...Definitely something uncomplimentary about the weather- it's very cold here compared to Singapore, which averages 27 degrees and rains maybe once every weeks. The lack of humidity threatened to make my lips crack. 

Brighton is small. Really small. You can walk everywhere, and there isn't much happening. The cookie cutter houses look so strange. There are homeless on the streets, which I continue to feel guilty walking past. 

I want, more than anything, to study Creative Writing in university. Honestly, I haven't really thought about my future beyond that other than a vague 'write stuff and get rich' thing (unlikely) because for a long time I thought my parents would be strongly against the idea of me going to university for Creative Writing.

But now that they have, my plan is to finish the game I'm working on, publish, finish another. With the two text-based games I have under my belt I'll try for employment with Failbetter Games. I'll have to look up other game companies that might be interested in hiring. The idea of starting my own company for text-based games is appealing, but I haven't the foggiest idea of how to go about doing that or if any profit can be made from it. I'll figure it out.

On one hand, the teachers here use discussion and activities as the backbone of their classes. They make the classes a lot more fun and engaging- which is a blessing, I can't count how many times I nearly fell asleep in class back home- but it's more difficult to get through drier, detail heavy sections of the curriculum that require memorisation. There was one class where we spent the entire time cutting out pieces of paper for the Fun Activity of The Day™ and barely got around to discussing the stuff on the paper.

Singapore classes are a lot more detail heavy. The teacher goes through powerpoint slides with a lot of crucial information on it and if you don't write it down in time you need to get them from a friend, or you will almost definitely be unable to understand the next class. You can't paraphrase stuff. You need to word it exactly how it was taught to you. Homework is plentiful and nearly impossible to complete on time. I had a teacher who told me that the first and last thing I needed to do every day was study. We had lectures, even before university. I'm not sure if that's unusual here.

...Teachers back home have answers down to an exact science. They teach you how to score well, but honestly it felt like they weren't teaching me their respective subjects. They were teaching me how to do well in the Singapore-Cambridge O and A levels, and it isn't the same.

The workload here is a lot more lenient. I could barely keep up in JC. This is really nice.

I'm on good terms with the rest of my class. It's really nice talking to them. A'faf is adorable lol

Outside, I have my best friend. She's back home, but I text her everyday. I'm really worried about her. She doesn't have any other close friends other than me, and she's taking my absence really hard.

Our class is really big, from what I can tell. We weren't all that comfortable with that at first- I think we might have asked Nisa (class rep) to complain at some point, actually- but we got used to it. 

I expect that classes will get more difficult here on out. 

I wanted to study Psychology and Sociology in the Humanities Foundation because I've always had an interest in these subjects. I don't want to become a psychologist or sociologist or anything like that.

I realised that wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Humanities Foundation would let me study the thing I had a passing interest in while allowing me entry into the course I really wanted. It seemed a pretty good deal to me.

I've come to understand a lot more about the structure of society and how the minds of people work. Did you know that short term memory can only last up to 20 seconds? It makes note-taking essential. I wish teachers would give us more time to write them down.

What I've found difficult so far is the sheer number of studies that we have to learn for psychology. It's manageable, but it's definitely a step up from last term. 

I need to learn more about those case studies and consolidate my knowledge of media (Sociology). There is some later material that I haven't had the time to go through yet and it's impacting my understanding of Sociology lessons right now. The same goes for psychology- I am lacking in my understanding of the working memory model and the case studies that make up the multi-store model. 

I've aleady run through how we're taught in an earlier post, so I'll build upon what I've mentioned before. Recently, we were asked to come up with questions to ask each other about 'Memory'. Immediately, our class took advantage of being able to make up our own questions and came up with extremely easy questions with short answers. I came out of that lesson barely revising anything important. It was fun, but wasn't very educational. Loopholes like that should be amended before the activity is set.

Foundation English classes are about as interesting as watching paint dry. Watching paint dry might be in fact more educational- I've always wondered if it dries from the top or bottom if all other factors are kept constant. My old teacher said the top, because part of the paint sloughs off to the bottom due to gravity. I've always been skeptical about that.

I despise having to attend Foundation English classes. The whole thing seems to me an exercise in pointlessness, because I don't learn anything except for the virtues of patience. We learned how to compare and contrast stuff for two weeks. Two! Two weeks of "____ is larger than ___ because of this ___". If the window at my home wasn't restricted I might just throw myself out of it, I swear.

