On behalf of On: Yorkshire Magazine, Mum and I went to see Blood Brothers at the Leeds Grand Theatre last night. The editor invited me to write more theatre reviews for them, after submitting my Cats review to them earlier in the month, so I looked through the upcoming shows and selected those which looked most appealing. As it turns out, the magazine was able to secure two press tickets to see Blood Brothers on opening night. As we expected, the show was fantastic. This was the fourth time my Mum had seen the play (and my second), yet it’s still phenomenal regardless of how many times you have been. I noticed a lot of things last night that I didn’t quite catch the first time, and it was equally flawless in all respects.

The practicalities over the past 24 hours have, however, been rather hectic. After a series of lectures yesterday afternoon, I caught the train from Lancaster to Leeds where Mum picked me up outside the train station. We drove round to the Grand Theatre in Leeds and parked the car up. Once inside, we had been told to look for a specific person to collect our tickets, so notified the ushers and they waved us through. We were directed into the “private function” room, and a nice lady on the door asked if we were from the press. The answer was affirmative, and we entered. We walked over to the table, and I was greeted with a cheerful “Hello, are you Mathew?” We shook hands; naturally, I was the newbie in the room, but they couldn’t have been any more welcoming. She gave us our tickets, a programme, a drink, and invited us back in the interval. This was what I’d been hoping for my whole life; it was great.

So after the show, we headed home and I wrote the review. I struggled to drop off to sleep afterwards, so only had enough time for a 2 hour nap before catching the 6:36am train back to Lancaster. I sent the review off to On: Yorkshire whilst on the train, and I was back on campus by 9:15am, all ready for my seminar at 10am this morning. It’s been great.

You can read the review by clicking here.

 

Over the past few days, my parents and I have been slowly working our way through the US visa process. In order to study abroad in the USA, I must obtain a J-1 visa; it is specifically for exchange students, and there’s quite a thorough application process to undergo. Late last week, Lancaster University’s International Office was sent my acceptance pack from the University of New Hampshire in the mail. Along with a couple of letters of congratulations, along came my DS-2019. This is the form issued by the university. It comes with a unique code to access the online system, and it gives the embassy the required information about me and my study scheme.

With my DS-2019, the next step was to complete the online DS-160. This is an 11-page form which takes quite a while to complete, giving information about previous visits and personal history. The process is understandably extremely thorough, and it’s probably somewhat reassuring to know that it is so intensive.

After the DS-160, it was time to pay the SEVIS fee which takes around three days to clear. That fee cleared today, which meant it was time to ring the US Embassy in London. The phone line is a premium rate number, charging £1.23 per minute from a landline. Considering it was such an important phone call, Mum kindly offered to do it on my behalf. I don’t really enjoy speaking on the phone, I’d much rather text, so naturally I was very happy when Mum made the call for me! Apparently there was a very polite and friendly Scottish chap on the other end of the phone. It sounds like they try to make you feel at home.

So the bottom line is that my interview appointment at the US Embassy in London has been made, and I’m quite looking forward to making the trip down south and experiencing it. Ever since I’ve been young, living in the USA has been a big ambition; it’s all happening now, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Earlier this evening, I received a message from my parents with some truly fantastic news. September 2014 will bring their 25th wedding anniversary, so they have decided to celebrate he occasion in style, and book the three of us on a Disney Cruise.

As if the promise of a Disney Cruise wasn’t enough, this isn’t just any regular Disney voyage. It will be the westbound transatlantic repositioning cruise, leaving Barcelona (Spain) on the 6th September 2014, and docking in San Juan (Puerto Rico) 14 nights later. That’s a whole fortnight of floating magic, visiting exciting new places and enjoying the impeccable hospitality. Indeed, it will be on the smaller Disney Magic ship too, which I think we probably prefer over the two new larger ones.

Here’s the cruise itinerary:
6th – Barcelona, Spain
7th – Sea
8th – Malaga, Spain
9th – Sea
10th – Sea
11th – Tenerife, Canary Islands
12th – Sea
13th – Sea
14th – Sea
15th – Sea
16th – Sea
17th – Antigua
18th – St Maarten
19th – St Kitts
20th – San Juan, Puerto Rico

As you can see, we will be visiting seven different ports which I’m really looking forward to. I’ve never been to Barcelona or San Juan, so it will be an interesting experience having to fly to and from those places. I visited Tenerife on the SIFE Jailbreak last year, although I expect we will be visiting a different area of the island next year. Antigua reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean which makes me think it will be pretty awesome, and St Kitts is a new one for me. We visited St Maarten a few years ago on a Disney Cruise, so it will be great to visit there again too.

