A Bit of a Catch Up

Hello again!  So here’s a quick round up of the stuff that’s happened since I made my last Youtube video.  To be perfectly honest I’m quite relieved I don’t have to catch up on all those videos I haven’t done yet any more as I can just write everything on here! Apart from the China one – gaah!

I finished my first year at university!  I can’t believe how quickly it went, either!  It’s going to be sad not being able to see all the people I got to know during the year, especially those off my course and those with whom I lived for the year.  Luckily I’m going to be at university in Japan next year with Green-san, Becci and Sally, as well as the Japanese friends I made whilst they were in Britain last year, so it’s not like I’m going off on my own :)  I’m flying from Manchester to Tokyo with Ash too, so that’ll be good.  We’re both taking our PSPs and Tekken so we can spend the whole flight fighting like the cool kids we are!

During the last term of the year we obviously had exams, which were scary!  But in the end I got enough revision done and was quite pleased with my results, especially in my core subjects.  I got 1sts in Basic Japanese Language 1 and Core German, and 2.1s in Basic Japanese Language 2 and Chinese.  There was a little moment of panic after my BJL2 oral exam, because I didn’t think I’d done particularly well, and in order to go to Japan we pretty much had to have at least a 2.2 to go without any complications.   But in the end it turned out I’d done well enough, so a couple of days after getting results I went down to STA Travel with Ash to book our first tickets.  I got a single from Manchester to Tokyo Narita, via Abu Dhabi for £363 with Etihad.  I didn’t get a return, as I still don’t know when exactly I’d be returning to the UK.  I just hope they let me into Japan on a one-way ticket!!

I suppose the worst part of finishing my first year at university was moving out of my house.  I really liked my room, and the people I was living with, and just everything about it really!  Well, I suppose if you’re being picky it could have been a liiiittle bit closer to the university, but I was fine with the twenty minute walk in the morning – it gave me valuable time alone with my iPod!  Seeing as I just worked out how to embed Youtube videos into these blogs, I might as well post my January video about my residence!

I really liked that house – look at the size of my room!  Lots of the rooms at that house were that size, and it only cost about £3400 for the entire year, self catered.  My room felt empty once I’d moved out!  Even emptier than when I first saw it, strangely enough.  I got this video on my phone the day I moved out;

I finished my exams on the 1^st of June, and had a little end of exams BBQ a few days after, which was nice. I didn’t really have any plans between then and going to Turkey with Ayu and a couple of friends at the end of June, so I just split my time between my home in Otley, and my student house in Hyde Park.  It’s only a 25 minute drive, which makes it easy enough to spend a lot of time at both.  Other than that I did some extra shifts at work, so that I’d have some more money for summer.  I couldn’t see Ayu until she’d finished her exams on the 27^th of June, so I had nothing better to do!  I went for Turkey for a week, and it only cost £145 for flights, transfers and an apartment for a week!  I was very impressed!  We were in Side, a lovely old historical town full of ancient architecture and ruins.

After that I had about ten days back in Otley, most of which I spent seeing Ayu and doing more shifts at Rhythm & Booze (yes that’s the ACTUAL name of the shop in which I work), before going to our holiday home in Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, with my parents and Ayu for a week, for my dad’s 50^th birthday.

That was really nice as well, but the weather was a bit dull for a few of the days.  It’s sad thinking it’s the last time I’ll get to go to Robin Hood’s Bay for over a year :(

Anyways, I’m tired of writing for the time being, so this will have to be enough for this post!  Tune in tomorrow where I’ll excitedly tell you about my new DS and moan about the Royal Mail sorting office at Sheepscar and a woman on eBay. 

I bet you’re wetting yourselves in anticipation.

James

A New Start

Well here we are, boys and girls, another corner of the internet which I have now decided to inhabit.

I did have a blog on here (or maybe livejournal, I'm not sure) a few years ago, but I got bored and decided to make my videos on Youtube instead.  However, after realising just how hard it is to make decent, regular Youtube videos (or for that matter, decent Youtube videos at all) I remembered how I would simply pop on here (or livejournal!) of an evening and splurge all of my thoughts out.  I suppose it was theraputic more than anything, and much more appropriate for little updates about my life than watching me mumble in front of a webcam for 5 minutes.

So here's the deal upon which I have decided; I'm going to keep the Youtube channel, but only have it for videos where I'm actually DOING stuff!  Such as my Berlin video, my student residence video, and the ghost stories one.  I'm not going to have any more where I sit talking about "interesting" developments!  They will be left for here!  I'll upload the occasional picture to help illustrate a point as well, you lucky people.

I hope to post these fairly regularly!  I presume that, having come to my page you know me and the fact that at the end of August, less than a month from now, I will be going to Japan to live and study there for a year as part of my German & Japanese degree at the University of Leeds.  I was going to post regular Youtube videos to talk about the sort of stuff I was doing there, but now I reckon it's probably a better idea to do that via this blog instead.  I'll still post videos where I'm out and about though!  And before I go I WILL finish the China video!!

Talking of which, I can't believe it's already been a year since I went to China! I went with my girlfriend Ayu, and stayed in Shanghai and Xi'an at her relatives' houses for a month, and also travelled to Sichuan whilst I was there. My China video will show you a little of how much I enjoyed it!  Whilst I was there I had a little notebook, in which I wrote down some of the sort of stuff I was doing every day, just a few words.  It's been really nice to flick back through it and see what I was doing a year ago to the day!  For example, under the heading of 28th of July 2010 I wrote;

Ill again :(

Ayu etc. did Karaoke

I stayed at home with laptop!

Watched Casino Royale

Ate Hotpot out

Lost Ayu!

I would very much like to go back to China soon :) As I learn how to use Blogspot, I'll add some links and stuff to my Youtube channel and Twitter page, but before then this will have to suffice! Keep checking, I'll add another post soon!

James