out from the title that the problem yesterday was the french woman. as the lecture over ran and lasted an hour and 20mins instead we had a quick few mins break then went into the seminar and our lectrer cleraly said "get into groups for a couple of mins then we will discuss this as a whole class"

simple enough you would think. well no not exactly. as the couple of mins were up claire (lecturer) brought us all back together to discuss the questions, and which point michelle (the fench lady)said to a couple of people that she was "pissed off", then stood up turned around and started having a go at claire, coz she haddnt had enough time to do her work, and we should have had 2 weeks of lectures before the start of the new semester, coz another department had.

now personally at this point i would have either shouted back or slapped across the face and told her to shut up. however claire just stood there and took it all, then told her to "to talk to her at the end". so that was that...almost as we were discussing the formation of israel and what we woulod have differently, or wehere we think the problem is etc she sat there and tutted everytime someone gave an answer.

now this isnt the first time she has annoyed everyone in the IR class. last semester we had presentations to do in each seminar, and it didnt matter whose it was she would talk always through it. the worst bit is she doesnt realise that shes doing anything wrong. shes just so anoying.

ok i rant over

so ive decided to start blogging again, for no particular reason, apart from id like to have stuff written down somewhere to look back on in a few years. yea i know its cheesy but whatever :P im also only bloggign on here, so that i can b frank about uni and my friends there with out them getting really pissed at me

so where to start.

last weekend was by housemate katie's last night in lincoln b4 she goes over to australia to study for a semester. we went out to celberate, and me and katie got well...very drunk.had a couple of drinks when i was getting ready, then half a bottle of wine round at lotty's house. we got a taxi up to the pub, via our house coz katie forgott her ID lol.

so first we went to falcon - triple for singles bar. its really simple u ask for a spirit and mixer - i.e. malibu and coke and you get 3 shots of malibu and like a slpash of cola. definetly the best place in lincoln to get drunk on not much money. planning on going there for my birthday in a few weeks. so we stayed there for a few drinks, sat outside, for somereason, then went inside where it was lovely and warm.
we left there and went down to revolution, had some randmoc cocktail, think it was a long island ice tea, which was ok, saw steph brown...me and katie decided to get another cocktail each,and after 10 mins in the q got the drink, got back to the others and they were like "can u hurry with your drinks we want to move on". so 5 mins later my glass was empty and we moved onto glasshouse.

glasshouse is a really cool student pub, just off the uni campus that has brilliant student deals. the best one of them being a pitcher where u can have 9 shots of any spirit, for the sake of example lets says malibu :) and then its topped up with which ever mixer you want, e.g. cola. its the equvilant of 3 large glasses, all for £5.95!!!!!! your meant to share them between 2 or 3 people, but i just had one to myself :P we stayed in glasshouse till last orders then headed off to engine shed - the SU nightclub. its massive inside and used to be an old train-engine shed (hence then name). i didnt drink anything in there, partly coz i could barley sit up straight in enguine shed, and also that i twisted my ankle (somehow) on the way to glasshouse.

stayed in engine shed till just after 2. said goodbye to everyone then headed home into the rain :( stopped off at topkapi - local kebab house on the high street, and got cheese and chips :). ate them when i got home and finaly fell asleep around 3 am.

katie left on sunday afternoon which meant only one thing ------ And then there were two

should prbably explain eve, my other housemate is also studying abroad this semester so its just me and emily. now its safe to say that my friendship with em is rocky at best. she has some rather anoyying tendancies, and am sure i have mine, but theres little things about there that really annoy me. like for instance she never does any washing up, or general cleaning of the house for that matter. last week she left her fish and chip rappers in a bag in the front room...all week never moved them said she kept forgtetting even though she looked at it everyday.

theres also the heat issue. she insts on having the heating on full blast even if its boiling in the room and this combined with the fact that she wears thin clothes of only has a couple of layers on. am sorry but if your cold just put MORE FUCKING CLOTHES ON

anyway this week at uni has been ok, actually its been really good. ive been looking forward to getting back to uni, properly, for the last few weeks, so that i could see everyone and just have something to do my timetable for this semester is brilliant - 2 days off a week :) including friday's!!!!!!!!!!:)

not much else for now. talk soon :)

so monday evening aim sitting in the library, not doing much work, when i started gettin random messages from helen. after an hour or so the messages sopped, and i continued to work until......

