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For this week, we played Monopoly. At first, most of us thought it was very silly to be locked up in a room playing a board game but as the game progressed, we began to enjoy the Monopoly playing process and we also saw the importance of Monopoly. We began to understand that the aim of playing this game was to teach us how to manage our finances and expenditures. At the end of the week, I would like to believe that not only I but my teammates as well have gotten a better insight on wise spending choices.

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2 weeks ago, I had my first biology lab and this was a bit more fun than the chemistry one because we did it in pairs so we had a partner to discuss while carrying out the experiment. The aim of this lab was to investigate the concentration of glucose as well as text the urine samples of 3 patients and determine which one of the 3 patients was diabetic. We are yet to write our lab reports and we also have one more lab after this.

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I think that it is important to remain safe online. The internet is a very dangerous place as things like personal data and information are put at risk every day. In this session of learning support, I learnt about ways to better keep myself safe online and protect my private data. I also learnt about the various ways people may be scammed into giving up not only their information but their money as well. It was a very educative session and I have started to apply some of the extra things I have learnt in the class.

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A while ago, I had my first chemistry lab at UBIC where we had to measure the enthalpy change of reactions between various acids and bases. The lab was fun but the lab report, not so much but at least we had more than enough time to get it done as we had the lab right before the Christmas break. We have one more lab left and I can't wait to see what that experiment will be about.

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There are a few things that I can practice to be kinder to not only myself but to other people as well. I can start by setting a schedule that I am comfortable with so that 9 can manage my day properly. Managing my day properly will help to put me in a good mood and thus I will be able to be kinder to other people as I will be happy or at least content in my day and I won't be stressed or aggravated. Apparently, I have also opened the door for a significant number of people which is honestly something I was not aware of until it was brought to my attention to almost every single person I know here at UBIC,

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Hi there! My name is Farida Yahaya, I study a foundation in science and engineering at UBIC the University of Brighton International College and I’m from Nigeria but I live in Egypt. I have lived in Egypt for 3 years and I attended BSE (the British School of Egypt). It was hard making friends there because everyone was already in defined friend groups as most of them had been there since year 7 or even as young as nursery school but I still managed to make a lot of good friends during my time there.

Coming to Brighton was a bittersweet moment because although I was happy to come to university I was also sad as I would deeply miss not just my family but also my friends. Coming here wasn’t much of a culture shock as I had been to the uk multiple times in the last few years but I was taken aback a bit by how much diversity there was here compared to other parts of the UK.

Moving in wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be mainly because my mother was with me and she absolutely refused to leave because she couldn’t bear to part with me but eventually, she had to face the inevitable and she returned back to Egypt. I wasn’t saddened by her leaving mainly because I had a lot of friends around keeping me company and taking me places which helped to distract me from the fact that I was away from my family. Coming to UBIC so far has been one of the best choices I have ever made because I got to meet a lot of people from different countries as well as become friends with most of them. I got to meet a lot of amazing people that I hope I can have with me for a long time.

I am really excited to share my journey at UBIC and Brighton through my e-portfolio and I can’t wait I see what my future at UBIC and Brighton holds.

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black and white view from the top of the london eye

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For my Christmas holiday, I went back to my home country to spend time with my family. As I mentioned in my introduction I live in Egypt but for this holiday I decided to go to Nigeria because my mum and siblings are there and my dad came to stay with us for about 4 weeks from Egypt. I had a fun time although my sick grandma spent the entire holiday and refused to go home. She also took over my room so I couldn't really enjoy time with my siblings and fully be free as much as I would like as there were visitors that she kept inviting without notice coming in and out of the house like they owned the place. But overall my holiday was a good one and i was happy to see my parents and siblings again.

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A few days ago, I had my first peer mentoring session. The peer-mentoring programme is a new programme that has been introduced by Kaplan and I am glad to be a part of it. It has provided me with an opportunity to meet with the actual university students who have once been in my place as well as students who are studying for my progression degree. This has been really helpful as they provide me with an insight as to what studying my progression degree at the University of Brighton will be like. During the peer mentoring sessions, we work together with our peer mentors to set goals that we want to achieve by the end of our foundation course. My goals are to be more focused and adventurous and I am currently working towards those goals.

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My LACS week was really helpful in building my team work skills. Usually, I am a very independent person and i tend to do things myself so working in a team with five other people was a welcomed change to how I usually do things. Working in a team really help to reduce the work load I would've probably had if I was to work independently all on my own. My team mates were really nice, encouraging and helpful. While we were working together, we discussed things with each other and we shared our progress. During this week, I learnt how to complete tasks and manage deadlines. I learnt the valuable skill of time management as well as presentation skills. This week has given me valuable skills that can be used in the future at work or any form of a professional environment. I really enjoyed this week.

