On the 31st of August 2012 I let my readers know what my thoughts were whilst I was preparing myself to leave home, and now I'm back in Keele for my second semester I can honestly say I've come to terms with the things I was worried about a few months back.

The room size

 - This wasn't a worry, rather something I was actually looking forward to. 

I've loved having a larger room to be honest, it means I can actually have people sit in my room and hang out with me, rather than single filing people into my bedroom to drop off their bags and then quickly manoeuvring them out of the cramped doorway.

The amount I have to read

Here's a confession from a current English and American Literature student in her second semester - I've barely read a thing. It's awful I know, but I just browse through the book, reading pages here and there, get to know the characters briefly and then turn to the internet for any other information I should know - the internet's really corrupted my generation, and most definitely the generations below me.

The amount of people I'm sharing with

It really wasn't remotely hard to come to terms with. So what, it gets a little bit grubby from time to time, but how much do students really care? We've had no serious cases of food poisoning (and I'm not 100% sure if any sickness in our block can be directly linked to the food) We've had some dodgy coloured milk, and I stumbled upon a mouldy bag of salad that had started to produce a disturbing liquid but can this sort of thing really be avoided? Yes, it really can, but it's pretty entertaining and if anything scientific...who knew milk could turn orange?

Also the people I live with are pretty easy going. You can read through all my posts since coming to uni and I praise the lot of them - I'm so glad to have met them, obviously I don't know what it's like to live in a tight knit little group in comparison to my block, but I love it. Sometimes it's noisy, but you get used to it, especially as you know you've committed the noise crime plenty of times, but they're a great bunch of people and I'm so glad I got M block as my accommodation.

My red hair

Did I seriously say I was considering getting rid of it? Who am I kidding, my red hair is part of me. I couldn't get rid of it for the world, at least not until after uni (but nothing's definite). I've had it on and off for three years and I always go back to it. Don't expect a different colour any time soon!

The social life...

...is the best. I've loved almost every night out and we've had some hilarious stories to tell the morning after, and awoken to road signs and traffic cones sitting in the hall way...or even pasta and washing up bowls on the roof...oh and that tiny bit of ice cream on the ceiling. I think the first year is definitely a time to have fun, I have work to do indeed and I get it done. I've made plenty of friends going out and had amazing times with the friends I'd already made whilst knocking back a few drinks.

Missing people

It sounds awful but it took me to about the tenth or eleventh week to really feel like I was missing people from back home. I don't tend to be someone who actually does miss people. I expected to of course, but when you're busy meeting new people, doing work and having fun you don't really sit back and think about how much you miss someone. It was great to go home and see everyone and I actually thought 'I missed you' when I got back to Cornwall, but home sickness really is something I only experienced once.

This is my first whole day back in Keele, but it doesn't even feel like I've been away at all, and I love the place so much. It's strange to think how much everything has changed in comparison to this time last year, but it's changed for the best and I'm having a brilliant time, I hope everyone else is too!

MissIsGoode