Griff and helen were stood next to me in the uni library. lol yes the pair of them got "lost" on the way back from cambridge, saw a sign for lincoln and decided to take a little detour. there is video on helens phone, of them running up the the stairs and heading thorugh the library and another one of us wlaking abck to the car

so thought id share that lille insite into my life, since i keep forgetting to update on here.

Todays been a typicall saturday just lazyin about doing very little. tommorrow will probably be the same :)

So as promissed below are my assesment results for my first year at uni
Assessment results

Researching – 58 overall (2:2)
Group Work - 42
Individual project – 66
Exam – 59

International Relations - each were 1 semester units
Introduction to International Relations – 65 - (2.1)
Forces of change – 64 - (2:1)

Intro to government and Politics - 65 overall - (2:1)
Brit politics – 66
USA – 64

British Politics since 1914 – (1 semester unit) 65 overall (2:1)
Presentation- 63
Essay – 66

Power and Ideology – 68 overall - (2.1)
Essay – 66
Exam – 70

Politics of everyday life (1 semester unit) – 70 overall (1:1)

MALIBU IS EVIL!!!!

been out for a few (several) drinks tonight with my mates, we went to the glasshouse, a student pub literally just off the campuss. its about 30 seconds walk to the library from it. had malibu and cola pitchers - basically shared a pitcher with rachel, each time, and they have 9 shots of any spirit in them, and any mixer you want all for £5.50!!! so i bought one, and then rachel bought one (or it may have been the other way around)and then alex, katies friend from insisted on buying us one, but rachgel only had a glass so i had most of that.

we met up with one of katies friends, eve, whom im living with next year (along with katie and emily), sat and played drinking games then went off to walkabout for a bit. got back to the flat, the others have gone to ritzy's (the night club) but i didnt fancy it.

So easter hollidays were fun, but felt really short. first tuesday night was fun at chigago rock. Got very drunk. thought i was going to stop drinkin, then people offered to buy me drinks, and i felt it would be rude to refuse. me and helen had a drunken chat about things i cant remeber now. i discovered the wonders of Garlic bread and cheese, as well as making mashed potatoes woth helen and vicki for chaz.

Wednesday night, still a little hungover went out agin, although it was only me and helen. went to the courthose for a bit then the room. ran in to grace, tara and laura from 6th form and had a drink with them before going to chaz's house

Spent the rest of the holiday revisin, watchin the tv and lazyin about doing nothin. also stared reading Tom Clancy's book 'Executive Orders'. Mum and dad brought me back on saturday 22nd April. went to morrisons to stock up my cupboards and then went to have lunch at tootsies. saturday afternoon i unpacked and did a little work on an essay.

Sunday and monday i finished writtin my essay, and revised for my IR exam on tuesday. the exam was ok, since we already knew what the questions were. the invidualtor made most of us laugh when he said
"if at any point you need to go to the white house raise your hand and someone will take you. The white house is what i call the toilet"

Anyway wednesday handed in my essay, and revised for my exam on thursday. that went fine as well apart from in the middle this girl who was sat near the back of the sports hall got up to go to the toilet and she was wearing high heeled shoes and all you could hear was clunk clunk for about a min when she was walking out of the hall, and then for another min when she came back in. after the exam got given free stuff by the SU!!! - A book of vouchers for the Guardian, as well as a stimulant drink, like red bull, and some over leafletts.

Fridays exam was fine, american Politics, so it was basically everythin i did last year at A-level.

Saturday was weird, as i didnt have to do any work as soon as i got up. Slept in tll about 11, watched some tv for a bit and spent the afternon doing very little unitll 5.30pm, when i went to help deliver leafletts for the lib dem election campaign, which basically meant i walked around parts of lincoln i didnt know about, stuffing letters in people letter boxes. we finished about 8.00, and went to a pub for a couple of hours. played darts - i lost, then came back to my room had some garlc bread and watched "Patriot Games" on DVD.