Probably more than anything, I’m really looking forward to the whole Disney Cruise Line experience again. There’s a lot of refurbishment being planned at the minute, including installation of the new AquaDunk slide, and alterations to the atrium and restaurants, so it will be fun to see what has changed since our last voyage. By September 2014, I will be 20 years old. Finally, I will be able to use the adult pool and dine at Palo.

477 days to go. I simply can’t wait.

Here’s one of our photographs of the Disney Magic in Grand Cayman. August, 2009.

My “Comment” article regarding the closure of Pendle Bar on the Lancaster University campus has been published in this fortnight’s issue of SCAN (Student Comment and News). I hope you’ll be able to give it a read!

Due to increasing competition in the job market, the university understands that it now takes more than a degree to secure a decent job. In light of this, Lancaster offers an independent qualification called the Lancaster Award; a certificate that students can work towards for the first two years of their time here. It attempts to showcase the skills that students learn outside of the academic environment, by recording activities carried out on campus, in the community, and during work experience. For example, I am able to describe the skills acquired whilst working as a Student Ambassador and taking part in the SIFE Jailbreak. These skills may be of interest to an employer, and the Lancaster Award recognises this achievement.

In addition, students must also attend an “Insight” course, along with three “careers workshops” to qualify for the award. Therefore, last Wednesday, I attended the “Insight into Enterprise and Employability” course. After a short presentation by the Careers team, we worked in groups and were asked to come up with an idea which would be of assistance to a fictional couple spending their weekend at the Glastonbury Festival. We thought that PocketFestival (an app) would be beneficial to them; helping them become organised, and allowing them to easily find their way around the muddy fields. Our imaginary app would include a GPS tracker to find their tent, directions to the nearest amenities, and details of the festival’s line-up. Unfortunately we didn’t win (as we didn’t volunteer to pitch first), but it wasn’t too bad. For the second-half of the course, we listened to a presentation by Ernst & Young. It was business-orientated with a whole lot of jargon; I wasn’t really too interested in that aspect of it, but I listened nonetheless. The course lasted three and a quarter hours, so it was lunchtime afterwards!

On Wednesday afternoon, I went to a “Teacher Training” course that (hopefully) counts towards the Lancaster Award too. It was meant to be for people interested in a teaching career, but I thought I’d go along and get a taste of it. Some parts of it were quite interesting; the speaker touched on some of the best ways to enforce discipline, and spoke about how to ensure a suitable working relationship. Other parts, such as the application process to become a teacher, weren’t of interest to me, but I didn’t mind too much. This course lasted two hours.

Now, I have just two more careers workshops to attend before I’ve fulfilled this specific requirement of the Lancaster Award. I’ve got myself booked on two more over the coming weeks, so hopefully I’ll get it all sorted out before the year comes to an end.

My parents and I went to see Cats at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford last weekend, on 4th May 2013. Before going to see the performance, I got in touch with On: Yorkshire Magazine, to see if they’d be interested in a review. On: Yorkshire is a free magazine published every two months. Along with finding its place inside large companies, copies can also be picked up wherever you’d most expect it: coffee shops, waiting rooms, bars, and restaurants. They replied with enthusiasm, asked for 500 words, and it’s now been published online. I hope you’ll be able to give it a read.

As I’m sure you can tell, I thought Cats was brilliant. We were seated on the front row which made our experience even more exciting. In fact, one of the cats even wrapped her white fluffy tail around my Dad’s neck, and then asked “where have you been all my life?” Naturally, Mum and I were in fits of laughter. The cats would occasionally walk past and poke our knees, or sit on the stairs and stare deep into our eyes. It was such a fun performance to watch.

It was the first time that I’d see Cats on stage, although my parents had seen it a couple of times previously. One of the cats took a gummy cola bottle from Mum’s packet of sweets a couple of years ago; I knew that this would be the kind of humorous, cunning, and cheeky show that I’d enjoy. I was seated next to a woman who seemed to know absolutely every line of the show, and was speaking along with the actors. I could have done without having an echo coming from my right ear, but I still really enjoyed the show.

I received an email from the On: Magazine this morning, praising its quality and inviting me to write more in the future. As my blog has shown over the years, attending the theatre is a big hobby of my parents and I; being able to review them for a county-wide publication sounds like a lot of fun, and it’s something I’m looking forward to getting involved with again in the future.

You can read the article by clicking here.

