Hannah goes... Manchester

So I went to Manchester yesterday with the Students Union (and about 150 other students). This was my first trip to a different city since I came to Newcastle in September, which is pretty sad considering that half my time here is already over. But I guess you have to start somewhere.

The Manchester Museum

I had a lot of fun walking across the city with a couple of fellow students. Or rather repeatedly stopping to take pictures and then running to catch up :P

I think Manchester is a very pretty city and I could even imagine living there for some time. Here are some impressions:

Manchester Metropolitan University

Town Hall Tower

Captain Hannah

University of Manchester

John Rylands Library

MOSI Museum of Science & Industry

Beetham Tower

Chinese Buffet for lunch :)

Manchester Town Hall

Busy Bee

I realised I haven’t been writing much lately, but I’m trying to keep up :)
I am very busy with my modules at uni at the moment, so I didn’t really get to do much else.
However, I have just planned a few exciting activities that I hope will be a lot of fun.
 
First of all, I booked a ticket for a day trip to Manchester on Saturday. Since I’m up here in the north already, I thought I should try and see at least a bit of it.

 
Then in the end of March I’m hopefully participating in a “Zombie Run”, an event the Students Union is organising. I am really looking forward to it and I hope it will be as much fun as it sounds like :)

And finally, April and therefore Easter break is getting closer pretty fast, which means a LOT of fun coming up! Juju will be here soon, together we will go to London, later I will spend a week in Groningen, NL and as if all that is not enough, once I'm back my parents will come here to Newcastle to see me ^_^

As I said, it will be one hell of a busy month and I can't wait! :3

Hannah goes... Round 2! *ding-ding-ding*

Finally, classes have started for semester 2 and it seems to be more relaxed this time, especially in regards to my timetable. I was, and still am, really excited about going to the classes and I am highly motivated to work hard and do my best for good marks.

As for the modules, this semester I am still taking Methods of CCC Research, which is continued from semester 1 and which is connected to my research portfolio aka dissertation. Just like in semester 1, it consists of a 2hr lecture and a 1hr seminar per week.

For my main programme (CCC) I am also taking Culture, Interculturality and Identity which involves a 3hr lecture per week and three 1hr seminars across the semester.

Some of the books I need for semester 2

I also signed up for International Business Talk and Interaction, which is scheduled for 6 hours on a Saturday (dreadful thought, I know). However, this is restricted to four Saturdays only, therefore I am confident that this will help to spread assignments across the semester, so I won’t have 3 assignments all due in one week again... that was really too much for me at the end of semester 1.

For my pathway (IBM), I’m taking Small Business Marketing and Management this semester, a 2hr lecture, hoping the focus will be more on management than on marketing...

And finally, I have a module called Performance and Decision Management, which is essentially Management Accounting and is a weekly 3hr lecture.

Overall, I am really happy with my programme and my modules and I am really really glad that I got accepted at Newcastle University to experience all this! :D

National Identity

I've noticed recently that I haven’t seen anything with an English flag on it yet. Only the Union Jack. This surprises me a little because I got into the topic of national identity in one of my modules in semester 1 and discussed a study which was deducted across the UK and which identified that people from England tend to see themselves as English first and British second, whereas in Scotland or Wales for example, people would tend to say that they feel British as a first or main identity and Scottish or Welsh as a second one.

 







I don’t know if this is maybe a tourism thing to sell all kinds of goods with the Union Jack on it or if it’s because Newcastle is a city with many international students. Or maybe it has political reasons I'm unaware of. I just randomly realised that I haven’t seen a single English flag since I’ve come to England.

Hannah goes... home for Christmas!

Can't I just be sent by mail?

Last year I was so fed up with all this commercialized Christmas crap and couldn’t wait for it to be over. This year, I’m really looking forward to it. Why?
Because I’m flying back to Hamburg for Christmas. ♥

I already have many little Christmas presents and can't wait to give them away ^_^

I'm flying to Germany on December 16th and will return to Newcastle on January 2nd.

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year!

I like to move it, move it! ♫ ♪

It’s official! :D I will be moving to another house in January, right after I come back from Germany. It’s just a different area of the city and it’s very close to where I live now, but it’s nicer and the rent is a bit cheaper.
At the moment I still live in Byker. The area is alright I guess, in my view it’s not as bad as everyone here says it is. But comparing it to Heaton nearby, you can already see a huge difference just from the general appearance of the area. And Heaton is where I will move in January.

Byker (the street I live in now)

Heaton (the street I will move to)

Hannah goes... running

Jesmond Dene

When I realised that I wouldn’t have any time to join any of the sports teams here at Newcastle University, I got a little sad. I love sports and I really need some exercise here.

So since joining a sports club is too time-consuming and signing up for a membership at a local gym is too expensive, I decided to just go running every once in a while. At least that’s something.

At first, I went running by myself across the neighbourhood, exploring areas I hadn’t seen yet. But after a few times, I started to meet with other students I got to know here to go running together in nearby parks. That way it’s a lot more interesting and the motivation to get up in the morning and go in the first place is a lot higher, too.

shoe tree in Armstrong Park

Now I’m running 2-3 times a week and it feels great. And the parks (Heaton Park, Armstrong Park, Jesmond Dene) are really lovely.

old mill in Jesmond Dene

gotta love the morning sun <3