seen from Poland
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My favorite fanon ending is the one where Zim just slowly gives up on invading and adapts to human culture. He however continues to get into wacky shenanigans with his best frenemy Dib. (Reposting super old sketch from my old art account)
Teaching Awards 2018!
Every year Arts SU and the Teaching and Learning exchange at UAL collaborate to put on the Teaching and Course Reps Awards!
It is a time to celebrate and recognize our wonderful lecturers, support staff, technicians and tutors who empower us in our learning, challenge us and push us outside of our comfort zones. It is also a time to celebrate our course reps, who work so hard in ensuring that your feedback is listened to by the university. At a time where the Government have pushed marketisation to the forefront of how universities are run even further, with the introduction of TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework), and the OFS (Office for Students) defying the fundamental principles of what education should be about - a tool to better the world around us, an opportunity to expand our horizons and a public good that benefits the whole of society - it is important that deeds like this don’t get missed.
Excellent teaching isn’t measured by metrics, or gold medals. Excellent teaching are the teachers that go out of their way to inspire, support, and empower us as students.
Nominate your tutors, technicians and whomever else you have found incredible during your time at UAL now!
Weird Things About the Brits
1. ‘Hiya’
This means HELLO or HI. Why add a ‘ya’ on the end? Still trying to figure that one out.
2. ‘You alright?’
When this is said in passing, you’re going to want to stop and say: ‘Yeah I’m fine thanks for asking, are you okay?’. Don’t do this. This is a rhetorical question. By no means respond with an actual answer. Simply repeat the question back and keep walking.
3. Pancake Day
Also known as ‘Shrove Tuesday’. We have a day to celebrate and eat pancakes. It’s a thing and it’s happening. Mark your calendars because it’s a BIG DEAL - Tuesday February 13th, 2018.
4. A million x’s
Literally, a MILLION X’s. The equivalent of xo but would you write xoxoxoxoxoxoxo after every text, email, comment? Well, we do!
5. You don’t wait in ‘line’
You wait in a queue! The queue is what keeps the UK moving at a steady pace. Be it at the supermarket, on the tube platform, or waiting for the bank to open. We queue.
6. HP sauce
We don’t think anyone knows what HP stands for, it anything at all BUT we do know that this is the nectar of all condiments for all occasions. Find one in a Tesco aisle near you.
7. ‘Taking a piss’
This does not literally mean using the toilet. It could mean any of the following, someone’s not taking you seriously, someone’s playing with you, someone’s laughing at you. This is actually said a lot more than you may think!
8. Taking the ‘elevator’
Is actually known as taking the lift! All our signs point to the lift. Not sure what this elevation business is all about. Must be some sorcery stuff...
9. 15th July 2016
You see that? The day is BEFORE the month when writing the date. because the date is always before the month. Simple.
10. ‘Cheers mate!’
Best of all and what you’ll hear EVERYWHERE and 24/7. Cheers, mate! We may not be friends but it’s only right to!
A collection of some of my favorite handbags I spotted in Italy!
Bunch of animal drawings I did at the zoo!!! :)
Before you arrive - a checklist
Coming to London (possibly for the first time) is as scary as it is exciting. We know this!
So, to help ease you in, we’ve put together a series of helpful tips to get you through the transition, whether you’re a local or not.
Enroll online 💻
You might have received information from UAL about how to enroll online. If not, don’t fear, there’s a good few weeks before you should chase it up!
It’s important to enrol online before you arrive to start your course, as you will need evidence of enrolment to get your student card, which you will need to enter the buildings for lectures. You’ll also need to have enrolled before coming to any of our Freshers’ Festival events, taking place on campus. We don’t want you to miss those! If you’re confused about this at all just email your course contact for help.
Get your finances sorted... 💰
If you need student finance or a visa to study here then make sure that you get these sorted out before you come. The student loans company has lots of information on the website to guide you.
… and ensure they’re safe!
Make sure that your bank accounts are all in order and that you have all the details stored in a safe place. You will guaranteed need some amount of money for something almost immediately, so ensure that you’re always able to access your bank account. It’s a good idea to set up online banking. Check out how to manage your money better here.
Map it out 📍
London is a beautiful city to get lost in, but that’s not much comfort if you’re running late for something! If you’re at all unsure about what to do, then it can be a good idea to plan out some of your most useful journeys (such as from your accommodation to your campus) ahead of time so that you’ll always be in the right place at the right time. For tips on this check out our transport post.
