Jingle Bells, Jin.. No, not yet

In July, I received an acceptance letter from Coventry University, a school place in the middle of England (literally, Coventry is the furthest city from the sea). That’s when it all started. No summer holidays were as stressful as this year’s; I had to reserve coach seats, buy the necessities, finish my first homework, pack, and not turn bonkers. Done! Suddenly, I was on the bus, I arrived to loved London and transferred in the tube several times with an incredibly heavy suitcase. A train journey followed and here I was, in a place where I will hopefully get to build my dreams.

To be honest I was very surprised with the weather. I got used to my family and friends joking about me always having to have an umbrella and wellies on me, but I also kind of expected the weather to actually be like they promised, rainy and cold. Instead, for the whole first month of my stay here there wasn’t a single raindrop. Autumn is my favourite season, but the sunny and more or less warm weather totally got me and supported my growing love for Coventry.

I arrived a week sooner than others, which meant that I could spend the whole first week by walking around the city, discovering hidden corners, sitting in the wonderful cathedral and taking in the atmosphere. And then the learning started. Well, not exactly. Freshers week is rather a wild whirl of new people, cultures and rules. In these terms, everything went as well for me as it could. I met several girls on the first day, which are my friends now and hopefully, they will remain that way. The teachers couldn’t be better and I am saying that despite having collected some teacher “gems” for the past few years.

The course itself it incredibly fascinating so far; we started by simply drawing lines and circles, we continue through expressions of the face and the body and get to create short comics and book cover designs. I never thought I could get so motivated by having people with similar mindset around me, but an environment where everyone knows the difference between a 2H and 2B pencil is encouraging.

As a part of the course we also have to pick an additional module, which we can choose from so called Add+vantage modules. These function to improve our employability and the choice is very big, promising volunteering opportunities as well as skill improvement and management abilities. I chose to volunteer in primary schools, helping children to improve their literacy skills. The choice was obvious, I love children, I love to read and I cannot wait to get started in January.

There’s nothing else to add, I am happy. The opportunity to study here is one of the best I ever received and it was a golden ticket (I can only add “again”, Open Gate was the previous gold). My big thanks go to the foundation for helping me make this opportunity become real.

And now, finally, to Christmas. I am always excited for Christmas, but I do not recall a year when I would be more excited than this one. I will see my family, my friends, I will be returning to the most magical time of the year and I can’t wait. As I can’t wait to continue with my studies here and get to experience many more amazing years of being an university student.