Better late than never

In this blog post I will tell you all about last week, because only today I could find enough time to sit down, be focused and write this properly. The last 2 weeks have been hectic to say the least. Moreover, they were filled with (compulsory) family dinners, driving lessons, appointments and horrible days of being sick and wanting to sleep for weeks. But I'm back and ready to fill you in on everything that has happened. What I'm going to do, is write about my week and at the end I'll look for linking words from all the categories we saw on page 59.

My week started, obviously, with a lesson of Scientific English. We had to bring a research paper with us, wherein we had to look for and highlight key terms (for instance: 'The net outcome of this evolution is a historical shift of the public sphere from the institutional realm to the new communication space'). The lesson was very helpful, especially the video on how to write a research paper, but I didn't think it was necessary to spend 3 hours on this unit, since I (and several other students) were already done with the task long before the class ended.

I also took a look on Youtube myself and found another interesting video:

The following days up until Thursday consisted mainly of appointments and studying (since I'm currently following 3 courses from the first and 4 from the second year, so I have a lot of work to do and can not fall behind!). On top of this I started to feel that I was getting sick, which was entirely my fault anyway, because I thought it was a good idea to neglect wearing a jacket for a couple of days and now I have to pay for the consequences...

On Friday I had my very first driving lesson and I expected to be very nervous, but I think I handled the stress pretty well. Right after learning the basics, I rushed straight back home to get ready for my secondary school's annual party. In spite of not seeing some of my old friends for almost half a year, it felt like we never left each other's side (we had a blast!).

I originally wanted to write this blog post on Saturday, but I then I couldn't because apparently (nobody tells me anything in this house) we had people coming over until the late evening... Then why not on Sunday? Well, my aunt invited us over for a barbecue and I wasn't allowed to stay at home, so I ended up losing another day to people's need to grill meat... At the end of that day I was exhausted and the only thing that sounded appealing was getting in bed and finally sleeping after such a busy week.

Long story short, I love blogging and I love expressing myself in English but due to a whole lot of complications I could only get around writing this right now. I'll finish this off by adding my list of used linking words and then I'll start working on my next post of this week.

                                                                                                                      
Addition: moreover, and, also, on top of this

Contrast: but, in spite of

Balance/two-sidedness: /

Cause/effect: since, so, because

Emphasis: obviously, especially

Structure/sequence: right after, finally, long story short

Example: for instance

I'm an imperfect perfectionist

My sincere apologies for posting this late on a Sunday evening, but I had a really busy week and only wanted to post this if I was happy with the outcome of it. This actually brings me to my main problem this week:

We had to present an infographic in small groups at the end of the lesson. You're probably thinking: "Inès, what's so problematic about that? What's wrong?" Well, I used to have a lot of difficulties with concentrating in class, but only when doing an assignment or task. I could perfectly make them at home, in all the peace and quiet I had, but in class I always failed miserably. I put myself under way too much pressure and was distracted by literally everything. I'm not trying to sound piteous, I'm just trying to state the facts and I guess you're learning something new about me in the process (yay!). So making an infographic was fairly difficult for 2 reasons: firstly because I, as I stated before, put myself under too much pressure and secondly because I wanted to do it properly and not offhandedly (hence the title). I wanted to get this off my chest first, which is why I started telling you about the end of the lesson first, but I'll get on with how the rest of my Monday morning went now.

We watched extracts from 2 presentations done by Clay Shirky and based on those extracts we learned that there are 2 kinds of nonverbal communication: deliberate and relaxed. We also treated the 2 ways to get the attention of your audience, or in other words: a hook. There is the bottom-up approach, wherein you build up to your main point and the opposite of that, the top-down approach, wherein you start with stating your main point and give the explanation afterwards. I definitely think this is a very handy tool to use in future presentations.

But I still kind of felt bad for not being able to make that infographic... Luckily there were fun things waiting for me nearing the end of the week! On Thursday I went to see Years & Years in Brussels and it was amazing! My friend and I wanted to be as close as possible to the stage, so we chose to stand instead of picking a seat. We occasionally complained about our legs hurting so much, but it was totally worth it and a perfect way to end this stressful week!

So now that I ended with something fun and entertaining, I can end this blog post with all the satisfaction I have and go to bed. Take care and I'll talk to you very soon!

Inès
                                                                                                                      
To account (for)

• Explanation in class: to be responsible for something
• Oxford Dictionary: to give a satisfactory record of (something, typically money, that one is responsible for)

To pose (a challenge)

• Explanation in class: to be difficult
• Oxford Dictionary: to present or constitute (a problem or danger)