Studio l'italiano!

I'm learning Italian! After seven years of studying German at secondary school, which culminated in an A-level grade B, I've decided to try my hand at learning another modern foreign language. I chose Italian for a pretty superficial reason: so that I could attempt to read interviews with Sebalter in his mother tongue. Still, as time goes on I'm starting to really enjoy developing my skills. It's a nice change to be learning at my own pace and for my own personal interest, rather than for a qualification. The main resource I'm using is Duolingo, a free web/app platform which generates simple listening, reading, writing and speaking activities within discrete lessons, helping the user to gradually acquire knowledge of the target language. The focus is on learning through experience rather than explanation, although the comments section is useful for finding out the theory behind each sentence. Strength bars indicate the skills that need to be improved, and it's always possible to strengthen skills, which is particularly useful when I don't feel like learning a completely new topic. I also have a 3 in 1 book, the Collins Easy Learning Complete Italian, which has grammar, verb and vocabulary sections. So far it's been useful to clarify grammar points introduced on Duolingo, and I might use it to write notes and flashcards. I've been learning for almost two months now and according to Duolingo I've acquired 30 skills and learned 862 words. My next challenge is the perfect tense... oh, and I'm starting uni in a couple of days! Alla prossima!

Awesome August!

In less than half an hour it will be September here, so I thought I'd do a quick post to herald the end of the marvellous month of August. I've had painted nails almost every day this month, but only two different designs:

I've also spent about a third of the month on holiday; between the 10th and 13th I was in Derbyshire, and yesterday I came back from a week in Weymouth. Highlights of the past 31 days include being accepted into university, receiving another retweet and favourite from Sebalter [x], and seeing a shooting star - I really hope the wish I made comes true! By the end of the coming month, I will be a fully fledged uni student, which is both an exciting and daunting prospect. The preparations have already begun - today I chose my optional units. The overarching mood is eagerness to get started on this new chapter of my life, something I hope will be documented on this blog in the future!

The Big Day

After a wonderful few days in Derbyshire, today I returned home with a bang, because it was finally time to find out my A-level results. The last two years of my school life had been leading up to this day, so I was naturally nervous last night. As planned, I logged on to UCAS Track at 8:00 am, and I was delighted to find that the University of Bristol had confirmed my place to study MSci Pharmacology with Study in Industry! With that weight off my mind, I wolfed down my breakfast and headed to school to find out my exact results. The common room was already pretty busy when I arrived; I quickly spotted my envelope (yes, the school has finally invested in envelopes!) and tore it open eagerly to discover my grades, which were:

Psychology: B
Biology: A
German: B
Chemistry: A*(!)

I'm so happy with the A* in chemistry; I didn't get my fingers trapped in the door in vain! My Biology result was also very satisfying, and the B in German was expected, although I was only 4 UMS points away from an A. I had hoped to get an A in psychology, but I'm happy with the B. So far I've done little to celebrate, just ordering the Eurovision 2008 album on Amazon, but hopefully I'll do something soon.

A Celebration

Many things have happened since I last posted here. I've done my A2 exams, been to two eighteenth birthday parties, and on Tuesday I went to the sixth form prom, which was absolutely brilliant! Months before the event, I began looking at dresses on the Debenhams website. Most of my favourites were in the Yumi collection, which was unfortunately absent from the local Debenhams store. However, I remained persistant, and using the instore wifi, I discovered that a Yumi store existed a short bus ride away, so we headed over, only to find that the shop had closed down. Feeling defeated, we trudged home, and decided to return on Sunday. Thankfully, House of Fraser sells Yumi clothing, so I was able to try on a few of the dresses I'd seen online, and I eventually settled on this one:

My dress!

I accessorized the dress with pink nails, my shoes from the year 11 prom and Em's silver bracelet!