This wekk im not doing alot, apart from revising and delivering leafletts on tuesday. Im going out on wednesday night for a friends birthday and thursday night im going to the election count.

joke time

Tony blair is going for a run around London and runs in to a prostitute;
Blair - Good mornig
Prostitute - Good Morning PM. all the way for £50
Blair - Im sorry haven't got time, besides I've only got £5 on me
Prostitute - Well your can't get much for £5, PM

Tony carries on with his run. The next morning he runs in to the prostitute again, in the same place;
Blair - Good mornig
Prostitute - Good Morning PM. all the way for £49.99
Blair - Im sorry haven't got time, besides I've still only got £5 on me
Prostitute - Well your still can't get much for £5 PM

Tony carries on with his run. for the next 2 weeks he runs in to her at the same time in the same place. One morning Cherie decides she want to join Tony on the run, and they set off together hand in hand. After a while they get to where Tony sees the prostitute every morning.
Blair - Good morning! Vote Labour!
Prostitute - Good morning.
The Prostitute see that Blair is not alone,
Prostitut- See i told you, you couldnt get a lot for £5!!!

being home was cool even though it was only for the night. although i did get stuck on the train for an hour because some idiot drove into one of the railway bridges in penistone. Im sorry but if u cant miss a bridge you shouldnt be allowed to drive. anyway the delay meant it took longer to get from Sheffield to Dodworth then it did to go from Lincoln to sheffield. worst bit was we were about 100 meters out of Barnsley station when the train stopped and they told us, and why they couldnt have told us when we were in the station so we could have made alternative arrangements is beond me. Anyway rant over.

had my final day in uni, this semester, this morning. barley anyone turned up for power and ideology, the lecture theatre sits mayb 150-200 people and there were about 20 all together. but thank-fully that ended early so me emily and tom went up to get our pre-released IR papers before going to the lecture. finshed at 12 and me emily went to celebrate the end of the semester by going to lunch at tootsies - lunch special 6oz cheese burger fries and salad for £4.95. I swear to god if u never ever want to eat burgers from a fast food place, go there as the burgers are amazing.

this afternoon, though about packing but instead layed in bed watching tele, a couple of episodes of Angel from series 3 - the ones where Darla dies inorder to give birth to Connor, then the end of Deal or No Deal. Talked to terri for a bit before watchin tele.

Ok since my easter holiday dates seem to be different to everyone elses, as my holiday officaily starts on monday whilst most people have already ahd at least a week off, ive decided to CHANGE THE DATE WERE GOING ROUND TOWN

SO.....WEDNESDAY 12TH APRIL, 7.30pm starting in the Courthouse, and finshing - well wherever the wind takes us, if not probably Oxygen.

You know the drill by now, if you want to come leave a comment, and ill update the list every-so often(probably every couple of days)
So far its
Me
Helen

So this weeks been ok, not the worst but not the best but with only 1 week left till easter break, which is 2weeks long, im not that bothered. looking forward to being home and seeing everyone. i think at some point we should all go out round town and catch up.

So tuesday afternoon, finished uni at 1, went out to lunch with katie and emily, from my flat. went to Lloyds and we shared a bottle of wine, well me and katie shared the bottle emily had half a glass and decieded she didnt want anymore, even though she had said lets have some wine. we came back to the flat, after going shopping, emily wanted to get a boy-friend with a battery from Ann Summers, but chickened out when katie didnt want to get one. we wondered off to co-op so the girls could get some ice-cream, then back to the flat where we watched Ricky Gervais "Animals", although i only saw the end as i needed to do check some stuff on the internet, then some spanish film with english subtitles called "Bad Education", which was very good although had to really watch it to keep up with the subtitles.

Wednesday went to subject policy committee meeting, in the afternoon afer going to a revision seminar for power and ideology which was meant to make us feel better about the exam but ended up worrying and scaring a lot us when we saw previous papers. Subject committe was ok, although Dr Strange kept having new points to make, which eventually meant that it took us about 20 mins to get passed any other buisness.

Thursday morning we had a revision lecture for researching, which we were told would not have notes posted on the Virtual Campusses, which led to the theatre being the fullest its been for that lecture all semester, although in reality it was only 2/3 full.

