The term was very hectic as I had put a lot on my plate and was busy trying to cope up with everything. Fortunately, before I would drain myself out completely, the Easter break came along for which I had been waiting for a long time as I was invited to my friends place for the dinner. I could not wait for it.

My life didn’t slow down during this vacation as I started working double the amount I used to with cricket nets and loads of assignment work to finish. I guess, I had mentioned about my laziness and postponing work. Well, I had decided to complete all the overdue work during this vacation. But I found myself visiting Manchester and Bradford in this Easter Break, as they were the nearest.

First I visited Manchester which is a city unlike Huddersfield. It was very different from here and even a lot bigger, but that made me realise the comfort that I have living in Huddersfield. In Huddersfield there is no trouble of travelling long distances and it is so peaceful. Here we were travelling all over Manchester mostly in buses, its awesome town centre was very tempting but had to pass on it as was thin on my pocket and I preferred spending the cash on eating because if I am correct there was a food festival going on. The art exhibition had some wonderful pieces of work from a relatively new painter. I also visited the BBC head office though was not allowed to enter but it seemed so nice there. Well, that was just the day; but night life over there is amazing, a lot more crowded and the way all the bars and pubs were located looked very nice in the lights.

From Manchester back to Huddersfield to do some work that I could not miss and then moved on to Bradford. I didn’t travel as much in Bradford as I just spend a few hours over there. I had gone to an exhibition which as always was very well put together. I enjoyed the weather over there, I guess it was only that day it was a good climate there because from the next day it started raining over there, lucky me. But, as I have heard, Bradford is called ‘Bradistan’ because of the number of Asians or rather Pakistanis present there. Other than that Bradford is famous for Cricket and most of the top players start by playing in Bradford League.

Well I came back home fresh after few good outings but still tired, I could not help that I guess. As soon as I got back home started with cooking and then the next day again was back at work, the days I wasn’t working I was either studying or playing cricket, and it would not be wrong to say that I hardly studied as I was working 4 days a week and the other 2 days I was busy with cricket, hence even by the end of Easter I was left with the same amount of work but a lot more less time.

And submission dates were just looming over my head now.

Submissions

As soon as the Easter break finished I realised it was only one week time left before I started with all my submissions. So, I was on the accelerator and had taken a week off from work and cricket to concentrate on my assignments and submit them on time. The method of reaching to a final piece of presentation is a very long process but I had to cut it short as I didn’t have enough time to follow all the steps. But I did try to do my work to the best of my abilities.

In the ISC we were taught to use time carefully and usefully though it was for everyday routine and when nothing was supposed to be left for the other day, but I had to apply it and use hours as days and days as hours. Well it helped me to ease my mind and relax myself as when you make a time schedule you get the satisfaction of knowing that you will be able to complete the work – at least something to put your mind at ease and focus on the work. It is a very good tool and from now onwards I will try and apply it to my life every single day.

The first two submissions were the writing submissions with 3000 and 2500 words respectively. I was not worried about writing so many words as I was confident I could write so much but I was afraid of repetitive sentences which I did a lot before and had tried to improve on it while I was studying in the ISC. I can surely say for writing my extended essays I really felt ISC had done great things to help me out with it. This reminds me I have not thanked the ISC so far – well I guess I will be dedicating a blog to ISC very soon.

But guys we always forgot to thank the people and organisations that have made a difference in our lives, we should never forget to thank people as we move on in our life as each of them has had a role to make us what we are today, but we keep on forgetting it. I have always tried and will keep on trying. As I have heard from someone, ‘It doesn’t harm your throat to Thank people or say sorry’.

Well let me role back to the submissions and yes, I did manage to complete my work properly without ruining my sleep and now had to prepare for the presentation in which I was supposed to talk for 10 minutes so I had to prepare a presentation and practice delivering my speech, unfortunately I didn’t manage to practice speaking so I did fumble up once or twice during the presentation but I managed to pull it off.

