And then it rained...

Weather is a great metaphor for life - sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and there's nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella.

~Pepper Giardino~

Picture by: Sally Munro

I officially have ten days until exams start! How on earth did that happen? Last time I checked exams were weeks away and I had plenty of time to finish my end-of-term essays and start studying. But as I have found out there is nothing more sneaky at Rhodes then exams!

With three essays and a radio show to do before I can even think about exams the forecast for the next ten days is looking pretty grim....

I have spent the last few nights up at the radio lab with my team Classy Colours trying to get our show ready for the practice run that we had today with our tutor. Sleep seems to be a distant memory and both the radio and writing labs at the journalism deptartment are beginning to resemble scenes from a zombie movie as students who have not slept in days fumble about in an attempt to complete work by the dreaded deadline (Appropriate name if you ask me!).

Tonight I'm taking a break from the journ only to start my politics essay on Athenian democracy which is due Monday. Ah the life of a student.....sometimes I really do think studying is harder than working! And to top it all off on my way back from Pick n Pay (I went to get yummy supplies to get me through the peckish hours around 3 in the morning) I passed all these people who are going out tonight.....how I ask you? Don't they have work? Or am I just slow!?
When I got back to my room my friend Janine had emailed me some photo's of a thunderstorm that passed over Cape Town this morning they instantly brightened up my day as they are gorgeous! I also found the quote which made me realise that there will always be good and bad weather and all you can do is invest in a good umbrella!

So it is with that in mind that I have decided that I am going to stop moaning about all the work I have left to do and just get on with it! Because you know what the old saying says when it rains it pours.......so I guess I'm going to give dancing in the rain I try! Wish me luck!

Something a little fun on a Friday!

Not that I remembered that it was even Friday until I turned on my radio. I have now entered the exam void where you have no clue whether it is Monday or Friday you just know whether you are writing today or not.

So here’s a little bit of fun for you all – it’s a can you guess what this picture is of?
Look carefully …..
HINT: the location is not what you should be looking at.

HAPPY FRIDAY !!!!!

A Calmness in the morning

Despite the end-of-the-year exams being literally around the corner I woke up this morning with a deep feeling of calmness which I can't seem to explain. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I fixed my radio last night and can now wake up to the lovely airwaves of 5FM once again or maybe I just had a really good dream...I don't know. But whatever it was it has left me in a great mood that I thought I would share with you all through a picture.
It's one of my own so I hope you all like it. It was taken at Cambridge University in the UK.

Have a great Tuesday!

"For my unconquerable soul"

Swot week has begun and soon all talk will be revolving around exams. Lucky for me my first exam which is English Prose is only on the 11th November but I will be needing that extra swot week to study for English, Journalism and Politics which are straight after each other (not so lucky). But I suppose the bright side of the situation is that I only write for 10 days and then I am done for the year. I began getting all my notes in order today so that I can tackle the task of revision when I stumbled across a copy of one of my favourite poems ‘Invictus’. I decided to put this poem up on the blog for anyone out there reading this that has not read this poem in the hope that it will evoke some sort of emotion from you as it does me.

The title of the poem ‘Invictus’ is latin for ‘unconquerable’ and it was written by William Ernest Henley. William was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone when he was 12 years old and had to have his one leg amputated below the knee. Despite his disease and living with a disability he embraced life and believed that his future was what he made it. I find this poem an inspiration for many reasons one of which being that he wrote it from his hospital bed. For me a strength of living life on your own terms and making your situation work for yourself shines through. Whether you like it or not I just wanted to put it out there as a reflection of how I am feeling about my upcoming exams.

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

All work and no play

One more week of lectures…

Two weeks until exams start…

So far at Rhodes I have found that people deal with the looming exams in one of two ways. They either step up the partying a notch or two using the excuse that they need to get it out their systems before exams start or that they need to go out now because in swot week they are buckling down to work. Or they start slowly reducing their partying in order to get a head start on their learning as just learning in swot week will not be sufficient. Neither route is particularly bad as long as you prepare and do learn eventually. Leaving my friend’s birthday party at 00:30 (early by any standard I’m sure) last night and waking up at 7:00 this morning in order to get cracking would definitely push me way over into the ‘reducing my partying’ category. But as I got up this morning looked out my window and realised that hardly anyone else is even up at that hour on a Saturday I began to think about whether I even made a choice or did it just kind of happen. I would have loved to have stayed out at the party last night and let my hair down some more but I was practically falling asleep on the dance floor as a result of an all-nighter I had to pull to get my politics essay done which was due for Friday. My classics essay and journalism 2 application which are due Monday has forced me to be up at the ungodly hour of 7:00 this morning. So I guess you could say that the circumstance of having so many deadlines for the weekend and next week have meant that I made a decision without even realising it.

All I can do now is pray that the exams go well and look forward to a deadline free holiday!!