Friday finished uni at 12 and spent the rest of the day just doing nothin. watched dvds until really late, about 2 in the morning. went to bed at 2.15 ans was about to fall asleep when the block oppostites fire alarm went off. yay!!! not sure if it was a false alarm or not, as the fire brigrade turned up and a few of them wandered up the stairs trying to find which flats smoke alarm was going off. meanwhile i was watchin the news as there was no way i was ging to get to sleep with people down in the ally waiting ot see when they could go back to their flats, although i did see that some of them had realised they might be there a while, and brought there beer with them!

Anyway the main alarm stopped, so people were alllowed back in to their flats, and the fire brirgade left, even though i was sure i could still hear the smoke alarm going, but thought nothin of it...unitl 5 mins later when the damm alarm went off again. so back came the fire brigrade, who probably only got half way back to their station, when they got the call "go back to the students their damm alarms gone off again".

it probably should be noted at this point that 10 days ago the fire brigrade had to come out to the same block of flats, when their alram went off, much to the amusement of every1 else as it was 8 oclock, so all the people form other flats were watching from their rooms/kitchens.

so the fire brigrade came back, one of them told people they should leave their flats, so they came down the stairs, most of them had got half way when....the alarm stopped! and thankfully this time it didnt come back on so i could finally get some sleep.

Today ive been doing nothin. made chicken supreme this evening from scratch, i have the rest of that to eat 2moz

Cant believe its March already. How come the years keep flying past so quickly?

Anyway, got my assessment results from last semester. got 2:1's in all my essays -
65 in international relations
66 in power and ideology
66 in Introduction to Politics
66 in British Politics since 1914

Havent been up2 much at Uni recently, just the usual lectures and seminars. went to see a guest speaker on Wednesday, a Lib Dem MEP who was ok, not the best speaker in the world, but not the worst. He told a story of when he was in the euro parliament and a French MEP was making a speech, which was being translated in to the different languages and at the end of the speech he said (in French) to solve a problem the European parliament needed the courage of the normans. however the translator said we need the courage of Norman Wisdom!

Coming home a week 2moz, to go off to swanick which im looking forward to. Staying in Barnsley Sunday night, so i can spend a bit of time with my parents, before heading back to Lincoln Monday morning.

Going out 2 night for a friends birthday, which should be great, especially as were on the guest list for scream, so we can skip the que to get into the club!!!

And Finally some Jokes;
After Afghanistan, President Bush flew to India, where he was greeted by 10,000 angry protestors. As a result, most Americans spent all day on hold with computer problems

Former President Bill Clinton took out an ad. He wants to hire interns for his presidential library. He’s looking for 25 interns to fill 75 positions

Senator Hillary Clinton hired a former adviser to President Clinton. Apparently she's taking his advice because today she hit on three waitresses

Earlier today at the White House, President Bush met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. There was an awkward moment when Bush asked 'How long until the new season of The Sopranos?

Hillary Clinton speaking out on [the port deal]. She has mixed feelings about Dubai. On one hand, they hate Israel. On the other hand, they stone adulterers

Bill Clinton is looking for 25 interns to work at his library. Now what could go wrong here

So Saturday night was cool, got quite drunk, but not too bad so i wasnt to hungover on sunday morning. went to helens around 7. gave her, her present which was a framed Star Wars Revenge of the Sith film cell + a picture of Yoda. She got me a Bill Bailey double DVD set which is very very funnny.

went to courthouse met up with glyn bev and miggy, played on the IT box for a bit b4 going off to the room. played pool for a bit. i think i won by default, someone got the black in early, but i lost quite a few times. went to yates' via Macdonalds. had some sour apple shots, b4 heading in to oxygen. left their about 11.30ish, went back to helens for abit and watched Mock the week. Got back to mine around 1

Sunday. woke up quite hungover, but not as bad as when we went out in october. Had roast beef + Yorkshire puddings + all the trimings which was lovely. left Sheffield at 4, got into Lincoln about half 5. did a bit of work, and then had a very early night, as i felt shattered.

