30 DAY SONG CHALLENGE

So my Facebook homepage has been overrun with YouTube videos of songs from literally every genre over the past few days. It seems that the majority of my friends are taking part in the “30 Day Song Challenge”. Since I’m neither particularly patient nor driven enough to post a new song everyday, I’ve decided to fill out the list all at once. It’s actually pretty fun, and you can really learn a lot about somebody from the music that they listen to, hence this post is under the “Meet the blog artist” section.

Bit excessive, but more or less correct. =)

Day 1 – Your favourite song:
This one’s pretty tough, but I’ve decided to go with the general theme of “epic” for my fave tune. Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again”

Day 2 – Your least favourite song:
I can think of plenty of people who will disagree with me on this one, but I find this song so grating that anytime I hear it my brain shuts down as a defense mechanism. Seriously.Kid Cudi, “Day & Night”

Day 3 – A song that makes you happy:
The majority of my music library makes me happy, but this song just gives me an automatic boost. Nickelback, “This Afternoon”

Day 4 – A song that makes you sad:
It depends on the day whether some songs make me feel sad or just mellow, but this one always bums me out. Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide”

Day 5 – A song that reminds you of someone:
There’s no one song to describe anyone, but this is a good fit. 3 Doors Down, “Let Me Go” In general, too, this song will undoubtedly remind EVERYONE of someone. Adele, “Someone Like You”

Day 6 – A song that reminds you of somewhere:
This was our year group song, absolutely epic. The Killers, “Mr. Brightside”

Day 7 – A song that reminds you of a certain event:
Easily the greatest moment of my life so far was singing this in the crowd at Oxegen 2009. Snow Patrol, “Run”

Day 8 – A song you know all the words to:
One of many but this is song is just genius. Eminem feat. Rihanna, “Love The Way You Lie”

Day 9 – A song you can dance to:
No matter how tired I am from whatever ridiculous heels I’m wearing on a night out, this song never fails to get me up again. Cascada, “Evacuate the Dancefloor”

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep:
I don’t really sleep to music but this is really mellow, especially on long bus journeys! Mindy Smith, “One Moment More”

Day 11 – A song from your favourite band:
This song was a B-side but it’s probably my favourite song by this artist. P!NK, “Heartbreaker”

Day 12 – A song from a band you hate:
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to like the actual song or not, but I think this is the best of a bad lot. Keane, “Somewhere Only We Know”

Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure:
Can’t believe I’m actually posting this for everyone to see. You know you love it too! Miley Cyrus, “Party in the USA”

Day 14 – A song that no-one would expect you to love:
People always seem surprised that I adore this song, it’s really gorgeous. Christina Aguilera, “Save Me From Myself”

Wish I'd drawn this...

Day 15 – A song that describes you:
This is a weird one. It’s hard to choose this one without either seeming big-headed or being overly-emo. I’m gonna have to go for this one, but I can guarantee that I don’t smoke a pack a day or wear high heels when I exercise. Train, “Meet Virginia”

Day 16 - A song you used to love but now hate:
This was well over-played by everyone for an endless amount of time. Sigh. Journey, “Don’t Stop Believing”

Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio:
This gets a lot of airtime in general, and rightly so! Florence + The Machine, “You’ve Got The Love”

Day 18 – A song you wish you heard on the radio:
Love love LOVE this song. Lifehouse, “Hanging By A Moment”

Day 19 – A song from your favourite album:
Aaaah this one is too hard. This one wins just because I think EVERYONE should buy the album it’s from. Newton Faulkner, “Lipstick Jungle”

Day 20 – A song you listen to when you’re angry:
It’s in the title, really. Three Days Grace, “I Hate Everything About You”

Day 21 – A song you listen to when you’re happy:
I don’t think anyone really understands what this song’s about but it sure feels good! Fight Like Apes, “Jake Summers”

Day 22 – A song you listen to when you’re sad:
If I need to wallow, I just listen to the band’s entire discography. The Fray, “Never Say Never”

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding:
This one’s easy. Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat, “Lucky”

Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral:
Well this is actually quite a bit morbid? Next question, please.

Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh:
Without fail. Not so much because the song is funny but because I’ve got funny memories associated with it… Long story, but it involves going to see Mamma Mia with a group of friends, and standing up to sing at every song during the film, and getting strawberries thrown at us. (Honestly, who brings STRAWBERRIES to the cinema?) ABBA, “Dancing Queen”

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument:
I play a few different instruments, but my favourite party pieces of sorts are Vanessa Carlton, “A Thousand Miles”, or KT Tunstall, “Black Horse and a Cherry Tree”

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play:
Everything! But especially this. Stacie Orrico, “Hesitation”

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty:
This is fairly self-explanatory methinks. The Dandy Warhols, “We Used To Be Friends”.

Day 29 – A song from your childhood:
I’d known half the lyrics to this one for years before I figured out what any of it meant. Barenaked Ladies, “One Week”.

