The title says it all really. I’ve spend the last few months trying to be organised and set myself up a work experience/internship/placement during the summer. The most frustrating experience of my life!

I’m not kidding, I’ve filled out 4 hours of online testing for a company, only to immediately be sent an email telling me I was automatically being screened out of the application process for not being in my final year - which I had told them before I filled out their stupid tests. So many companies don’t even reply to emails asking what their policy is on work experience; whereas others who do have defined schemes on their websites don’t seem to know anything about it when you ring them up.

So far I must have spent a fortune on stamps filling in and sending in applications which require “A passport style photo attached with a non-metal paperclip”, applications that need filling out on a computer before being posted as paper copies, and hours filling in repetitive forms online. And I really, really wish there weren’t so many of those stupid “Tell me about a time when you were in a management position whilst working in a team on a project…” type questions. Seriously, I swear they are a waste of time, not to mention pretty obscure…

Thing is, I don’t just want a placement so I can stick it on my CV to apply for a job – its because I don’t know what job I want to do ! Plus it would make more sense to try and work that out now so I can start choosing my modules with an aim in sight – not to mention the cost of my degree and any masters degree I might potentially do afterwards!

So far, its not looking so good for getting a placement, I’ve just got a few left to hear back from. So if anyone will take a 2nd year undergraduate Environmental Geoscience for any work experience, unpaid or not, to do with anything in the Environmental Management/Resource Management/Environmental Consulting industry, let me know!

One of the things that is different about to Imperial to some other unis I looked at is the fact that there aren’t places in halls for all students the whole way through your degree. That means that after first year, you end up looking for somewhere else to live! Scary stuff!

If you really want, you can stay on in halls for longer than just for your first year. You can stay on as a hall senior (help all the first years settle in, organise events, help run the hall) or there are some spare rooms each year. If you have a good reason for wanting to stay in halls for  longer (disability or health problem – not just laziness and wanting to roll out of bed 5 minutes before lectures) then there are also rooms available.

But for everyone else… its up to you to find somewhere to live! I know finding a house whilst at Imperial is something people worry about when they apply, so I thought I’d do a blog post about it.

Luckily, being London, there is huge amount of student housing – and I’ve never heard of anyone ending up homeless. You don’t even need to start looking too early. We started looking in June/July although I do know people who didn’t start looking till September! As a ballpark figure, you can find plenty of stuff in the £100 a week price range, although ours is a bit cheaper. So for a lot of people, it works out about the same price as halls. (Halls is a 39 week contract, private housing tends to be a min of 9 or 10 months).

But, back to the title of this post – the new house! We’re living in Hammersmith, near Charing Cross Hospital. Its an awesome place to live, much more studenty than Chelsea (not that I didn’t like it there, but it is useful to have a corner shop that doesn’t predominantly sell Champagne and cigars!). Living here, away from home and the wardening team in halls has been fun, but also brought its own challenges! When something goes wrong, or gets broken, its up to us to sort it out. Between my group of friends, we’ve learnt how to fix a washing machine, how to sort out our awful internet connection, and what its like when your plumbing makes noises like a pneumatic drill and goes off at all times of day and night!

And OK, its not all of us in the same place at the same time, but it is all 6 of us!

So I passed my retakes, had a great summer, got invited back to the student blogger team and now I’m back as a second year! I’ve moved into a house in Hammersmith with 5 other girls from halls last year…we’re having an amazing time.

So seeing as these people will probably be mentioned in some of my posts over the year, I just thought I’d introduce my housemates.

1 Sally – my old roommate. Good at physics (obviously), and really good at learning languages, music and art too!

2 Theresa – she’s a mathematician (has the least hours of lectures a week out of all of my housemates!) and insanely good at finding free stuff.

3 Fiona – a biologist, likes furry things, be they slippers, cushions, blankets, jummpers…anything really! The house ‘mum’.

4 Kee – another physicist, always seems to be going to musicals!

5 Caitlin – the semi absent housemate. Seriously, she is just such a busy person its a pretty major event when she has a day at home. But her chemistry degree is put to good use, she’s great at baking.

So that’s the house for the year – 1 engineer and 5 scientists! Piccies to follow!

edit -03/11 Still no pic of all 6 of us together! If we aren’t actually all at home at some point over the weekend I’m just gonna have to photoshop us together! But for now, here’s cake

So, I know I’ve had a slightly quiet start on the blogging front to the summer holiday – its because I’ve been so busy.

First I joined in with cycling from Rye to Brighton (some of my friends made it all the way from London, I just joined in for a few days at the end). Still have tanlines on my wrists from cycling gloves though…

Then off to visit family for a few days and get washing done at home, before off to the Scilly Isles with my boyfriend! First time we’ve been on holiday together  or that I’ve been on holiday for quite a while due to family circumstances at home, so it was really nice. Plus after spending 5 days together we still hadn’t killed eachother, which was good. Then had an awful drive home, going from traffic jam to traffic jam. Not so bad for me actually, because I’m not on the insurance for my boyfriend’s car so I was just snoozing most of the way.

Since that I’ve been getting catchup work done for the big fieldtrip I missed so I’m not totally behind and clueless for next year. And once that’s out of the way, time to start revising for my exam. Technically its a retake but seeing as I never sat it first time round I have a lot of revising to do!

But at least I won’t be stuck at home revising, I’m off to spend August in Cape Town and Mauritius! Should be really good, we’re visiting family in South Africa and then thought we might go and spend a week at the beach on the way home. So until then, no more blogging from me. And finally, good luck to everyone wanting to come here in October, especially if its for earth science!