My holiday message

   Once again, my sister and I are in sync and she's said everything that I wanted to say about Christmas this year on her most recent blog post- http://medicineandtai.wordpress.com/2013/12/25/a-sentimental-message/.
      If you're not following her blog, what are you doing with yourself?! Happy holiday, everyone :)

I survived!

  Michaelmas term ended on the 7th of December and I am now home for the holidays! I survived my first term at university, thank God and
huzzah! Although I've been home for over a week now, I feel like my holidays have only just begun because one of my tutors set an essay that was due in the first week of the holidays (absolute nightmare!). So, I slaved over that for a few days and was hugely stressed, despite being home and term being over. However, I finished the essay and sent it on Friday and now I can relax. (I'm choosing to ignore the fact that I have over ten books to read for next term, excluding secondary reading, and collections, which are tests at the start of each term to revise for for now.) There's no rest for the wicked as I'm back at work and panto season is absolute madness but it's great to be back with old work pals.

So, what have I learned in my first term at uni?

1) It is possible to do Freshers' Week completely sober and you can still have sooo much fun.

2) Procrastinaps are amazing and they can get you through the day and stressful situations.

3) I am most productive in the early hours of the morning/ working in completely darkness with headphones in and my hood up, completely blocking out the world.

4) I now dislike songs such as Avicii's 'Wake Me Up' and Jason Derulo's 'Talk Dirty' due to the fact that they were wayyy overplayed during Freshers' Week.

5) I can survive and be my own person without my twin sister (even though it was a very weird experience at first). I've always thought that the fact that I'm cheerful and chipper most of the time is because my sister's always been there by my side, to laugh at my poor jokes and be weird with me. But at uni, I realised that I'm like this by myself and my sister is as well.

6) Access is a very touchy subject for me, something that I strongly believe in and that I will work at improving whilst I'm at university.

7) I'm still a massive keeno; the KEENny nickname has reached university.

8) My university is not as snobby as I was lead to believe; I've met so many great people that are from state schools, independent schools and public schools that I hope to be friends with for a long time.
And so on.

I'm already missing uni (the people, definitely not the workload aha) but I am glad to be home and I'm also glad to be reunited with my favourite people. Shout out to my bestfriend, Rosie, who is currently travelling the world on a gap yah and still takes the time to read my blog. Love ya, Chicken, and missing you lots and lots. I hope to watch more films and do more reading so that I can review stuff on here like I used to but we will see. Cheerio for now.

Angry

Something happened today that had nothing to with me but it infuriated me so much that I need to get this anger out. So, today's blog post will be in haiku form.

I am so angry.
Tactless people annoy me.
Why not leave her be?

Thank goodness for girls.
Solidarity can help,
Girl power, Queen B.

I'll let this go soon,
But I'm still furious for now.
No one is sans flaw.

Katie Hopkins, Access and Rousseau

   Today, Katie Hopkins came to my university and she debated on social class and social mobility. She was her usual lovely self (insert heavy sarcasm) and some of the highlights during the debate included her saying that she would get rid of the NHS, the Minister for Women and Environment Minister if she was put into power, and how students at this particular university should not care about access issues as we're in the 'top percent' of the country, have bright futures ahead of us and shouldn't worry about others. I think she thought that we'd be flattered by her words, patronising tone and general flippant attitude but she was so so wrong and put in her place many times.

  Some of the things that she said that really irked me were her views on the admission process and access scheme. She said that if she was in charge of this process, and there were two potential students with identical grades called George and Charmayne for example, she would pick George due to his name as that sounds 'more right' for the university than Charmayne. She is also against the way that the university takes into account the different academic backgrounds of students while considering them. For example, let's say Charmayne was from a very low achieving school, where no student has ever been to Oxford and George is from one of the best private schools in the country. Normal admissions tutors would take this into account and be more likely to favour Charmayne over George in this situation. Why, you ask? This is because the fact that Charmayne has identical grades to George despite the poor quality of her school shows that she is a hard worker, independent and quite bright, whereas George could have just had things handed to him on a plate due to the many opportunities available at his private school. Despite all this, Katie Hopkins would still pick George over Charmayne. This really angered me because in this kind of scenario, I'm the Charmayne.

  I've been at this university for over two months now and in my time here, access has really begun to mean a lot to me. This is because the university is not as elitist and unreachable as the press (coughDAILYMAILcough) would make people believe; there are many bright students from poor achieving schools who could get in but people like Katie Hopkins do not help in dispelling the myth about the university only being for Etonians and students from independent schools. It's sad that many people think this; most people at my secondary school believed this and the students that I tutor every week at a local secondary school also believe this. If people like Katie Hopkins had their way, the university would only accept these kind of students but thankfully, she's not the one making the admissions decisions.

Isn't he a looker?

  This is why I try to do as much access and outreach stuff as I can, so that I can reach the Charmaynes out there and convince them to apply as they have the grades and they just need the encouragement and knowledge of the fact that the university doesn't look down on them due to their school. Yes, it's true that there can often be inequality in the the schooling system as more schools know the ins and outs of the application process etc than others. This inequality brings me to Rousseau, the philosopher that I'm studying this week, whose 18th century work, 'Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men' was very appropriate for the week. I'd really recommend it; it's a very interesting read and wayyy easier to understand than Descartes!

 So, how do I sum up all of this? Katie Hopkins is very wrong in her ideas, which are very laughable as she often contradicts herself, access is an issue that is very close to my heart and something that I'll always try to help improve and Rousseau is a-okay. Finally, if you class yourself as a Charmayne and you're not sure where to apply and think you're not good enough to aim as high as possible, this song is for you. Peace out and enjoy.

 

An Idiot's Guide to Descartes's 'Discours'

Y U SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND??

   The idiot in this scenario is me. It took me a week, two lectures, a seminar, numerous articles and books and countless hours reading until the early hours of the morning before I finally began to slowly understand Descartes's 'Discours de la méthode' (Discourse on the Method). I haven't done Philosophy since Y12 and I dropped it after AS for a reason so this new French Thought module has been a struggle but I'm powering through. Whilst desperately searching for articles that could help me simplify the philosophy jargon, it really annoyed me that I found none! So, I thought I'd make this blog post a simple explanation of the Discourse for two reasons; 1) It'll help me revise when exam season comes in June and 2) It's actually really interesting and I hope that it can help someone like me one day, who is searching for a simple explanation of Descartes's ideas. Sorry if you don't like Philosophy. Right, let's get on with it.

What is the Discourse?
   Full name: 'Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences'. It is a 17th century philosophical treatise from French philosopher René Descartes that aims to provide a method for finding truth and reason, in order to analyse situations differently. It has 6 different parts; the first three parts talk on Descartes's background, how he came about the Method and the various rules and moral codes that are associated with this Method. The fourth part of the Discourse uses the Method to prove Descartes's existence and the existence of God, the fifth part applies the Method to the Sciences and the sixth part is a conclusion that summarises everything.

What is this Method?
    Using doubt- doubting everything leads to one finding parts of life that can't be doubted and when these parts are discovered, one finds the truth and reason. This doubt is known as hyperbolic/ Cartesian doubt.

What are the rules of this Method?
To never accept anything for true that is not known to be true, divide each difficulty into as many parts as possible, conduct thoughts- start with easiest and simplest, make detailed lists and reviews- omit nothing.

