Military Service Problems

Last night a friend of mine from Turkey came to London. He studies at University of Derby. He will go back to Turkey for Easter holiday however he has to postpone his military service. Every male Turkish citizen has to join army for a certain period of time, however if they have a special condition such as illnesses or studies, they can postpone it for a while.

In the morning we went to education consultant of Turkish Consulate. Their office is at Edgware Road. We were given a form there and we filled it. They checked our information and my friend’s was ok. However there was something wrong with my application, because according to records I was on the run. I called the university at where I used to study in Turkey. They said they made a mistake about my papers in the past. They sent a petition to military service office and we solved the problem in 3 hours.

I feel relieved now since it might be a big problem when I would want to go back to Turkey since officers can monitor this kind of information at airports in Turkey.

After this stressful 3 hours, we hung around Edgware Road to relax. We had some food in a kebab restaurant. We decided to take a walk to Hyde Park since the weather was really good. On the way my friend Caglar walked into a shop to buy some souvenirs for his family and friends. There were really funny t-shirts about London.

Around 18:00 pm we came back to home because he had a flight at 11 o’clock from Heathrow airport. He had too many luggage for just 2 weeks. Probably he will have to pay quite a lot money for extra weight.

On the way to Heathrow I found myself thinking about my family and my friends in Turkey. I think I was envious of Caglar, he was going back and I had to stay since I have to study for final exams. Also I will travel around the UK.

End of The Term 2

Tomorrow we will have our last exams for the term. I am pretty stressed. I handed in 2 assignments, but did not have that much time to prepare for exams. I was attending all classes. I do not think that I will problems with maths. We studied algebra, trigonometry and statistics. I am quite confident about algebra and trigonometry however I did not study statistics before. Therefore I am studying statistics and probability. I cannot do   much about English exam since it is language skills.

Today was the exam day. I woke up at 7 am, had a warm shower and breakfast. English exam starts at 9 am. I walked to DLR station however there was a bad surprise waiting for me. Because of the signalling failure on the rail way, trains were delayed around 20 – 30 minutes. I started to think that I would miss the exam. Therefore I decided to take a different route. I went to Greenwich by DLR and took the train to London Bridge. From there, I took Northern Line and went to Bank station and then took Central Line to Liverpool Street Station. When I arrived at INTO London Centre it was 9:15. I was slightly late, but I was allowed to take the exam. Exam lasted two and a half hours. There was reading and writing parts. I answered all the question but probably have a few mistakes.

After English exam we had 5 hour break. I had my lunch and decided to do revision for maths. Right before the exams making a revision in the last minutes is really important for me, because it gives me confidence. By the time I walked into the resource centre, I noticed the crowd around computer tables. People were finalising their assignments. I logged into Moodle account and started to read revision paper.

Finally it was 16:30, exam time. I was not that stressed till I had a look at the exam paper. I checked questions but I did not have any idea. My mind was blocked so to speak. For the first 10 minutes, I could not write a single word. However later on I started to do the questions. When I finished all questions, I had 10 more minutes so I checked my answers.

Later on I did the online assignment for maths at resource centre. My holiday officially started when I pressed submit button for the assignment. We went to pub with my friend Alex to play pool after that. I couldn’t win a single game but it was fun to hold cue after 5-6 years.

Presentation Assignment

4 weeks ago we were asked to do a presentation to do as an assignment which has significant effect on our final marks for Foundation English subject. When I heard this I was really disappointed, because I am not a good presenter at all. When I deliver the presentation, I always make funny mistakes and embarrass myself.  However it was something inevitable, so I had no way out of this situation without doing presentation. We are asked to form groups for the presentation, since it was a group work. I was eased a little bit. 

Following week, two of my friends proposed me to do presentation together. I couldn’t turn them down, so I asked our lecturer to form a crowded group and he was ok with that. In the end we ended up being a four men group. Another friend of mine couldn’t find a partner and he joined us.

We decided to give a presentation about job stress and how to cope with it. However we started preparing presentation a little later than I had expected, since everybody had other tasks to do. Last week we managed to finish the slide show. Mostly we used the material at INTO Resource Centre and City University’s Online Library. We didn’t have time to go and check the hard copies at City University, so online library was really handy.

