Arrival in the Land of the Free and the Home Of The Daft.

That title refers to two separate places, by the way.

As you may know, folks, I have recently "upped sticks" and wandered my way over to Germany. It was a good decision. I'm glad I made this decision. Even though the weather is too hot to function.

After a week and a half of living in a Youth Hostel, I finally moved into my actual flat last Thursday. It's great. I get my own bedroom, and food, and a bathroom... And I'm living with a dude*, which is new and weird. You don't think it's going to be a big deal until you realise there are certain things you can't do any more. Don't get me wrong; I shared a house last year and I know how to be a vaguely tolerable housemate. I don't walk around naked or anything, and nobody has ever walked in on me in the bath. But there really are things you take for granted when you live with four other girls that you can't do if you're sharing with a guy.

Anyway, that's not what I was pondering. I was actually pondering the small differences that exist between life in Germany and life in the UK. They're silly things really, stuff you'd never even think of. But they exist nonetheless, and they make everything seem that little bit more alien. Here is my rundown:

They say you never forget your first -
Braunschweig's Amplemann.

Crossing the Road
This might seem like a weird one, but it's a serious consideration here. Jaywalking is illegal, with an on-the-spot fine of up to 25€ (as far as I remember), which is particularly enforced if you're caught doing it in front of children. Some days, this can add five to ten minutes onto my walk into work. You don't realise how often you cross a road before the lights go green in the UK. And it's a pain in the tush if there's no traffic coming and you still can't go. (Equally, traffic turning right onto the road you're crossing can still turn right. It just has to not hit you in the process, even if the little green man is showing.)
Also, I've found my first real life Ampelmännchen. :D EXCITING!

People
This is the bit where I talk about the dude I'm living with. He is the MOST GERMAN man I have ever met. Seriously. How is anyone even that German? His surname takes up two lines of space on the letterbox. He wears almost entirely black and listens to scary metal music. He does one of the most efficient sounding jobs I have ever heard of. He drives a van (I don't know why I find this particularly German, I just do) and last week he literally ate a singular sausage with mustard for dinner. He even suffers from what my father affectionately calls "The German Affliction" (smoking).
And the lady dudes at work aren't much less stereotypical. They've all got incredibly German names, like Annika and Britta, and they do that German lady thing of always wearing scarves and vests and getting into work really early to make sure they reserve their desks with towels...
Plus, most conversations I have with them are about food. Or alcohol.**
Stereotypes. They really do exist for a reason.

Breakfast
What sort of self-respecting country eats breakfast off a board? Germany, that's who.

Pasta
Apparently, pasta sauce made of beetroot, hotdog and whatever other vegetables and spices you have in the sparsely-stocked kitchen is a typical DDR meal. Apparently.
I'm not sure I believe that but, unlike some people around here, I wasn't actually born in the DDR. Something something communist rant.

(It was actually really tasty, I just wasn't expecting it.)

Mealtime Manners
You don't eat until everyone has their food. Obviously this is the same in the UK, but you always get the sort of "please start, don't all wait on ceremony" fandango going on. In Germany, you wait until everyone is seated and ready to actually begin the eating process, then you say "Guten Appetit" and then you eat. It's nice really, then everyone feels like they're included. (NB. My main experience of this is in a cafeteria, where you have to wait for everyone to sit down with their food.)

Flexitime
Awesome. This is a great idea. I know it exists in the UK, but it seems to be more common/widespread here. There are certain "core times" that you have to work (where I am it's between 10:00 and 15:00), but otherwise you can do whatever, as long as you average your total number of hours per week.
The only problem I have with flexitime is that I don't always have enough to do at the moment. Because we're not in our peak season, there isn't always enough work for me to be getting on with. This means that there is a lot of time where I have to make my own work to ensure I'm filling the minimum requirement for the week and not slacking off at 4:30 every day. Regardless of what my workload is, my hours are still the same.

Supermarket checkouts
Anyone who's used Lidl or Aldi in the UK will have a vague idea of how this works. German supermarkets don't usually have that nice long space at the end of the checkout that means you can take a bit of time packing your bags. Everything is thrown at you and pay is demanded as soon as the cashier is done. If you're not packed by then, you're in the way of the next person.
However, unlike in the UK, the person behind you is probably not going to be sympathetic of the fact that you're only twenty and haven't had to do your own shopping for much longer than a year.
You're a strong German woman, mein Gott, can't you go any faster?
I'm not German, I'm a Brit. I get sunburn and I apologise for literally everything.
Literally.
Sorry.

Achso ja, that's it really. They're the ones that immediately spring to mind. I'm sure there are others, like not walking in the cycle lanes, but you'll probably hear about those over time. My plan isn't to turn this blog into a year abroad blog, but I am now living in Germany, so you'll have to get used to the fact that I'm going to talk about German things a lot. ("What's new?" I hear you say. Yes, I can hear you through the internet.)


