christmas - Students' blog | University of Exeter

Tis’ the season for Christmas events

Staying at Exeter over Christmas? Not sure what’s out there to enjoy? We’re here to help!

Winter in the UK can be really cool (No pun intended)! Especially during Christmas, when everywhere you go, its festive and beautiful. There is music in the air, people singing carols, lovely lights blinking merrily, people all wrapped up warm and shopping at the Christmas markets and the gorgeous Christmas trees with their amazing decorations! You’ve probably already experienced this on the campuses and in town.

But its not just Exeter. All over the UK, you have marvelous celebrations going on! Here are my top 5 picks for Winter Events – (more…)

Lakshmipriya December 23rd, 2017 International, Life in the South West, Life on Campus celebrations, christmas, events, holidays, UK

From Reading Week up to Christmas: what to expect!

For first year students and those lucky second years (myself included), reading week is upon us. But as you hear this term ‘reading week’, you can’t help but wonder what’s it all about? Well, as most people decide to go home for a few days, reading week can be a nice break from the hustle and bustle of a packed out term. Reading week is largely about enjoying the freedom of not buying and cooking your own food, of being able to watch TV, and of course, catching up with family and friends. However, not to be forgotten is the true purpose of this week, to catch up on academic work and basically organise yourself. First term can be a little overwhelming for anybody, living independently in a completely new place, making friends and adjusting to student life. Reading week is also just a moment to breathe.

From my experience, I advise: don’t waste your week! The second part of first term can be insanely busy and can fly by with deadlines, house hunting and exams looming. Here’s a few tips on how to deal with the period from reading week up to Christmas!

1) Use your time effectively in reading week:- catching up on any missed work (we’ve all been there), or start planning/writing your essays/reports etc. Also, as silly as this sounds, take advantage of home cooked meals! This is also a chance to bring anything back to uni you may have forgot,such as a Halloween costume. A Christmas jumper also always comes in handy in December (socials, flat meals etc)

2) In November, start looking for houses for next year. Make sure you’re clear on who you’re living with and commence house hunting! A lot of them are released in November and there’s a mad rush which leads up to the Housing Fair. You won’t want to leave this issue until when you have exams, it’s just unnecessary stress!

3)Don’t leave all work until last minute! Leave yourself enough time to do the research, write out a draft, edit the draft, and also enough time left in case something goes wrong (illness, losing work etc)

4) Go to lectures. As simple as this tip is, I know it can be hard on a freezing cold Monday morning dragging yourself out of bed for an 8:30. However, it is worth it, as missed lectures can slowly add up and when the time comes to revise, you’ll realise that you don’t know half of your course!

Lastly, enjoy this festive time of year! Exeter also has a fantastic Christmas market, which is something to look forward to!

Ysabel October 25th, 2016 Exams and Assessment, Life on Campus, Studying, Undergraduate christmas, organisation, readingweek, studying, toptips

Christmas by the River Exe

Christmas is hailed as the “most wonderful time of the year”… and to be honest it truly is (once you ignore the fact that after all the merry-making you have exams or a 2,500 word essay to submit)!

Unlike most students who travelled to spend time with their families, I spent mine in Exeter and the rest of my family travelled to join me. To be honest they didn’t know what to expect: my older boys assumed Exeter was a tiny village and were certain we would spend the whole period cuddled by the fireplace, but they were pleasantly surprised.

Read the rest of Chioma’s post…

Chioma Nwamaka January 14th, 2016 Life in the South West christmas, exeter

Week Thirteen Wrap-Up: Parties and Partings and Packing

And that was it. My last week of classes and my last full week in Exeter. I still remember quite clearly the very first time I walked to campus (it was dark and rained like cats and dogs), my first impressions of Exeter walking along the high street, my first couple of lectures. It seems like just yesterday I had all these firsts and now it’s come to me counting up all the lasts.

My professor for Modern Irish Literature, Dr. Ellen McWilliams, was so sweet and lovely and threw a little party for our seminar group with munchies and goodies. I think the last time I had a party in school was probably way back in elementary school. In my Dream Palace seminar, Dr. Lisa Stead also gave us all little treats at the end of class. This semester was the first time ever that Dream Palace has run so it felt kind of cool being a part of pioneer class for the module and sort of making a bit of history. If you’re in year 2 and wavering as to whether or not to take Modern Irish Literature or Dream Palace next year, I say go for it. It’s 110% worth it and you’ll get so much out of either or both of those classes!

Read the rest of Melissa’s post…

Melissa December 17th, 2015 Life on Campus, Miscellaneous, Undergraduate, Year Abroad christmas, exchange, going home, study abroad

Week Twelve Wrap-Up: Concerts and Conducting and Checklists

Happy December! Time is really flying for me. I can’t help but find it a little odd that it’s December and there’s no snow, but the gales of wind and sporadic showers of rain are doing their very best to make up for it. I found out the other day that they have wind warnings here and I thought it was just the strangest thing. But then I thought about how we have cold warnings at home and how out of place that concept is in a place like Exeter, and then the wind warnings made a touch more sense.

For those of you concerned with my academic wellbeing, I have indeed started one of the essays I promised I’d start writing in my last blog post. I’m quite excited for this actually (I know that sounds super lame). But I’ve really loved Modern Irish Literature and I’m quite happy with the topic I’ve decided to marry (I borrowed that brilliant expression from my lecturer).

Read the rest of Melissa’s post…

Melissa December 8th, 2015 Life on Campus, Studying, Undergraduate, Year Abroad christmas, exeter, study abroad

Week Eleven Wrap-Up: A Woman’s Film and American Thanksgivings and AHVC Excursions

The most noteworthy this week was how unproductive I think I was. This is the strange time in the term when all that’s left to do for classes is the summative papers, but those are due in January of 2016, which seems a very long way away. At the same time, those summative assignments are worth a scarily significant portion of our final grades, so it’s probably in my best interest to move it closer to the forefront of my mind, rather than pushing it to the back. I will make plans for them this week. This is now in black and white; I can’t shirk from it now!

Read the rest of Melissa’s post…

Melissa December 1st, 2015 Miscellaneous christmas, study abroad

Week Ten Wrap-Up: Christmas Light-Ups and Christmas Markets and Christmas Carols

The number of weeks I’ve been here has hit the double digits! And the temperatures here have finally broken into the single digit range so at last I felt like it was acceptable to break out my “winter” coat. Back home, I’m used to saving my winter coat for when it’s absolutely a necessity because if you start wearing your winter jacket when it’s only kind of cold and not freezing cold, you’ll have nothing warm enough to wear when it’s freezing cold. I don’t think I really needed to apply this mentality here in Exeter but some habits die hard.

I believe it’s also acceptable to announce to the world that the Christmas season has official descended! We had a light-up ceremony on Thursday in Princesshay, which is like the central shopping district/square; it was all very exciting and lots of good fun. I’m not sure if we have these light-up ceremonies back home; I feel like we would and I’ve just never paid enough attention to know that they were going on. I’ll have to make a note to keep a lookout for it next year. I feel like I keep saying I’ll do all these things once I get back and it’s all just going to amass into this one big list; perhaps I’m better off saying that I’ll go back home and try and be a little bit more of a tourist instead of subtly avoiding it.

Read the rest of Melissa’s post…

Melissa November 26th, 2015 Life in the South West, Undergraduate, Year Abroad christmas, exeter, holidays