Day 30 – Your favourite song this time last year:
This sums up this time last year for me pretty well, and I listened to this album constantly instead of studying! Katy Perry, “Self Inflicted”

Well, that was vaguely interesting. For me, anyway.

So some of my friends have been wondering: How on EARTH did an engineer get a space on Imperial’s blogging team? Well, I figured I’d post my competition entry and let you guys judge it for yourselves. Also, this saves me writing a whole new blog for this week… But next week’s will be killer, promise.

Overwhelming. Terrifying. Exhilarating. And the big question - did I make the right decision?

If you’re reading this I would guess that you’re going/contemplating of going to Imperial College London. I won’t tell you if you should come here or not, but I can tell you a little bit about how I came to be here and what’s been going on for me so far.

My name is Aislinn (pronounced Ashlynn), and I’m a fresher here at Imperial studying Biomedical Engineering *insert nerdy cheer here*. I’m from Ireland (the Free State bit wa-hey), hence the Irish name and obnoxious writing style! It was far from easy deciding to leave my comfortable town of Limerick and move to London, a feeling maybe the internationals amongst you will understand, but it’s already Week 3 and, I have to say, I’m feeling good!

For me, leaving home was pretty awful – my friends and boyfriend seemed to reach a new peak of amazing on the night of my departure, the feckers. I cried on the plane, something that made the random middle-aged man next to me on the tiny Ryanair cabin rather uncomfortable… He pretended to sleep for the majority of the flight – a true testament to the effect of an emotional teenager on the Irish male! Once we touched ground I felt a little better and the excitement started to kick in. Needless to say, cue a sigh of relief from terrified middle-aged man.

From the moment I pulled up to my new residence (the fantastic Garden & Weeks Halls), I felt welcomed. Literally, I was met with a Hall senior within ten seconds of stepping out of the car. And fair play to them, the sturdy lads even managed to carry the equivalent of my body weight in luggage up to my third floor room. The rest of the day was a whirlwind of new faces and a faint smell of paint lingering about the halls, and we took an epic boat trip down the Thames that night. I’ll spare you the merry drunken details but I can safely say that within twelve hours of moving in I felt right at home… And let’s ignore the drunken Irish stereotype, please – I get enough of that from my hard-core British roommate Toni and her eerily accented elevator voice.

One of the most important things that I’ve learned in my first month here is this: Nicknames are a fresher’s best friend. On my first night I met two lads who would soon become my new bezzie mates/the banes of my existence, R-Patz and Shaggy, aka Craig and Alex. They were christened by myself on that fateful night because I decided their real names weren’t exciting enough, and because they both so highly resemble their namesakes that it’s almost criminal that they’re not actually called R-Patz and Shaggy (the Scooby-Doo variety, not the hip-hop star). Other alter-egos to be found around Garden & Weeks include one Michael Cera lookalike, R-Patz Number 2, Buckles (named because of his ability to open beers with his belt buckle), and Jedi (named so because I can’t pronounce his name, Jewaad, without sounding like I have a speech impediment)… I’m telling you, nicknames are invaluable in the morning when you’re bleary-eyed and slow to remember someone’s real name.

Fresher’s week was pretty insane. Our hall team was unbelievably organised and had bonding activities planned for every night of our first week – I ended up being so busy and having so much fun that I slightly neglected my poor family and friends back home, only managing a few quick Skype conversations now and then before heading back downstairs to socialise. Now that I’ve settled in a bit I’ve found a bit more balance – I still have yet to get a hang of the cooking thing though, my housemates have learned to duck and run when I approach the hob!

If you do decide to chance your arm and come to one of the UK’s best universities (sorry I had to put that in somewhere, it’s a matter of my new-found college pride), keep in mind that not every day is going to be fantastic and exciting. College is hard work wherever you go, academically speaking, and it’s easy to feel homesick when I’m looking at a stack of problem sheets and my friends’ Facebook updates are informing me about the sick night out I missed the night before. But life at Imperial so far has been serving me well – my new friends understand what I’m saying despite my accent ninety per cent of the time rather than twenty, and I’ve navigated my way on the Tube enough times now to feel justified sneering at tourists like a proper Londoner.

And so my answer to the big question?  Right decision and a half!

So I guess this is my first official blog? Awesome.

A little bit about me to keep you going until I can put some proper time into this: my name’s Aislinn (pronounced Ashlynn, don’t worry, it’s Irish), and I’m a fresher studying Biomedical Engineering. Here’s a lovely photo of myself having a laugh in the ICRadio studio (yes, those are my massive headphone speakers, birthday present courtesy of my QUALITY roomie Toni, more on my social life to come, no doubt). =)

You’ll have to forgive me the very short entry – I’m still getting used to all the boxes and tabs in this new blog yoke.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I’ve got to say over the coming year, and if you ever have any comments, questions, and or simply want to give me a piece of your mind, don’t hesitate to get in contact!

Cheers lads,

Ais =)