For me, writing an extended essay was an easy part as I had done it before but making a portfolio was the scary part as I had never done it before and was worried whether I will be able to make a good portfolio or not. I had one week more and I accelerated harder to complete all my designs. I was not very happy with my designs. I thought I could have done more. Nonetheless, I had myself to blame for doing the work at the last minute. I had managed to submit all my work at the right time. But the portfolio presentation which was the final icing on the cake to end the 1st year and I had to make sure to end on the right note. My nerves were high as I was the first to present that day. I put my head down and started preparing for the final presentation.

Summer Break

I have told you about my rushed submissions and all the headache but now be prepared for the exciting and nervous part. Well, as I had mentioned about me presenting first for the portfolio I went in and I suppose it had gone well. I was relived after the presentation as if I was the free bird but that did not last long. Because after one hour or so I realised it had not gone that well and there is an option of me not doing well during the examinations, this was scary: scariest feeling ever, but it happens all the time whenever there is time for the results to come.

I had to wait for a month for the results and did not have much to do before that. So, I put my head down and tried not to think at all as I was going crazy getting worried about the results. I just worked like a dog for almost 4 days a week and the rest of the 3 days went by playing cricket. While I was busy with all of this, luckily for me, time flew by and it was the day for the results. All of my batch mates gathered and went to the university. The results were going to come only on the University network, we all were logged on just waiting for the results to come out. I was getting worried as it almost took 2 hours for the results to come out. My friends with me got their results and for one of them it was not that good and I always thought she was better than me.

I had assumed I might have done really badly but to my surprise I got decent grades. I was ecstatic and immediately called my parents and asked them to book tickets for me as I was going back home for summer vacations. The day after, I got the tickets for the flight to Mumbai. I was very excited and could not wait to see everyone. I did not have much to pack as I was not taking a lot of clothes back home. So, I was on the flight back home cheered up and boosted up by my result. As, I stay in a pretty small city called Jamnagar in Gujarat, I normally have to fly till Mumbai for around 10 hours and then get a train to Jamnagar which is another 12hours. This time though my brother was there to receive me in Mumbai and I was very happy to see him after a long time. We drove back home. I asked him to take me to some place to eat but it was 4 am in the morning and nothing was going to be open at that time so went home and off to bed. The next day I got up pretty late and the only thing that I wanted to do was eat good Indian food in restaurant, and that is what we did the entire day. And now finally the time came to catch a train to Jamnagar. I could not wait to see my parents.

HoMe

Train journeys are much more comforting the long flights. I reached back home to Jamnagar and meet my parents but unfortunately when I had reached it was working hours and so they were busy with their work but as soon as they got free I had a good chat with them. It was great to be back where I was all hassle free, did not have to do any of my work or even cook for that matter. It was so relaxing and surprising to know the amount of time I had on my hands, unlike in Huddersfield when sometimes it feels like it takes an entire day to cook. And moreover I was back in my own personal room in which I have lived for almost 10 years or even more. Now, I was back home free and kind of jobless, which does not seem to affect me at all as I love to be jobless.

This time it was different as many of my friends were not there since they were busy with their colleges which meant I was spending more time with my mother and helping her work which was fun till the time I was learning but then it just got boring. So I did not carry on doing the work but then for a few weeks I got busy with football, until we had to go to Mumbai again as my grandfather was not feeling well.

He was taken for a check-up and we realised that a by-pass surgery has to be done which is pretty risky but these days the doctors are really skilled. It was a very emotional time and everyone was tensed and worried. Fortunately for all of us the surgery was successful and today my grandfather was running like ever before. This was a first time experience like this for me. I even noticed the kind of business the hospitals are running its ridiculous the amount of money they charge for small small things. It is upsetting to know how the hospitals take advantage of the people in distress and knowing that nothing can be done about that. However everything was normal after a few weeks and I was back in Jamnagar this to find that my friends were in town.

