Why So Silent?: An Update

No, this is not about a horror movie.

I have felt bad about missing out on blog posts over the last two weeks and thought I'd explain a bit and let you see some of the exciting things I've been up to as well.

After exams (results came out and thankfully I have passed all my modules!) we started new modules, I am currently doing three modules: Mandarin, Approaches to Contemporary Chinese Studies (it's all about methods of research and theories) and Introduction to the Chinese Legal System (hard, but very interesting). After having lots of introductory lectures in the first week I then had a Chinese New Year event in halls that I had organised.

On Saturday 6th we had some free food and games in the bar, including a piñata which was very fun! Then on Sunday 7th we offered some activities including Chinese calligraphy and Kung Fu. Monday night (the 8th was the actual Chinese New Year day, 2016 is year of the Monkey) for dinner we had a Chinese chef to round off the weekend which I heard was very popular and I enjoyed his food.

It was such a fun weekend, my only problem was I felt terrible throughout the whole thing. On both mornings I woke up and it felt like I was hung over, except I hadn't been drinking for days! I was aching all over, I had a really bad headache and cough, it was terrible. I had early nights both nights but Sunday hardly slept. Since then I've had trouble eating as well.

It's taken me up till now to feel that I actually starting to feel better, however I still have a bad cough and I'm still tired a lot of the time. Most of the time I just come back from lectures and then get straight in bed!

Another one of the reasons why I have been so quiet is because I've been quite busy. I've had lots of meetings recently. I'm on my Hall's Committee and I'm the activities rep meaning I organise all the events that the halls does and recently it's been a lot of work.

We've had a Chinese New Year Weekend, a Formal Dinner and Formal after party which took a fair bit of time to organise, we've been fundraising by selling cookies and I'm currently having meetings to organise the summer ball. Along with all this we have an Amsterdam trip at the end of term in June so I've had a meeting about that and earlier this week I had Summer Events Training too, exciting stuff!

I signed up to do a Chinese Brush Painting class at the beginning of the month with artist Jian Hongsheng who has been in residence at University Park Lakeside Arts. We learnt how to paint flowers with traditional Chinese paint and brushes. At the end of the workshop we then added our own flower to a 100m scroll which everyone of his Nottingham students had added to. It was a really fun experience and I learnt a lot in the two hour session, I have my practice flowers stuck to my wall in my bedroom now and they look so pretty. Below is my final flower that I drew on the scroll.

On the 3rd (my favourite society) had a social, somehow I made the theme be Glitter so all us girls went glitter crazy!

I've also been having secret meetings with my friend who is running for SU President! I'm very excited to be campaigning with her (For UoN students: Voting starts on 1st March - 11th March).

Earlier this week I had my best friend from home come to visit me for a couple of days!

Tuesday we had the Spring Formal (formal dinner, then after party). It was amazing! We had a really cool band at the dinner and a chocolate fountain and the after party was so much fun. We went to Filthy's Gypsy Lounge and then Coco Tang (amazing cocktails!). Then on Wednesday there was another Equestrian social with the brilliant theme of "When I'm old I'm going to be..."

This entailed many hilarious outfits; Emily was Barbie and I was a fairy. We had a princess, Steve Irwin, the power puff girls, and a mummy!

Coming up I have my first ever Boat Party! I am soo excited! I also have a social next weekend with the Contemporary China Society, we are going to KTV, last time was really fun so I expect good things from this night as well.

I'm also very excited that this Wednesday I'm taking part in a Development League competition in Manchester which involves a dressage test and show jumping a 2"3 course. I have also signed up to do a Cross-country clinic the following week so hopefully will get on the list for that!

I will make sure to keep you all updated and keep posting awesome content for you all!

Thank you all for your support.

P.S. I recommend watching 'Before I go to sleep', it's a really well-made film with a good cast, very intense and emotional in different ways.

I also recommend you watching 'The Place Beyond the Pines' with Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendez and Bradeley Cooper. Again a really well made film with a good cast but with a twist within the first hour that you would not expect! I also really liked how it made you think about who the film was truely about.

On the 13th me and one of my friends went to the Bodega in the centre and attended 'Ryantines'. This was a screening of Ryan Gosling movies (The Notebook, Drive, and Crazy, Stupid, Love). This is how I found out about The Place Beyond the Pines as it was one of the film options but didn't get enough votes. If you like Ryan Gosling, check out Drive, Lars the Real Man, and All Good Things. It was a really fun evening and there were lots of Ryan memes which we found hilarious!