My article about the Roses tournament between Lancaster University and the University of York has made it into this week’s Lancaster Guardian on page 29. My original piece was slightly longer, and it’s been edited down due to space constraints. Still, I quite enjoyed walking into the newsagents on campus and noticing it there!

I’ve just used Wordle.net to create a graphical representation of the most-used words on my blog, and I think you’ll agree that it’s pretty reflective of my life at the minute. It’s also an interesting way to find out words that I often use without even realising it!

Mandy, our friend from Manchester University came to visit Ji and I in Lancaster today. After meeting her at the train station, we had a walk around Lancaster Castle and then made our way through the town. From the castle, we spotted the Ashton Memorial standing tall upon the hill and realised that despite being in Lancaster for seven months, we still haven’t visited the place. We decided to make the steep trek up the hill to see this magnificent building up close. Apparently, the Ashton Memorial cost over £4.5 million to build (in today’s money) and it is described by some as the “Taj Mahal of the North”. I walked up the stairs to reach the top, and you can see for absolutely miles around – it offers some great views. I looked through the windows, and it looks like they hold weddings in there. I’m sure it’s even better in the summer, and I wouldn’t mind returning again sometime in the future.

After making our way back down to the city centre, we decided to have lunch at the Blue Moon restaurant which offers Thai cuisine. I started with the chicken satay, and then had the red curry for entrée. Thai curry is a lot different to Chinese or Indian; it was quite spicy, but had a creamy coconut taste along with plenty of vegetables. I soaked it up with some boiled rice. I’d really like to eat here again – the food was great, and the decorations were beautiful. They had an exquisite cleanliness.

After finishing our meal at Blue Moon, we headed back to the campus and showed Mandy around the university. We just seemed to be pointing out the college bars all afternoon, which is probably quite worrying. We also managed to get inside one of the study pods that are located up amongst the trees behind LICA; the door was open, and it’s quite like getting inside a spaceship as the door opens upwards. It’s a big sphere-shaped pod, with comfy chairs and a big table in the middle. It’s coloured so that it blends in with the trees. It must be a great place to do some revision, and it has a glass ceiling so you can peer up into the stars too. I’d quite like to visit again.

Ji and I went out for dinner at Moghuls Indian Restaurant in Lancaster on Wednesday evening too. I’ve already eaten here with my parents (and Michelle, Phil, and Laura) when they visited last year, but it was the first time for Ji. When you’re seated in the dining area, you feel like you’re sitting in the owner’s front room, as the kitchen is just towards the back of the house. I started with chicken tikka and popadom, before having the lamb biryani and garlic bread for entrée. Last time, we found that Mum’s chicken korma was quite watery but the biryanis were fine; this time, it seemed to be the other way around! The food was still really good, but I think they make a conscious effort to be conservative with salt and spices. It’s probably more healthy that way, but it could have been made slightly better.

That’s not all! A new Subway branch has opened on the Lancaster University campus too, and it’s absolutely packed every time I walk past. There’s been quite a lot of debate between students about whether it’s going to be a good idea or not. It’s situated right next to the Bowland College accommodation (some of which includes family flats) so there are worries that late-night diners may disrupt the peace. I, personally, don’t think it will be a problem and I’m happy to have somewhere new to try on campus. It is employing students from the university too, which can only be a good thing. I was really surprised with how quickly they managed to get it established too. They seemed to have construction walls up for quite a while, but suddenly they came down and we could see it being furnished so very quickly. Strangely enough, I was doing a campus tour last year, and one of the students asked whether we had a Subway on campus – they’d heard that there was a new one. This was long before any of us knew about it, so I’m not sure how rumours spread that far. Still, it’s a nice little restaurant.

Finally, I also came across a photo from our meal at the Wibbly Wobbly Burger Bar last Sunday. This restaurant is quite cool because you’re able to design your own burger. I had a pretty standard double beef burger with salad and sauce. I also asked for fries, mushrooms, and onion rings… covered in cheese. Delicious.

 

We’ve just been into the city centre and I decided to pick up a copy of the Lancaster Guardian from WHSmith. As my luck would have it, my article has made it into this week’s issue on page 29. The Lancaster Guardian has started a new page entitled “Student Reporters” which allows students from the local community to contribute stories. The article is regarding last Thursday’s successful event on campus, organised by the Culture Society and LUSU Involve. One of the local schools visited the campus to get a taste of university life, and they managed to learn about a whole range of different cultures whilst they were here too. The event was organised in an attempt to raise their aspirations, and ultimately encourage them that university would offer them plenty of benefits if they decided to pursue higher education.