This meant I had something to do; we regularly went bowling, driving around to the beach and on ships. It was really a lot of fun out there, in the meantime 3 months pass like a flash and I could not believe it was time for me to go back. I was really dull this time on hearing that I had to go back, as I would miss home but on the other hand I couldn’t wait for the University to start and me to finish my 2nd year.

RETURN: In this project we were supposed to concern ourselves with ‘the local’ and find something to return to each week, and create 12 artifacts based on it. I choose to return to money every week and see the various unnecessary ways in which we spend money I wanted to create the artifacts in different media and different aspects and most of them were very similar in creation i.e. design.

FOUND: We were asked to brainstorm what we think of or relate to when we hear found, and then asked to create a design where the word found is clearly visible. Hence in this design I have tried to consider the word found and also includes a social cause of save trees. I tried to create an animation but was not able to create one which I like hence ended up creating a story-board. The story is about how a squirrel losses his house that is a tree, and then always for almost 20 times manages to find a new tree. This is where I have tried to bring in the word found. And then the squirrel ends up homeless as we humans keep on cutting down more and more trees till there are no trees left in the neighbourhood.

CODING: This is one of our subjects and this we were asked to create any two artifacts using action script, processing or php. The tough part in this was to get the idea, but as soon as I realised that we have not learnt enough to fulfil the classic ideas that I had it became much easier and clearer. I created a game called ‘The Destroyer’ which is a bit complicated game and was not able to complete it, so I presented it till where I could do and the rest as an developing idea. The other game was using action script and we all might know that game called Stone, Paper and Scissors. The other one was from the colour palette was if you choose a colour it appears on a screen. These were pretty basic but good for me as beginner to create on my own.

VISUAL STUDIES: We were given an option of around 8 projects and had to choose 2. I choose the one in which I had to create a sketch of myself and the other one was to create a caricature with 6 different facial expressions. We also had a morphing project under this subject where I have morphed a candle into a mobile phone.

GRID: The grid projects were not at all easy to do. This had three parts: 1) the tutors will give us a selected area and we need to design something based on it. 2) We choose our own grid and do the same. 3) We work in a group to create a game based on the idea of grid.

For this project I had to revisit the locations many times click regular photos for an idea to strike me to create a good work, which is true. For the first instance I created a scene which looks like a racing track inspired from the grid where I was. In the second grid I choose a place nearer to my house and created a panoramic image. The game was created with one of my Friend.

These are almost all the main design works that we did and the rest is a draft and an advertising campaign about which I will talk later on. If you want visit and see my work you can visit http://arbansal.weebly.com/portfolio.html but it is still under construction within a few weeks it will be ready.

I couldn’t wait to get the first year all over with. Now was the time to work really hard and finish all the work for reviews and feedbacks before the final submission after Easter vacation. More, assignments started coming our way. And the stress level this time around was really high. And I was very scared.

I was confident about the ideas that I put forward but I lacked a lot in my technical skills and still do as I am not confident about using different kinds of software and get used to them. The amount of software in the market is amazing but I stuck to Adobe software that the University computer has. In the meanwhile with all of the software to learn I was pilling on the assignments because I want to do them really well and that was not possible until I learnt the adobe.

Around two-three weeks after the start of university after Christmas, all the work from different subjects was given to us and since I had not started working on them immediately the pressure had built up on me. Slowly I started lacking behind in all my University work. Moreover, I was working simultaneously as well because few months back I had told my father confidently that I will pay my living expenses on my own, and my cricket practices had also started. I didn’t want to stop doing anything hence I carried on and the work pilled on at double the rate at which I was completing.