How does the Method prove Descartes's existence?
Descartes doubts and doubt is in the thoughts, it doesn't come out of nowhere. So, to have thoughts, a person must exists and this leads to one of the greatest philosophical statements ever; Je pense donc, je suis: I think therefore, I am. Or cogito ergo sum in Latin if you want to be fancy. Descartes also says that these thoughts come from the soul, which is completely separate from the body.

How does the Method prove the existence of God?
Descartes doubts so, he can't be perfect. However, he has the idea of a perfect God in his head and this idea of perfection cannot have come from Descartes himself as he is not perfect. Therefore, the idea of perfection must have been placed in Descartes's head by a being that embodies this perfection- this being is God and this an anthropological proof of God that is also known as dubito ergo Deus est: I doubt therefore God exists. There is also the a posteriori (from experience) proof which states that Descartes cannot create himself as he is imperfect so his existence must come from an omnipotent being that is the creator of eternal truths, the biggest truth being the clear and distinct idea of Himself that He has put in Descartes's head. The final proof of God that Descartes offers is ontological and a priori but if you really want to know more about that, just ask.

Criticisms of Descartes's Method.
1) If one doubts everything, one begins to doubt the act of doubting itself, leading to an infinite circle of doubt.

2) The rules and morals of the Method contradict each other sometimes.

3) The question of solipsism that argues that Descartes is only proving his own existence, not the existence of everyone else on the planet.

4) The hypothesis of the malin génie (evil demon)- how do we know that Descartes's omnipotent God is not an evil being that is directing people towards the wrong thing?

Why is the Discourse an important text for philosophy?
    - It is one of the reasons why Descartes has been called 'The Father of Modern Philosophy'.
    - It presented a new way of looking at philosophy by showing the link between rationalism, knowledge and self evident truths.
    - It presents a new way of analysing situations and looking at the world.


So, there you go, future Kenny. Sorry if you found all that boring, I just needed to get all the Descartes out
of my system. It seems like he's everywhere today; I went to two different events today and somehow, Descartes was brought into the conversation at both. Inwardly, I screamed. Next week, I'm starting lectures on Rousseau and I haven't even read the book yet lolz. Week 7 will definitely be interesting. Farewell for now.

PS- I started tutoring at a secondary school this week as a Y12 Languages assistante and it went really well! I also sang in a Christmas Carol service and that made me feel so ready for the holiday season. Also, Catching Fire was so amazing that I'm going to go see it again next week. Might review it soon, if I don't collapse from my workload. You'd think that things would get less hectic towards the end of term!

Breathless 5th Week Blues

  At the university that I'm at, there is a specific time in the term when the euphoria of the new term and start begins to fade away, the workload keeps piling up and  life seems like a never ending cycle of lectures, seminars, tutorials,
essays and reading. The end of term, 8th Week, seems so far away and making it to the end seems like an impossibility. This is know as '5th Week Blues'. 6th Week begins tomorrow (today) and I'm happy to say that I survived the dreaded blues!

  I'll admit that 5th Week was a tough week, probably my hardest week here so far because I got given more contact hours as we moved on to other parts of my French course- French Thought and Unseen Translation. As a result of this, I had a lot of reading to do (reading Philosophy books is even more difficult when you have to do it in French!), more translation work, two presentations to prepare and many essay questions. Ouch. 5th Week also happened to be the week of the performance of the play that my college has been working on for an inter-collegiate drama college and I was on the marketing team for it, so even more stress there! Out of over fourty plays, my college made the top ten, got nominated for five awards (Best Marketing being one!) and we won two- Best Supporting Actor and Best Technician, woooo! Thank goodness 5th Week stress is finally over though.

  In my film studies lectures during 5th Week, we started looking at some French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague) films, Jean-Luc Godard's 'A bout de souffle' (Breathless) in particular. The film was released in 1960 and it was a ground-breaking work of art due to the fact that Godard introduced new film techniques such as using actual locations that are filmed with hand held cameras instead of studios (the film has many beautiful shots of Paris), realistic, natural dialogue between characters that often seems improvised and unscripted and what is known as 'jump cuts', which is when a scene suddenly cuts to a new scene, in a manner that seems rough and dizzying.

  Now, you're probably bored with me going on about film terminology but I am pleased to say that I am now familiar with most of the mumbo jumbo as a part of my course involves writing critical film essays where I analyse shots and the soundtrack etc. This week, I'll be doing a ten minute presentation on A bout de souffle so I thought I'd practice here by talking a bit about the film.

  The film tells the story of a petty criminal called Michel who kills a motorcycle policeman at the start of the film. On the run, he then spends the rest of the film trying to find money to flee the country and he also tries to convince his seemingly indifferent American girlfriend, Patricia, to accompany him. The film is very odd because nothing really seems to happen in it. The two protagonists spend most of the film talking at each other but not to each other and this lack of communication is one of the main themes of the film. My lecturer said that French New Wave films often seem pretentious at times and I laughed as that is exactly the case with this film. This is because the film's dialogue often consists of discussions on existentialism, questioning if we have a soul, what it means to love, be sad and feel grief and nothingness at the same time.

Deep

  Nevertheless, the film is still a nice introduction to La Nouvelle Vague and if you're interested in seeing more films in this genre, I'd recommend the works of directors such as Claude Chabrol and Robert Bresson. To conclude, even though it does sometimes verge on the pretentious, A bout de souffle is still a masterpiece from Godard and I hope that I can convey this during my presentation tomorrow on the film's love story. Aurevoir for now.

Rating 7/10

Woah, we're halfway there...

 Guess who's baaaack and halfway through the term!
 
    Apologies for my month long absence from here; I have truly missed blogging. University is a completely different world! Everything here seems to be happening all at once as the terms are only eight weeks long. So, I'm incredibly busy all the time. I'm loving it sooo much though! I definitely made the right choice.

  What have I been up to that has kept me away, you ask? Well, I will tell you. I proved that you can do Freshers' Week COMPLETELY SOBER and I had so much fun at a toga party, a paint party, a foam party etc. Some parts of the week are a blur as I barely slept due to the fact that I usually got to my room late and I had to be up at 8am every morning for breakfast. I signed up for too many societies at Freshers' Fair (got guilt-tripped into signing up for the African Caribbean Society, the Nigeria Society AND the Africa Society) so now I get about twenty emails a day that I don't know how to unsubscribe from. The societies that I have chosen as my faves are ACS, The French Society, The Christian Union (they helped me find a very lovely church that's less than five minutes from my college!) and the student paper. Next term, I will explore more! I matriculated and that was such a surreal experience that was made even more weird by the fact that tourists followed us around all day, papping us as we were in sub-fusc. I am on the college Netball team and we play a match a week so that's how I get my weekly exercise. I also have 'formal hall' three times a week, which is a three course meal that is served in a candlelit hall after The Grace is said in Latin and everyone is wearing a gown. Another really weird but fun experience. I am also a student tutor and I'll be going into local schools to teach French to primary school kids and that should be very fun. Last but not least, I got to see John Mayer speak at The Union which was very, VERY cool!

 Everyone here is incredibly friendly and welcoming and I was totally taken aback by it all. I'm really loving my course as well. It's like doing an English degree but with French texts. I'm also doing French film studies which is very interesting but now I can't watch a film without analysing its camera shots and angles! I have a tutorial every two weeks, which is myself, another student and my tutor. It's a bit scary as we have to read out our essays and the tutor often stops us, picking things apart that she doesn't like/wants us to explain better. But constructive criticism is always good, even though I sometimes feel incredibly stupid next to a tutor that has written books on what I'm studying!