Keep your contacts close ☎️
It’s a good idea to not only take your mobile phone with you when you’re out and about, but also to memorise or write down the important contact numbers - just in case you lose your phone or run out of battery. That way you’ll always be able to contact someone in an emergency. Major key: buy yourself a power bank!
“Alright, mum…”
These might sound like overkill but they are things you may find really useful to prepare for the move to London! That being said, don’t worry if you forget anything as it won’t be the end of the world - we are always here to help you out!
Feeling myself care
“If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?” - Maya Angelou
“Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” - Eleanor Brownn
At this event we learnt to identify why we might not be taking care of ourselves, and what we could do. We covered different aspects of self care:
Burn out:
When you burn out, you feel tired and drained most or all time, which lowers your immunity and you can get sick a lot, you can have frequent headaches or muscle pain and change in appetite or sleep habits.
Some of the emotional signs can be depression, lost of motivation, feeling helpless, trapped or defeated, a sense of failure and self-doubt and decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.
Therefor, you may end up withdrawing from responsibilities, isolating yourself from others, procrastinating, using food, drugs or alcohol to cope, and taking out your frustrations on others.
We actually did an exercise that consists on drawing a “problem tree”, next to the roots we wrote down different possible causes for burning out, and up of the tree we wrote effects that these causes could have, you can do it with us!
And remember: burnout is not the fault of the individual. Burnout is a symptom of the society we live in.
Self care, self love:
Do you actually know what’s the difference between these two? We used a lot of post-its to express what each term means to us:
Self-care has proven to improve people’s physical health, and even get them cure from different diseases. What does self-care mean to you?
Overcoming barriers:
Mirror advice: How can we overcome the effects of a burnout? There’s another small exercise that you can do with us, grab a friend that may be/have struggled/struggling too and:
Answer to each other: What stops you from engaging in self-care?
Write down those barriers and give them to your friend, and ask them to do the same. Once you see their barriers, think of ways to overcome them and suggest those ideas to them. Ask them to do the same. It gets easier when they are not your own!
The #FeelingMySelfCare Rule: The Golden Rule is that one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.
One should treat oneself like they would treat others.
If you treated yourself how you treated other people that you cared about what would you do?
If you don’t want to miss more events like this one, please check what’s coming next here.
We need to talk about International Students’ Wellbeing
I first began studying at UAL as a foundation student at LCC, in September 2012. And I had a really hard time. We only had classes around 3 times a week, and it was rarely for more than 2-3 hours. There weren't that many other International students and I was struggling for various reasons. I was seventeen, and almost every social thing had to do with drinking or ended up in a pub. I wasn't enjoying my time at university and meeting people from every corner of the world, the way the UAL prospectus told me I would. What I didn’t know then, was that I could’ve asked to speak to someone. That I could have asked for help. That it was okay to feel lost and displaced. That it is normal. I come from a side of the world where the stigma around mental health is so strong, it removes the capabilities of people from identifying as they are experiencing mental health issues. The idea of going to counseling or a support group sounded too drastic. When the truth is, it really isn’t. I felt ashamed about the idea of going to one. I wish someone had told me that there is plenty of help you can reach out for and that it is completely okay and normal to do that. Which is why, when our Welfare Officer, Scarlett first published the Arts SU Mental Wellbeing Zine last year, I really appreciated it as a student who really struggled in my first year but did not know what to do. This year, Arts SU Wellbeing Week turned into Arts SU Wellbeing Month, and there is a revamped zine too!
Check it out here or come pick up a copy at the SU Office.
There is plenty going on, and I will be facilitating an International Students Support Group on 26th of January as well as a discussion around mental health in non-western cultures on 6th February. There are also Self Care workshops for Women of Colour and Black Women on 23rd of January. And plenty of other workshops like Art therapy and exploring ‘failure’ and ‘success’ (I went to the latter last year as a student and highly recommend it!)
Check out all all the events here!!
Moving to another country can be difficult. Being worried about making new friends and settling in to a new culture can be overwhelming. But it’s so important to know that those feelings are valid. That it’s okay to acknowledge them and ask for help if you want to 💛
I hope to see you at some of the events! ☺️