My tutors knew that I was lagging behind but I didn’t want to show to them that I was lagging behind so most of the time whichever subject we were talking about I made sure I had the idea of what I am doing and how I want to develop them. And yes this turned out to be very helpful as with their feedback I had improved all my ideas. The only thing that I wish this course had were tutorials to learn software it would have made my life so much easier. But since I was scared to face the tutors as I didn’t have as much material ready as the others I missed a few of my classes, which I later on realised was not a good idea because if I had attended I would have got more help and I made sure not to repeat that mistake again.
The tutors had confidence in me and helped me to focus on the work. They had told us that we were supposed to submit all our work before Easter, which scared me a lot because only 2 weeks were left for that. And there were a few drafts as well which we had to submit.

Well, I was not able to complete the work but luckily the submissions were after Easter and the tutors had done this so that we complete it on time and have time to reflect and improvise on our designs. In the struggle to get the designs completed I had forgotten about my drafts submission and missed it but luckily it was only the 1st draft and I knew I had missed out on valuable feedback.

Now, it was time for Easter and I was hoping that I would be able to catch up during this period with all my work. However this term was over now the last term was left which was full of reflective feedback and submissions. I will also tell you about the kind of assignments that I got in my coming up writings.

In the mean time away from studies Criminal Minds started getting a bit more interesting and The Mentalist program is really fascinating. And I didn’t mention earlier but I do realise I am writing a blog after 4 months I suppose, which is disappointing on my behalf because if you read this blog regularly you would not have had anything new to read. I just hope you will try and catch up with me through the blog.

As it was informed in the previous post about my job at McDonalds I requested a full time employment for the period of my work, without realizing that it is going to be tough. So, now me being stuck at job for most of the week I couldn’t go out anywhere I had planned to go to London and Edinburgh, but don’t think I didn’t go I did the only problem was that it was in my dreams.(lol) Visiting these places was not the only objective of this vacations but there was a bit more planned like to start reading novels, work on my assignments and my portfolio create my personal blog. Well I decided not to go in further details just a bit afraid of showing how good a planner I am. But I should say I did a bit of work on my assignments and started making my own website from scratch so not a complete waste after all.

Before I realized it was Christmas day which I spent alone as all my friends had gone back home, it didn’t turn out to be that sad as I cooked a meal for myself and believe me it was awesome. Have I ever mentioned before that few years back I wanted to be a professional chef and the only reason that I didn’t pursue that career was because I had to work a lot day and night and it would be really tough, that’s what my father had told me it scared the s**t out of me, and I dropped the ideas of being a chef which turns out to be the right one. But I am planning to get a degree in cooking from some local school in Huddersfield just as a hobby. Well let’s see when that happens. This was my New Year don’t you think I am missing anything….yes you got it right shopping. Everything around me including the peoples talk and news had made me believe that the boxing day! Was the best day to shop because there would be sales everywhere? I was disappointed to see the town half dead on that day as it was expected to be very crowded. There were sales on mostly every shop but nothing that great however I had to buy something after it was the so called “BOXING DAY!” and hence I landed up buying novels…..people who know me will be surprised to hear that as I rarely read books. I haven’t started reading these books yet but hopefully very soon I will.

The shift schedule for New Year was out and I was working till late on New Year’s Eve but I was hoping that it wouldn’t ruin my plans of going to Manchester well it did. I missed the last train to Manchester was stranded with my co-workers we all chatted for a while and soon after the New Year left for home. Well obviously it wasn’t a great start to the New Year but it wasn’t bad either it was like any other day. So, the life goes on.

Everyone who reads the news and keeps an eye on the weather around the world would now it is freezing down here. It snows most of the time then stops and the pavements are icy and slippery. It seems good for a while but then just waiting for this period to go by. Another, reason why I want these cold months to pass is because my heater bills are very high. (lol)

The time rolls by and before it was realized University starts again and back to assignments and submissions. Wish me luck. Take care!

P.S: Whoever has not seen Cheers, an old series please watch it. It is amazing and it seems the idea for Friends and other similar series is taken from that.