  I went home for the weekend last week and it was so great to see my family. As cheesy as it sounds, there really is no place like home! Being home and just relaxing made me realise how hard I've been working here. I've already written six essays this term and by Week 8, I'll have written nearly sixteen! Crazy.
 
   So, that's been my hectic month at uni! I will try to write in here once a week if I can. Maybe I'll talk on the books and films that I'm studying. There's an idea but aurevoir for now, have some pictures from my hectic month.

Film Studies- L'Atalante

The Ashmolean Museum

Essay Crisis 1

Essay Crisis 5

The Radcliffe Camera

Fancy Freshers' Dinner

The 'Glink' aka the dungeon of my dark despair

 

500 Days of Summer

It's been a while.

  The past few weeks have been hectic, stressful and emotionally overwhelming. Hectic because I go to uni in a few days and I've been trying to buy last minute bits and bobs. I may not be physically ready to go but I'm mentally ready for the big move because most of my friends have already left and they look like they're having such a good time from pictures. Stressful because I've been staying up late doing French grammar exercises (I'm soo rusty and I have a grammar test when I start uni-yikes!) and trying to read as much of my French reading list as possible. I've read 5/6 of the texts that I'll be doing in 'Michaelmas' so I'm not doing too shabby. Emotionally overwhelming because my twin sister set off for uni about two weeks ago, marking the first time that we've ever been properly separated. I cried. A lot. But I'm okay now! She's having a ball and I'm so happy for her. I'm just fed up of the waiting around that I'm doing and family members that keep asking me if I'm okay every two minutes! (I love you guys though).

  So, last night, I decided to take a break from all the French to watch the highly praised '500 Days of Summer'. A lot of my friends have so much love for this film and it's one of 'those indie films' that you have to watch at some point in your life. I'm a huge fan of Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and I was quite excited to watch it. The film follows Levitt as male protagonist Tom Hansen, who falls in love with 'the girl of his dreams', Summer Finn (Deschanel). As given in the title, the film uses a nonlinear narrative structure to show 500 days of their relationship, including their first meeting, the good and bad parts and the relationship's eventual demise.

  I'm now going to say something very controversial. Here it goes: I....didn't...really...like...it...in...parts. Shock, gasp, horror! There, I said it. Let me explain why. I'll admit that the film was very well done and the cast was very strong. The chemistry between Levitt and Deschanel was electric, Levitt was very convincing as the heartbroken young man, pulling at even my cold heartstrings and Deschanel too played her part well as the heartbreaker. The film was very funny in parts, thanks to the supporting cast that included the very talented Chloë Grace Moretz as Tom's younger sister who does not mince words.

  What really irked me about the film was how Tom reacted to the breakup. From the start of the relationship, Summer was very clear that she was only after a casual thing, nothing serious. I personally felt that Tom's reaction to the breakup was very over the top and I was slightly on Summer's side as I didn't think that she led him on. Whilst watching, I wanted to shout, "Man up!" to Tom on numerous occassions as he was verging on pitiful levels to me. Also, Tom's supposed 'love' for Summer seemed mainly superficial. So, I couldn't understand how he was so deeply affected by the breakup.

  However, despite my Tom bashing, Summer was in the wrong too at times though. I'd say when but I don't want to ruin the film too much.

  Okay, I know I just committed a huge faux pas to some and I might be one of the few people on the planet that isn't absolutely besotted with this film. Maybe I'm bitter and a cold hearted bxtch like Jenny Beckman (you'll have to see the film to get this reference). Maybe I'm still not mature enough to understand what love really is. Maybe. The film's ending was very cute though and I smiled. Well, back to my mountain load of French work.

Rating 7/10

 

Friendships.

   This shall be brief. Yesterday, I decided to sever ties with some people. Why? I'll explain. Someone recently told me that there's no point wasting your time trying to be friends with people if they don't try back. It is also a waste of time chasing after these people when there are others who genuinely value your friendship and are willing to give you the time of day.

  Friendship is a two way thing. One person should not have to try harder than the other to make it work. Friendship is easy. In fact, it should be as effortless as breathing. Your friends should make you happy. You shouldn't have to be constantly worried that they don't like you or that they are saying things about you behind your back. I've made excuses for these 'friends' of mine for years and I've let them off the hook for various things that 'bestfriends' shouldn't do to one another. But I'm going to university in less than a month and I guess I just got fed up of the fake friends that I'm surrounded with. I decided that cutting ties with them would be best for a fresh start and for my own peace of mind. It is also one step towards removing negativity from my life.

  My decision might seem a bit extreme and sudden and yes, I did have some doubts about doing it. However, the messages that I got back from these 'faux amies' reassured me that I was doing the right thing. It's such a relief now to know that the friends I have now are genuine and I look forward to all the new people that I'll meet at university.

  To you, reader, I'll end by saying this; don't put up with being treated second class by those that you think are your 'friends'. You deserve better. Real friends are there for you no matter what and they don't hold grudges about little things like giving you a lift from time to time. If your current friends make you feel like crap, find new ones. They're out there, trust me.

Blog-o-versary

 YO.

  Kennyvents is officially one year old, woo! This is where it all started, ah. I've really loved having this blog as the main point of it was to make my novel analysing skills better. I will definitely continue blogging at uni as my degree is very literature based and part of my first year exams will consist of reading books and making commentaries on them, exactly what I do on here! So, I'll still be reading a lot of books. As it's a French degree, I'm afraid quite a few of the reviews will be en français but I'll share interesting uni adventures here as well, do the occassional rant and still review films if I can.

  It's a bit crazy at the moment in my house as we're trying to sort out admin stuff for uni. So. Many. Forms. It's long but still very exciting. My sister and I were supposed to jet off to Budapest yesterday on holiday but due to her last minute offer, she has had to stay in the country to sort out her forms because as a medicine undergraduate, there are wayy more forms, blood tests etc to get done. I'm still here too as I wasn't going to go on holiday on my own! But we're trying to see if we can squeeze in a quick visit to France before we part ways, sob sob.

  A few shouts before I go; my sister, Tai, who has guest blogged here a few times finally has her own blog- http://medicineandtai.wordpress.com/.

  I have a stylist (lol, I know) and she's one of my Mum's bestfriends. Our deal is that I help her with the crazy photoshoots for her fashion portfolio as a model and in return, she styles me for big events like my 18th birthday party and prom. She is absolutely brilliant and you should definitely check out her Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/DebbieFashionStylist?fref=ts or her personal website and blog where she posts pictures of her daily outfits- http://www.debbiefashionstylist.com/blog/. There are one or two photos of me on here as well...

  That's all for now, folks. Thanks a lot to those that read my ramblings. I see from my daily stats what countries people are reading from but reveal yourselves in a comment so I can thank you properly! Hopefully some reviews will be coming soon. Happz anniv, blog!

(This also happens to be my 50th post on here. I totally did that on purpose...)

Dominus Illuminatio Mea

   I still can't believe that it actually happened. It's been a week and it still feels like I'm dreaming. Maybe writing it all down on this blog will make it seem more real to me. So, I had my Carey Mulligan a la 'An Education' moment. I got into Dream Uni. And I can finally admit that Dream Uni is the University of Oxford. Yup, THE Oxford.

  I've talked about my interview experience on here but I'd like to explain how this dream came about. I decided that I was going to apply to Oxford at the end of Year 11. I'd visited the university and a few of its colleges on a Gifted & Talented trip with my school and I'd fallen in love instantly, especially with Pembroke College. I knew I'd be applying for a degree that had French in it as French was the subject that I was best at, it was also the subject that I enjoyed the most and I'd done my GCSE French two years early in Year 9, giving me an advantage.