Before the presentation day, we practised it 6 or 7 times. I was the worst presenter in the group. I tried really hard, but I couldn’t feel confident about the idea of speaking in front of other people. If it was something that I had to do spontaneously, I would have been ok. But when I plan a speech, I always make mistakes.

Last Friday was the big day. My group was the first group to present. There was no reason for me to feel nervous, since we were all well prepared. We prepared a good presentation with necessary amount of research and a good slideshow. We practised it rather a lot. However I was still uneasy. Ali started the presentation with introduction and definitions. After that Alex took over and started to explain 2 symptoms of job stress. Alex left his place to Inam and he carried on explaining the rest of the symptoms. ‘Here we are!’ I thought, it was my turn to talk about the measures which must be taken to avoid stress and the conclusion.

I was so tense. I took a deep breath and started. The nervousness was flowing from my body. I even missed a bullet point that I needed to explain, but in the end it turned out to be ok. Everybody was satisfied. We answered a couple of questions from audience and we took our places to listen other presentation. After the class when I talked to other people, they stated that our presentation was really good probably the best. Our team work gave its fruits so to speak.

Unmotivated Days

Recently I am feeling really unmotivated. I don’t want to leave the bed, I don’t want to go school, and I don’t want to study. I don’t even want to move my fingers so to speak. I can’t find a reason for that. Normally I would call this laziness, but also I feel somehow depressed. Everything is going well about my life. My grades are high. I have a lot of friends. I speak to my family rather often and they are all fine.

First I thought I was homesick. But this can’t be the reason, since I have a chance to go back to home on Easter holiday. But I don’t really want to go. I can’t deny that I am missing my family and my friends back in Istanbul and Ankara, but I was there just a couple of months ago and I don’t really feel like to go there for another 2 weeks. Because I believe that it will have a worse effect on my motivation. I will lose my discipline that I developed in last 4 months.

I am thinking of any further reasons for my unmotivated state of mind. I talked to my father about it; he is a medical doctor so I wanted to hear a scientific explanation. He said that it might have occurred because of spending too much time alone. I don’t think it could be the reason since there are always people around me that I interact with. I have really good friend from INTO that I meet occasionally out of INTO and we are all together at the centre every weekday. Also the people who share the accommodation with are quite helpful.

The reason behind it might be just the changing season. Recently I read an article about how changing seasons affect our hormones. I think I need a period of time for adaptation. On Easter, I am planning to visit Bournemouth in order to see some of my teachers and friends there. Also I will go to Oxford to see a friend who helped me to come to the UK. It appears like I need to spend some time out of London.

This term is about to end. We have around 2 weeks and it was stressful since I had 4 assignments to hand in. I completed 2 of them on time and still working on the other 2. It appears like stress might have affected my mood as well. But now I have all my plans about the holiday so I have started to feel better. Just 2 weeks and I will be off.

Off to Bournemouth

Last Friday we didn’t have any classes because there was a personnel meeting at INTO. I couldn’t miss this chance so I decided to travel. By the time I noticed one of my friends’ message on Facebook. He was asking about my life and studies at London and he was inviting me to Bournemouth. That was quite a coincidence and I liked the idea. I sent him a message and told him that I wanted to visit. He was pleased.
I bought my ticket online for Saturday 08:30 am coach. On Saturday around 08:00 am I went to Victoria Coach Station. The coach left the station around 08:35. The journey took around 1 hour 55 minutes, but for me it was like a couple of minutes, since I was sleeping.
I arrived in Bournemouth around 10:30. The town was still asleep so to speak. I had a nice long Turkish breakfast in a Turkish restaurant. It was refreshing though. Around 12:30 I met my friend Ege. He is studying masters degree at Bournemouth. First we went to B&B and arranged room for me to spend the night.
After we arranged the room, we went to my old school and saw some of my teachers there. It was kind of nostalgic; I studied there for 6 months there. Around 16:00 we went to a neighbourhood called Charminster. The place is known as Middle East district of town. There are Middle East restaurants, shisha cafes and authentic food markets. We had shisha and tea in a cafe and we planned the night out. After a nice conversation, I went to the hotel to make preparations for the night.