Monday was ok, only in uni for an hour and a half, and tuesday i was in for a couple of hours. watched the Daily show with John stewart on More4, then the OC on E4.

Wednesday. erm had room + flat inspected and passed, apart form that did very little.

Today. boring lecture at 9. think i nearly fell asleep. Subject Committee meeting this afternoon, which is the first one ive been to that went ok - i was told i made some good points, so YAY for me. Got back form UNI at 4, and since then been watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Freinds and The Brit Awards.

why do they make 9.00 lectures so boring? all they do is make you wish you'd stayed in bed.

Monday was ok, a couple of seminars, but was only in uni for about an hour so all was good.

tuesday was a hell of a lot of fun. got one of my marks back, for my power an ideology essay. got 66 out of 100, which is a 2:1!!!! was really happy all day, and got hapier in the evening when me + some of my flat mates and other people went to funzone, which is an indoor adventure playground with slides and places to jump and climb. had a really cool night there, although we did get lost on the way there and ended up walking all the way round the football ground. we played tig when we got in there, hiding and climbing to get away from people is hard work!

wednesday was ok, was acheing from all the had at playzone. had 1 lecture which was okish, was quite boring and didnt really listen, after being told the notes would be on the Virtual Campuss. spent most of the rest of the day housing hunting with Emily + Katie, who are my flat mates, as well as katies dad. had kebab and chips for lunch, and found out that kebab tastes better when your drunk, although it was still nice. had lib dem meeting in the evening where we, as usual discussed everything but the libdems, althugh we did mention/laugh at Mark Oaten and made several hundred inuendo jokes about him!

got home around 10.00 played on PS2 for abit and watched celeb big brother, and about 20 to 12, just as i was about to got to bed i got this message from helen;
"Ay up morgan thee will never guess who has just had sex in livingstones toilets.......Me lol a fell like a slut lol H"

woke this morning feeling terrible. so went back to bed for half an hour and woke up refreshed. put the computer on and went for a shower, read the news stories from bbc news, and found once again a Lib Dem was on the fron page for having homosexual relations. thats 2 in 4 days! i think we should have charlse back as all he ever did was get very drunk and not tell people. i mean whats the priblem with that.....apart from lying. im betting sometime soon, as in within the next week or so Ming Camplee will get in on the act and anounce hes gay as well.
my lecture this morning was so dull...nearly fell asleep. and the seminar fo it was just as bad.
ive spent the afternoon doing nothing productive, althuogh i have been tryin to complete this impossible level on star wars battlefront 2. i also watched last nights big brother on E4 and saw the legend that is Borris on Richard on Judy.

Birthday Plans - Usuall thing if you want to come leave a comment
7.30 @ Courthouse Saturday 11th Febuary(which is my birthday!!!!!)
So far there is:
Me
Helen

what a difference a day makes! found my slef addicted to celeb big brother, because its so funny with everyone pointing out the truth to Jodie.

havent had much over the last few days, won some choclolates in the end of semester quiz in introduction to politics, got 21 out of 31. watched the OC on tuesday night, it were brilliant cant wait for next weeks

handed in my essay on wednesday, then went to the libdem meetin in the afternoon. didnt really discuss too much, just chated about the leadership election, as well as confrence in harogate. was asked if i wasa going to go (to harrogate) not sure if i am, depends how much work i have to do as its the week before swanwick.

went to the library this morning to do some work. had a meeting with one of my tutors at lunch, and went to morrisons this afternoon, so havent been to busy. did a bit of work this evening.

have to go to a lecture tommorrow morning not looking forward to it, havent been to a lecture in nearly 5 weeks! its just the idea of being up, a wake and dressed before 10.00 that will be a shock to the system, but at least next week i only have 2 seminars and absolutly nothing else.

saw natalie lawrence today, from 6th form. had a quick chat. it was nice to see her again kind of reminded me of 6th form. i miss 6th form. i miss not doing anywork for a few weeks, and playing cards in my free peroiods, before throwing an essay toegther at the last min and getting a C for it. How times have changed

so came back to lincoln yesterday, my mum brought me. dropped off my stuff, which involved me running between the car the lift and then my room. we went shopping to stock up me cupboards and buy loads of heavy stuff like bottles so i didnt have to carry them back to my flat. its kind of weird being back, having to cook for myself, having my own computer again.

