RIP GFC.

I woke up this morning and had a quick look at my stats from the day before as I always do. I'd gained a few followers thanks to the 2014 Blogger Challenge (thank you and hello to all of my new followers!) so I had a quick check to see if that had changed too when I realised my followers weren't loading on my page! A quick check around confirmed my suspicions; Google have finally taken down Google Friend Request, a sad day for everyone. However, there is luckily an alternative way to follow me if you wish to do so! 

BLOGLOVIN'!

If you click the link above, you can follow me and you can set it so you get an email whenever I post something new! I follow pretty much everyone back so you will most likely gain a follower too! 

Jess xx

The University Chronicles: My interview!

On Wednesday, I had an interview at Reading University. As I've been going to their Archaeological field school for the last three years, I was feeling quite confident but also really nervous as I didn't quite meet their grade requirements.

The interview was at the end of the day after a couple of lectures explaining various aspects of the Archaeology and Ancient history course and a visit to the on-site museum (one of the largest Greek vase collections in the country apparently! It was amazing!). It ended up being with one of the lecturers that I had met this summer whilst at the dig so I was extremely happy to be able to talk to someone who already had a vague idea about what I was like! I ended up just chatting to her about my A levels, the books I've been reading for my english coursework, lectures I've been to and, of course, Silchester. 

At the end of it, I got the chance to ask questions which was a really good opportunity for me to get to understand the course more! 

She eventually told me that they would be making me a 'non-standard' offer so I was so excited because they lowered the grades for me! The next day I had an email telling me that I've received a BBB offer from Reading which I'm super excited and happy about! 

The day made me realise how much I also didn't want to give up the Classics side of the ancient world so it's now made it very difficult to choose which University I like the most as Cardiff don't have a Classics department, so if I went there, I would be losing out on that aspect which I don't think I could do without regretting my decision. I think now that Reading is my first choice and Birmingham and Cardiff are joint second. The visit day really helped me understand the University more so I'm quite excited to see what the other two are like! 

The people at Reading were so friendly and welcoming and made me feel at home which was really lovely - I can happily see myself going to University which is always a good sign!
For my interview, I didn't want to go too dressy but also didn't want to look slobby so I opted for my black dove dress from Shikha London, my new brown suede boots from Next and my peacock design coat from Desigual. I also wore Essie's Bahama Mama on my nails as it's dark and a pretty colour that I thought went with the outfit pretty well! I also found that painting my nails was a good de-stressing activity to do the night before!
My one piece of advice for anyone who has an interview coming up is to make sure you're confident, you smile and you make eye contact - you will stand out more if you aren't shy and trying to fade into the background - your interviewer wants to know that you want to be there!
Jess xx

Santa Claus is coming to town.

A few weeks ago, me and my friends at college decided that, as we all have next to no money, we would do a secret santa instead of buying 7 people presents. As it was late night shopping on Friday, we decided to meet up after college, go to the pub and exchange presents there! It was such a great time despite the fact that I was only there for an hour - I love spending time with them all outside of college time, they're great!

I only had one lesson in the morning so I went to my friend's house and met her new puppy while we waiting and she was the most adorable thing! A hyperactive ball of fur!

When we got to the pub, it had such a Christmassy atmosphere which put everyone in a good mood! We then put all of the presents in the middle (without looking of course!) and then we opened them and guessed who got who one by one!

My friend Milly ended up buying me a 4 set of EOS lip balms! I've seen them all over the internet but as they're an American brand, I gave up hope of ever trying them! I honestly love them so much, they're super moisturising without feeling heavy and like you're wearing a thick layer of gunk on your lips and they smell so amazing! They also leave your lips feeling so soft, it's amazing what a difference it makes! The set I was given had Strawberry Sorbet, Pomegranate Raspberry, Summer Fruits and Fresh Watermelon. Strawberry sorbet and Summer fruits are my favourites but I love them either way, the packaging is also amazingly cute and so easy to just throw into a bag! 

How adorable are these?!

The sphere makes application so much easier!

My three best girl friends and I also decided to get each other little presents so two of them brought their in at the same time so I also got some really adorable things from my friends Lauren and Katie!

Katie gave me mine when I was round her house earlier in the day and it's such a pretty cameo style necklace! I love it and know exactly what I'm going to wear with it so I'm really happy with this, it's gorgeous!

How pretty is this?!

Lauren started throwing little gifts at me Katie and Milly which was quite funny, but they were the sweetest, quirkiest gift ever!

This jar of buttons will look so cute on my desk, they'd also be great if I decided one day to make a ribbon notice board that I could decorate with pretty buttons!

The next thing was a handmade soap. It smells of sherbet and has layers of different colours. I don't want to use it because it's too pretty and smells to good to ruin!

The final little thing are these socks which are so so cute it's unreal, they even have little ears! I think they're so adorable so I can't wait to wear them! 

I break up for Christmas in a week and two days so I should be able to blog more after that! 

Jess xx

An Interview!

Lizzie at Head-full-of-flowers asked on her most recent post for bloggers to interview so I offered and answered her questions! It was a lot of fun to answer so thanks for that! 

Check out the interview here!

Jess xx 

New phone!

I've had my Dad's old iPhone 4 for two/three years now. After spending months without a working home button, last week, the on/off button also decided to give up on me, meaning that the only way to turn it on was to flick the silent button on and off again and I had to use an on-screen home button to turn it off.

This became a bit of a problem so on Friday, Dad bought and iPhone 5S and I got his iPhone 5! I'm honestly so happy, I have a working phone and I've finally got iOS7 (I was scared to update my phone incase it became impossible to work it...) which I love. Unfortunately, that means I'm going to have to get a new case to replace my beloved one from Gelaskins that I've had since the very beginning. 

However, it is quite exciting to be able to look for a new case and have a look at the patterns that are available!

Some of my favourites so far:

Cafe at Night - Vincent Van Gogh on Gelaskins

Alley By The Lake - Leonid Afremov on Gelaskins

When The Dreams Came True - Leonid Afremov on Gelaskins

Shore - Lawrence Yang on Gelaskins (My old case!)

Literary Glasses on Kate Spade

These are my top 5 that I've been looking at! I'll most likely get one of the Gelaskins ones again as it was such a good case last time and the designs are so gorgeous, I can't wait to see what other ones I find!
Which do you prefer?
Jess xx

Tuesday's thoughts.

I finished my english coursework! 

The first draft was handed in today and I couldn't be happier that it's gone. It's been causing me far too much stress for what it's worth so I'm glad it's gone for a week or so...until my teacher marks it and gives it back again! 

I also forgot to say that I got a rejection from UCL on Thursday but I'm not down about it as I knew it would happen as my grades aren't good enough, I'm just glad they decided quickly! Looking at you now, Exeter. 

I have so much reading to do over the next week for my interview at Reading - I've had these books loaned out since October now and I'm only partially way through them so it will be rather interesting to see if I get them read on time! I'm just glad that I'm a quick reader! 

It's also going to be interesting over Christmas, I have to read: the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Iliad by Homer. Goodbye social life! 

Only 2 weeks and 3 days until I break up for the Christmas holidays and I couldn't be more excited. I love christmas so much and I really can't wait! 

I'm going to start doing a few of the reviews I promised you guys in October/November now I have time, hopefully you guys will like them! 

Hopefully normal blogging will start again soon and not be these update posts that I seem to be doing a lot of lately...and hopefully things get a bit more exciting so I can do more interesting blog posts!

Jess xx

Just a quick note...

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently, I've had so many essays and am currently working on my English coursework which will hopefully be over in the next couple of days so fingers crossed I'll be able to blog quite a bit more soon enough!

Jess xx