Rachel Ellen

Monday, 27 July 2015

Adjusting: Part 1


Moving back home from uni is a big deal, by anyones standards. Yes there's the actual moving out of your uni place and the outrageous amount of stuff you accumulate over 3 years that you feel like you can't throw away. I don't care what anybody says, I definitely need my Velma jumper and glasses - in case of emergency y'know.



But that's not where the difficulty stops. Now, by no means are my family particularly difficult to live with. But living back at home after living away is. Some of you won't need to read the rest of this to understand exactly what I mean, but if you're anything like I was, it might come as a bit of a shock. This post will cover a few of the more difficult things about living back at home, a good old Monday moan. I will make a separate post to highlight a few positives.

1. The most difficult thing for me to adjust to so far is definitely tea time (evening meal). Having to be in for a certain time, or not being able to go anywhere until after a certain time unless you give enough warning so that food isn't wasted. I've spent the past three years (bar Christmas and summer holidays) cooking for myself making what I want (kind of) when I want. Mealtimes in general are more difficult at home, especially due to number 2...

Thursday, 9 July 2015

Time Alone
Whilst we're having a much more miserable week than the last I thought now would be a nice time to share a few of my backlogged pictures. 

In early June on a rare sunny day in Sheffield, I decided to walk up to Norfolk Park, a very quiet secluded area in the city centre. I was in the middle of reading To Kill a Mockingbird (yes I know, later than everybody on the planet!). I have never studied it in school, but with all that is going on in the world, specifically in America, I think it would benefit a lot of people to read. 

But anyway, off serious topics for now, I felt very grown up sat in the park in the sun, reading a book, listening to 5 Seconds of Summer and on my way I took a few pictures, enjoy!







Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Monday, 6 July 2015

Graduation Ball
A very delayed post,  but the 21st May was my university graduate ball. I was pretty nervous about going but finding a pretty dress and pretty shoes made it all a bit easier!

Of course my hips look are enormous, I bet you couldn't even guess how much my dress cost me (clue, my shoes cost 6x more than my dress)







The photo booth with all the props was hilarious, and only got more fun the more wine that went down.

Monday, 18 May 2015

The Botanical Gardens
Last week I finished university Yipee!! However the lifestyle I'm living now is a lot less exciting than I thought it might be! I think I might have watched more television in the last week than I had throughout the rest of the year so far, daytime TV is not exciting.

One thing I did do was finally visit the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, which I've been meaning to do for some time, and it didn't disappoint as the following pictures prove: 



Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Role Models
Yesterday when it was lovely and sunny, a friend and I took a walk around a few parks in Sheffield, but today's post isn't about pretty parks and the sun unfortunately. 

The sun brings out the best and the worst of people, we all know that (well in Britain we do, since the sun rarely makes an appearance).

Whilst walking around a lake appreciating the sun on a Monday afternoon we walked past some fishermen, about 5 of them with two young boys. One of these men are holding a can of beer. And we got some very unwelcome comments (not entirely accurate dictation but accurate enough)

Beer holding guy: "Oh witwoo ladies"
Other guy: "behave mate"
Beer holding guy: "check out them two though, wow. And check out the arse on her"

And there was more but we were out of proper ear shot by then. I have to say me and my friend were more than uncomfortable. 

Now, catcalling is one issue, it is unsolicited, it is verbal abuse. It is completely unnecessary and makes girls very uncomfortable. Especially when the speaker is around 40 and the girls are 21. 

What made this so much worse was the two young boys, probably no older than 9, sat listening to this man. This man might be an influential man to these boys, could be their father, uncle, cousin or maybe that friend of their dad that they think is extra cool. This man could be their role model. This then means that these boys are learning that a cool and fun way to speak to women is to catcall them, to make them physically uncomfortable in public to disrespect them and try to assert dominance over them.

These boys may well go to school today and say to their friends "look at the arse on her" and here starts a brand new generation of ignorant, sexist, pigs, and they won't even realise it's wrong.

If you're above the age of 18 (and especially if you are 40+) realise who you are to children, you are an adult. You are therefore inadvertently a role model and you need to be responsible. Be careful what you say be careful what opinions you put in their absorbent little brains.

Oh yeah, and don't catcall. This isn't the 1940s, somewhere along the line men discovered women are actually human (but of course the women had already worked that out).

Sorry for no pictures and a bit of a rant, but it is something that is important to me.

And the sudden influx of views of my blog last night was super exciting. I'm thinking of making a Twitter page specifically for my blog so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for reading

Rachel xx

Thursday, 16 April 2015

The Home Straight
Hello!

MY DISSERTATION IS FINALLY HANDED IN!

I wish I felt more relieved that I do but right now I'm quite nervous that I am unable to change anything. And I'm in that constant state of guilt feeling like I should be doing it at any given moment. 



Tuesday, 24 March 2015

The Life of a Third Year Student
Hello!

So, I'm now well into my third year of university as you may know. I always thought the talk about third year workload was all exaggeration and I'd be fine, especially looking at the timetable i picked up for this year:



Yes that is a completely accurate university timetable of 4 hours a week.
"9 grand a year?!"
I hear somewhere in the distance. I know, trust me I know. 

How, may you ask, do I have too much work to do? Well this is where the dissertation lands and only 4 hours a week may just be a blessing. The amount of reading and time put into this thing is much more than i anticipated and it's slowly driving me crazy. This is one of the many ways that I'm getting ideas down for it, although this doesn't even remotely represent of the sheer amount of work I have done.

Yes that is on the back of my bedroom door.

Everyone around me just seem to be little balls of floating stress.

"me looking at all the work I have to do" - a very accurate representation of my life right now.

I'm both sad to be leaving university and can't wait. No more deadlines woo! Real life job and experiences, not so woo. The idea of a Masters degree is more and more tempting as it means another year of being a student (and having a student card)

- advice for anyone debating a Masters, hold off until September 2016. As far as I know you can then get student finance funding for them rather than funding it yourself.

One thing I'm finding very helpful in lowering stress and ensuring sleep is a little stretching. I'm locked in my house for about 5 days a week with not much release of energy. Now I'm no fitness advocator and I'm impressively unfit, but basic stretches (like the sorta thing you'd do in primary school PE) just to get your body moving again have been a great stress reliever.

Hope everyone's doing alright, especially with uni, let me know if you have any good coping strategies.

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx


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