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Last year, two of my best friends had a huge fight and that really put me in a tough stuff. There was a time when friend A fell ill and would not reply to our text messages or pick up our calls which made friend B and I worried about friend A. This went on for about two weeks before friend A finally got better and started replying to our texts. I understood friend A's situation and explained to her that I thought she was ignoring me and that I was really worried for her safety. We managed to reconcile and I wished her a speedy recovery. However, friend B could not be as forgiving and understanding as I was and the whole situation escalated into a full-blown fight between friends A and B. After about 4 days of harsh words between the two and me trying to settle the fight they finally reconciled and we all made plans to go watch a movie together the following week. The day before we had to watch the movie we checked in on each other to make sure that we were all okay and we would all show up but at that moment friend B much like friend A stopped responding. We were a bit worried but instead of getting all paranoid like I did when friend A stopped responding, friend A and I discussed and tried to understand that maybe she had something going on at that moment and would respond eventually. The next day, the day we had to watch the movie we saw that friend B still had not responded. We tried texting her and even called her about twice each just to make sure that she was okay and to tell her that even if she was not going to show up it was okay with us. About 5 minutes before the movie began, we got a call from friend B saying that she was not going to show up and that she was sick and proceeded to belittle friend A by saying things like "You guys are overreacting it's not like I didn't reply for a week like friend A" Friend A didn't like that comment but decided to brush it off. After about 50 minutes into the movie, I decided to check my phone and then I saw a picture of friend B in a car on her way to go hang out with some people and then I proceeded to show it to friend A. Friend A and I felt very disappointed and betrayed by friend B. At the end of the day, I managed to reconcile with friend B and we still both talk however, friend A and friend B are no longer friends no longer talk.

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The underlying issue of time management. Time management is often overlooked and most people don't realise that they have issues with it until it is too late while others only realise when it is being pointed out.

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Time management in itself was not something that I struggled with. It was more procrastination that I really had a problem with or so I thought. Ever since I got to UBIC, I have started to discover new things about myself and every day I grow and learn more. During the first term, I realised that it wasn't just procrastination that was a constant pressing issue in my life but time management. I realised that along the way that as I kept putting things off and being lazy I had started to lose my sense of time management and as a result of that, I would end up doing my work and times when they were not appropriate. I decided that it was time to work on this as carrying on this way would be a disastrous gamble and so I set my mind to making a change. It has been about 4 months since I made up my mind to change and I can now confidently say that I am falling back into my old ways where time management wasn't an issue. I can now manage my time better and I have also learnt new ways to be more productive from one of my learning support classes during the second term.

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I feel that ever since I came to Brighton my communication skills have improved greatly. I think the fact that I have to talk to different people from different countries as they all have different accents and different levels of English. It was challenging at first to communicate my ideas to some people in a clear manner as they were so used to speaking their native language in their respective countries but over time, we learnt to adapt and we have come to establish a way in which we can communicate with one another. It may not always be clear, but now we have a better understanding of the words we want to convey. I have even started to learn some words in the various languages of my friends to improve my communication. I find learning languages very interesting because when I am learning languages it's not just the language I am gaining an understanding of their cultures and their way of life.

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In my time at the international college, I have earned some badges and these are some of them 

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A web-seminar I was invited to attend after my last life and career skills.

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After the last life and career skills week we had at the college, I had the wonderful opportunity of being able to be part of and amazing web-seminar with 10 of the different colleges under Kaplan. We all got to talk about our different experiences as well as the different topic we covered during the life and career skills week. During this, myself and the 3 other people who were invited to join the seminar with me discovered that every college had a different topic and that the university of Brighton international college choose to go with the topic ‘Entrepreneurship’. We also got a chance to listen to all the other colleges and had the chance to meet various professionals in various fields such as the managing director Linda Cowan, the chief operating officer Paul Lafferty and the college director at Bournemouth Rachel Woodward Carrik. I also had the opportunity to see one of my secondary school friends who I had lost contact with as she attends one of the colleges invited to the seminar. It was a life changing and fun experience and I was thrilled to have had the opportunity speak to all the wonderful people present there and I hope to be able to experience something like this again.

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We had our last peer mentoring session and it was a big sad to see this wonderful program come to an end. It was an amazing experience and I really learnt a lot. As I mentioned earlier (or at least I think I have but if I haven’t here it is) I worked with different mentors during this program and they each had their own unique experiences to share with me. They each imparted words of wisdom into me which I am very grateful for; thanks to them I feel better prepared for the university and I can’t wait to leave UBIC and see what the university of Brighton has in store for me.