  My GCSE results were okay. But I got a bit cocky in Year 12 and thought I could handle five essay based AS subjects: French, English Lit, History, Religious Studies (or Philosophy) and Economics. It turned out to be one of the worst mistakes that I've ever made. I was very very stressed throughout the year (my GP even told me that I was getting ill as a result of my academic stress), I started going grey, I rarely had free periods and I was buried under essays. I probably could have handled it all but in Year 12, I was also committed to many non-academic things such as theatre productions outside school, a part-time job, sport (Netball), volunteering at a local magazine, organising and being co-president of the newly formed Humanitarian Society in my school and so on. Stress central! To top it all, I was having difficulties in French, the subject that I'd always been so confident in as I was the first (and only) student to take it for A Level in my school. So, the department was highly disorganised, I went through about six teachers in the year as they didn't have a clue on the course and I didn't actually get a textbook until about January.

  Due to all of the aforementioned factors, my AS grades were...alright but at BBBBC, they were far from what I wanted. I cried and sulked a lot, especially because I'd gotten a B in French, a subject that had been my forte. After being bitter for a long time, I prayed a lot and Jeremiah 29:11 became my mantra: "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I started to see that God had a plan and my AS grades were a way of humbling me; they made me realise even more that God knows my future, not me.

  With all this in mind, I dropped History and RS and took English Lit, French and Economics to A Level. Year 13 French was a lot better than Year 12 as I got to spend all my lessons at the local Boys school, where the teaching was more structured and organised. The teachers were very supportive and I made a lot of good friends. Even though my AS grades were below the usual Oxbridge applicant standard, I still decided to chase my dream and apply to Pembroke College, Oxford, for English and French.

  As I mentioned here, I was unsuccessful for the English part and I only got offered an interview for French. Again, this was God working as even I know that I'm much better in French than English and for someone who stresses easily like me, a joint degree is perhaps not the best idea. Here, I mention how the interview went and it was here that I talked about when I received an offer in January.

  Fast forward to A Level Results Day last week. I couldn't sleep, I was petrified, nervous, sick, the lot. My insurance was Southampton but my heart was so set on Pembroke. I was shaking as I logged into Track at around half 7 in the morning and I screamed and cried when I saw, "Congratulations! Your place at Oxford University O33 for French R110 has been confirmed." To make things even better, my sister, Tai, got a last minute offer from UEA for MEDICINE on that same day and she tells her incredible story here.

  So, the A Level chapter of my life has come to an end and I shall be beginning higher education in October. I want to leave you guessing so I'm afraid I'm not going to say what I got in my A Levels. Sorry, that shall be my little secret for now. Maybe I'll share one day. Maybe.

  I'd better wrap up this post. It is called 'dominus illuminatio mea' as that is Oxford's motto. It comes from Psalm 27 in the Bible and it means 'The Lord is my light'. For me, this is even more proof that God has been helping me throughout this journey. He has been the light at the end of the dark and long tunnel that is A Levels and without Him, none of this would have been possible.

  To you, reader, never give up on your dreams. God has plans for you and He will make all the seemingly impossible things possible. God bless.

PS- Here is a fun Pembroke College fact: J.R.R Tolkien was a fellow there from 1925-1945 and he wrote the first two books of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit during his time there. Maybe I'll write my soon to be award winning trilogy. 'The Lady of the Bracelets' during my time at Pembroke....

The Scarlet Letter

  Kenny Rebecca's first attempt at reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' was when she was fifteen years old and on holiday in France. However, after only reading a few pages, she put it down because it bored her. Three years later, Kenny Rebecca is eighteen and will hopefully be starting university in October. She finds her old copy of The Scarlet Letter in the dark abyss that is her bedroom whilst tidying up and she decides to try reading it again as she is now more mature and a legal adult. Will she like it, or will it nearly bore her to tears like it did last time? Read on to find out!

   I am sad to say that Kenny Rebecca didn't really enjoy The Scarlet Letter after giving it a second chance and I need to stop referring to myself in the third person. The Scarlet Letter was written by Hawthorne in 1850 and it is set in 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649. It is the story of a young woman named Hester Prynne, who begets a child through an adulterous affair and is shamed and forced to wear a scarlet 'A' (for adultery) for the rest of her life as a punishment, as well as being ostracized from the town. The idea of a red 'A' might sound familiar to you because the 2010 film, 'Easy A', which stars the very talented Emma Stone, was a loose adaptation of the novel, with the plot being reversed in a way. I enjoyed this film a lot and I was initially quite excited to read The Scarlet Letter as it is kind of the film's source material. Let me explain exactly why I didn't dig the book.

  In my opinion, Hawthorne waffles a lot. And I mean a lot. I personally think that some of his long descriptions with the olden day style language were unnecessary as they didn't particularly advance the plot. In fact, I found myself skipping a few of them and sighing with relief whenever he'd finally start with some dialogue. Secondly, I feel that Hawthorne could have built up the reveal of the man that Hester committed adultery with more and he could have made more of a mystery of it. I also didn't like how Hester's wronged husband, Roger Chillingworth, was portrayed as the villain throughout the novel as he tried to find out who the second guilty party was. Now, I'm not going to ruin the surprise of who the guilty man is. However, it annoyed me how it is not properly explained how the affair between them came about and I didn't believe that he loved Hester as he lets he suffer alone and in shame with their child, Pearl (a VERY irritating character, even for a child), for seven years, before finally confessing. If that's love, I definitely don't want it.

  Despite all my dissin', I'll admit that there are good parts to the novel. In America, it is one of the most studied novels in high school and this is evident in the way that there is a lot to analyse in it. For example, from a feminist reading, the patriarchal society is really evident as only the woman, Hester, is made to suffer even though both the man and woman committed the act. A major theme in the novel is sin and this is emphasized by the fact that Prynne rhymes with it. Another name that you can analyse is Roger Chillingworth's as he is a very 'chilling' character with ulterior motives. In addition, in the book, Hawthorne raises many questions such as whether religious leaders can be flawed and if this should prevent us from putting them on such high pedestals, a notion that was quite controversial when the book was published. Also, one big question that haunts me is whether one big sin can ruin your life and hope of heaven and if this sin can be undone by many good acts for the rest of your life. Adultery is a big sin to me and I found it hard to deal with how this was glossed over sometimes, with Hester being depicted as a saint. However as the Bible says, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone (John 8:7)'.

  I may have just committed 'book blasphemy' by bashing a literary classic like The Scarlet Letter but I guess I can't help my opinions. I hear the film version starring Demi Moore and Gary Oldman is atrocious though...

Rating 3/5 ***

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scarlet-Wordsworth-Classics-Nathaniel-Hawthorne/dp/1853260290

Things I Don't Like

   I'm grumpy. I am grumpy because my family is living it up on holiday and I won't be going away until the end of August. I am grumpy because I'm tired all the time nowadays. So, instead of wallowing in my bad mood, I thought I'd rant as one is overdue and I'm now going to channel all my grumpy energy into a post on things that I don't like/ things that irritate me.

1) I don't like pretentious people/ snobs. It really really bugs me when some people assume that they're better than others because of the school that they go to, usually if they're grammar or private school students. Not really.

2) I don't like it when people use grammar incorrectly/ punctuate excessively. The your/you're, there/their/they're, defiantly/definitely, except/accept, should of/ should have mistakes are just a few examples that baffle me as to how people could get them wrong.

