Now that we’re back a few weeks, things seem to be getting back to normal. However, with most of the tutorials only starting up again this week it left many people with a fairly sparse timetable, well for me anyway. The added space for the most part was nice, but there are times when I had a few hours off in between lectures and there is only so much time you can spend doing nothing in the library. It really showed me how little seating there is in a lot of the university buildings outside of the crowded Bialann and Smokey’s.
It doesn’t seem right that people have to sit on the floor of the concourse, and there is practically nowhere for people to just sit down. To be blunt, most of the amenities around the campus are awful, the library is outdated, there isn’t enough space for everyone, everywhere is crowded and there just is nothing to do around the campus except to study, eat and talk to your friends.
It really makes me worried thinking that the President is talking of allowing more people in without any new buildings or even a much-needed revamp to the library. But I suppose I shouldn’t really complain, and for the most part NUI Galway is a great university, but the facilities for students definitely could be better.
Moving on from that rant, we are now moving into February and it’s that time of the semester where people stop going to lectures and coming to college. I swear the first couple of weeks of a new semester everyone is like “this is going to be different, new year new me” and when it gets to around February the college is a ghost town before 12.
I know personally that you can be very tempted to miss the morning lectures or even the Friday lectures because who really goes on a Friday, but you pay for it in the long run. One of the advantages of the lack of people now is more space around the campus, and you can actually walk in the hallway in between lectures.
Assignments this semester are also something that I’m trying to improve on. Last semester I wasn’t the “model” student when it came to assignments. They say you can’t start an assignment the day before it’s due; you can, but if you want any sort of a decent grade you have to give yourself a few days.
Something that I’m sort of proud of is how I was able to submit an assignment with 10 seconds to spare. One of the simplest pieces of advice I was given was to just get it out of the way, but as I know myself, for some people submitting it on time is an achievement in itself.