In case you've missed it, I just finished my final year of university at Durham so I thought it was time for another 'year in review' post. I've done update posts for pretty much every term but I also like to do a more general summary of the year to document my university experience both for me to look back on and for anyone else who might be interested. You can read my reviews of first year and second year here on my blog as well - for continuity I'm dividing this up into sections again: the city, the course, accommodation. Get ready because this is going to be yet another long one...

The city

In third year I lived in a student house in the same area of the city as the previous year so that part of my university experience changed very little. I lived in Gilesgate, which is known among the student population for being quite remote (as in, "We'd better get accommodation sorted for next year if we don't want to end up in Gilesgate") and while it is possible to live very far out my two years living in 'inner Gilesgate' have confirmed that it is definitely still accessible and in fact a really nice part of town. I lived near a Sainsburys local again and within bus/driving distance of a massive Tesco, Aldi, Poundworld and the rest of the main retail park. In terms of transport, I made full use of the bus system again this year thanks to the £1 day tickets.

In general I carried on exploring the city and discovered a couple more nice cafés and shops, but to be honest because it's so small it's easy enough to live in Durham for a year and have got to know literally the whole city. The nice part of that is that the whole place is so familiar, I feel like I've lived there for years and years because I know it so well.

The course

Third year was by far the best year in terms of my course content as I was able to pick all my modules and really specialise in my areas of interest. In addition to the Dissertation (which was a double module) I took two 20 credit modules, 'Power, Politics, Space' and 'Territory and Geopolitics'. Then I took two 10 credit modules in first term ('Race, Nature, Crisis' and 'Neoliberal Life') and two in second term ('Feminist Geographies: Intimacy, Body, State' and 'Spaces of Health and Wellbeing'). Numerically-speaking my best modules were 'Neoliberal Life' and 'Race, Nature, Crisis', which I got 100% and 89% in respectively. I also LOVED the feminist geographies one because it coincided with my academic interests in feminist geopolitics and bodies and violence.

Having said that I enjoyed pretty much all my modules except 'Spaces of Health and Wellbeing', but even then I think it was only because we missed the most interesting lectures due to strike action in February and March. The rest of my modules weren't too badly affected, but there were a smattering of lectures which were cancelled as a result. The strikes were a weird, weird time in the term as it also coincided with the 'Beast from the East' hitting Durham and huge snowdrifts creating travel problems for everyone. I did take the opportunity to join my striking lecturers on the picket lines outside the university and had some really interesting and informative chats - getting to know my lecturers and other academic staff has definitely been a highlight of my last year as the teaching is much smaller-scale.

A significant part of my workload this year was the dissertation, which I wrote on experiences of European and national identity in the EU's European Schools. In my 'second year in review' post I was in the middle of carrying out the fieldwork at my old school, and I finally submitted it at the end of April by which time I'd been thinking about the topic for a year and a half. On the whole I enjoyed the whole process and I didn't have any major setbacks or panicky moments as everything went smoothly. Having said that it was a huge relief to be able to hand it in and have done with it - especially as I received a grade of 94% for it! I was absolutely thrilled that all my hard work had paid off. 

Another highlight related to my course was the fieldtrip to Jerusalem as part of my 'Territory and Geopolitics' module, which you can read about in more detail here. It was an incredibly tiring but very exciting and enjoyable week and I learned a lot from the various tours and talks we attended, as well as from my own research.

On another slightly related note, this year I wasn't able to continue with my French modules as in third year the Geography department don't allow us to take modules from other departments. This meant this was the first year since I was 5 years old that I haven't studied French in some capacity, and while I missed it a bit it was also quite nice not to think about it! But I have definitely noticed my vocabulary shrinking already from lack of practice so it might be time to pick it back up again next year. I did however take a term's worth of classes in Arabic, which weren't credit-bearing but just evening classes that I paid for. It was a really interesting language to study - although we barely got started in the short amount of time - but it was almost more interesting to begin learning a language from scratch as I hadn't done that for years.

