Hey,
It is now week four! It seems like I have been here ages and just came back at the same time. I already have plenty of work to do. I am in the process of finding a job for a placement. It has been taking up a rather significant amount of time. I have been adding to and refining my resume (called a CV in England), writing and perfecting application questions for Microsoft, creating a cover letter for Feral Interactive, and now am starting on my IBM template. I swear trying to find a job is a full time job within itself. The careers service offers 15 minute quick query sessions to check CVs and cover letters. I booked myself a Guidance Interview where they can check my CV, cover letter, and all my application forms. I am trying to get as many applications to a stage where they can be reviewed by the time that my Guidance Interview comes around.
Check out other things the careers service team does here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/careers/index.htm
Next on the list of things to do is my coursework! My classmates have started asking me if I have started doing the coursework. I had not realized one had been released. When I thought back, I realized it had been released at the beginning of the year and we now have the skills to actually start doing it. I am not behind, I just need to start now. Second year is already rather different from the first year. There is much more independent work that is required. I have bought C++, algorithm design, Ruby on Rails, and business finance books in order to assist my learning and solidify the information that had been touched on in class. Our hands are no longer being held through assignments and learning the information. If you want to do well, you better be willing to put the work in. This is not to say that I am swamped or the department is not providing me with the help I need. I have managed to see my friends and go out a couple times, my time management skills just need to be on top of their game and expect some long days and nights. The department will help me if I go to see them or ask questions, they just want us to get a better feel for how the industry and “real life” will be. I will (or at least plan to) have a real programming job next year and I need to be prepared for that.
In more up beat news, I found an American on the ballet team from New York! This just goes to show that us Americans are around. If you are worried about not meeting Americans, I can tell you that I do run into them once in awhile. Most of the Americans I have met are from the east coast, including New York and New Jersey. There are also quite a lot of Canadians here. It seems to be quite a popular option for Canadians to come to England. I have met some from Toronto and Ontario. I have realized that I am not very good at recognizing American accents! When the American on the ballet team asked where in America I was from I asked her if she had heard of Washington state (not many English people know the difference between Washington state and Washington DC). She just laughed at me and said yes she was from New York. My theory is that because I grew up around American accents I do not really notice them. If they sound like me, nothing really clicks…woops 😉
I am also starting to ignore English accents, at least some of them. They sound quite normal to me now. However, when my boyfriend came to visit me over the summer, I could not help but mimic him and laugh at his accent because it really stood out from everyone else. English accents are great! There are so many different ones. Literally every region, city, town, and village has their own accent. It is quite fun to try to figure out where everyone is from. London accents I find are hilarious. I attached a link to IMDB below to a show that has a perfect example of a London accent. Please watch this show; it is fantastic. The difference in accents leads to some funny moments. Everyone can make fun of everyone else’s accents. In America there are maybe 5-6 different accents across the country. Six accents wouldn’t cover a small corner of the country.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1742965/
It is Halloween on Saturday and the school is amping up for a great couple nights. Rubix is hosting an event on Friday. The tickets sold out in 20 minutes! On Saturday my house is throwing a costume party which should be fun. My boyfriend and I are dressing up as Bert Macklin and Janet Snakehole from Parks and Rec. Ill post photos next week!
Time for web application development class now!
Holly
