Welcome to Weirdoland

We've all heard about the budget cuts and the increase in tuition fees... Since September 2012 students at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) pay £9000 per year here (Almost triple what we, students who started prior to that, pay), a fact I can more or less accept since the money has to come from somewhere... So what does the university do? UCLan installs screens at the door of every classroom to show timetables, what was wrong with our old paper timetables? Nothing. It changes the whole attendance monitoring system by installing new magnetic scanners at the door of every classroom. What was wrong with the little scanners teachers had? Nothing. Today, four gigantic ice sculptures were put around campus. Who benefits from that? Certainly not me. I really hope our tuition money ins't funding these ice sculptures... All this money UCLan spends on unnecessary stuff could fund so many brilliant projects, internships, and just stuff students would actually benefit ...

After many hours of travelling, I finally arrived in Tel Aviv this morning. Yesterday I left my family behind to embark on this hopefully productive journey that will be my trip to Israel. I flew to Zurich Airport where I waited for about 4 hours before getting on their intra-airport underground train after they finally announced my terminal. The airport is just that big. So after that train ride I get to the end of terminal E where I undergo the El Al security questioning which went quite well, far better and shorter than last year. Maybe I look better. Then of course I get taken to a room where I empty my entire cabin luggage and it gets checked for trace of [explosives? I really have no clue]. Then my shoes. And my passport. Then I am released from the room where my bag has to stay until boarding, in case I was planning to go get that bomb I'd hidden in the toilets. FAIL. On board are a large group school kids going back home after a cultural exchange in Switzerland (from w...

As part of our assessment we have to produce a magazine every three weeks called Orbis. Here is my story for the first edition for which I also did the layout. Enjoy!

I think it is safe to say by now that I have found my call. This might shock some people who think I have no secrets to them, when I was applying to university I was seriously considering the army path in my head it was always the army or journalism. In the end I chose the "safe" path (note the quotation marks as my aim is to become a war reporter). Studying is great, I love it. In fact I wanna do some more after I graduate (hopefully) next summer. And when I say studying, it is a tricky subject for me because yes I study international journalism but not much actual studying is done on my part (I still get excellent grades so I will not change my methods). I feel university has taught me many things but has failed to teach me other things I wished it would have or more like it failed to force me change my methodology when it comes to actual work. I love what I do and I honestly think I am better at what I do now than I was two and a half years ago thanks to my "stu...

Not having the herd instinct as most humans do, I often forget to have a social life. Especially at the moment as I'm preparing this exciting yet a bit scary trip I'm about to take. So of course when an old friend from school asked if I wanted to hang out in town with another friend last night, I said okay. At the last minute, a change of plans, which is in itself not a big deal as it was closer to the place I was then and I hadn't left already. Thing is, we had to go to an old pub opposite my old school where all these kids who think they're super cool hang out. I used to go there before they changed it, it used to be okay when I was about 15 but the thing is, only 15 year-old hypocrites, nationalist, homophobic dicks hang out there now and the concept of meeting with people my age there made me feel like they have not evolved, an they probably haven't. Worst is, I know these people's faces and sometimes there's one that recognises  you and is all like ...

A disorganised rant about what I have learnt this year, what I liked or disliked, a bit of everything really. On a general level, I must admit I have loved this academic year. I have realised, like I wrote back in September that I should have been in university all my life, instead of school where you get told the same every single day. I absolutely love university and I realise I am very lucky to be able to afford it. And because I didn't really know what to expect coming to university abroad, I was not deceived by unmet expectations. I have met some really awesome, interesting and inspiring people, especially Danny, the most passionate person about Journalism I have ever met and whom I will especially miss next year as he is going to China. Thanks to him, I got to work for the Lancashire Evening Post with Chris, Mike and him. It was an amazing experience. My tutors. My tutors were the greatest. I love learning and, because I'd only experienced school, high school and s...

This is a story I never told anyone. Or at least not the entire version. Now as I am writing this, I know I will have a hard time whether or not to post this and know that if you are reading this, it is a very big deal for me and probably means more than you can imagine. When I was about 12, I changed schools to go to this very big factory-like school, called the European school of Brussels. I was really excited to go there as for about ten years before that, each time my mom would drive by it I would go "one day this will be my school". And there I was fulfilling one of my dreams. I come from a very cool family, very chilled out, my parents always encouraged me to be myself and do what I wanted (they let me go as Robinhood to school everyday when I was in preschool, my mom made me two suits to make sure there was always a clean one for me to wear, now if this is not like the best mother on Earth, well, go away), I had a lot of autonomy and independence from a very young a...