Italians

So I'm currently at Lewis School summer camp based in Reading and I've got quite a few things i want to write about but as it is stupid o'clock in the morning and I have to be up pretty early to do sports with the kids - this is going to be a good but short post.

There are a mix of kids we have on camp, ages and nationalities. The kids range from 8-17 and we have Russians, Romanians, Georgians (?), Polish, Turks and of course, Italians.

We've had two groups of Italians and a few individuals leave now and we still have two other groups of Italians, I think anyway ha. But I have found that all of these groups (bar the odd one) have all been really lovely, and are really open to people. Maybe we've just been lucky or maybe it is a national thing. The Italians we have had, have been very warm and ready to be open and be fun and crazy, and sometimes make a fool of themselves and laugh because that's who they are. There are other points linked to this that I want to talk about the teachers and teaching, but that is going to be a post for another day as I have a fair few words I want to spurt out.

So, if the right guy in England doesn't come along soon, Italy, here I come. Maybe us Brits should take a leaf out of the Italians book and start being nice for a change.

Putting Things Into Perspective....

Last week I packed up my room (well most of it) and it was the shell I had first came to find it, and it wasn't my room again. As I've already said, it feels like yesterday I moved in so to move on so quickly, was a little daunting I guess.

I was really looking forward to coming home but there are several things that are happening at home which make me feel like I'm not at home and therefore I just don't feel happy there, which makes me feek bad because I should feel happy to be home. So I'd been mulling this over a little bit and had a pour out to mum, shed a tear or two (or a few lets say) and came back to Nottingham for a few days just to sort a couple of things out here and whilst not doing a lot on Facebook, I came across this video.

And I just thought to myself, you know what? This guy is pretty awesome. On the face of it, you'd think he'd be one that'd cry himself to sleep every night and ask the question, "why me?' But he doesn't. He is grateful for what he DOES have. There is no point of wishes whether we had something that we know can't have, because wishing will never change the circumstances, but concentrating on what we do have is what is important. God knows what are needs are and what we need and he gives enough and above but as humans, we are always looking for more, and maybe we shouldn't.

So I haven't got the "dream" circumstances at home and it isn't always great, but who has?

Eurovision?

So on my lazy day (one of many at the moment), I'm lying in my bed watching This Morning, and on appears a girl looking pretty ordinary to be honest, jeans, t-shirt, baggy cardi, not much make-up but looking pretty fresh, and we find out she's called Lena, 19 and from Germany and for all the reasons to be famous, she recently won Eurovision. "Here we go" I thought to myself, Eurovision can only usually mean one thing. But I hate to admit, I quite liked it. I then thought about the year before and the winner from then, I quite liked as well. Here are those two songs, by Alexander Rybak and Lena.

It got me thinking. UK doesn't usually get that close and are more likely to finish bottom because of the whole political involvement that we seem to have with every country (I mean even Ireland don't vote for us anymore) and therefore most countries hate us except maybe the Americans on the odd occasion, and if you haven't learnt about continents in Geography, (which is probably likely, as I'd say Geography is the closest subject to Art, it involves a lot of colouring in), America isn't in Europe, therefore, we don't stand a chance. But is there anything good to come out of Eurovision except highlight the fact that some countires like each other, and some don't? Eurovision is well known to be the thing you watch when you get a bit older, i.e. your grandparents, yet I'm sure many of us will sit down and watch it, although not admit it. "Sadly" I missed it this year due to work but from the standard of the last two winners, maybe it isn't that bad after all. Ok so they're not amazing, and won't be to everyone's taste, but they're not bad. So should Eurovision continue? Music is like art, it brings people together but does it solve problems? We can all create paintings on peace and observe them as a whole and say it is a good idea, but it won't bring peace. Is Eurovision the same?

Sharpening The Pencil.....

So, I'm a failure of video blogs. I tried and I just looked stupid (not that I already probably do in real life anyway) and I thought with an actual blog, at least I can read it through and think about how I wanna let you guys into my world. One video blog to check out though is my lovely friend, Kathy, now she is awesome at this kinda stuff, check her out.

