Mar
16
Excellent Weekend!
Filed Under Daily
On Friday evening, the movie night was very nice: My Best Friend’s Girl. The movie itself was an average comedy but people were nice. Indeed, a new group of British students joined in and they even made pizzas for everyone. Good and relaxing atmosphere for a social gathering!
On Saturday, I went to the city and checked around. Nothing particularly exciting as usual for a Saturday afternoon. I wanted to buy some pants since I am going home on March 28. I thought I could use the machines my mother has at home to shorten their lengths.
On Sunday, I attended my last hiking event. It was Patterdale in the Lake District. It was great fun. I knew everyone and they were all happy to see “the photographer” again. The group was small but quite dynamic and kind. Unexpected! I was really not in the mood and I did not even sign up for the event. Luckily there was one spot left so I just jumped in the bus. I did not intend to attend any new hike the second semester but Dave M insisted and also it was the last one of the year. So why not?
Cool pic of me looking like an Indian in the wild!
Mar
13
A week after the results, many Law Students are crying on their results and that makes me feel…hum pretty good about myself! Lots of talking about these results one week after because we only see other students 2 days a week! I am just happy I got through because that would suck to have to learn the material again! Not only it is boring but also it is useless for the real practice of the Law. 24 pages by heart, word for word, does hurt like hell. I do not want to go through that painful thing again. Malinda, the US lawyer, has failed one of her class. She must be sad because she told me she expected a 90 on all her exams. I already warned her about grading in Europe, it is not like in the US where most students are getting something between 80 and 100. In Europe, it is more like 50 as an average and it can even be lower! She probably believes me now! All I need for my next four little modules is a 34/100 to pass since I have higher scores this time! ME PRETTY HAPPY! The rest of the formation is completely useless to me since it has nothing to do with Patent Law!
Most students do not realize their grades do not matter much in the real world. Once they leave school, all that matters is the diploma. Later, it’s the job experience. I really want to find a job as a patent attorney. It looks like an interesting job with a good career development. Salary goes up with the number of years of practice!
Mar
12
Money Transfer
Filed Under Daily
I’ve decided to do it today. The conversion curve seems to have reached its bottom today. I did not want to loose money over the weekend. It is a matter of 0.02% difference now anyways and I need the money to pay the last part of the tuition and the housing fees. I needed to make sure I had enough to do what I wanted until the end of June and not too much because, if I don’t stay in the UK, I will loose money by converting it later on in another currency.
Good and relaxing swim. Relatively good sleep also. I was disturbed at 1 am but could resume my sleep after. Need to apply for more jobs…! New course is starting also today. What a boredom itwas with Unfair Competition. If I hear one more time about Micheal Douglas and Catherine Zeta Johns, I am going to kill someone. The sad thing is we will get the same boring dude we had last semester…an ugly boring troll that looks like a dork!
Mar
11
I rarely pay attention to stock market trends and the variations of currencies but, for the last 2 weeks, I have been closely watching the Xe website to see how the pounds behaved compared to the AUD. Indeed, I need to do a money transfer soon and I am hoping for the best time to do so. The English Pound went down which is excellent. I just need to know when it will reach the bottom. In a sense, I was lucky this year, the GPB has lost 30% of its value since last year.
I applied for several jobs today. Very nice day! I had a good sleep and the weather is getting warmer too. I might go hiking one last time with the hiking club. It is their last one-day hike this year. They have several more weekend trips but I am not interested in these.
Mar
10
Very tired!
Filed Under Daily
Great Swim but I am exhausted now. The day was quite short, nothing interesting happened besides a nice job offer I found. I will apply to it tomorrow as it fits qute well my profile. Amy is back also and she won’t leave until the end of the month for Easter Break. I asked her fo her "friends" episodes. It will save me some time and quota. I bought two nice ativewears today. Two of mine were destroyed by the washing machine and I used the weakest mode!!!
Mar
9
Good, fast and long swim! I am feeling very relaxed today. The pool admin added two extra lanes very quickly allowing me to play like a fish in the sea. I loved it! The best swimmers went straight to the same lane also. We were 4 and nobody disturbed anyone else. We were all at about the same speed and level. Perfec! The other lanes were even less crowded but the fastest swimmers prefer to stay among themselves. Having a slow poke in a lane doing the doggy style is very annoying. Especially if he takes half of the space preventing other people to pass him.
I sent out my very first mail application. This law firm does not give away any email. I prefer emails as it is faster this way. As long as it works I am not complaining. I need to send out more and more regularly as well. The final lane before the end!
Mar
6
Next Step!
