Ups and Downs

Due to incessant travelling to and from London over the past month, on top of a ridiculous amount of work I've had to do and competitions I've had to take part in, I literally have not had a moment to myself to update. Now that I'm at home for 'Easter' (because that's a thing now) and my parents have actually banned me from doing any work, let me fill you in on March. I'll try and intersperse the good with the not so good.

Despite numerous interviews for all manner of positions, I still don't have a job. I'm still waiting to hear back from British Council - which should be any time at the beginning of April - but as for Law stuff, I think I'm giving up until I've actually achieved this degree thing that people also expect me to do well in. I've decided it's no longer something to despair over - something will come up (surely?) and my friends and family have a disproportionate amount of faith in me, which I'm, again, going to take as a positive sign. If not I'm just gonna quit life and be a model. That's a viable option right?

I came 3rd place in the UK final of an international Chinese speaking competition. Yaaay. I know you guys have been on tenterhooks waiting to find out what the hell this Chinese Bridge competition actually is, so let me break it down for you. It basically involves some awesome uni kids saying a speech for 3 minutes, answering 5 out of a possible 190 questions (again, in Chinese), and having some sort of 'talent'. Because I'm amazing I played the recorder. Minds were blown. It was a good day, if a deal too long and entirely too stressful. At least we got fed good food, unlike some of the 'lunches' provided when I go for interviews...

Me and the Edinburgh ladies at the comp,
 with our teacher Zhu zhu!

This is the piece I played on the recorder - obviously not with guy's ridiculous super-saiyan skill levels, but you get the gist. I also won £100 and a scholarship for 6 months study in China....so...yeah.

My classmate Meghan came in 1st (which is actually 2nd because there's some sort of very confusing 'Grand Prize' thing that only the Chinese could come up with), and if you want any more info about the comp you can visit the web page here.

I got a 1st in my Dissertation, yay. For those of you who aren't aware what it's about, the title is "What does the Wukan Incident tell us about the prospects for democratisation in China?"... which still doesn't make it 100% clear what it was about, but that's not important. What is important is that I got a 1st, which means that there's obviously this expectation that I'm going to get a 1st overall. Well, we shall see.

I also attended the Ballroom Dancing Ball which, as loyal flatmates, Sophie and I have attended every year to give Lucy support, despite our severe lack of Ballrooming skills. Beautiful food, beautiful dresses, beautiful dancing - that's all that can be said really. It was a good excuse to get out of the house and not think about work for at least one evening.

If you're wondering why this is a meta-photo, the photographer
was slightly overzealous and was taking surreptitious photos
of unsuspecting ladies all night.

That's all really. I'm not really doing anything besides work atm. My friends and I have booked a holiday to Albufeira (Portuagal) for the end of May, but I can't really think about that till I've got these 500 exams on a country I know nothing about in a language I don't quite comprehend out of the way. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some covert character learning to do...

First World Problems

Ergh, my life is so stressful right now.

After the 'stress' of having to get my dissertation done and handed in, which only happened like 3 days ago, I've now got a whole new set of problems to deal with. So, I've been forced to take part in the  internationally recognised, way-too-much-of-a-big-deal-for-the-Chinese-speaking-community Chinese Bridge competition against my will. Forced is a bit strong I grant you, but I think this situation warrants at least some recognition of my coercion. What is this competition, you ask? Well, they'll be a separate, much more riveting, post with the full details later, but needless to say between the daily practices at random times of the morning/evening, it's taking up way to much of my time. Time that could be spent in the library.

Good thing I can cancel one of those meetings though, as I've got a job interview on Thursday. "Great!" I hear you say. "no." I reply. They only told me today, which means that train tickets are gonna be however many thousands of pounds, plus i know next to nothing about the company, so the time i could have spent researching (or doing other work) is now taken up with 'panic!' time.***

Even better, I'll be coming to London AGAIN for another 5, lemme say that again, 5 days from the 15th because, hip hip hurray, the Chinese competition's on the 16th....and then I have yet another interview on the 19th. Because things only happen in London. I live in Edinburgh. thank God I've got family there otherwise I'd just sack it all off.

I've also got a presentation next week, plus two essays due in some time this month, so, in short:

So, if you'll excuse me, I've got speeches to learn, presentations to write, plans to cancel and trains to book. My mum was not sympathetic.

*Quick amendment - I've just seen that this interview start at 8:30 as well!!! What is happening!!