I guess I just wanna let you know all my random thoughts and get it down to reflect. If you don't already know, I'm an artist and I thought a blog might help me with some of the ideas I'm trying to produce for my next project, but also just general thoughts I have on things, as I'd like to have a voice in the world I guess :)

So I've been in Nottingham since October for uni and I've just finished my first year and it feels like yesterday I moved into my flat and shed a small tear saying goodbye to my dad as he left me to fend for myself in the big wide world of student halls. And now I'm packing it all up to go back for the summer on my various journeys. To get a tastier of me, some songs I'm listening to right now whilst I pack up are:

• Kiss With A Fist - Florence & The Machine
• Ridin' Solo - Jason Derulo
• Breathe Me - Sia
• This Woman's Work - Maxwell
• Stay With Me - You Me At Six
• Brick By Boring Brick - Paramore
• Walls - The Rocket Summer
• We Dance On - N-Dubz Ft. Bodyrox
• Pencil Full Of Lead - Paolo Nutini
• Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavi

So I have quite a mix of music but you have to check out "Her Morning Elegance" if you haven't already and check out the video. Although it isn't the main thing, some songs are ruined by the absolute rubbish that they call music videos but check out the video for this, it is pretty awesome.

Also to go with the Maxell song, check this out. If any of you watched "So You Think You Can Dance", it is a BBC reality programme and this dance is really REALLY emotional. Watch it all, not just the dance, it makes me cry everytime and I know what's going to happen. It is lyrical dancing and it is something I would like to maybe explore in my practice but in different medias maybe.

End of year one then, my sum up of general life. My course (Fine Art) is at a completely different end of the spectrum compared to last year after I had completed my Foundation in Art and Design. I didn't enjoy it, I didn't feel like i was making art, I didn't feel like I was an artist, I felt like I was being told what to do, and I didn't like it one bit (if you hadn't already guessed), I was just generally very frustrated. Being told what to do is completely different to being given advice and critically analysing your work and that is what I now get, and I think it helps me to develop as an artist, because surely in the end, isn't this what I am aiming for in some aspect?

The job situation. I've managed to have three jobs whilst being at uni and maybe a couple of odd things in between. So I thought my Coffee Rev (the coffee shop at Coventry University) days couldn't be matched and to be fair, they probably haven't, although one job has come close to it. So I started at Druckers, being able to nick a job through some pokes from my fellow Nat, and to be honest, it wasn't the best time of my life. I managed to hold out from October to March, but it wasn't the nicest environment to work in and the flexibility was just, non-flexible. My second job I have just finished, a temping job last three weeks at the tennis centre. This was the job that nearly matched the standards of Coffee Rev. Yes, sometimes it was hard graff, we stand in the rain waiting to take the covers off, take them off and then it would start raining again, and we would do this like 5 times in a row. But it is the people that make a job isn't it? Good people around you and however hard the job is, you forget about it because there is a buzz in the atmosphere. To be fair, I don't miss having to get up at ridiculous times of the morning but I will miss the people and the copious amounts of fun we had, for example "The Tennis Centre Doughnut Race 2010" - awesome times is all I can say :D So the last job, that I currently still hold onto, is my new job at the SU bar. I've currently only worked two shifts there, both of which have been pretty busy nights. The last Climax of the year, and the graduation after party last night, ranging from the hours of 1.45am-7.30am, and somehow, I'm still standing. I've never worked properly on a bar before, I've had bit of experience working at Taybarns and when Coffee Rev has turned into a VIP bar, but that's pretty much it, so it is definitely a learning curve at the moment, but I'm getting there!

The next job is at Lewis School of English, where I'm working for a month in Reading, working with 11-17 year olds who have come over to England to learn English, but I'm an activity leader so I get to do all the fun stuff, which is nice, so should be good. A little nervous I have to say, but I'm sure I'll get into it, good experience for going to camp in America in a couple of years (well, that's the plan anyway) and teaching etc. But hopefully my blog will keep you up-to-date on that.

Other stuff. Well in the last year being up in Notts, I got baptised. Some of you will know that I am a Christadelphian, but it is a major part of my life and I had been leading up to this decision for a while but just needed a kick up the ass to make a certainty, so in December I got baptised which was a really exciting time for me and it is still is, on my journey to the Kingdom. I also transferred ecclesia from Coventry East to Nottingham Jarvis Avenue, and they've made me feel really at home and I'm blessed to have a ecclesia that are just like my family.

Alot of other things have happened this year like:

• Youth Weekends
• Nights In/Out
• Sunday Lunches (every weekend!)
• Birthday Weekend
• Coventry Uni Graduation
• Signing For First Student House
• Private Art Viewings
• Other City Visitings
• Charity Dublin Dash
• Helping Out With Uni Interviews
• P2P
• Praise Afternoons
• Trade Gallery Internship
• Gigs

And much more I'm sure.........

So in the next couple of days I'm going to explore a few things, well hopefully continually. Some of it might be art related, some not, who knows, let the journey begin :D