By Jeanette Saptavini
New semester, new modules and new friends! I was so excited. After I spent my winter holiday back to Indonesia my home country, I’m finally ready to start the new semester. I was excited to meet some new friends since half of my classmates from last semester went back to their home countries. And yes I did make new friends during this new semester, although not as many as last semester but they were also nice and fun.
This semester went so quickly and suddenly I had to go back to the library. Well I enjoyed my time in the library where I can meet my friends, but I thought it was too early to go back there. But I have three assessments to do and one of them is a group assessment.
I love working in groups. Last semester I had an amazing group work with five other members and we were all from different countries and talk different languages. My last group was all men, and this semester I have to work with all women. It was a great experience to find the different dynamic between working with men and women. Of course both of the teams were amazing to work with. This semester I learnt about team dynamic too then it is interesting to know how individual’s behavior during teamwork.
Anyway, back to my life in the library. Northumbria has lots of comfortable places to study but my favorite place is the basement in library. My first assessment that I have to hand in is the proposal for my dissertation. I spent almost twelve hours everyday in the library. It doesn’t mean that I study all the time there, but that it’s a good feeling when you are in the library. It feels like you are studying but actually I just hang out and talk with friends. Having friends to work with is motivating me but sometimes they can be my distraction too.
About my dissertation proposal, it was quite stressful for me. I had no topic until one week before the submission. My lecture suggested me to meet one of her colleague in Durham to discuss about my topic. I arranged a meeting with him and he was a busy man, so I decided to visit him in Durham because I was the one who needed him. But something bad happened the day when I had to go to Durham. I was sitting in the train ready to go to Durham, suddenly there was an announcement that there was a gas leak problem around Durham area so all trains were cancelled. I lost my hope to discuss my topic and I called the guy to apologize that I couldn’t come for the meeting. He was ok with that and agreed to reschedule. The problem was his next available time was the day when I had to submit my proposal. So I went back to library and did my own research. I read lots of books and articles. Finally I got the topic and able to submit the proposal on time. The best thing is my proposal got approved without any revision needed.
I felt like I deserved a break from the library, but no I couldn’t. The next two weeks after my proposal submission I need to submit two more assessment. So yes I went back to the library. I remembered one of my friends from France used to come to library with her luggage. She brought clothes, toothpaste and everything to support her time in library. She also spent one night in the library. I though that maybe I need to do that. But thankfully I did not need that. I prefer to sleep at home but yes I can call library my second home since I spent more time in this place than in my house.
At the end I succeeded to submit all my assessments on time and was able to write this blog. Well I am writing this in the library so yes this place is my second home.
