Friday 3 June 2011

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe I have finished my undergraduate degree!!! Arghh!! It really hasn't sunk in yet! I had my last exam yesterday and will be receiving my results in a few weeks then graduating on 20th July!!
And yes, I did schedule "Collapse" into my filofax after my last exam :) I spent a lazy few hours in bed on the internet and watching TV, went to a friend's house and had lots of fun, and then went home and slept! That's all I wanted to do, so brilliant to actually have some time to do stuff!
So I suppose this should be my first proper post about being a student, seeing as how I'm the 'Perpetual Student' (and haven't written anything about my Life as a PS yet!!)

I study (or studied?) Egyptian Archaeology BA Hons at the University of Liverpool :)
I love it here, it's brilliant, I never want to leave!
We have a relatively small class of students, maybe 15 (tiny compared to some courses like Medicine, which has hundreds doing the same course in the same year!). We are divided into 2 separate courses, Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology. The difference is that the Egyptologists are primarily dealing with textual evidence, that is reading the ancient Egyptian languages of Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian and Coptic, otherwise known as "hieroglyphs" (although hieroglyphs is a script not a language). They translate a lot of primary texts; whereas Egyptian Archaeologists deal with the more archaeological side of things, also doing more general stuff like the archaeology and history of the Ancient Near East/Western Asia, and Middle Egyptian (thankfully far less language work than the Egyptologists!)
I originally did Egyptology, but when I realised how much language work I would need to do I switched to Egyptian Archaeology as I'm not brilliant at language and text-based things.
I LOVE my course, I wouldn't swap it for the world!
We have studied the history of ancient Egypt, Middle Egyptian, the archaeology of ancient Egypt including monumental evidence and settlement archaeology, foreign relations between Egypt and other countries, the technology of ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian religion and death and the afterlife :) I've also had to do other things like archaeology in general, studying Bronze and Iron Age Levant, and Ancient Warfare. I didn't enjoy those latter ones because I am definitely an Egypt-only girl!
Each module usually has a 2500-3000 word essay and an exam, but some modules especially Middle Egyptian have lots of work to do throughout the term (translating texts) and some are 100% coursework based so no exam :)
I love my course so much, and I am just about to apply to do my exam, actually I'm going to the library today to research and write the proposal! I'm a bit late to apply, but I have had so much work to do this last term that I haven't actually had time to do the research! But I am aiming to have the whole application form finished by Sunday night, and then I'll spend the whole of the next week packing to move back home!
During the summer I have lots of things planned to do, and unfortunately it looks like my employer won't need me to work during the summer :( So I'll do lots of work towards my MA instead!
I'm going to be setting up an MA planner filofax :) I just bought a raspberry Finsbury A5 filo from ebay :) very cheap, but it's slightly damaged, for example the rings don't close properly at the bottom :( But I'll cope! I'm looking forward to setting it up and using it :)

6 comments:

  1. Congratulations on finishing! It must feel so great to be done. What will your planner do now? ;)

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  2. Hi Kanalt! I'll write a post on how I set it up/am using it soon, as soon as I'm happy with it :)

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  3. Ok, I am SO jealous! I LOVE LOVE LOVE ancient history, I just wish I had realized that while I was younger...
    Sounds wonderful!!

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  4. It's brilliant! and no-one's to old to study it, if you can't do a university course on it, buy a book or two! If you want any recommendations, just ask!

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  5. A huge congratulations! Such an interesting field of study! Good for you!

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  6. Well of COURSE I want recommendations, Miss Graduate Student!! Thanks!

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