9- Applying for Accommodation

Since writing my last post I have now applied for my university accommodation in halls of residence. Given that I already have my A-level results (therefore an unconditional place offer) I can apply straight away for my accommodation, so I have done this. I had two rooms I was choosing between, the first at a place called Jennens Court and the other at Curzon Gateway.

Jennens Court was fairly modern looking; wooden floors, leather sofas (and plain curtains!!!) but it to me looked quite clinical and overall I preferred Curzon Gateway. Although it is slightly more dated with colourful carpet and patterned curtains I just thought it felt more homely.
It took me a while to decide though and I ended up making a simple pros/cons list which really helped me. Curzon gateway had wifi which was a huge bonus because I could use my iPad...whereas at the other accommodation it would become pretty much unusable,  a free gym membership and was  much closer to the uni. So after comparing the two in great detail I went with Curzon.

Curzon Gateway

Jennens Court

From the photos the second one does look nicer... but I'm happy with my decision.

The other fantastic perk about Curzon was the preference form. I'm not sure how many universities have this option but when applying for university I was able to write a short paragraph about my perfect roommate and they will then try and match me accordingly. So this is great if particularly want to live with just girls, or just boys or if you want very quiet flat mates etc. Hopefully I will get on really well with my roommates :) 

So not a great blog but just a little update on where I am at the moment on the uni journey ;)

Thanks for reading

Becky

8- Student Finance

I have heard some real horror stories about student finance, so I was ready to write a lengthy blog post with all the ins and outs of how to apply and the challenges I faced. Now I hate to disappoint, but it really wasn't that bad, so this post is not going to be very long at all. 

Once I'd accepted my offer at birmingham university, within a matter of days I had received an email from Ucas, telling me that I was able to apply for my student finance. Following the provided links I created an account using my email adress and a password I entered. 

After that it was a simple 'button clicking' process. I was asked for details from my passport, national insurance card, and bank card, so you will need these when you apply, but it was all very straight foward. I then had to enter my parent's details, and they will have to fill in some information in a few days. 

There are a few different loans you can apply for including- tuition loans, maintenance loans and grants etc. so read the information clearly and select the loans you wish to apply for and those you are eligible for. There are helpful paragraphs and information sections to read along the way to explain each step for you. 

It's really as simple as that, it all takes about 6 weeks to process apparently, so I will update you when I hear back from Ucas. 

Sorry this post isn't longer, but it don't have much else to says which is a relief really.

Thank you for reading 

 Becky x

7- DIY recipe book

Something a lot of university students dread is having to cook for themselves! It's certainly something I'm concerned about. I actually quite enjoy cooking, but thinking about cooking atleast once a day and trying to think of things to cook is already a little daunting to me. I planned to take a recipe book with me so I had a list of meals I could cook each week.... But flicking through the pages of the published books on my shelves there were only one or two recipes in each book that I liked. Knowing I most certainly couldn't take all the books with me I decided to make my own recipe book. 

I bought a really cheap lined A5 notebook, from tesco. 

What I am going to do over the next few months is fill this with my favourite, simple recipes. That way there will be nothing in here that I do not like! Not only am I looking through recipe books and opting them into this book, but I am also going to write down family recipes. 

A good thing to write down in here aswell might be information about portion sizes, and how long you might keep certain things in your fridge for etc. I know that is something that confuses me for example- if I've opened a packet of bacon, I need to know how many days after opening I can eat it. It would be handy to have that kind of information in this book. Also like I said, portion sizes- I think a pasta portion for one person is about 75g or something like that, so having that written down will be useful for me cooking for myself. 

Don't be put off by recipes that are for more than one person, a lot of recipes can feed up to 4 people. You might want to cook this quantity anyway, and just freeze a few portions for meals during the week. I've heard from students before that this can be a cheaper way of cooking than just doing one portion at a time.  

I don't have much to write about this book at the moment as it is empty, but I might do some blog posts with my favourite, simple recipes for you! 

I would advise you to start this book fairly early so you have a few months of recipes and meals to gather and collect for your book. 

Thanks for reading

Becky x 

6- Something has changed on your UCAS track...