cameback from morrisons, dropped of the stuff then went for lunch at wetherspoons, really nice one that when we went in looked kind of like a really old fashioned library. came back to the flat set up freeview and started the long job of un-packing. technically i havent finished yet.

today was kind of weird. first of all had forgotten how loud my mini firdge is....suppose its just from not having to hear it for 3 weeks. tweeked and polished off my IR essay thats due in tommorrow got it up to 2400 words ish. target is 2500, but were allowed 10% either way.

looking forward to tommrorow, going back and all. got one seminar at 12.00 and have to hand in my essay, at some point b4 5.00pm

kind of happy to be back, get to c all my friedns here, but miss everyone back home. havent decided on plans for my birthday night out round town ill post on here when i have.

so finished uni and started my xmas break on friday. not all i have to do is hand in one of my assignments, which i finished today, on friday and i can come home, although ill have 6000 words to write over the holiday, but ive already started on that so its not to bad

looking forward to being home for longer than a weekend, it might begin to feel....well not weird like it does when ive come home before. it also means i wont have to cook for my self everyday and i can bring back loads of washing.

looking forward to speech night on friday, it will b good 2 c everyone from 6th form again, although im not looking forward to having to sit at the front this year, which means i have to listen

Last but not least here is the new wednesday night list

leave a comment if you want to come on wednesday 21st december and ill update every so often with a list of people going round. i suspct we will be starting at the courthouse at 7.00, but things may change, ill post on here if they do.

List
Morgan
Helen
Bev - if she's working, she is coming out afterwards
Glyn
Mel
jess
terri

invited but havent replied yet
johnny
miggy
paul goldthorpe
ben mercer

so i only have 2 more academic teaching weeks before i start my mounth long xmas break!, ok well its not really a mounth long break as the first week is reading week but i will still have a mounth were i wont have to get up early, so for me its a holiday.

visited home last week, saw my parents who i have seen for about 5 weeks.

my mum is coming to visit on friday, for lincolns xmas market. speaking of xmas ive finished my xmas shopping this week, which means i can now concentrate on my assignments rather than spaending hours upon hours in ques for xmas presents.

Also found out last week that at speech night i will be getting an award!!!!!!!!
its the sheffield hallam university prize for academic achievement, and i get an engraved plaque with my name on it, but i dont get to keep the cup as its old and battered - the schools words not mine.

watched the legend that is boris last night on have i got news for you, he was absolutly brilliant....as always.

so havent posted in ages, but havent been up to much.

so helen came to vist this weekend, which was really cool
she got to lincoln around 3 and by 4 we had started drikin. spent most of the afternoon at mine, although we went to the off lisence to stock up.
had home meade curry at mine before watching tele

on saturday got up around 10 left mine about 11 and wondered up steep hill, so called this because its very steep, to have a look around the cathedral as wellas test the old theroy that the oubs at the top of the hill are the best in lincoln. Spent quite a it of time on one of thoese pub quiz machines, which probbably wasnt a good idea as we didnt win anything, before heading back down the hill to the pizza place, to have all you can eat pizza, price only £5.49. walked around lincoln for a before going back to my flat.in evening watched team america and star wars episode 2 whilst drinking sour apple shots.

on sunday went to ottakars so that helen could get a book for her course, then wondered off to Toys R Us to have a lok at all the star wars toys, before going to lloyds for lunch.

helen left about 3ish, then i went back up to my flat cleanned my room.

in evening went into one of my flat mates room to watch Rocky Horror

this morning got up at 7.30 for my 9.00 o'clock seminar. it was bloody freezing outside, and went i got to the seminar room where the bloody heating wasnt working. seminar tutor called the engineers who arrived 5 mins before we left and said they would come back so not to disturb us. the room was colder than it was outside!

any way visting home this weekend as havent seen my family for like 5 weeks now + i need to get some of my a-level notes.

so havent updated in ages, dont really know why, just havent got round to it.

last weekend was nnice, finshed uni at 11.00 on friday which allowed m,e to get the 12.27 train to meadowhall and meet my mum, then on to home, via a quick stop at a travell agents so my mum could get some currency.

so got to my proper house, and spent the afternoon and evening chatting to my parents, seeing what changes theyve made to the house, like the brand new george forman grill whiuch they bought once id left. gave them there kind of thank you presents for helping me get everything sorted out at my room in lincoln, gave my dad some red wine and my mum some diabetic chocolate. had home cooked food in the evening, god it felt good not to have to cook!
had an early night, was just so unbelivably tired, and for the first time in ages i wasnt woken up by people going to their flats.