Accommodation

Although I had the option of moving back into college, I'd enjoyed the independence of 'living out' in second year and wanted to live in a student house again in my final year. For various reasons I wasn't living with my housemates from second year again so at the end of first term last year I found a new group and we signed for a house. As I explained in this post we were a bit of an unexpected group but in the end we worked really well together and we had a lot of fun house nights in and days out, especially in the period after exams. We made a vegan Christmas dinner, watched a lot of Black Mirror, made a picnic, went to Edinburgh for the day, had some meals out and house dinners in, went on a fully college bar crawl, had parties, went to formals and a summer ball, did a couple of Newcastle trips and many, many Tesco food shops! Overall it's just been a lovely lovely year and they all made it extra special.

I grew to love the house itself too, despite the extremely thin walls, the temporary slug problem in the kitchen, the boiler breaking, water coming through the living room ceiling, water coming through the window frame, the bathroom light breaking, the tiny kitchen and the hoover that didn't really work - phew! Honestly though it was a typical student house so quite different to my house in second year but much more homely and I liked my room better too. 

Overall this has definitely been the best year of my university experience at Durham, due to a combination of really falling in love with Durham, my course being absolutely fascinating, achieving high marks and living with people I loved! I'm well aware that Durham as an establishment is flawed (one look at the plan for expansion and building approximately a thousand new colleges in a short space of time confirms that), but as this is a review I'm going to give my university experience and course a solid 9.5/10 because nothing is ever perfect but it was pretty close. I'm not going to get too emotional here because I've already done that to an extent in my graduation post, but I'll end with something the chancellor said during my congregation ceremony which has stuck with me: "You've been a part of Durham and now Durham is a part of you."

x

Last week I visited my friend on her year abroad in Seville (blog post on that coming soon!). We did some sightseeing at the weekend but it was extremely hot which made walking around a lot during the day quite uncomfortable and tiring and generally a very sweaty time. Hence why on the last couple of days we also did plenty of shopping as the stores were all beautifully air-conditioned and we were able to make our way down the main shopping street zig-zagging in and out of the shops - which of course meant I bought a few things.

First I got a few bits in Bershka, including this rainbow top with a tie front for €7.99. It's just really simple and easy to wear with denim shorts or jeans, I feel like a cool kid when I wear it. I've also christened it my 'Brighton top' because of the rainbow - I have a feeling I'll get plenty of opportunities to wear it when I move there for my Masters in September!

Also from Bershka I got this lip print top with the same tie front (also for €7.99) because I thought it was a really interesting print. I haven't seen anything else like it around and there's something about it that makes me think of high fashion??

I'm a sucker for anything gingham so I had to get this little black and white playsuit which was €14.99 (reduced from €22.99). This is an XS but the straps are still a bit too long so I'm planning to readjust them myself and I think it will be really pretty with some sandals and a brightly coloured bag.

In H&M I bought these patterned trousers for €3.99 (reduced from €9.99!). I'm a big fan of loose cotton-y trousers as I tend to just wear them casually around the house instead of leggings if I'm planning to stay at home all day. These ones are quite busy but will be nice with just a plain tank top or crop top.

Finally I got this simple black strappy top with a feather pattern, which was €4.99 (reduced from €9.99). I have a few of these H&M tops in different patterns which I wear all the time so whenever I'm there I check to see if they have any new colours or styles.

And that's everything I got!

Looking back at all my previous published posts I realise that I haven't been particularly consistent in celebrating my blogging milestones - for some reason I posted about my second and third anniversaries and not first and fourth - but as of today it's been a whole five years since I created this blog and published my first ever post! I think five is a pretty special number (it's half a decade after all) and of all the years to commemorate it's an important one, so I'm going to share with you five things I love about blogging which have kept me coming back to it over the years.

1. Having total creative freedom

I love that I can literally post about whatever I want, from advice to hauls to just life updates, I think I've covered a good range of posts in my time and I really like being able to change it up as and when I feel like it.

2. The friendships I've made

Back in the early days of my blog I was still active in the Stardoll community and quite a few people from there used to follow me here and leave lovely comments - if you remember those days you're an OG! Even since then there have been a few people who I've become internet friends with purely through blogging, and I even met up with someone once (hi Rhona, I doubt you still read my blog but how's it going?).

When I get into a blogging groove I love to plan out my posts for the foreseeable future and make extravagant lists of everything I want to write up and publish. If you know me you'll know I love organising so I suppose this is my way to extend that into my little corner of the internet. Of course, things get in the way and my ideas don't always come to fruition, but I still get a kick out of list-making and imagining what my blog could be like if I really invested my time and effort into it non-stop!