Filed Under Daily
Now that I know that I will most likely end this paralegal formation in June, I can concentrate on my next move. I was a bit uncertain to when exactly I will finish before. The real game being to find a job in the end. Many students here don’t seem to incorporate this fact into their everyday thoughts. I have asked several friends and none has started to apply for jobs yet. I know from personal experience that it takes at least 4 months to get an interview and 6 months minimum to get a job. WIth the economical crisis, it will be even harder. I think I have applied to 30 positions since I arrived to Manchester and I have received 17 negative replies. I will concentrate on the french job market, maybe I can make a bit of a difference with my multicultural background.
Good swim today. It is getting so crowded with Sping coming. With more sunlight everyday, people wake up earlier. Yesterday, we were almost 12 in the same lane. I tried to change lanes but then there were 2 team Squads so the admin told me it was closed. Tuesday and Thursday are the worse days of the week.
Dave M is organising a skiing event next Wednesday and I said I would join. It will be fun I think. It would be my second skiing experience.
I found a very cheap flight back to Paris on Friday 27-Sun 29 of March. Only 72 GBP for a return flight! Cheaper than the train or any other means to go to Paris. Incredible! Maybe Air France is cutting on the fees to fill up any empty seats and take an advantage on its competitors during this economical crisis time.
Mar
5
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! One good thing done and no Resit in August!
I got my grades this morning and it is such a relief. It is a PASS in both courses I took. No great marks but an easy pass in both cases around 50 out of 100 for a diploma student that I am. For the effort I produced and the material provided, I think anyone can pass these courses without sitting in the required courses. All you need to do is study the passed exams and learn by heart three questions. Since I have never done Law before I am happy with these marks and I do not expect more. Since they are not great I will not stay longer for the Master. I do not want anyways. Delaying things has never been good.
The EPO has again rejected my application. I applied to several jobs in France as "ingenieur en propriete intellectuelle". I was thinking about doing some interim but the salary is pretty bad, only 1/3 of the "SMIC". I still apply because it is better to have some options than nothing. I can always decline when the time comes.
I was in a very bad mood the last few days because of theses stupid results! Now I can relax and think about the future!
Mar
4
Student Life!
Filed Under Daily
It is not that great and I understand now why I wanted to finish school quickly when I was a student. I am inherently anti-social by choice and I do not get much out of the social side of students’ life. Yesterday, I joined the hiking club on Dave M ‘s suggestion and I attended their Jazz Club event. The Jazz club was a bit under my expectations. A lot of young people there! The food wasn’t great and the music so so. I finished my two drinks and my pizza and I left early around 8 pm. I could not stay there longer and talk nonesense with the other three. I did not really know what to say. They were waiting for the rest of the hiking club to join them at 9 pm for some live jazz concert. I should have known…! The good thing about me nowadays is I do not even try anymore. I go my way when I do not enjoy something and I make it very clear to people so that they do not get upset and it works better this way. "Being social" is somehow being loyal to your friends’ expectations.
Didier M, the french tutor from Africa, sent out an email for a meeting. I really but really do not like the guy. He is some sort of social parasite to me. He got the tutor position and does nothing. I haven’t seen the lazzy ass for ages. As a tutor he is supposed take care of few flats inside our building and attend emergency calls…I think he does strictly the minimum.
Amy is back with her loud phone calls through Skype. I had a good sleep despite the noise yesterday.
Mar
3
3 Years of Swimming!
Filed Under Daily
It has been indeed three long years of hard training at early hours. It all started at Notre Dame, only 2.5 Kms back then. Nowadays, I am one of the fastest amateur at the local pool. People have noticed my strange workout. I always have my underwater mp3 player on. Regular swimmers know me very well because of the speed (46-52 sec) , the length (6 kms) and the technique (only freestyle) of my workout.
The best pool has to be the one in Dublin. There, they reserve only 5 lanes for good swimmers and leave the rest to whoever. Here in Manchester, they only give 4 lanes to the public at the beginning. I have contributed to change that and I am very proud of myself. I guess they do not see many people who are not part of the Squad swimming that regularly at a very decent speed.
Karen has become very friendly, we’ve spoken several times since the day I discovered she was not what I thought she was :). I asked her about her training and she was indeed part of the Squad and did some competitions younger. It is quite obvious with her excellent technique. She used to be a bit faster than me since she only comes at the end of my workout and she only swims 2 kms. That was why I was a bit annoyed. She would not let me pass her. The last few weeks, I managed to pass her no matter what she does. So I was happy to take a revenge! But now we are friends! Martin, Jane, Karen and a few other regular faces at the pool have been nice to me nowadays.
It is strange, I rarely talked to anyone but with my strange ritual they all get to know me. I will be very sad to leave Manchester. It always takes time to get to know people and then when I know them, I have to leave.
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