However as our classes started passing by we had realized that we are not that free after all. University is all about studying on your own, so most of the time was spend by us in the library or at home working on our portfolio which was very tough. Imagine you are given some random word from the dictionary and asked to make a story around. We had realized that if we want to be successful in this field we had to work very hard as animation and web designing is not an easy task and requires a lot of research. The studio classes that we had were only for any help that we required. This experience was very different for me from the past. The best part of it was there were no written exams sounds good, right! Though, it didn’t make much of a difference as it was compensated by the portfolio assignments.

Last year, the time that was wasted was a lot it didn’t seem much that time but this year working at McDonalds with studies and my cricket simultaneously there was hardly some time left for anything else. Though you can say that being a TV crazy didn’t miss my favorite seasons. The thing that came to my knowledge during this period was that we guys will manage to take out time for anything that is dear and important to us however busy we may be. It came with it downsides as all my friends wanted to kill me as it was very tough to keep in touch with them regularly and my social life suffered.

Oops!!!! You might be wondering no ISC in the view this time right? How long can it stay out of action even for the Ex students. So, it was back on the scales when we received an email from them about the PARTY! It was a graduation cum welcome party. Graduation for the ex’s and welcome for the new students in the ISC who obviously are not as good as our batch. It was great to hear about it and all the ex students were back in contact and ready for the party unfortunately all were not able to make it to the party because it was Eid. Anyhow this didn’t affect the mood of the party goers. It was great fun in the party everyone had a blast out there. It was a great event organized by the ISC. We had a great time it was all a party is supposed to be drink, eat and dance.

As the term was nearing the end New Year, Christmas and assignment submissions were looked forward to. Hopefully everything will go well my first Christmas and New Year in the UK. Happy New Year and Merry Christmas to all.

I was so surprise to see Christmas presents and decoration in a lot of shops. I just couldn’t believe why Christmas presents and decorations were up six weeks before Christmas. While in my country Nigeria Christmas usually starts just two weeks before Christmas day, so it was kind of weird…lol

Some years ago you knew Christmas was round the corner from around December 10 onwards but that has all changed. There are Christmas tunes on the radio and T.V you just can’t escape it.

In Nigeria during Christmas a variety of food and drinks are prepared. My favourite food is Jollof rice and chicken. This is rice mixed with spices and tomatoes. Gifts are also given to friends and family members. It’s not necessarily before Christmas; it could be given before Christmas or after it. But in England the presents are given before Christmas and are put under the Christmas tree, they are opened on Christmas day.

In England on Christmas day everybody is indoors with their families eating and having fun. The roads are usually free. But in Nigeria most people go out with the families to have fun. Some people go to town centre to probably see a show, while some people go to the beach with their friends.

This Christmas will be the second in a row I will be spending with my cousins in London. It’s usually fun because we have a good meal prepared and we all gather together to tell jokes and play board games, my favourite game is monopoly it’s a property trading game it’s really fun because it teaches us how to invest our money properly. CheersJ

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Bassey

BILAL MOHAMED ALSALIB

Hello There :)

My name is Bilal Mohamed Alsalib , My Friends Call Me “Billy” so feel free to call me whatever you like.  I am 22 years old from Saudi Arabia (Jeddah) born in Germany, Studying Computer engineering, in my foundation Year Now and everything going great till now.

I’ve been studying in Malaysia before coming to the UK, been asked by my country ministry of high education to change my previous University and they gave me the opportunity to change the country too, so I chose the UK, for the high quality of education the Universities there  provides for their students .

Huddersfield University was my choice for several reasons, first was the area its build on. Quiet and nice place away from the noisiness of big cities, the people around here kind and friendly, and let’s not forget about the quality of education that the university provides.

More about me and my hobbies xD

I’m a person who loves meeting new people, making new friends, going out having fun, smiling almost all the time, i play football, i go to the gym, love reading, enjoy classical music, hmmm and a lot more when you get to know me. I’m always around, in the ISC or in John’s office. Feel free to talk to me and i hope i can be a good company for you.

Take care.

