Tonight it will be our last Discipleship Explored. David has been away at a conference since Monday with Glen so it will be nice to see him, it's surprising how different the chaplaincy is without him. It is sad that the course has finally come to an end, even though it was supposed to be just for the winter term and specially extended due to begging, lol. I have been looking back at my Christianity Explored booklet with pride at how far we have come since that first session. I feel especially proud that Vicky will be baptised and confirmed this summer.
The first question we ever had to answer was "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?" Mine was 'Do I have enough time left in my lifetime to make up for the bad I have done and be forgiven?' Well, I didn't fully understand how things are back then, now I know that we are all forgiven the second Jesus died for us, it is a question I would never ask now and laughed when I read. It seems a lifetime away since I thought that way and I am so very grateful for the opportunity to take the course.
I submitted an extenuating circumstances form today for all modules. My tutor Dave Harwood helped me fill all the dates in and it went quite well. It is an amazing weight off my mind to know that I'm excused for my absences especially since they were beyond my control and I will only be judged on my actual merit. It is a shame that there are no more practicals now that I have someone that will take me to all my lectures and classes. I feel somewhat cheated as it's too late. I am however very privileged to have been allotted 50 hours revision with a personal tutor and I am looking forward to understanding my subjects before my exams.
I was fortunate that I did so well in my previous exams and classes, overall I have a good average when my absences are cancelled out. I have put in reports and essays etc even if they were late which now doesn't matter - yay! I had my assessment yesterday so now I have a Dictaphone that I may borrow from the library and I will be able to purchase Microsoft Office for a fraction of the price so that I may open portal documents at home, I will be given a printer with a scanner so I can work at home because I can't use the library, the personal note taker who will help me get to lectures, the revision tutor and my laptop refund was approved, woot!
Sorry to keep going on about it but it's such a relief to know that I can now get on with passing and I finally have the help I should have been getting since September. I think it's a recognition thing more than anything else it's nice to know that things out of my control won't stop me anymore. I am looking forward to going into a lecture with the lecture notes, Dictaphone in hand, prepared and not preoccupied then going into a small room for my exam so I can concentrate on the questions not my surroundings.
I should write about my week before this post gets any more long and rambling. I think it was a week Sunday since I last posted, I'll write what I can remember. Sunday night we continued our lent course we are doing at the evening services. That was good, we watched a little video on street pastors. I don't remember much of the week as I was in bed early every night and the days sort of merged. Monday I was in the chaplaincy as usual, Tuesday was Mumsies birthday, in the morning I bought a cake and some candles then went to mums and surprised her with them. I stayed with her for the day then she went for a meal with Karen and the kids. Wednesday mum and I went in town and she bought her walking boots.
Thursdays lectures were great, Island habitats and diversity. Discipleship explored I remember of course, we had sausages in barbeque sauce, mashed potatoes, peas, sweetcorn, cheesecake and apple crumble with custard. We had such a good discussion that it carried on until 9.30pm!
On Friday morning we had our plant test. We all went in and were given test papers. We had an hour to look at all twenty four plants. I was confident I knew all of the common and Latin names but I found out when we went in that we had to know the families and genus too! I wasn't able to learn them in an hour no matter how much I tried and wrote them all out. The first part of the test was then comparing data and plotting an extensive three-part graph. The information we had were from three parts of grassland and what percentage of plants were found in the three different conditions, wet, well drained, bright sun etc. We had to write about the different habitats.
The next part of the test was doing some calculations to figure out the percentages for example of Buttercups in each area and comparing them to the other areas. There were two different comparison methods. That was pretty complicated and hard I found. During this part of the test the lab tech approached us individually and handed us our plant test sheets so that one by one we could go to identify the plants. I got the genus question wrong and the family question wrong but I got all the other Latin names and common names. Each question was worth 4 points altogether, a point for each part of the Latin name so like Ranunculus Repens and then another point for each part of the common name like Creeping Buttercup. I got 24/32, all of them right. I don't know how everyone else did but I think I did pretty well. We haven't had the rest of the results yet, I think we get them today.
Saturday I spent with Mumsie, we went to the carboot sale and I got loads of clothes for my neighbours newborn Daisy. In the afternoon I put Norton on her pc and she cooked us a lovely dinner. She babysat in the evening and I had an early night. Sunday morning Vicky and I went to church, St.Matthias.
Sunday after church Vicky and I went window shopping around town. We didn't really mean to but we spent the whole afternoon in town. Vicky then treated me to Subway which was really gorgeous. I hadn't had Subway for ages and I really enjoyed it a lot. We then went back up to church for the evening service. We continued the lent course and watched a video on a church in Devon that opened as a cafe for clubbers and how successful that has been. That was an eye opener.
Monday I started out at Uni then met up with my mum and Pat in town. I got an advance of £100 from my loan at student finance. I had some books I had ordered from the Genesis talk that I had to pick up from the Christian book shop, while I was there getting them I bought some bracelets, a pen and a new Manga Bible. It's so cool, it has Manga pictures as expected but it also has a really great concordance at the end and a guide to reading the whole thing in a year. I was very impressed. I gave my mum £20 which is my half of her walking boots she had for her birthday. I also paid for some shoes she got as part of her Mothers day present, I have something else I got her too but I can't say what as Mothers Day is not until this Sunday.
When I got home I spent the rest of the money I had on cat food, cat litter, shampoo, pasta, bread, beans etc etc, nothing exciting so then I got depressed that I had no money and hadn't bought anything exciting. It's my brothers birthday today and although I have him a card I didn't get him a present so I feel a bit bad. I don't get paid again until next Thursday so it's going to be a long week. I wonder when I can get that laptop refund...... anyways, Tuesday was a field trip which was really exciting.
We were at Dartmoor as part of Ecology. We had to fill out a survey style booklet about the landscape, plants, agriculture, tourism effecting the land etc. It was absolutely fabulous weather it was glorious. We didn't have to do very much and it was a lot of fun.
We filled out all the information and had a little talk then we walked to a nearby Quarry to see the different terrain and to eat lunch. Vicky and I shared one lunch between the two of us I had bought two sarnies and Vicky had a bag of crisps and a cake we shared. It was really a very beautiful place, I am hoping mumsie and I will go there again soon.
After lunch we had to take three different 1m x 1m squares and note the percentage of plants, Gorse, Heather that kind of shrub. We chose dense coverage for some and mainly grass areas to compare. We then all got back on the coach back into Uni. We were pooped when we got back to the chaplaincy after 3pm. Laura was in there with Steve. We grabbed some more lunch there for £1, bread and cheese, cherry tomatoes and a cup a soup before I had my assessment interview with Nigel from disability assist.
I was then in bed asleep by 7pm last night pooped. This morning I went to see Dr.Dave (my tutor Dave Harwood) as explained before. After that about lunch time I did the extenuating circumstances form and spent most of the rest of the day in the chaplaincy. Vicky was in the library getting help with her maths. We have our exam on Monday and have to do our online tests this week too. I was supposed to see mumsie this evening but she was at Katies, then she was going to Cheryls. By 6.30pm tonight I was going to sleep so I'm not sure when I will see her now.
I'll try and write again sooner so it's not such a long post in future. More pictures on Facebook. Love ya ! xxxxxx
1 comment:
I am so happy to hear about all the wonderful services you will be getting, and I assume they will continue next year as well. This is wonderful news you are doing so well.
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