One of my friends from home was in Florida on holiday with her family so I went to meet her in Disney Springs and we had a lovely morning. We went to Sprinkles for a nice healthy breakfast where I had the chocolate marshmallow cupcake and we sat and had a good catch up while we ate. We then went round all of the shops before going to Blaze for lunch. Luckily we managed to get a seat inside because while we were eating it started absolutely chucking it down with rain! Unfortunately it didn't stop anytime soon and I had to walk in it to the bus stop to get my bus to work and got absolutely soaked! I spent the evening at work doing stocker/fryer but my family had arrived in Orlando during the afternoon so it was so weird doing my shift knowing that they were literally about 5 minutes away but I wouldn't be able to see them until the next day.

Sunday 23rd July - Magic Kingdom with my family

My family rented a car so they came and picked me up from housing and it was so amazing to see them! We spent the day in Magic Kingdom and went on Big Thunder Mountain and the Little Mermaid before having lunch at Be Our Guest. I had the croque monsieur and a chocolate cupcake and whilst it was nice, it was a bit disappointing compared to dinner. After lunch we watched the parade and did Haunted Mansion, Mine Train, Carousel of Progress and the People Mover before having dinner at Tony's which was delicious. My parents then left to go to Walmart and me and my brother and sister went on Buzz Lightyear before watching Happily Ever After - It was so amazing seeing their reactions to seeing it for the first time. We then got some dole whip before getting an uber back to the villa my family were staying at where I stayed for the night... it was so amazing to sleep in a proper bed with a comfortable mattress and a duvet!

Monday 24th July - Trail's End and work

My flatmates and I made a last minute breakfast reservation for Trail's End so my parents dropped me off at Fort Wilderness and I met them there (after getting a bit lost). Not only did we get an amazing cast discount here, but also the food was absolutely incredible! I tried American biscuits and gravy for the first time and they were actually really yummy (you can read more about my thoughts on this breakfast here). After breakfast we had a wander around Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge, before I got the bus over to Disney Springs to meet my family and sat with them whilst they ate lunch at House of Blues. My dad then gave me a lift to work where I was on greeter for the evening. 

Tuesday 25th July - Hollywood Studios and feeling ill

I stayed with my family for the night again so I went with them to Hollywood Studios for the morning where we did Midway Mania, One Mans Dream, Frozen Sing-a-long and Muppet Vision, as well as meeting Olaf. We ate lunch at ABC Commissary and then I had to get the bus over to AKL for work. I was on greeter again but halfway through my shift I started feeling really dizzy and nauseous (I think I had a bit of sunstroke from earlier in the day) so I got an ER and my dad came and picked me up. 

Wednesday 26th July - Epcot and breaker

I woke up feeling so much better and went to Epcot for the day with my family. We went on Finding Nemo and Spaceship Earth and then went for a wander around the World Showcase, stopping off at China for some orange chicken for our lunch. I had to leave mid afternoon to get the bus over to work where I was doing breaker for the first time. Whereas usually we would have one role that we would do for the whole shift, if you are breaker you get to do a little bit of everything whilst other people are on their break which I really enjoyed and it definitely made my shift go a lot faster. 

Thursday 27th July - Lazy day

After a few very busy days with my family I decided to have a lazy day and had a lie in until 11:30 before ordering some Dominos for lunch and watching some YouTube videos. Whilst I loved spending time with my family it felt so good to have a day of doing nothing and being inside in the air-con! I then went to work for the evening and my parents came to visit me during my shift as they had gone to Boma for dinner which is the restaurant next to where I worked. 

Friday 28th July - Kennedy Space Centre and Longhorn Steakhouse 

Because my family hired a car we were able to go and do some things slightly further away from Disney so we drove down to the Kennedy Space Centre for the day. We had such a good time looking at all of the launch pads and learning about the Apollo missions - we were given a tour by a man who used to do the countdowns for rocket launches! It was really fun and also really informative and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Florida. On our way home we stopped for dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse where I had a steak with sweet potato and mac and cheese. This is probably a really generic restaurant for Americans but it's really nice food and super cheap compared to Disney prices. We then took a trip to Target before going back to the villa. 

