The last month and a half.

I've now been at University a month and a half now and it's honestly flown by so quickly. 

I have some great friends and I love my course but I still can't shake the feeling that I'm somehow not meant to be here and that I don't deserve to be here because I didn't get the grades I needed. I handed in my first assignment last Thursday and I stayed up quite late Wednesday night finishing it as I just couldn't figure out how to write the essay properly - I found it a real struggle to get back into proper academic work as I haven't written anything since exams in June and I've never written a University level piece of work which terrified me. I've always been a perfectionist and I like being given a push in the right direction so the independent learning is completely new to me and it's difficult as I have to figure out if what I'm doing is right or not by myself. 

I know as I go on, this will get easier and I'll learn the style Uni looks for, just like I did for A level, but I still don't feel good enough. 

I need to work out how to manage my time better, especially as I have this week free of lectures so I have 1 and a half more days to work solidly on my next assignment if I plan it right. I guess it's just part of the learning experience and the gaining of independence and it'll come to me in a bizarre 'Eureka' moment (at least I'm hoping it will...) so for now I'm going to read a lot, make a lot of notes and ask a lot of questions in the hopes that it'll be enough to get me through this year successfully.

Jess xx

Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson - review.

I said in my previous blog that I have many reviews that are in the works - here's the first!

Petite Anglaise - Catherine Sanderson

You may have seen my first thoughts of the book but now I have finished it, I'm sharing my thoughts of the book in its entirety! 

I'm not sure how I feel about this book if I'm perfectly honest. 

On one hand, I really loved the writing style and descriptions, it made me want to visit Paris even more than I did already! On the other hand however, I hated the characters. They irritated me to no end and I only kept reading because I wanted to see how it ended (and Catherine's writing style was really easy to read which made it a hard book to put down ironically...) and if any of them had a pivotal moment where they suddenly became likeable and nice people. 

I also liked how realistic it was but obviously being a memoir it was going to be. I felt like it was purely an escape for the author to brag about her sudden internet fame and her failing love life. 

Catherine seemed to revolve her life around the men she was involved with at the time and her success as a blogger which, for me, gave her an inhuman feel, as we find out less about the actual person, and more about the blogger. She seems to be under the impression that blogs are places that people hide behind as a shield for their true selves which annoyed me as I know plenty of people who use blogging to enhance their personality and become more confident in themselves - I know I have. 

I think throughout the book, Catherine comes across as self-centred and selfish, making her very unlikeable and in turn, make the reader unsympathetic towards her. You end up feeling sorry for her daughter as Catherine seems to not realise the effects that her actions will have on her once she is older. She seems to naively think that balancing a booming social life and raising a small child is possible and simple when it obviously isn't, especially when she is a single mother with no one to look after her daughter properly. 

Overall, while the writing style was lovely, Catherine was far too irritating and the book drips with self-deprecating rubbish as an attempt to justify her actions.

After I finished the book, I went on to her actual blog and found her quite funny and a seemingly lovely person. The book definitely shows that some people aren't who they make themselves out to be sometimes.

The bottom line is that I'm happy to have only spent 20p on it as I would have been highly disappointed if I had spent the original £12.99.

Jess xx