Mr Harrison keeps classes interesting and engaging, which is really saying something with this subject matter. He stops us from sleeping in class in a way that doesn't come off as condescending, jokes with us and keeps us on task. There were two weeks where he wasn't around to teach us and everyday I could feel more of my brain leaking out of my ears in a stream of grey goo. One of our relief teachers asked us if we knew what a cactus was. Let that sink in. One of our relief teachers asked us if we knew what a cactus was.

I understand that there's a reason for this curriculum. A good deal of the people who come here don't have English as a first language, and might actually not know what 'cactus' is in English. It still frustrates me. I miss actually learning something in English classes.

If I had to come up with a reason, I would say that it's because I fear disappointing my parents? I feel an obligation to be a good student? I like using a computer??

Personally, I do not enjoy this. From what I've understand, this course is about...learning how to use Microsoft Excel. This part of the course, at least, I think has dwindling application in the workplace today and will be almost entirely phased out of use by the time I enter the workforce. (Some 4, 5 years from now.)  Technology is advancing, and soon there will be no need for humans to do these sorts of calculations- bots can do it, and they can do it better. The Guardian says that robots could take "4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years", and the jobs that will be taken are the ones that involve work like this. For now it's still a vaguely useful skill, so I'm keeping at it.

At the moment, I need to become more familiar with the interface. I often forget how to make the text boxes fit the words in the cells.

What I find contradictory is the lack of any kind of 'problem solving'. I mean, all we do is try to copy what's on the paper. It's a good way to learn, but we're never asked to come up with our own tables and graphs for our own problems, and I feel unprepared for the assessment (which I assume will be something like: Construct an excel spreadsheet for Henry's budget. Here are his expenses. Here is his salary.)

It's alright, I guess. A bit boring- copying what's on a piece of paper is boring- but it works. 

In my opinion, in order of which I like best in descending order: Psychology, Sociology, Foundation English Skills and CIT. I've always wanted to study Psychology, and Miss Macmaster is great and teaches well. Sociology is interesting, but I feel like the number of discussions in class is actually inhibiting learning rather than helping. Mr Wilkin is really cool.

I've already talked about Mr Harrison and how I respect him greatly, but the subject matter is as dry as dirt. CIT is extremely unenjoyable. The Enrichment course I'm taking is Introduction to Game Development in Unity, and it's heavily reliant on an online course and the teacher in charge doesn't do much to actually...teach. His time is mostly spent doing damage control, because the school computers malfunction more often than not and Internet access is finnicky at best and completely useless at most. Despite this, I do enjoy the Enrichment course. The content is interesting, and potentially extremely useful. The fact that it's an online course means that I need to dedicate time outside of class to doing it, but I find myself not minding more than most. Again, distraction proves to be a constant drain on productivity, and it isn't as simple as turning off the Internet and chucking it in a drawer because I actually need the Internet to do the course. It's a problem that I've considered solving using productivity saving applications that block access to certain websites, like Tumblr.

I feel like Psychology is more technical and content heavy, and Sociology feels more like a typical Humanities subject with it's long essays and emphasis on different answers all being correct in some way. Foundation English Skills is easily the easiest, and CIT is uninteresting. Although I enjoy Psychology more, I feel Sociology will probably be a good deal more applicable in Creative Writing.

I've learned that I actually have a pretty short temper, and that my attention span has greatly diminished after all those months of holidaying. I've become a great deal more lazy and less tolerant of poor treatment from others. I've become a lot more independent, but sometimes I wish I could go back home and let my mum take care of everything for me. It's a feeling that I hope will fade in time.

It's challenging to pay attention, especially for subjects that have little to do with what I want to study in university, but I'm experimenting with turning off and chucking my phone under a pile of clothes to reduce distractions. It's also challenging to remember that I need to take care of myself. I tend to forget to eat and to take care of my own hygiene if left to my own devices- often, I only get two meals a day.

I've always thought that Psychology would involve a great deal of statistics- and it does, but not at the level that we're at right now. It's a relief. I've gradually learned an appreciation for Sociology that I didn't have before. It's an interesting subject, and I do feel like my understanding of society and how it functions has greatly improved. CIT is something I've learned to tolerate as necessary for passing the foundation course. Foundation English Skills is required for unuiversities to have confidence in my ability to speak and write well.

I've messed up a lot, regarding relationships. I never know the right thing to say. I'm glad that despite my fumbling around, I've somehow managed to keep friends. It's nice.