End of Exams!

It seems we have been a bit lax with our posts this past month. It has been a busy one - filled with exams and essays or dissertation woes. May brought a couple weeks of beautifully warm and sunny weather in perfect time to distract us all from our studies. The grass by the lakes filled up with students having picnics and bbq's and kicking around footballs. More than one student ended up in the lake - whether intentionally or not who knows! More than once I heard students moan (and even did so myself) about the excess of sunny weather (imagine!) as it was preventing them from properly attending to their studies... Well mother nature played a cruel trick on us - as soon as people began finishing up exams, the weather turned and we remembered that we were in Britain, not Spain!


Today is the final day of exams, and it wouldn't be good English style if this significant date were not celebrated. Today's celebration is appropriately called 'The End'. Basically, the squares will fill up with students for one, huge, outdoor party. As I write, I am overlooking square 5 where I can see fences going up and a large set of porta-loos that are now lining the square. Though the rain is supposedly going to let up, the wind is wipping through the squares. I doubt, though, that the weather will dampen the celebrations... the English seem quite resistent to weather - just look at the 1.25 million people that lined the Thames on Sunday to watch the Queen's Jubilee celebrations on the river. It was a miserably rainy and cold day, but the crowds still came! Well, hopefully we will have an update and some photos of The End next week!


The other end of year tradition that is quite a new concept to me, is the Summer Ball. It puts any formal I have ever known to shame by combining a formal dance with a carnival. Everyone dresses up and there are DJs and bands (including a Queen tribute band this year...!) but there are also fair ground type rides and this year there is an ice palace, a skating rink and... an edible gingerbread house (?!). I'm intrigued. If you want to check out the entire line up, look at the SU page below:

http://www.essexstudent.com/sb12/

And the weather for Saturday? Well, there is no rain in the forecast!

The Uni of Essex Facebook page had this pic up last night to prove it! You can see a little glimpse of sun on Saturday, almost teasing us...


Check up on us next week, we'll have a post-event update to let you know how it all went! And some pics, too :)


Cheers,


Emily