olen joten ikävystynyt

...tavallaan.
I am bored, I'm sat up in the study at four minutes to one in the morning, drinking coffee (though I haven't drank, drunk?.. coffee in two years) and creating an online journal. And tomorrow I will do nothing at all worth commenting on (although, tomorrow is Sunday so, nobody else will be doing much worth commenting on either), even though I have just moved a week ago, to a new town and there should be plenty for me to busy my little self with I will most likely, do nothing. Sleep 'til stupid o'clock and then feel guilty for wasting a whole day. I promise to do something on Monday.
But really, you can't imagine how much fun I'm having! I have finally made a decision about my life and I must say, it feels rather nice, to have something to look forward to which isn't just something almost entirely fanciful for once.

So, yesterday (or, given the time, the day before yesterday) at roughly 2 o'clock in the afternoon.. that's when (forgive me for being dramatic..) my life changed. I went to Gwynedd to look around my second choice university. I had originally had my heart set well and truly on attending University College London in the autumn like, really really set to the point of taking a year for the sake of one grade set, ha. If I went UCL I would have read Scandinavian languages. However, if it didn't go entirely to plan I would have ended up at Prifysgol Cymru reading Linguistics and English Language.
at 1 p.m. all the prospective students were to attend a speech about their chosen course.
So basically, linguistics covers phonetics, morphology, syntax, lexis, semantics and pragmatics.. not only of English of course, but of all languages! You can study all languages without having to learn them, there's over 6000 languages in the world, and I don't think I can quite manage to learn all of them so it's clearly very handy haha!
The English language side of things covers dialects, history and the like of the language.
The university is involved in major research concerning bilingualism and psycholinguistics, amongst other things. They even have their own MRI scanner!! A subsidised Welsh course is available which naturally, I will be taking.. it would be both rude and foolish, given my chosen course, not to. The university is situated in Bangor, a tinytiny city (the smallest city in the UK, incidentally) in North Wales and apparently, in that area they are VERY Welsh which obviously, equates to lots and lots of practice! Secondly, from a bilingual study point of view, where better to be?!
At 2:30 I was to be interviewed (although I already have a place there so I suppose more of a chat?) by the head of the department. It was fantastic, you know when you're having a discussion and you're just, for want of a better expression, bouncing off one another? Rarely have I experienced such a discussion in my life, it was simply wonderful, and just to think when I go there I will be engaging in such discussions on a daily basis just makes me glow. Speaking of stuff which makes me glow, I have the best frictave of a first-time Welsh speaker that she (the woman 'interviewing' me) has ever heard and told me that I am a very talented linguist!
Whilst I was talking I realised that it would be more beneficial to do linguistics than to do Scandinavian since, passionate as I am about Scandinavian languages, I've pretty much covered language learning, for 8 years at school and college, it's time for something new, the 'science' of it all. Besides, all is not lost for Scandinavia and I, my knowledge of those languages can be incorporated into my work in linguistics and I can carry on learning, and probably learn better since, after all I'm going to be learning the real 'mechanics' of language structure and acquisition etc.
Another element to the course which I keep forgetting, is that I get the opportunity to get a certificate in teaching English as a foreign language which is a nice little bit of a bonus.

When I was on the train home I did a lot of thinking. And to be perfectly honest the only things that make me a little sad about not going to UCL are 1. the fact that I spent a whole YEAR out, so that I could get the grade to go to UCL and "chase my dream." 2. a more prominent and shallow worry, the sheer status of UCL it's at least the 5th best university in the WORLD and to give that up makes me feel funny. I feel like a sellout. But I can always do my Masters at UCL, or even abroad! How exciting.
Though I feel pretty certain that I'm making the right decision. I'll talk it over with my dad when he gets home from Italy though, to "make sure" or some such shit haha.

Oh and, the best part - the university looks like Hogwarts!
I am so excited that I could POP! But I won't.

Kauniita unia, folks! :)