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for next week featuring more time with my family and my service celebration!

Love Amy xx

(You can check out my other posts on Disney and my CEP here)

If I had a pound for the number of times people have asked me what I want to do when I graduate, it feels like I'd be rich enough that I wouldn't have to do anything. And when I say people I mean everyone; from lecturers and tutors to friends and family, and even the nosey nurse I saw at my annual pill check up at the doctors. I now that they are just interested in my future and what I want to do with my life, but it can get quite frustrating when it's the opening to every conversation you ever have. For a long time I would make something up, say I was looking at various different things or that I was interested in something I didn't even really know anything about. And whilst I am looking at various different things, the honest answer to that question is 'I don't have an effing clue'.

I was watching one of Brogan Tate's recent weekly vlogs (which you can watch here) whilst at the gym the other day and something she said really stuck with me; 'life is for living'. It's a phrase I've heard multiple times before but at that moment it was exactly what I needed to hear; I seemed to have some kind of epiphany whilst running on the treadmill. It made me realise that I should live my life exactly how I want to live it, and do things that I want to do rather than simply what is expected of me. If all goes to plan I will be graduating this year at the age of 20, which is still pretty young (the average is 21-22), even if just the idea of graduating makes me feel absolutely ancient. I've definitely felt over the past few years that I'm then expected to get a 'proper' office job and start my career as soon as I finish university. But I've realised that I don't want to go straight into a 9-5 office job after spending the last 17 years of my 20 years of life in full time education.

A lot of people take a gap year between finishing school and going off to uni, doing anything from working and saving money to travelling the globe. Whilst going straight to uni after finishing my A Levels was 100 percent the right decision for me at the time, I now feel like I need to take a gap year once I graduate. Though I definitely won't be going off travelling the globe any time soon and I'll need some kind of job, I want to be able to take a year where I have very little pressure on me. The last year of university has been so incredibly stressful with multiple essays and deadlines all happening at once, and I would like to have some time where I don't have to think about deadlines and word counts and referencing before I then become part of the real world and have to worry about the stresses and deadlines of a 'proper' job. 

Whilst it will hopefully be a year of less stress and worry, I don't plan on doing nothing for a year. I plan on taking the year to reflect and figure out exactly what I want to do in life, and travel more and visit my friends in all the far reaches of the UK that I don't currently have time to go and see. I have already started applying for work experience placements so I can figure out if what I've been thinking about doing career-wise is actually what I really want to do, and I will hopefully be getting a part time job somewhere (fingers crossed for an opening at my local Disney store because I would love to be a cast member and part of making the magic once again). 

It's taken some time but I've finally realised over the past month or two that it's okay to not know what you're doing in life, and probably more people than you realise are going through the exact same thing. Whilst there are some lucky beans out there who know exactly what they want to do and have done since they were 7, and have all the relevant experience they need and a 10 year life plan, it's okay if you're not one of them. 

Thanks for sticking with me with this very rambly stream of thoughts. I'm determined to make 2018-19 my year and hopefully putting my thoughts and plans out there in the world instead of having them just in my head will help me to make sure that happens... Just 6000 words of assignments, a dissertation and an exam to go before then though!

Love Amy xx

Before the new year, I went on a mission to find a practical but pretty new planner to use in 2017. As a student, I wanted something that allowed me to write down all of my assignments, readings and due dates, whilst still giving me space for jotting down any notes, to-do lists or appointment times. After searching everywhere, from Paperchase to Kikki K, I had pretty much given up hope of finding anything that fitted that description whilst still looking cute. Either there was only space to write down assignments and work, or there was only space for writing out a schedule, there didn't seem to be an in between. However, I was lucky enough to be given a Happiness Planner from my parents for Christmas and so far, it's fitted my needs perfectly!

I'm now into my first full week back at uni after being in Disneyland Paris for the first half of last week and I've just about gotten back into the swing of things which means I'm getting back into the swing of blogging. Most of the time when I don't post a blog post it's because I'm super busy with uni work so when I saw this university tag I thought it was only fair to do it myself and let you guys know more about what I get up to whilst I'm here. 

Where do you study? The University of Birmingham and I absolutely love it!