3) I don't like bugs. As it's summer, 'tis the season for insect galore and they really creep me out. However, I count my blessings with the fact that instead of bugs, there could be rats and I am absolutely petrified of them due to an awful childhood experience.

4) I don't like fake friends/ hypocrites/ liars/ rude people. With me, I can confidently say that what you see is what you get. For example, if I dislike someone, I won't go out of my way to befriend the person and then say horrible things behind his/ her back, unlike some people that I know...Also, from my Nigerian heritage, I have been raised to always respect my elders. So, it really angers me when people my age are rude to their parents/teachers/ elders in general.

5) I don't like it when people compare me to my sister. Although we're identical twins, we are two very different people with differing life objectives.

6) I don't like mangoes. Just the smell of them makes me heave. I've only had them twice in my life and I've been sick both times so I might be allergic to them actually...

7) I don't like it when people swear unnecessarily. There are so many nice words in the English language. Why not use those instead?

8) I don't like to be late to things. Ever. Some call me KEENny for this. The fact that my phone time is nearly half an hour faster than normal time to avoid me being late for things is probably evidence of my keenness.

9) I don't like it when peoples' children scream all the time. Sure, I love kids. However, especially in public places/ when others are trying to rest, learn to control your wailing lil' monsters, parents.

10) I don't like it when people don't try hard in school then they blame their failure on their teachers. Nah, mate, it's you, not them.

11) I don't like angry atheists. Yes, everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. If you choose not to believe in religion/ God, that's your own decision. However, that doesn't mean that you should insult/ undermine the people that do believe (coughRICKYGERVAIScough).

12) I don't like boastful people. Modesty is the best policy...or is that honesty? Either way, stop bragging and tooting your own horn.

I'm feeling less grumpy after that. That's it for now, I guess. Dinner is calling me and I am starving but if more things irritate me, I shall definitely add them to this list. Kenny out.

Amour

  It's been a busy week that has consisted of work, seeing friends, helping out at singing workshops and prom dress shopping. Dream Uni has been sending me lots of stuff as well, a reading list included, and I am both excited and petrified about it all as Results Day is ten days away... Dream Uni said that I have to begin re-immersing myself in French so this post shall be en français, a review of the 2012 French film, 'Amour'.

  Amour est un film qui a été réalisé par Michael Haneke. Il est un réalisateur qui est bien connu avec ses œuvres comme ‘The Pianist’ et  ‘The White Ribbon’ mais ce film est le premier film de lui que j’ai jamais regardé. Pour ceux qui regardent les Oscars chaque année comme moi, vous vous souviendriez qu’Amour a gagné l’Oscar du meilleur film étranger. Emmanuelle Riva, un des acteurs principaux a été nominée pour la meilleure actrice pour son rôle. En fait, c’était un exploit historique car elle est la plus ancienne actrice à avoir été nominée mais Jennifer Lawrence a gagné cet Oscar.

  

   Les cinéphiles qui aiment les films francophones connaissent bien Emmanuelle Riva, particulièrement pour les films qu’elle a fait pendant sa jeunesse comme ‘Hiroshima mon amour’ et ‘Thérèse Desqueyroux’. Jean-Louis Trintignant, l’autre acteur principal est aussi bien connu pour les films comme ‘Z’, avec lequel il a reçu le Prix d’interprétation masculine au Festival de Cannes en 1969. En ‘Amour’, Riva et Trintignant jouent les rôles de Anne et Georges, des octogénaires qui sont mariés. A la retraite, ils ont été professeurs de musique (le piano) et ils adorent la musique classique en particulier. Un jour, Anne souffre silencieusement d’une petite attaque cérébrale et quand elle revient de l’hôpital, Georges lui promet de jamais la renvoyer à l’hôpital car elle a peur de ça. Le film suit les difficultés qui sont associées avec ce promis et le film soulève aussi la question de la vraie profondeur de l’amour entre les deux comme on voit la dégradation de la santé d’Anne.

  

   A mon avis, ce film a été absolument incroyable, triste et choquant pour plusieurs raisons. D’abord, c’était complètement dépourvu du ‘fluff’ d’Hollywood, où ceux qui sont malades apparaissent fabuleux, qui n’est pas une vrai représentation. Ensuite, de temps en temps, c’était très difficile à regarder à cause de la réalité qu’on peut voir en le regardant. L’appartement parisien de Georges et Anne devient un type de prison car ils ne le quittent pas tout au long du film sauf au début. Riva et Trintignant méritent vraiment leurs récompenses pour ce film car c’est les deux qu’on suit pour la majorité de film et la qualité de leur action est superbe. En le regardant, vous penserez des membres de votre famille qui sont malades et si vous les aident quand ils ont besoin car Georges a beaucoup de difficulté avec sa femme mourante. En plus, car Riva et Trintignant sont célèbres pour les films de leurs jeunesse, dans ce film où ils sont très vieux, vous penserez du fait que la mort est une chose inévitable, qui même les grands célébrités doivent faire face à la mort un jour dans l’avenir.

  Maintenant, je ne veux pas ruiner le fin du film pour vous mais, je dirai que c’était l’aspect du film qui a été le plus perturbant pour moi et personnellement, j’ai deux interprétations pour cela. Si je le dit, je ruinerais le film. Donc, si vous voudrais mes opinions, vous pourrez me demander face à face.

  

  En guise de conclusion, Amour est si merveilleux et je le recommanderais beaucoup. Si vous ne parlez pas le français, vous n’avez aucune excuse car il y a des sous-titres anglais !  

Rating 8.5/10

Wow, that's the first bit of French that I've written since the 14th of June (birthday and day of final exam-French) and it took me nearly two hours and was a challenge, admittedly. Guess Dream Uni was right; I'd better get cracking on that re-immersing or I'll remember no French come October!

Ashes

   Ilsa J Bick's 'Ashes' was given to me by one of my Mum's friends. As she gave it to me, she said and I quote, "I know you're into vampires and Twilight stuff so here's a book about zombies." Zombies and vampires are totally different but I was still touched by her gesture. Ashes has probably been in my bookshelf for over a year and as my room is so disorganized at the moment, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in the mess and finally got to reading it.

   In my opinion, what sets Ashes apart from other novels in the same genre is the fact that it isn't set in a distant future; the events that occur in Bick's book could literally happen tomorrow, which is what makes the novel so chilling. As the novel begins, the reader is introduced to Alex Adair, a teenager with a brain tumour that is not responding to treatments. Alex is on a sole hike in the woods on a mission to say farewell to her dead parents and face her personal demons. There, an unexpected electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, killing billions, seemingly curing some people like Alex, heightening some of their senses while others (mostly teenagers) are 'Changed' into cannibalistic, violent and animal like 'zombies'.

   The first part of this book was awesome. I always ask my friends what they'd do in a zombie apocalypse (I seriously believe that we should prepare ourselves for such things) and Ashes gives many good tips for such an occurrence. I learned from the book that I'd be totally screwed in a zombie apocalypse as I cannot survive in the woods (making a fire etc is a foreign notion to me) my vision is abysmal sans my glasses, I've stopped doing sport so I'm now out of shape and would probably be unable to run away from speedy flesh eaters and so on. I think you get my drift. Anyway, back to the first half of Ashes. This is definitely not a good book to read whilst eating. Bick's vivid descriptions of humans feasting on the eyeballs and organs of fellow humans had me gagging into my dinner and I nearly threw up on multiple occasions.