Although I'm not as dedicated to the blogging world as I was a few years ago, I still love coming across new and interesting blogs and spending an hour or so delving in and out, trying to get a sense of what the author is like as a person and their interests and general vibe. There are some I still peruse religiously to this day, like 'Ice cream' whispers Clara, Mermaidens and Moon of Paula.

When I've spent a couple of hours writing a blog post, finding photos, uploading them, checking the preview and finally putting the finishing touches, it's SO satisfying to be able to click 'publish' and see my efforts being released to the big wide world!

Last Friday I graduated from Durham University with a First Class Honours degree in Geography (BA). To be honest it hasn't quite set in yet that not only do I have a degree (!!!), but my time in Durham has come to an end. I'm going to do a separate post reviewing my third year but I just wanted to capture my experience of graduation because it was the most magical day and I want to remember it for a long time (as a side note, here's the post I wrote after my school graduation).

When I arrived in Durham in October 2015 as a fresher I had no idea what to expect. I'd visited once before during half-term of my final year of school and I'd liked the university 'campus' part and my college, but if I'm honest what really drew me there was the university's reputation and league table rankings. I suppose it's as good a reason as any to choose a university, and I really didn't know much about Durham as a place. Fast-forward three years and I've fallen in love with its cobbled streets, quaint shopfronts, the cathedral and castle, the marketplace, the riverside, Gilesgate, the local cinema, even North Road. There's something special about Durham; it's a tiny, beautiful, ancient place and in many ways it is very much a university town, but alongside the student life there's also a vibrant regional culture that draws on the proud history of the north east of England. Given the importance of the cathedral to both town and gown alike, as well as its status as a UNESCO World Heritage site, I think it's very fitting that the graduation ceremonies (or congregations, to use the official name) take place in that incredible building on Palace Green.

Once we were inside we walked past the rows of guests to the transepts on either side of the main nave where we waited while the ceremony was opened and the dean of the cathedral and the vice-chancellor of the university both addressed the audience. Then the time came for the conferment of degrees, and we were called up in alphabetical order to shake hands with the chancellor. Unfortunately we didn't receive our actual degrees on the day as they are only posted out later in the summer, but this was sort of the equivalent. Once we'd shaken hands we returned to our seats to wait for all the other degrees to be awarded, including Masters and PhD students. Finally there was a closing speech by the chancellor and then it was all over, lasting about an hour in total.

With the main formalities over, we all headed up to the science site for a reception hosted by the Geography Department outside the main geography building. There were lots of refreshments and canapés and it was still an extremely hot day but it was nice to chat to some people I hadn't seen yet and to catch up with some of my lecturers. As well as just chatting, the head of department also awarded some prizes for academic achievement - and I got a prize! I received the Robin Mills prize for the second-highest first class honours degree in geography, but I also got the highest mark in third year alone. Also, the person who achieved the highest overall mark was on the BSc course, so I can say that I got the highest mark on my course as I was BA. It was a huge honour and I totally hadn't been expecting it, but I was so so pleased! All the recipients of the various prizes (6 or so in total) received a certificate and a cheque, but for some reason the Robin Mills prize also includes a huge trophy which Robin Mills (who was a geography professor and later worked for the UN) donated to the department in 1978. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to keep it, but it has all the names of the people who have been awarded it over the last 40 years engraved on the side so at least I know that I will have left my mark for years to come. I don't usually make a big deal out of my academic achievements in real life or here on my blog, but I am hugely proud of myself for this so I wanted to mention it, especially as it was such a lovely part of my graduation day!

So what are my plans for the future, I hear you ask? Well, in September I will be starting an MA in International Security at the University of Sussex, so I'll be moving to Brighton for a year which I'm hugely excited about. At the beginning of June I went down to view my new student house for next year and visit the campus, and while Durham and Brighton are pretty much polar opposites in every single way I think it'll be a really interesting experience to live somewhere in the south, by the sea and in a much bigger city. After that I'm hoping to get a graduate job in a field related to my degree(s), but that's all to come and for the moment I'm just planning to enjoy the summer!