"Something has changed on your UCAS track"- anyone applying to university will know that receiving this email is both terrifying and exciting. This email has the power to dictate the next 3+ years of your life, so when it popped up in my inbox today, it was safe to say I was nervous. I had already received my offer from Norwich at this point, but my top choice (Birmingham) were yet to contact me with either a rejection or an offer. Now as I looked at my inbox-which had been refreshed about 1000 times in the last week- my hands began to shake. In one click of a button I would find out if I was going to my dream university or not. Now don't get me wrong I loved Norwich university but I had my heart well and truly set on Birmingham. After what I thought was a successful interview, I felt quite relaxed about it all... that is until I saw the email, at that point I just started to think about what I might have done wrong. I couldn't bring myself to look at the screen for a few seconds... but when I did, I read the words...

I could not believe it!!!

Relief, Excitement...terror.

I can't believe I'm actually going. I'm going to leave home, move 3 hours away from my family and live on my own! Just the thought of it just fills me with fear, but at the moment the excitement is taking over. 

Thanks for reading

Becky x

5- DIY Photo line

I absolutely love looking through old family photos! Seeing the crazy hair do's and outfits of years gone by and revisiting beautiful memories shared with all of my closest loved ones.  

Something you may be thinking of taking to uni is photos? I know I am. As a photographer I have thousands of photos tucked away in the deepest corners of my iMac, and with sites like Facebook and instagram I can view my photographs and memories whenever I want, wherever I want, but there is something special about having a photograph in your hand- being able to physically hold it and pass it around a group as you all laugh and discuss the story behind it. So as well as all my digital photo memories, I will be taking quite a few photographs with me to uni. Knowing that I won't have a lot of space for albums and frames, I wanted a way to display my favourite photos, so that they wouldn't take up a lot of room. So I decided to make a photo line! If you're interested read on (it's very simple)...

All you will need are some of your favourite photographs. They don't have to be old, you could use a disposable camera to capture some shots of friends and family (or even a film camera), you can even print out Instagram pictures now! They come as little square photos not dissimilar from Polaroid prints, which I love

My Instagram prints came from http://www.firebox.com/product/5323/Instagram-Prints?aff=1888&gclid=CILI9LbZqbgCFdLLtAod1R0Aew

We are certainly not short of old photos in this house, this is one box of several! 

 After selecting your photographs you will need to find some string or ribbon and some pegs.

I loved the wording on this ribbon! I teamed it with the tartan to tie in with the duvet pattern (see previous posts).

 I put the two ribbons together, with the photos in-between, then pegged them to hold in place. The reason I did this was simply because I liked the look of the red worded ribbon, next to the tartan so this way I could see both. You could use just one ribbon, or go for two contrasting colours/patterns!

Once you've finished pegging you should have a long string of photos, that will brighten up any wall, display your memories and most importantly- make you smile! 

It really is a fantastic, space saving way of displaying photos!

I hope you liked this post

Becky x

4- Duvet Delivery

My Duvet for uni was delivered a few days ago, but unfortunately I was out, so it's been sitting in the post office. I picked it up today though- another thing to tick off the list! I put it with all of the stuff I photographed yesterday and in my opinion it matches perfectly -which is a relief. Though I am starting to think I've gone a little overboard with the colour red, so I may start thinking about some accent colours to tone it down.
I bought the duvet from eBay, though it was definitely brand new- don't panic! The link to purchase the duvet is here- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300941073928?var=600139059328&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I am not going to open the duvet because I am unsure yet which uni I am going to. If I go to Norwich the likelihood is that I will have a single bed, in which case I will need to return this one...but if I get in to my top choice, which is Birmingham, (I am still waiting to hear from them) I will have a single-and-a-half bed, so the double duvet is the nearest I can get to fit. I'm loving the idea of a bigger bed, as I've had a single all my life! So my fingers are well and truly crossed for an offer from Birmingham University- though of course this isn't the only reason I picked Birmingham.

However, because I am not opening the duvet, you can't really see what it looks like so I've inserted the picture that is featured on eBay-

I did take a close up photo just so you can see the pattern more 

clearly...though it looks a little yellow due to the light! (sorry)

The duvet cost £18.95 for a double which I didn't think was too extortionate either!

Thanks for reading
Becky x

3- Everything I have purchased so far for uni

I thought I'd just photograph every item I have gathered so far for uni, some things were not included in the video! Despite being a photographer, I am well aware that these photos aren't great, I just took them on my iPad quickly for you guys to see! I'm pretty happy with my purchases so far though and I think you can tell I put a lot of effort into my colour coordination.  To see the images full scale, just click them :)

Hope you like the stuff I've got so far! It's very exciting for me :)

Thank you for reading, please follow and share.

Becky x