  Alex's characterisation is very strong as well. It's good to have a strong, female lead that does not let her illness define her life and weigh her down. Alex is no Bella Swan, I'll tell you that. Although it seemed all too convenient that Alex just happens to bump into Tom Eden in the woods, a young soldier who also happens to be an explosives specialist and survival expert, I'll let Bick off for that as he too is a strong character with secrets that intrigue the audience. The character of Ellie Cranford, an eight year old girl that Alex is forced to care for after her grandfather dies in 'the zap' was highly irritating though. I understand that she was like this because she's experienced a fair amount of turmoil in her young life but still, I was not that annoying when I was eight (I hope).

  Now for my opinion on the second part of the novel. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the first half because it just lacked the energy and action of the first. The characters that we as an audience come to care for, Ellie and Tom, are totally absent and Alex becomes the involuntary prisoner of an Amish like community called 'Rule'. This half of the book is too convuluted plot wise and genre wise (is it sci fi, romance, fantasy or a combination of all three?) and there were too many characters that I didn't care for. However, the book is saved by the ending, which was such a cliffhanger with so many unanswered questions and as Ashes is the first book of the trilogy, I will most certainly read the next book, 'Shadows'.

  Despite my whinging, I actually enjoyed Ashes. Yes, it was slightly Hunger Games-y at times with the killer teenagers, a bit The Host-y at times with the small community of survivors and even a bit Twilight-like with the ruling council of the Rule resembling the Volturi (you'll get it when you read the book). Nevertheless, Ilsa J Bick was very successful in exposing the negative aspects to human nature that tend to surface when disaster strikes: greed, selfishness and doing whatever it takes to survive, even at the expense of the lives of others. Bring on the sequel!

Rating 3.5/5 ***

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ashes-Trilogy-Ilsa-J-Bick/dp/0857382624

The Choice

  I thought that with exams being over and with the summer holidays, I'd have more time to read and blog. Boy, was I wrong! Last week was stressful from start to finish and it consisted of two shows that I was part of at my local theatre and four nights of singing at a church conference that I helped to organise. Thankfully, everything was successful and I sighed a huge sigh of relief as I crashed into bed on Sunday evening. My fatigue was so much that I was bedridden for the whole of yesterday, regaining my strength! I am now rested and ready to review Nicholas Sparks' 'The Choice'.

  I've read a few of Sparks' books in my time; The Last Song (the film version with Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth still reduces me to a sobbing mess), A Walk to Remember (ditto for the film with Mandy Moore and Shane West), Dear John (I haven't seen the film with Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum yet but I cried a lot after reading the book), The Guardian and The Notebook. I'm going to drop a bombshell by saying that I personally think that both the novel and film versions of The Notebook are immensely overrated. That's right, I went there.

   'The Choice' was written in 2007 and it is the story of Travis Parker and his neighbour, Gabby Holland. Travis, a young bachelor who has it all: a great job, loyal friends and a waterfront house cannot understand why his neighbour seems to have taken such a strong dislike to him for no apparent reason and as the novel progresses, the two overcome many conflicts and challenges as love inadvertently develops between them.

  Whenever I think of this book, the word that comes to mind is 'meh'. Yes, MEH. It just didn't engage me. In fact, I actually read it for the first time two years ago and forgot about it. The copy that I have now was a birthday present. It says a lot that I actually re-read it, thinking it was a book that I had not read before. This is because the plot is just so characteristically Nicholas Sparks and samey that it just didn't stand out to me. As aforementioned, the Nicholas Sparks formula works sometimes but this time, I'm sad to say that it didn't.

  If you're unfamiliar with the Sparks formula, here are some of his most common elements; a dog, a male and female that initially despise each other but fall in love eventually, quite quickly and unrealistically, might I add, some sort of life threatening disease, cheesy and clichéd love quotes and dialogue that no one says in real life, an accident, war and one element that really annoys me is the setting- North Carolina. I know this is where Sparks lives but must he always base his novels here?

  The Choice bugged me for many reasons. One, I disliked Gabby's character because I can never agree with people who cheat. Never. I don't care if she cheated because she found true love. Cheating is still never cool in my books. This leads me on to the second reason why The Choice bugged me- I just couldn't believe and buy the love between Gabby and Travis. To me, it was too sudden and rushed. Can we have some character development, please? Call me a cynic and maybe I'm a hardhearted, unbeliever in 'true love'. Maybe. It'll take a lot to move the cold, cold cockles of my heart, that's for sure. Thirdly, to me, there was a huge disconnect between the first part and second part of the novel and the plot twist just came out of nowhere, in my opinion, with no build whatsoever towards it. In addition, the book's tagline: 'How far would you go to keep the hope of life alive?' irritated me immensely, due to the fact that it was repeated over and over again in the book.

  If I could go back in time and change my choice, I wouldn't have read this book again. I'm still a fan of Nicholas Sparks' work but to quote Randy Jackson, I'm not feelin' it this time, dawg.

Rating 2/5 **

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choice-Nicholas-Sparks/dp/0751540579

Midnight in Paris

  Those that know me are well aware of the fact that I'm a huge francophile. According to my sister, I'm even verging on pretentious with it as she gets annoyed when I tell her random French facts daily, speak the language around the house, listen to French music and watch French films. Paris is one of my favourite cities and I'll be studying French at university as my aim is to become fluent. So, it's safe to say that I'm a French keeno. Therefore, it was perfect that I got 'Midnight in Paris' (2011)
as one of my birthday presents.

   The film stars Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers) as Gil Pender, a screenwriter who goes to Paris on holiday with his materialistic fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams- Mean Girls, Wedding Crashers), in order to get inspiration for the novel that he's writing. There, he begins to realise how different their goals as magic happens and he travels back in time to his ideal era- Paris in the 1920s.

  Midnight in Paris is an absolutely stunning film for various reasons. There is something for everyone; history, 'magic', romance, eye candy, comedy, music(lots of cool stuff from the Jazz Age-I had Cole Porter's 'Let's Do It' on repeat for days) and more. There are also many beautiful images of the city that'll you'll fall in love with and want to visit. If you're like me, you'll be hugely chuffed to recognise the places that you've been to.

  In addition, the film's star studded, ensemble cast are brilliant, recognisable faces such as Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose, Inception) , Michael Sheen (Twilight saga), Adrien Brody (King Kong) and Kathy Bates (Titanic). I got to geek out over literary heroes being brought to life and Tom Hiddleston as F Scott Fitzgerald was spot on.

  Midnight in Paris was written and directed by Woody Allen and it's the first film of his that I've seen. I shall definitely be watching more of his films as I really enjoyed this one and the main message that I got from it was that even though the past can sometimes be appealing and seem as an ideal, it is always best to accept the present and live in it. The little squeal that I did whenever French was spoken and I understood it is proof that I've chosen the right degree. Thanks, Woody, for this gem of a film, a welcome breath of fresh air from the action packed films nowadays.

Rating 9.5/10

The Unfamous

  It's hard to pinpoint exactly how I found this 'book'. I actually read it online, on Wattpad; it is apparently going to become a published book soon and the author goes by 'Scotty Unfamous'. 'The Unfamous' is the story of Rio Greene, who starts her first year at Brompton University on a mission to reinvent herself and become 'unfamous'. The story follows the difficulties in Rio's past that make this mission hard to succeed in such as her cheating ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel Gibson, and her arch-nemesis, Georgia Daniels, the girl he cheated on her with. The plot is nothing new as the whole idea of a cheating boyfriend wanting to win back the 'love of his life'/ nerdy girl wanting to be popular and changing herself has been done before, but I was still quite excited to read it as I love teen dramas.

