The exam term, and unique uni goings on

At the University of Kent we have this weird 6 week exam term at the end of each year. The other terms are 12 weeks, so this one always feels very short.

And with everyone doing exams, different people are counting down to when they finish all the time. It's quite strange, we say things like - "only 6 days left", or "1 down, 3 [exams] to go". So everyone is counting down to when they no longer have exams to do. Its all a bit odd - we're rather taken up with what is to come, and what's over the horizon, and not what is happening now.

This is just one of the things that is really strange about uni, and one of the things that I'll probably forget when I leave - which is why I wanted to write it down now.

One of the other things that is strange about uni is the village atmosphere. Being on a campus with 15,000 people, you tend to get to recognise a lot of them by face if not by name as well. But what is really odd is that I go for weeks without seeing someone and then I see them 3 times in a week! I don't have that in the town I live in when I'm not at uni, it's a very particular oddity of university.

And another thing...

I've gone through my 3 years at University and I've seen how people have changed so much over that time. I have changed loads, so I've noticed it in me as well, but there are a lot of people who seem very different from that first September in 2006 of my first year.

Generally I notice the ones I don't know very well as I can be more detached from them. Some people have put on lots of weight over the three years, some have taken up smoking, others have got deeply involved in religious societies, others taken up sports clubs. You could say, "well that's just life", well yes, but in the microcosm of University, its much more noticeable, as we live in close proximity to each other, we're not separated by work/life boundaries or the miles of distance of a large city.

We live our lives in the full view of 15,000 people!