BASSEY OKODI

My name is Bassey Okodi. I was born in Nigeria, more especially the southern part. I am 18 years old. I am from a family of five, I have one brother and one sister. I am currently studying on the science foundation course at the University of Huddersfield international study centre. I would like to have a degree in pharmacy after my foundation programme.

I got to know about Huddersfield university just after I finished secondary school in Nigeria. I have always wanted to school in UK, my uncle advised me to come to Huddersfield because it is a quiet and peaceful town.

My hobbies are football, travelling, and surfing the net. Before I came to England I was in my country’s u-18 team. I am a huge fan of English football, I support Chelsea football club. I like travelling because I like seeing different places on aeroplanes and buses. My dislike include liars, thieves, etc. I always like having fun with my friends am a friendly person I like making friends.

I would like to pursue a career in the medical field, because I like taking care of people and treating them. I am studying pharmacy because I have been curious about the ways drugs are made. And I have also met great pharmacist.

As our exams were approaching and we being students were not prepared for them till the last moment so had to catch with the studies. ISC is not an easy task to finish still all my batch-mates and I successfully completed the ISC. It was very very hectic down at the last moments of ISC but to tell frankly I was thinking more about returning back home rather than the exams. Going back home is that tempting I can’t help it that my mind was more on going back home.

So, I am extremely sorry for not keeping up with my blog but now I am back with a vengeance (haha). Anyways I told you how hectic the exam time was and we completed the exams and it was a great sigh of relief I had decided not touch my books or anything to do with literature for months.

The fun started soon after the exams were over and who else the ISC helped us start the fun. After our exams finished we had a small graduation party which was a wonderful gesture by the ISC and we felt great. All of us were given T-shirts by the ISC, there was a small awards ceremony as well for the Student Of The Year, Most Hard working student, Student with the best progress rate and so on. It was great I can say that as I also got an award.

As soon as the formalities got over it was Pizza Hut and movie time. Oh yes! We couldn’t wait to get to pizza hut. I am quite sure I ate a lot out there as I actually don’t remember which movie we saw after that. I guess due to my heavy stomach I went to sleep. It was awesome all of us had a blast as soon after that all of us were going back home and we didn’t know when we would be meeting again. It was not all over for me yet as I had to get through my interview for this year in multimedia designing. This was one more reason why the end was so hectic as I had to prepare my portfolio as well. Luckily, all went really well for me and I was on the next flight back to India.

In the flight I was very excited as I was going back home to my friends and family but was pretty sure that I will miss ISC as well and the time spent there which is never going to come back. I knew one thing that I would not be out of touch with the ISC as I had to get my reports and documents for my visa extension. I couldn’t help but boast to my family and friends my experience at the ISC, I guess I did a free publicity for them.

Though I was already missing ISC, but I wouldn’t deny that I wasn’t glad to be out of it. I was happy that it is all-over as a year at the ISC was crazy. Now, ISC and UK were out of the seen and I had gone crazy and wild back home having a blast with everyone around me. As we all youngsters promise ourselves of doing some work during the summer but…….don’t land up doing anything. Hence, I wasted my summer but enjoyed it so its fine with me. Anyways India couldn’t have been any better. It was hot and humid out there, but was good for a change.

Oh How can I forget to tell you that I turned 18 during this vacation and I learnt driving. I was so excited to drive a car but was not able to carry on driving for long as my vacations were finishing and I had to get back to University. Unfortunately I don’t have a driving licence in the UK neither do I have a car so I guess I have to wait till I get back home to drive it again.

I bid my farewell to everyone back home and was in the flight back to UK. I was excited tensed and everything same as the first time I came. I wondered why but the same answer as this year was going to be different again I was going to be in the University and not ISC. I was confident of myself that I will get along well and perform well as the ISC had prepared us for the University (their main goal is to make sure we do well in the University). My journey continues in the UK but with a whole new set of experiences coming my way.

Huddersfield ISC Students - September 2009