    My excitement quickly dimmed. First of all, 'unfamous' is not a word. So, the title actually makes no sense. In fact, I worry that Scotty might have meant to call the book 'The Infamous' but as the letters 'i' and 'u' are next to each other on a keyboard, the whole title could have been a typo that became too late to go back from. Awkward. Secondly, I am completely against colloquialisms/ references to brands in books unless they are used well or ironically. This is because they can make a novel  become outdated, ruining its longevity. For instance, The Unfamous was written in 2010 and  Rio constantly mentions how using a BlackBerry Curve makes her cool and 'part of them'. She also states that anyone without a BlackBerry is a loser as it is THE phone to have and BBM is better than everything. In 2013, the age of the iPhone, I was laughing whilst reading as it is now the opposite and the BlackBerry is now lame. In addition, every time a character wears a designer brand  of clothing, it is mentioned. This got irritating as well as I began to feel that I was reading an advert, not a book. Scotty Unfamous, you do not need to describe every item of clothing that a character is wearing! People read books in order to use their imagination and they are unable to do this if the author spells out everything for them as if they're stupid.

  Thirdly, there was just too much going on. To name a few, there is an abortion, teenage pregnancy, drug use and domestic abuse. There are too many characters in the book; they are not well developed and they're mostly annoying, awful people that ruin each others' lives. So, they all start to merge into one. In the second Unfamous book (yes, I read this as well as I am clearly a masochist), I think Scotty tried to remedy this by switching point of views as the book is written primarily in a first person narrative from Rio. Again, this was not successful and it was laughable as the audience is suddenly meant to believe that these colloquial youths have Shakespearean-esque and somewhat poetic inner voices and monologues. The reader gets a lot of Rio though and in my opinion, she is so hard to like as her 'love' for Nathaniel is incomprehensible and unbelievable as she jumps from one guy to the other.

  It is very obvious that I did not like 'The Unfamous'. The book's target audience is an urban generation and as it is getting a lot of love on Wattpad, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (there's even a web series!), maybe I'm not 'black enough' to fully appreciate it. I say 'black enough' very bitterly but that is a post and rant for another day. Well done on all the success that you've had with it so far though, Scotty Unfamous.

Rating 1/5 *
 

Sister Carrie

   Once again, I have my favourite teacher to thank for introducing me to this book. She recommended it to me in Year 12 when I was doing my AS English coursework, a comparison piece on 'The Great Gatsby' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and she described it as 'a female version of The Great Gatsby'. I researched the book and I was intrigued by it but I only read it a few weeks ago, after finding a copy of it in a charity shop for £1.99! If you like reading and buying books and you're well aware of how expensive it can be to feed this habit, try checking out your local charity shops. Most sell classics that are often in a very good condition quite cheaply but I am going off topic. This post is about Theodore Dreiser's 'Sister Carrie'.

  Published in 1900, Sister Carrie tells the story of a young country girl, Caroline 'Carrie' Meeber, who leaves her rural life in Wisconsin for Chicago, in search of a better life and adventure. On her arrival, she stays with her sister and her husband but dissatisfied with the simplicity and boredom of their lives, as well as how restricted she is living with them, Carrie leaves them and becomes a mistress to wealthy men, before becoming a famous actress.

  Not all critics liked Sister Carrie when it was first published. Some viewed it as vulgar, due to the novel's sexual content. Again, from a 21st century perspective, this is minimal. Some critics believed that the book's title was misleading as the reader is initially led to believe that the titular character is a nun. Others said that the book gave out a negative message to young women, that Carrie's success in her immoral activities would persuade them to follow the same path, hoping for the same success but they'd probably end up living in poverty, the opposite of Carrie's wealth.

  Sister Carrie is similar to The Great Gatsby through the way that both comment on the American Dream and the rise of capitalism and consumerism in Chicago and New York in the early 1900s. Dreiser shows this with the realism in his narrative, which emphasises money, putting a monetary value to everything and materialism with objects and possessions. This realism makes the novel more believable and the novel is written with a detached third person narrative that gives no judgement. So, it is left to the reader to make up his/her mind up on what to judge.

  For me, Sister Carrie was a fantastic read. Although I see where some critics are coming from when they say that Dreiser's descriptions can get lengthy at times, they aid in creating characters that are well developed  and relatable. As I'm now eighteen, I am the same age as Carrie at the beginning of the novel and I still don't agree with some of her choices. Just like Gatsby, I feel like she too suffers from Alfred Adler's 'superiority complex', which is when a person believes that he or she is superior to others and certain situations, and this is why both  characters cannot bear circumstances where they are made to feel inferior.

  Sister Carrie has many brilliant and timeless messages such as how money does not bring about happiness and satisfaction, how little, thoughtless actions can bring about downfall, how greed and desiring more can lead to emptiness and Dreiser also exposes the dark side to human nature, particularly how humans can be selfish in their willingness to 'sponge off' others.

  It's easy to see why Sister Carrie has been called the 'greatest of all American urban novels' and if you're a fan of The Great Gatsby and have always wanted to see what it'd be like with a female lead in a similar situation, I'd say to definitely check out Sister Carrie.

Rating 4/5 ****

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sister-Carrie-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486434680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372098615&sr=8-1&keywords=sister+carrie
 
   On an unrelated note, it was my eighteenth birthday party on Saturday and here are the twin cakes that a friend made for myself and my sister. How awesome are these?! Not only do they look awesome but they tasted awesome as well. Be jel

and salivate.

 

I'm feeling EIGHTEEN!

So. I survived.

*Insert Mel Gibson-esque 'FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM' yell from Braveheart here*

  After over three months of revision, countless hours spent locked in my room, forgetting to eat which lead to numerous headaches and not watching over fifteen hours of television that I recorded on the SKY+ in order to prepare for eight hours and thirty five minutes of exams, I have officially finished my A Level examinations and secondary school. My final exam was on the 14th of June- two and a half hours of French on my 18th birthday! It wasn't too bad though as it was a morning exam and I love French. In fact, my first ever 'serious' exam was GCSE French which I took early in Year 9 and as I'll be doing French at university, it seemed meant to be that I finished my exams with it.

   I am now eighteen years old. Legally an adult. Scary times. What is even more scary is the fact that I'll be off to uni in less than three months and whether or not I'll get into Dream Uni is now completely out of my hands. Gulp.

  However, I refuse to freak out, dwell on or have too many sleepless nights over that. Jeremiah 29:11 is all I have to say. I thank God for getting me through my exams and for letting me live to see eighteen as not everyone is that lucky. I shall now leave you with this picture of one of the birthday cakes that my sister and I received. Yummy yummy, Costco! A review of Theodore Dreiser's 'Sister Carrie' will be coming soon.

Stress Busters!

Exam season is nigh.

   I am on study leave, I've already had two exams and I've got three more big ones to go so I'm definitely in the exam zone. My French oral exam was okay but after some reflection, maybe it wasn't a good idea to start talking about Justin Bieber's recent issues with the press when my teacher asked me to talk about things  and bad influences that can cause delinquency amongst young people...

