Gurpreet Kaur

…Friday

Today the lecture was cancelled as the lecturer wasn’t even in the country so we were set work to do in the tutorial anyway, preparing for our coursework already.

The lecture we were meant to have was INSAD from 11.00 up until 13.00.

Our coursework is based on our local GP surgery’s appointment booking system. Our first task set out was to go and discover how our local GP surgery books appointments and the different procedures used for different appointments. For example, emergency bookings, planned bookings, nurse appointments etc…

Seems like a “fun2 coursework set. Requires a lot of hard work though !

…Thursday !!

Today is all about Python programming with the lectures and practical seminars all in Python programming. There are a lot more Python seminars taking place this year which is really good as we can attend as many as we want in order to understand the concept of Python programming.

Last year I understood it well up until the coursework and graphics assignments kicked in. This year I am hoping to overcome this and able to get through Python successfully.

Today I went to grab an application form to participate in “The National Mentoring Consortium”. This is an organisation which provides mentoring for the UK ethnic minority students to help out in making the transition from study into the graduate employment. This scheme is to help ethnic minorities to gain understanding and mentoring of how to take actual graduate interviews and to generally know what to do and what not to do during seeking graduate jobs or even placements.

The National Mentoring Consortium at Portsmouth were looking for eligible 2nd year students who would like to participate.I found this a great opportunity as it will give me a better understanding of how to gain jobs in the outside working atmosphere.

I will be matched with a mentor from a working industry who will try helping me gain the skills needed in improving my studies as well as the skills needed to gain the important first post after graduation.

From the information given I found this really interesting and I think it is a great opportunity as it is a free mentoring scheme. where I can gain free knowledge.

It’s Wednesday !

..and today I had a unit which I am extremely weak at, Yep it’s Python programming, (again). Today was the tutorial for Python. We had to mix in with the first years.

It was really good though, the first year’s seem really intelligent and friendly.

It didn’t help as we walked into the tutorial slightly late, meaning we had to sit at the front, which we normally do but since so many students were in the way we had to squeeze past in order to sit down, was kind of embarrassing, especially when the lecturer recognised us. But oh well ! We survived.

There has been a lot of change in the Python unit this year. I just hope we can pass the programming unit (hopefully). Since I understood what the lecturer was talking about - Now that’s a start !!

Following on from my previous post.

…Today (Tuesday) was a very busy and a long day I must say .

My day started off at 10.00am with a tutorial in the morning for my unit called An Introduction to Software Engineering (SEINT). It was a very interesting tutorial I must say. I quite enjoyed it

At 13.00 for two hours up until 15.00 was a lecture in SEINT. Which introduced the coursework task already we have to carry out. A mini lecture presentation for up to 8/10 minutes explaining about a topic linked with Software Engineering.

Finally the last tutorial of the day was from 16.00 up until 18.00, another 2 hours. My goodness ! This was in a unit called Intermediate Systems Analysis and Design (INSAD). Again another interesting unit. With an amazing lecturer. (Quite funny as well )

This week we’re back at uni starting our first proper lectures and tutorials.

I can finally say YEAR 2 ! I thought I wont make it this far but my gawd I did after all the hurdles I had to jump over !

As I explained in my post this morning, this week is the first week of proper lectures, last week we had an induction week just introducing the units we will be doing.

Today, is a Monday and we generally didn’t have any lectures, we only have a drop in session for one of our self taught units called DBASE20 (Database). So not bad really.

So far so good !!

…Today I have started to feel the effects of tiredness from the past 5 days.

It didn’t hit me so much yesterday but today I feel really tired and knackered. (I’m not quite sure if it’s due to the past 5 days or if it is generally as it is only 6.30am !).

But this week is the first week of our proper lectures in Uni. Looking forward to them just hoping I wont collapse in them (Ha-Ha!) I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m quite excited to start Semester 1.

Today is the first lecture we have. I just hope it goes well.

I better go get ready - Don’t want to be late !

It’s been up to 4 and a half hours since we got back from the Gurdwara after 5 days of Seva (Selfless Service) and spending all those days under spirituality. The depression has start to kick in even more of leaving that particular atmosphere. It feels like something has been taken away from us.

The past few days if I were to summarise them in one word it would be OUTSTANDING ! I kind of miss being at the Gurdwara everyday. Felt so peaceful.

Today was the final day of the second Akhandpaht.

Gawsh..time flew. Well we woke up early morning, mum went to the Gurdwara by 3.30am to get everything ready along with dad.

I, meanwhile was trying to get the siblings ready in time to reach the Gurdwara by 8.00am at the latest. (Little siblings take forever to get up and get ready).

By 7.30am everyone was ready to go. I made sure that the house was clean and tidy as I knew today was going to be a tiring day once we got back.

So by 8.00am we reached the Gurdwara.

Everything was practically all done. (As mum and dad done evrything early morning). All we had to do was go and sit upstairs and wait for the final prayers to be read (Salok’s). By 9.00am everyone were upstairs listening to the final Saloks being read. Was a wonderful atmosphere. Extremely beautiful.

10.30am the full Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji were read. !

After the final prayers were all performed I decided to go downstairs and help with serving the “Langar” (selfless service) along with my friends who had come to help. It was a very busy day that kept us going. But it was briliant too.

Everything went so perfectly and enjoyed every minute of it.

As soon as the day came to an end and we went back home afer cleaning and tidying the Gurdwara up and make sure we had completed everything before we left, we start to feel the depression as if something was gone away from us. It was the after feeling we always get when we carry out an Akhandpaht. As we had an attachment with God for up to 5 days and all of a sudden we come home it was like a part of us was missing.

Everyone were tired but depressed at the same time too. , it doesn’t help either that my brother is about to leave in a few minutes back to his halls too.

Akhandpaht 2 - Day 2

Today was Day 2 of the second Akhandpaht.

Majority of the day was filled with laughs and jokes. The main highlights of today were filling up more boxes of Indian sweets and decorating them again. After that was done the main chore for us were to make Samose.

Since I hadn’t cut a birthday cake we all (family friends) decided that while cutting the “Samose” pastries in half with a knife they all start to sing “Happy Birthday” for me - Ha-ha! was quite embarrassing but also funny at the same time as the old “aunties” start to stare thinking what was going on… !

The day was filled with laughter again !