Moving into my new flat
The first year of uni was important, in that it was the first step away from living at home into adulthood. However, living in the halls of residence that I did was almost like a halfway-house between the dependence of home life and the independence of living as an adult; because bills were paid for, my meals were cooked for me (and not very well I must add) and the only space I had, personally, was my room.
That all changed for second year, though, moving into my first flat with two friends I’ve known for a while. Getting the flat was a big struggle. It took us almost three months of searching for flats, going to fruitless viewings and rejecting flats that were too small or too expensive before we found the perfect one. It’s close to the uni and the supermarket, as spacious as we could want and, for me, comes with an en suite penthouse room. Living with friends as well is great compared to just seeing them when it suits everyone. It’s an ideal scenario.
There are a few drawbacks, to be fair, in that it is a bit further from the centre of town, making it thirty minutes’ walk to Union Street, and perhaps on the expensive side (although it’s hard to find a bargain in Aberdeen), but I’m very happy with my first flat and hope to be living there throughout my time in Aberdeen.
Intramural Football League
A fixture of my first semester of second year has been taking part in the uni’s intramural football league, where students can make their own 7-a-side football teams and take part in a league. I’d barely played any football in the year leading up to then, much to my frustration, and I was very glad to be able to pull on my keeper’s gloves again.
Our team was called Dyslexia Untied, and for the first few weeks we had big dreams of perhaps winning our league. We kicked off with two 5-0 wins, the best possible with a mercy rule in place, and things were going well. However, a mid-season wobble began with a close defeat against Unathletic Bilbao, and then two drubbings at the hands of the two best sides in the league. Although we managed a victory against the minnows of the league, we couldn’t finish in the top half – with a deserved defeat in our final game against what became the league’s 3rd best side.
The next season begins in the second semester, and with some players transferring to other teams, and hopefully some new signings, it’ll be interesting to see how we do. Playing football is still one of my favourite things to do, and I’m very happy to be doing it regularly again.
Starting blog/Working for the Gaudie
Last, but certainly not least, one of the things I’ll remember most about this year is properly kicking off my blog properly. I love to write, and jotting down my thoughts was something I’ve always done from a young age. I’d started a Blogspot blog a few years ago to try and share my thoughts with people, but only posted on it infrequently.
With the reveals of the new consoles at the start of the year, there was a lot of information being created around it, with game news websites usually splitting it all into individual articles, so I thought I’d have a go at condensing all I knew about them into one article apiece. I got a good response and kept going.
And from there I branched out into posts about further topics that interested me, particularly football and the independence referendum, but I tried to cover a broad range of my interests in my blogs as well.
In October I decided that rather than post to a rather unspectacular Blogspot website, I’d have a go at creating my own blog on my own website, and here we are! I signed up for a domain, WordPress hosting, downloaded a theme that I thought was good-looking, and started writing more frequently – and I’m very happy with the outcome. I like working with websites and seeing how they work, as well as writing, so it was always going to be something I’d enjoy. There’s something pretty cool about having my own space on the internet.
My blog has helped me get some great writing experience, such as writing for The Great Scottish Debate website, and this month working with Aberdeen Uni’s student newspaper, The Gaudie, on some of their online ventures.
It’s been a pleasure writing and blogging this year, and I hope to continue doing so as often as possible in 2014.
Thank you very much for reading this mammoth account of my year, and indeed any other of my blogs from 2013, and I’d like to wish you a happy and healthy New Year! Slàinte mhath ‘s gu math theid leibh an ath bhliadhna!