What do you study? English Language. I've done a whole blog post on what English Language students do (here) but this year in particular I am studying phonetics & phonology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis.

What year are you in? I have just started my second year... I honestly can't believe it's been a whole year since I started!

Do you live at home or at uni? I live at uni in a house with 7 of my friends and we've only been here 2 weeks but it's already so much fun

How old are you? I'm 19

What are your three uni essentials? A planner - this is my life saver! Sometimes I think that I have hardly any work but then I realise that I have loads of reading to do so having it all written down makes sure you won't forget anything important Washi Tape - this sounds really weird but it is such a cheap and easy way to decorate your uni room. You can get it in so many different patterns and it's completely removable without leaving any marks so you can personalise your room without worrying about ruining the walls A comfortable pair of shoes - again this sounds like a weird one but if you're like me and you have to walk for a while to get to uni then this is definitely essential. I have a 25 minute walk to and from uni every day which added on to walking around campus in between lectures means I actually do quite a lot of walking in a day so comfy shoes are a necessity. 

What is your favourite meal to cook? Stir fry, it's super quick and easy but you can change it slightly every time to make it a different meal 

What is the latest you've been to the library? Literally like 3 in the afternoon... I prefer to work at home so I only ever go to the library to do work in between my lectures

Ever done an all nighter to finish work? Nope, I'm the kind of person who likes to get work done as soon as possible so I'm not stressing at the last minute. I also don't work well in the evenings because I'd rather be doing other stuff

Your favourite university moment so far? Definitely when we made Christmas dinner last year. There were about 12 of us sitting on the floor around 2 coffee tables in the corridor next to the lifts so we'd call the lift to come to the floor then when the door opened we'd pop party poppers into them. The food actually turned out amazing and we listened to Christmas music and danced and I cannot wait to do it again this year!

One piece of advice for a fresher - Don't worry about not making friends, everyone is in the same situation as you and everyone wants to make friends, even if you don't make a really close friend within the first couple of weeks, once you get to know people and become more comfortable then you'll make tonnes of friends. Also if you are worried about making friends then join loads of societies because you'll meet loads of people who have the same interests as you and you might end up learning a new skill as well!

Something you worried about for no reason - Apart from worrying I wouldn't make any friends I think my main worry was that I was going to be really homesick. Although there were some things about home that I really missed, I love uni more than I ever thought I would and made some great friends who make uni feel like a home away from home. Also, I only live about an hour away from Birmingham so I know that if anything is happening at home or if I'm not feeling well then I can just get on the next train home or pop back for the weekend.

I really enjoy doing these kinds of tag posts and letting you guys know a bit more about me so I hope you enjoyed this and thanks for reading!

Amy xxx

The past year has been the fastest year of my life. And quite possibly the best. 

This time last year I was 17, in the middle of my A Level exams, and had no idea what I would be doing with my future. I didn't know what grades I would get in my exams or which university I would be spending the next 3 years of my life at. Now, 1 year later, I'm 18, I've finished my first year at the University of Birmingham and I'm sitting in my accommodation bedroom for one of the last times before I head back home for the summer. 

Having seen my brother and sister experience university themselves. I knew that coming to uni was definitely something I wanted to do and I knew I would enjoy it, but I never knew just quite how much I would end up loving it. 

Over the year I have had the most amazing experiences and opportunities, I've learnt so many amazing things, both about English Language and myself, and I've met some absolutely amazing people who I know will be my friends for life. It's crazy how you can know someone for only 9 months, but feel like you've been friends for a lifetime. 

I honestly cannot believe how quickly this year has gone and whilst I'm looking forward to the summer and living with my friends in a house next year, I am definitely going to miss this flat that I've called home for the past year. It feels like only yesterday that I was having a mini meltdown in this empty room after my parents had gone home on the first day, and now I wish I could never leave. Even at 8 in the morning, walking into the kitchen and seeing this view never fails to put me in a good mood, and I know the task of taking down all of my pictures and posters before I leave will be an incredibly emotional one. 

So, I'll leave this incredibly soppy post by saying thank you to everyone who made my first year here at Birmingham so special, and I can't wait to see what the next two years have in store for me.

Thanks for reading,

Amy xxx