  But let's not dwell on that. This post is on how to relieve stress. I've already had my 'Oh-my-gosh-I-don't-know-anything-my-exams-will-go-badly-and-I-wont-get-into-Dream-Uni-and-my-life-will-be-over' panic attack/breakdown and now that that's out of the way, I want to help others get over it and power through. Those that know me will know that I encourage all sorts of positiveness and I absolutely loathe when people are negative. Of course, we're only human and we will occasionally had the odd freak out here and there but we shouldn't let this be too often. If you feel yourself become stressed and you are staring at your notes and are about to cry because there's so much to know and you feel like nothing is going in, don't yell at your family members like I did (sorry, Tai). Here are a few methods that work for me that you can try:

1) Take a break. Revising under stress is never a good idea so take a 10-15 minute break to get a drink (tea for me) have a snack, read a chapter of your book, catch up on tweets (unfollow negative people that stress you out if it helps) and normally after this, you'll feel ready to tackle your revision with a clearer mind. In fact, I am currently on a break and I am using it to write this post and blogging is another good stress buster.

2) Listen to some music. I personally have an 'inspirational songs' playlist that may or may not include some Destiny's Child ('Survivor' is my revision fave). This will lift the mood, as long as you stay away from depressing songs about failure. In fact, Magic FM has a 'stress busters' session at night with soothing songs that are good to revise to. ClassicFM is another personally favourite or FranceMusique for French keenos like myself.

3) Watch a few funny YouTube videos. I am a huge fan of Charlie McDonnell, Kingsley and Dan Howell and their videos always make me laugh and feel less stressed. But 'few' is the key word as it is easy to get carried away and spend hours on YouTube. Trust me, I've been there.

4) Knit! I am a keen knitter and I am currently working on a scarf for a baby girl. It is very fun and it is an excellent way to feel less stressed. And yes, people will call you an 'old lady' for doing it but who cares because unlike them, you won't be stressed and revision might even become dare I say it, 'fun'.

5) Set yourself revision challenges. During GCSE study leave, my sister and I set ourselves the challenge of learning Nicki Minaj's 'Superbass' in our revision breaks. It sounds weird but it definitely made revision more interesting! We haven't picked a rap for this year yet though...

6) Finally, I find making a revision timetable very efficient. With this, you can make sure that you're revising all subjects and you have a set time to start and finish each day. In addition, you can make the timetable suit you and how you work. For example, I like to sleep in so I normally start revising at around 1pm and I can revise till midnight, and I stop to catch up on the TV that I've missed in the day/ watch a film till about 4am.

That's all, folks. If exams don't finish me, I'll be back. Till then, happy revisin'!

Random acts of kindness

 
Hi.

    So, it turns out that my French oral exam is actually next week and not this week like it was supposed to be due to circumstances beyond my control. Most people would have been overjoyed by the prospect of having an extra week to revise but not me. I was quite bitter about it for a while (I ranted to anyone who would listen) because I was really ready to have it this week and I don't like to over revise as that just allows panic to set in and you can often start to forget things. However, I got over my anger and I've decided to take this as a blessing. Maybe this extra week of practice will help me get that A* instead of an A (but I would be very very chuffed with an A, that's all dream uni is asking for).

  Due to all this extra revision, I haven't had much time to read for fun (sad times). Therefore, this will not be a book reviewing post, unfortunately. I want to talk about random acts of kindness and doing nice things to surprise people. I'm often told that I tend to go over the top for birthday presents. For example, I once gave someone £50 because he was my first friend at the second school that I go to. He wasn't expecting it at all which made it even better. I made a friend a scarf and another a tie because I'd promised them months earlier that I'd do it. They were shocked that I remembered my promise when I gave it to them as well as being surprised at the fact that I had also bought them cakes. Another example which I view as one of the best things that I've ever done is the time that I gave my bestfriend tickets to meet Justin Bieber. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love Justin Bieber but seeing her face and how happy it made her to meet him was a reward to me in itself. OTT, I know, but they all deserved it.

  So, why do I do this? I think that great people deserve great things, especially if they're good friends. I also make a big deal of birthdays because being one year older is something that we shouldn't take for granted as not everyone in the world is that lucky.

  Hopefully, I'll have a book post soon but now, I shall leave you with the 'cookie cake' that inspired this post. He said, "Why are you doing this for me?" I said, "Because we're friends!" And the fact that he didn't expect it is exactly why he got it.

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

  Bonjour! This post shall be en français as I have a French oral exam in two weeks (yikes!). So, I need to practice, practice and practice! 

  ‘Le Bourgeois gentilhomme’ est la raison principale pour ma place à l’université de mes rêves. Pourquoi, vous demandez ? C’est parce que pendant l’interview, les profs et moi ont discuté ce livre (qui est aussi une pièce) pour quelques minutes et je pense que le livre me fait sembler profonde, MDR.

  

   Je dois avouer (avec un peu d’honte) que j’ai fini le livre en quatre mois car je suis une fille paresseuse…non, je plaisante. Je  ne l’ai lu guère à cause du fait que je n’ai pas beaucoup de temps de lire en ce moment à cause de la stresse de mon année finale à l’école. Ajoutons à cela le fait que je tergiverse beaucoup.

  

   Je voudrais dire que je suis une étudiante de français qui est très dédiée et donc, j’ai découvert Le Bourgeois gentilhomme moi-même mais  malheureusement, ce n’est pas le cas. Ma professeure préférée m’a donné le livre avec plusieurs autres comme un cadeau quand elle a quitté le pays et mon collège pour enseigner au Viêt-Nam ! Merci beaucoup, Mademoiselle Emma.

  

   Le Bourgeois gentilhomme est une pièce par le dramaturge et l’auteur français, ‘Molière’ qui est né Jean Baptiste Poquelin. Il est souvent cité comme un de maîtres de comédies le plus grand dans l’histoire de la littérature du monde Occidental et son talent avec la comédie est évident dans cet œuvre.

  

   Le récit est d’un homme, Monsieur Jourdain qui a une ambition et c’est qu’il veut être «noble». Pour réaliser son rêve, il fait de nombreuses choses bêtes ; par exemple, il fait des leçons avec un maître d’armes, un maître à danser, un maître de musique, un maître de philosophie, il veut que sa fille épouse seulement un homme avec «un  grand nom» et plus. Monsieur Jourdain est un homme très simple et donc, il est souvent trompé par des gens qui lui flatte pour recevoir des choses et sa femme, Madame Jourdain, la seule voix de raison dans la comédie est régulièrement agitée.

  

  Molière inclure des moments pour les chansons, les danses et le ballet dans cette pièce et on peut dire que c’est en fait une comédie musicale. Je l’ai trouvé absolument hilare et j’ai ri beaucoup en le lisant. D’abord, le titre est un oxymore- ce n’est pas possible d’être un gentilhomme et bourgeois au même temps- on est né en noblesse, on ne peut pas le devenir. Avec les tentatives de Monsieur Jourdain, Molière fait la satire du monde des classes supérieures et leurs pratiques ridicules dans le 17^ème siècle. Il me semble que Molière a voulu partager le message que quoi qu’une personne soit «noble» ou «riche», cette personne n’est pas nécessairement meilleure que les autres. Je crois que c’est un thème très fort qui est aussi valable de nos jours car beaucoup de gens veulent être «bourgeois».

   

   Ma seule critique est l’utilisation de plusieurs danses et chansons mais peut-être je ne suis pas familière avec le style de Molière. En guise de conclusion, je suis très heureuse que j’ai fini (finalement !) cette pièce et je vais lire sans aucun doute une autre œuvre de Molière quand j’ai plus de temps. 

Rating 4/5 ****

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Le-Bourgeois-gentilhomme-Moli%C3%A8re/dp/2210760771