March 1, 2012, by Gael

Shots, Centres and Sickness.

This week has been crammed full. Sometimes this week I really feel like I haven’t had time to think about the next hour; but it’s good to be busy, exhausting, but busy. And the perfect cure for reverse culture shock (see previous posts).

Friday night my housemates and I decided to broaden our wings a little and try a new Friday night venue other than Ocean and chose to explore the secretive realm on Pandora’s box and their Friday night Bopp. It’s a teeny venue, but a welcoming change – with people smartly dressed, old school music and friends dancing away their troubles, rather than drunken mistakes being made. We had a wonderful evening together, doing shots, making the most of cheesy music, and dancing out the stress of the last two weeks. Just what I needed before I had to focus on the stress of the following four days.

Housemates at Bopp - all smiles.

Monday and Tuesday was my UB HR grad scheme assessment centre. What an experience….a gruelling one! I spent the weekend postponing academic work and focusing my attention on UB as a company, the grad scheme specifics and my prepared presentation. Come Monday I made the trip to London and spent 17hours out of 24hours under constant assessment. I hear the outcome tomorrow, but regardless of what happens I’m incredibly proud of the fact that I got down to the last four HR graduates. Any of your who are attending assessment centres, my advice would be to just be yourself – it’s exhausting and if you’re faking it, you’ll never make it to the end. The assessment centres just add extra pressure and time management to third year, and I’m now finding that I have returned to Nottingham with a backlog of work which needs my constant attention…must get back to that soon!

UB Assessment Centre - with free biscuits!!

Unfortunately, with so much pressure on myself, it seems to be taking its toll on my body; I seem to have come down with a terrible throat infection and a slight fever since returning from London – but at least having no voice means I can’t spend hours procrastinating on Skype with friends from overseas.

Here’s to hoping for a healthier, calmer week next week – set off with some good news from UB! Have a great week everyone.

G xx

 

Posted in 2011-Gael