On saturday did pretty much nothing during the day, got some a-level notes + txt books out of the garrage to bring back to uni, and then got ready for going out round town

surprise surprise i was the first one to the courthouse. i slapped helen for being late! had a great time, although couldnt help missing people like mel and terri. got incredibly drunk that night and the reason is, in 3words - alcholic straberry milkshake!, oh and probably the fact that i was having double spirits all night and was taught the trick of using a straw to down alcho-pop bottles. so the milkshake thing, had some of that at oxygen, then somehow me helen and miggy got julia to her house, then went for kebabs + pizzas. spent the night at helens as was just so drunk and couldnt be bothered to find or wait for a taxi.

wasnt to well in the morning, but not sure why. my mum picked me and miggy up from helens, went home had a shower then went for a try and sober up walk down to the co-op to put some money on my phone. had home cooked food for lunch - mums lasagne the best in the world, but wasnt well enough to try the wine.

My trian ride home was kind of hellish as they were doing some work on the track between gainsbough and lincoln, which meant several things
1.i would have to get off my train and on to a bloody coach, that thankfully was there wating for us
2.the idiots who put the trains on the screen at sheffield changed the name of destination from lincoln to gainsborugh so i spent the first few mins of the journey worrying that i was on the wrong train, but thankfully i wasnt.
got back to the flat around 8.00, unpacked the mass amount of food my mum had given me, it was like oh! do u want this bread and these pasta sauces.

Not really done much this week, had a lb dem meeting on monday, which entailed us meeting up and wondering round pubs in linocln, and just occasionly discussing the lib dems apart from that done nothing.

And Finally i have chosen not to be sad that im not going to see skip for 10 mounths, but rather happy that he is fullfilling a life-long dream. Here's hoping that we all full-fill our dreams one day.

so as i said yestertday, ive now got internet in my room, which is great now all the place needs is the sofas we were promised, which will be in 3-4 weeks. yeah!

so yesterday had a lecture at 9.00, which wasnt much fun, then 2seminars between 11.00 abd 13.00. spent the afternoon sorting out computer, as well as going to the library to drop some books off.

in evening went with a couple of my flat mates to the comdey club, at the main student union. it were fucking brilliant, first act, Hils Barker, was ok, but a bit nervrous, although she did call Peaches Geldof a Cunt which got a good laugh. basically the joke was that she was reading an article about rich young people, that warblled on about how peaches is a journalist and will be around forever, and she said she could make it shorter to - "Peaches Geldof - a bit off a cunt"

the 2nd guy - Phil Nichol, however was absolutly brilliant. he was really mad, quite camp and played the guitar - he did only gay eskimo and got everyone to sing along!

drink prices were good, as well, barcardi coke £1.50, VK bottles £1

had lecture this morning, that was ok Brit Politics since 1914.

going shopping this afternoon as, the title suggests, i need get some bread.

yesterday was....and thats best thing i have to say about it. i was so tired it was unbeliveable. txted helen last night, got a responce 12 hours later.

so far its just me and her going round town on saturday 16th...god thats only 2 weeks away. if u wanna come with us txt me or leave comment. we will be starting in the courthouse at 7.00ish, probably going to the room then of to oxygen, although this is only a theroy at the moment.

so am sat in the library doing homework, as they still havent sorted the internet yet at my apartment, although they have promised us compensation for all the problems there have been. the only problem with this is we have to week a few weeks for alll the problems to be sorted out before we get the money.

KFC have said they will be paying me on the 11thOctober, or my mum will give them absolute hell.