It’s here, the penultimate post! I hope that I haven’t been too boring or repetitive, things that I am usually guilty of when it comes to writing, but I’ve had a great time working on these blog posts.

The second to last month of my time in Manchester has been just as wonderful as the ones before it, and I expected no less. I started off with another trip to Liverpool, Heswall to be more specific, to stay at a friend’s house for a family birthday. It’s always a great time staying with the Dixons, and this time we had the added bonus of spending a day at the Chester Zoo. Now, I hadn’t been to a zoo for about nine years, so I was a bit out of practice. But the Chester Zoo was a great way to get back into the swing of things. It’s the largest zoo in the north of England (I think) and it is an awesome way to spend the day, especially if you’re going with a good group (shout out to the Dixons!).

After the weekend in Heswall, it was back to Manchester and time to prepare for exams. All in all, I’d say exams here at Manchester were a bit more stressful than they are back at MU, but mostly because they usually account for about half (or more) of your grade. Other than that, as a student studying social sciences and humanities, I preferred the essay structure of the exams over the multiple choice ones I’ve grown accustomed to throughout grade school and my first years at MU. It’s definitely tougher to prepare for an essay exam, but I feel that I’m better able to demonstrate my understanding of a course through an essay rather than a regular exam, but that’s just a personal preference.

In keeping with Woolton Hall’s one-formal-a-month setup, we had our last formal and it was a great way to wrap things up. It went for the better part of the day with a barbecue lunch and then a Caribbean-themed dinner. Oh, and there were inflatables on the lawn and an ice cream truck, so it was a pretty sweet setup. It was definitely sad to think that it would be the last of the Woolton formals, but we made the most of it and enjoyed the day.