on studying (part 2)

So what are the problems with university? Lack of routine? Student? I suppose moving from a job where I did not really have that much freedom and always knew where I needed to be, at what time I needed to be there and what I needed to do made life much more simple albeit restricted. After leaving the army I found myself having for the first time in a long while, much more responsibility for myself (but more about that in my army blog).

So, I am now at uni aged 26 so slightly older than most people that would usually be attending uni...or so I thought. One of the special things about Birkbeck is that it is designed for older people who have careers but want to study in their free time in order to change careers or just because they are interested. It is quite unique, I mean for example, we have a guy who started in the same year as me (but is doing a slower course) who is a successful sort of chap working in the City of London BUT has an avid interest in other planets and space so is doing a certificate in planetary geology just for the shear fun of it. This unique situation means that actually I was not the oldest around and actually my short military career paled in comparison to the wide plethora of jobs people had. None of that mattered though, we were all there to look at rocks in the end.

Back to the problems. I had no routine now. I knew I had to attend lectures and I had work to do but nobody made me go and I certainly would not be punished for not showing up. It is strange for a 26 year old to suddenly have to develop a very fast sense of self-discipline. I always felt that I had it anyway but looking back, when in the army, if we could get away with not doing something then we would jump at the chance as we knew that some other crap job would be around the corner soon and the time off would slowly or suddenly dry up. Added to this was the sudden drop in cash. Luckily I have a job moderated for some certain websites but won't say anymore on that (:P) and I am in the OTC (another blog) and of course, student loans help. I am very fortunate that I do not have to pay tuition fees thanks to the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition pushing through the military covenant into law essentially saying that those without degrees who have done 5 years or more can get one for free.

Although I do like the university I go too, it also comes with problems, mainly that despite paying £9k a year in tuition fees we do seem to have to fork out an awful amount of money on extras such as all of the field classes. Being a uni that is geared for working adults, it sometimes forgets that it has full time students who are dependent on this degree to get a job. That said, we have some of the best lecturers around. Many of the professors are hugely approachable and you do not need to have a month long wait to chat with them.

Anyway, uni is great and well worth being there. One more year to go.

on studying (part 1)

As you may have read from an early blog post, I left the army in 2014 and decided to pursue an academic career. I have another post to write on my time in the army so I won't go into details now however there was a need for a definite shift from what I did (Tactical Communications) to what I wanted to do. At school I did a GCSE in Geology and loved it, after all who really can not be impressed by how dynamic our own planet is. You can go for a walk in the countryside, the beach, a mountainous and appreciate the beauty of what you see around you but can probably not appreciate how it came to be there. I found this all very fascinating and since completing that GCSE have also held a deep background interest in all of the Earth Sciences.

I should write something on Geology from my perspective before I talk about studying in general. Most people hear the word and say rocks but in fact it is so much more, in fact although the degree is called Geology, a more accurate description used in the academic world now is Earth Science (but I will stick with Geology for traditional purposes). Rocks is in my opinion a small part in what is a very vast subject that includes all the main staples of science - Biology, Chemistry and Physics - but also compliments humanity subjects such as geography and to an extent, history (I once read a book about how myths and legends of various cultures throughout human history have been influenced by the local geology - e.g. the volcano Mt Vesuvius in Greek mythology). Geology brings it all together and finds out why.

So I was set on what theme I wanted to do, now I just needed to find a university that would take me along with my poor A Levels. I have to admit to doing poorly in my A Levels as I was already set on joining the Army but I did not want to be a junior soldier (younger than 18) so needed to do something in the mean time. Looking back I wish I had done better but looking forward, it does not really matter now. I had to apply through UCAS but making the point in my statement about being a mature student (I was 26). Most universities look kindly on mature students as we work harder apparently, also because when I did my A Levels there was no such thing as A* so not possible to achieve anyway.

The universities - Birmingham, Royal Holloway, Leeds, Birkbeck and Brighton.

Brum said no (in less than 24hrs) because of grades. Leeds said yes but to do a foundation year with them first. Brighton said yes with no conditions. Royal Holloway became a sore spot for me. It is a great university set in a stunning campus. I went for an interview and the department basically said that wanted me but because I had been out of formal education for so long they wanted me to do an access course - not a problem I thought, I even got the army to pay for it. 6 months of access course later and a distinction grade overall with the Open University I thought I was in BUT....the admin people at Royal Holloway told the Earth Science department they could not take me because my results were too late (they came about 3 weeks after A Levels results). Bastards! (but much love to the department head who emailed me to say sorry that it could not work out).

So here I am at Birkbeck College, University of London. A uni that most people associate with older folk coming in the evenings to partake in some late life learning. This is true in many cases however what most people do not realise is that actually Birkbeck ranks 6th overall in the country for Earth and Planetary Science (another cheeky plug) and the course is accredited by the Geological Society of London - our sciences professional academic body - which actually knocks quite some years off getting chartership. We have some pretty eminent professors too who actually enjoy teaching and getting a meeting with them does not take 4 months and a piece of your soul.

Life at Birkbeck as a full time student is enjoyable with some decent perks (one such perk being the people) but of course has some major issues in my most humble of opinions.

Those and more for another time I think. Until then....

Assessed Field Techniques 2, Scourie (Scotland), 2016

on travelling

I have always thought that I would like to create some sort of record for my love of travelling but as with most things that I do, the good idea did not materialise, until now. I suppose the spark that ignited ambition to travel to as many different countries and immerse myself into many different cultures started when I was serving in the British Army. Although, yes I went to places with the army, they were not all fun and even when they were, we were restricted to what we could do. Upon then meeting my third (and currently final) ex-boyfriend, another keen traveller, I was able to start off my dream with three weeks of inter-railing. More hardened travellers probably laugh as just a mere three weeks of inter-rail but alas I was still chained by the 'annual leave' prison imposed by my employer.

Either way, we got to visit a vast range of places that I have never had the luck to go to before. In order of march (army term) they included;

Paris

Amsterdam

Berlin

Prague 

(via several hours in Munich)

Venice

Milan

Barcelona

Madrid

A lot of places for such a short space of time you say, true indeed however, with early starts and late finishes, you can achieve quite a bit of distance. This all happened in 2013 so quite some time ago. To that end I am not going to go into depth about this very first experience of mine only that it was the first time I had used the eurostar, the first time I had slept on a sleeper train, the first time (self-imposed of course, I could have gone anytime but didn't) I was able to freely venture out into unknown places and do as I please.

So what is the purpose of this post? Well, not really for anything specifically other than to explain the very groundwork for why I like to travel and why I now have the confidence to travel alone without the need for a guiding military hand or indeed just a normal friend (or ex-boyfriend). I have been to a few places since but again I will ignore these due to memory lapse BUT.... This September (2016), I do my very first solo tour and the destinations of choice include Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Kyoto. This is where I will really start my travel journey. Trip Advisor tells me that I have only covered 9% of the world so there is plenty of time to amatuer blog.

Thanks for reading.