Around 11 pm we met at the centre of Bournemouth. The club we decided to go is called V club. It is an old church converted into a night club. However there was a bad surprise waiting us there. When we approached to the entrance, we saw really long queue. I was totally disappointed because probably we had to wait there at least for an hour to get in. As soon as I soon as I snapped out of it, I noticed that my friend was calling for me from entrance. In the end we paid extra to go to VIP floor so we didn’t have to wait. In the end I was glad that there was a queue, because the place was extremely crowded, and if we hadn’t gone to VIP area, we wouldn’t have enjoyed it.
The next day I spent most of time in bad, sleeping. We had a dinner with my friend at a Turkish restaurant. Around 9 pm I took the coach from Bournemouth to London and got back home around 12 pm. It was a worthy trip, I had been feeling a little bit down before it.  

A Healthy Start

A couple of days ago, I had an illness, which I believe caused by something I ate. I had fever week for 2 days and couldn’t really leave the bed. That caused me to miss 6 classes in a row. That is why I decided to take some measures for any further problems. Nowadays I am working on a healthier lifestyle. As a student I don’t have much leisure time but I will cope with it somehow.

I started to cook for myself more often and eating at least 1 portion of vegetables and salad every day. The results are not really bright, but I am really keen on cooking and I am sure, I will improve it. I changed my cooking habits as well. I shifted from sunflower oil and butter to olive oil and walnut oil; also I started to eat less fast food, making sandwiches for my lunch at school which is healthier and saves money.

Recently I learnt how to cook menemen (a kind of Turkish omelette with cheese, tomato and green pepper) and pasta with tomato. It is not a big accomplishment but still edible and surprisingly they taste good.

In addition to change my diet, next week I will start gym because I don’t do enough exercise. Therefore last week I visited City University London’s gym centre, Saddlers Sport Centre.  Place is quite satisfactory. All kind of gym equipments are available. You have to bring a sweat towel with you for your and the other members’ convenience. There is an indoor basketball court available, however you have to reserve the place and pay a small fee.  For City University London students membership fees are rather cheap, but also the centre accepts members from outside. You can apply for different classes as well. There are calm classes such as Ashtanga Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Iyengar Yoga and Pilates, and martial arts classes such as Aikido, Kung Fu, Nudda, Capoeira, Ju-jitsu, Goju Karate and Shorinji Kempo. A sauna is available as well and free for members. After I finish my Accounting assignment, I will start to go this centre with 2 of my friends from INTO.

As a last measure, I planned my sleeping hours. I put them in an order. I started to go bed around 23:30 every day and wake up at 07:30. I believe 8 hours of sleep is necessary to keep up with my daily schedule.

With that programme, I plan to lose some weight, since I am a little bit overweight at the moment. However losing weight is not the sole reason. Having a regular time table will affect my performance at school as well.

Night Out on Saturday

As you all know, London is capital of England with Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and many other world famous land marks. It is also considered as one of the financial capital of the world. However I can say it has another characteristic. It is where night life never stops. Pubs and night clubs are always there, ready for people who want to forget about daily problems and relax with a nice conversation or dance with the different types of electronic music.

Last week a friend of mine came up with a proposal that I couldn’t have refused. He invited me a party at a night club. Actually it was a house music concert and Bob Sinclar was going to play. After assignments and exams, I thought that it would have been a good chance to forget about studies and get rid of the stress. We bought the tickets online. Venue was Ministry of Sound, one of the well known night clubs in London. I was really excited, because I had never been there before and I heard about its fame.

Finally on Saturday around 21:00, we met at a friend’s flat. We had a couple of drinks there since clubs in London are quite expensive and before dance floor it helps you to get in mood. The opening hour was 11:00, so we left the flat at 12:00. We walked to Liverpool Street Station and went to Elephant & Castle. After 3 minute walk, we saw a really long queue and started ask whose idea to leave home that late. Whilst we arrived there a member of staff asked us if we had tickets online and he said we didn’t need to wait that queue. We were relieved and walked other side but there was another queue there. However it was moving relatively faster.

In 20 minutes we were inside. It was really crowded. Bob Sinclar wasn’t on stage, there was another DJ playing. Everybody was dancing and atmosphere was good. Approximately half an hour later Bob Sinclar appeared on the DJ box. People lost sanity so to speak. Everybody was shouting, whistling, and clapping hands. With the first song club, I noticed that there was no room to move then I noticed that people spent some time outside until Bob Sinclar’s performance. To be honest I could go to bar only once to get a drink. We danced almost 4 hours. Unfortunately I left before the end of programme, because I was really tired.

I think it was my best night out in London ever. I had great fun with my friends. I am looking forward to next time.