Daisy's dad kindly offered to give Chris, Jade, Daisy and I a lift to the venue, a lovely hotel in the city centre. We inadvertently arrived about an hour before the teachers, but the time passed quickly while I marvelled at the hotel's splendour. Eventually, all but three guests arrived, so we made our way into the room, where the teachers gave us each a delightful party bag. The food arrived promptly, and I wolfed down the starter, tomato and basil soup, but had little room for the creamy tortellini main course, and couldn't even finish the sweet cheesecake dessert. After the meal it was photo time; I had 17 taken with Mrs Royall, some of which were hilarious. Soon after, people began to depart. We were among the last to leave, and while waiting for the others, I was very tempted to jump in the luggage cart à la Sebalter in the Hunter of Stars music video!

Temptation!

The walk back to the car was majestic, and the evening was one I will never forget!

Eurovision 2014: Chris's Grand Final Party

Conchita, Queen of Eurovision!

Held last night, Chris's 3rd Annual Eurovision Party was certainly the best ever! The twelve attendees cheered, squealed, grooved, joked, and sang our hearts out during the three-and-a-half hour extravaganza. Chris's decorations were second to none, with brightly coloured bunting, #TeamMolly posters and #JoinUs diamonds adorning the ceiling, walls and floor. When Austria's Conchita Wurst was announced as the victor, we were all delighted, especially Chris, who supported her from the start. We were also pleased with the UK's score, a respectable 40 points, which put us in 17th place. Here are the final standings in our group competition:

1. Chris - Austria - 1st place
2. Chelsea - Sweden - 3rd place
3. Jess - Armenia - 4th place
4. Wendy - Ukraine - 6th place
5. Steph - Denmark - 9th place
6. Jade - Finland -11th place
7. Emily - Romania - 12th place
8. Georgina - Switzerland - 13th place
9. Megan - United Kingdom - 17th place
10. Daisy - Azerbaijan - 22nd place
11. me - Malta - 23rd place
12. Rosie - Slovenia - 25th place

Yes, my beloved Firelight ended up four places above the bottom of the leaderboard, but I wasn't at all dispirited. Their performance was delightful, and I somehow managed to vote for them 50 times during the short interval. Amazingly, they were awarded 10 points by the UK, so the binge voting was well worth it! In total, they were given 32 points, which meant my pledge to eat one Malteser for each point they received was significant, yet easily doable.

32 maltesers

Daisy's tactical choice of Azerbaijan sadly failed to pay off; their 22nd place finish is the first time they've ever placed outside the top 8. After her win last year, Rosie was relegated to last place this time around. Chelsea and Chris both improved by 13 places on last year, and my first choice actually qualified this time around! The UK didn't do too badly, and the rest of the attendees' countries finished on the left hand side of the leaderboard. After the excitement of the contest, today I've felt rather melancholy, but I will look forward to Austria 2015!

Some of Chris's decoration

The artists we supported

Eurovision Grand Final: Initial reaction

Congratulations to Conchita Wurst!!! Chris's choice won Eurovision 2014, which meant he got to keep first prize - juggling balls! Conchita's performance was astounding and I was thrilled when her victory was announced! I managed to vote for Malta exactly 50 times, and in the end they came 23rd, but they received 10 points from the UK, so I feel like I did my bit! 

Eurovision 2014: Second Semi-Final

It's Eurovision Final day! But before the festivities begin, here are my thoughts on the second semi-final, which saw 10 more countries make it through to the final.

These were:
Malta (yay!)
Norway
Poland
Austria
Finland
Belarus
Switzerland
Greece
Slovenia
Romania

Only my sister's choice, Ireland, failed to qualify, but she wasn't too downcast, because she will now support Romania. I was worried that Malta's performance would be overshadowed by the later acts, but thankfully it wasn't! Israel's failure to qualify surprised me; I really liked Mei Finegold's "Same Heart", but it's position at second in the running order probably harmed it's chances. Belarus's success was also unexpected, but I do have a soft spot for Teo's "Cheesecake". I thought the Greek entry "Rise Up" came across really well on the show, and the trampoline was an effective gimmick. I was also happy that Austria, Finland, Switzerland and Slovenia got through!

It's now only 1 hour and 10 minutes till the Grand Final begins!