50 things about me

So I've been watching a lot of YouTubers doing this tag recently, and as I've slightly neglected you in the last few weeks, I feel I owe you something decent. So here you go: 50 things about me!

1. I lived in 5 different houses in three different towns before I moved, when I was 10, to where I am now.
2. I was born in London, and I was registered, in Lambeth, on Christmas Eve.
3. It took me a long time to decide whether I wanted to do Biology or History for A-level, and it took until my first history lesson to realise that I made the right choice.
4. When I was about nine, I went through a phase of winning loads of magazine competitions, but unfortunately, that has been and gone.
5. My little sister is nearly thirteen, although she looks about nine.
6. I am 5'11" - taller than my mum!
7. I only discovered Nerdfighteria and the wider joys of YouTube in the summer of 2013.
8. I was planning on going to Summer in the City this year with my friends, but it appears that it sold out without telling anybody, so that plan's gone down the drain.
9. I did gymnastics for four years, but I was never good enough to be allowed to compete - I did the "rec group" once a week just for fun.
10. I have a tendency to fangirl A LOT (so it's probably a good thing I'm not going to SitC!)
11. I have mocks on Wednesday and Thursday :(
12. When I was younger, we used to have to dress up on World Book Day, and I have dressed up as Mildred Hubble from The Worst Witch, Clarice Bean, and Yvaine from Stardust to name a few.
13. I have a VERY sweet tooth.
14. I can easily spend an entire afternoon reading.
15. I can read VERY fast.
16. I was one of the first in my class to learn to read, and I skipped out two shelves because I could already read the books easily.
17. After that, I became the school's youngest "Free Reader" - I could read books for older children (shock horror!)
18. I read the sixth Harry Potter book when I was 7.
19. The first concert I ever went to was Lostprophets, which, in light of recent events, I'm not so proud of.
20. The last concert I went to was Kasabian.
21. I have a slight obsession with pens, notebooks and stationery in general.
22. When I was in year nine, I made a silver necklace for my DT GCSE, and I wore it for every single one of my GCSE exams from 2011-2013, AND on results day, to bring me luck. It worked :)
23. I am afraid of spiders, doctors, dentists and pain.
24. I'm also scared of speaking in front of people, but I'm dealing with that.
25. (Half way there!) I am a grammar Nazi :L
26. I've always been quite low in the social standing at school, purely because I read and am quite clever.
27. When I did my History coursework in year 11, I listened to ONLY Coldplay in each writing session (6 hours' worth) and there are now some Coldplay songs that I associate with castles.
28. In the whole of GCSE, I never got lower than a B grade.
29. I am part of many many fandoms.
30. Macarons from Ladurée in Covent Garden are some of the nicest things I have ever eaten.
31. I like to be tidy, but I don't dislike untidiness.
32. I'm slightly OCD when it comes to page layout and tables/grids and things like that.
33. I am appalling at art and drawing.
34. I work as a waitress/coffee maker at a café in my town.
35. I am addicted to the Internet.
36. I never wear make-up.
37. I play in a steel band called "Panem" at my school.
38. At the moment, I'm reading The Mortal Instruments, and I'm about to start City of Glass.
39. My favourite colour is red.
40. I wear a daffodil on my coat because Marie Curie Cancer Care looked after my Opa before he died in 2012.
41. I've taken taster classes in Ballroom, Latin and Flamenco dancing.
42. The other day, I wrote "2012" in my German book instead of "2014".
43. I never wanted to learn Spanish, but after a couple of lessons with a fantastic teacher, I was hooked.
44. I learn three foreign languages: French, Spanish and German.
45. Last summer, I did five days of work experience in the MFL department at school and loved it.
46. I'm an introvert.
47. I enjoy baking, but I never have enough time nowadays.
48. My guilty television pleasure is Waterloo Road.
49. Next summer, I hope to spend three weeks Interrailing around Europe with my friends to celebrate the end of A-levels before going to university.
50. I still have my two favourite toys from when I was little, named Rabbit and Piggy. Rabbit has had several ear transplants and full facial reconstructive surgery.

So there you go, now you know a little bit more about the person behind the words, as it were. I hope you enjoyed it and will carry on reading!

P.S. Don't forget to check out the new blog that I've started with my friend Jenni: makestwoofus.blogspot.com :)

New blog!

Ok, so I'm sorry I neglected you, dear readers (if there are any of you who aren't spambots), but I've been really busy: I have mocks this week and a coursework deadline that I'm sort of already behind on. So I thought I'd just check in today, and let you know that I have something new and exciting that I'm working on with my friend Jenni (you can see her blog in the "About Me" section). We've started a joint blog and will be posting on alternate weeks about things in the news and current affairs that we find interesting. I've already posted about same-sex marriage and languages lessons in schools. You can find us at makestwoofus.blogspot.com, so please come and read what we post!

That's all for the moment as I should really be writing an essay just now, so keep reading and don't forget to check out my other blog :)

My 2013

My friend Jenni (fromjenniferseyes.blogspot.co.uk) did one of these, so I thought I would too. This year has been one of the most defining years of my life, and while I'm glad it's over, there were some great moments that I don't want to forget.

I think the main thing this year has been the fact that I took my final GCSE exams in May and June. I took fourteen this summer, but we worked it out and overall, since the summer of 2011, I've taken 28 sit-down-in-the-hall exams, as well as 5 orals, a whole day practical dance exam and countless mocks and pieces of coursework. But it all paid off when my results came in in August (the 22nd - a date I'll never forget), and they were better than I could have hoped for.

However, during these incredibly stressful few months, there were some fun points too. I had my last day of teaching on 21st May, when we all got our shirts signed and then had a really lovely leavers' assembly, which loads of the teachers came to, and we sang and laughed and cried and it was very emotional. However, this was right in the middle of exams, so we couldn't dwell on it for long.

After exams though, we had Prom, where we could dwell on leaving all we liked :) It was an amazing evening, where we all chatted and danced and cried (but only a bit!) We all got dressed up in pretty dresses and it was really good fun.

The day after prom, I started a week of work experience in the languages department at school, which was really good fun and so interesting, but attracted a lot of strange looks from teachers in other departments which all said "but I thought you'd left?!?" I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it confirmed what I want to do with my life: I want to teach languages.

Having worked out that makes what comes next easier: I started sixth form in September, and aside form making some fantastic new friends, I've really enjoyed my subjects, although at times I've found things hard. But the future looks bright, and I've decided on a course: French and Spanish with Linguistics (or as close to that as I can find), and the search for universities has begun, so I'd expect some posts about that in the coming months!

Thank you for reading this blog for the past few months since I've set it up, and as one of my new year's resolutions is to post more, I hopefully won't be as neglectful as I have been recently ;). Happy 2014!