*I often use "dude" as an agender epithet, but for the purposes of this blog post, "dude" is male and "Lady dude" is female. I don't have to refer to anyone of any other gender in this post. When I do, I'll think of something.

** I'm fully aware that these aren't all standard German stereotypes, but they exist a lot throughout Germany, so I'm using them.




EDIT: Daniel gave up Smoking about two months ago, and he's doing really well. He's not killed anyone yet or anything.

Sorry It's Been So Long

Hey guys, sorry it's been such a long time since my last post, I've had exams and goodness knows what else.
If anyone out there in Internetland is still reading this, here is a quick rundown of the last few months:

- Exams. I had four, I think. They were so long ago I've forgotten. For these, I had some short questions (what the history students call) "gobbets";  reciting chunks of information on automatic recall, some grammar questions and several essays and overall I was happy with the way they went.
- End of term preparations and celebrations, including the URN Boat Party, as well as various other bits. Possibly my favourite part of the last few months, as this included visits from my Grandad and his friend Jean, and Matt, the aforementioned Boat Party and several meals out and meeting ups with various people.
- Results. Happily, I passed my first year at uni with a good enough average for me not to be disappointed in myself. Thankfully, this means I'll be back in September in fabulous Nottingham!
- New House. We moved into our new student digs for next year at the beginning of July. As expected, some work needs to be done to make it home, but a trip to Lidl went some way to improving things...
- Phatpocket. Once again I return to work under the "watchful" (absent) eye of Scott, and am merrily reunited with my friends and colleagues, including the elusive Dannii, who returns for another summer. And Matt, of course. He's there too.

So my main pondering for this post, given the changes that have occurred since the last one, and the fact that I'm sitting in the departure lounge of Heathrow, is travel. It's strange how we often describe life as a journey, but so many of us spend the majority of it in one place. Whilst it is not the most ecologically friendly thing to do, I fully believe that people become fuller and more well rounded individuals through travelling and experiencing different cultures and societies. It really does change your perspective of things, even if only in a small way.

However, now that I'm going through what I'm sure I will consider one of the greatest transitions periods of my life (when I look back in years to come), I'm beginning to realise what people mean by "the journey of life". You may well spend your time on this planet all in one place, but that doesn't mean you don't travel incredibly far from what you have been.

Especially in a time when, as a young adult (and I don't mean that in the patronising way parents and teachers always use it, I mean it in its most literal sense) things such as bill paying and part-time employment have entered my sphere of consciousness. It's easy to forget that things some people take for granted, such as setting up utilities accounts, travelling by means other than one's own feet or parent taxi, and deciding whether or not our house actually needs a TV licence under the current confusing guidelines, especially if you're old enough to have been doing those things for ten, twenty, or even thirty years. When you step onto that path, it really is a new and confusing world, and probably one of the biggest ways in which we travel as we mature in the "journey" of life.

Thanks for listening to my semi-philosophical, semi-confused-and-talking-to-myself ramble. Hopefully it won't be as long until the next post. I wonder if anyone is still reading this anyway?

So, Books And That...

Well, I know it's been a while, but... Alright, alright calm down. I know it's been a long time. Just, just leave it OK?

ANYWAY... I don't really have a lot to say about anything today. I'm back at Phatpocket for a few weeks over Easter (hence the title). Man, I thought I liked books. After today I never want to see another book again, especially it it says "All England Law Report" on the spine. Or anywhere else for that matter.
But I have realised that I definitely want several plastic cratey-pallatey-things, NOT full of books, to use as various shelters and hidey holes and maybe a treehouse.

I'd love to have a treehouse.

So, whilst the rest of the world has been busy revising. I've been lifting and carrying books to and fro. Hardly educational or what-have-you, but certainly entertaining at times; and it;'s earning me some money, so I can't complain too much!

And the company isn't too bad; it's mostly the same people that were here last time, except Ollie - he's new. And Paul - he joined when I was there; he's basically been hired to do the job that Scott should do, but passes onto Chloe and Anya.

SO yeah, work is the same as ever; just with fustier books. But at least I'm blog writing again :)

My Meandering Brain

OK, this is hardly surprising for regular readers of my blog, but that last post seemed to go off at somewhat of a tangent. The post was meant to be about how everything is slowly sorting itself out in my life, not about how my life is complete now that I have a boyfriend and a job.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that just because I am now receiving a slightly higher income than 0p per month this does not mean that my life is now perfect. Furthermore, I am not suggesting that I or anyone else needs a job to be happy. Some work can make you happy and part of what makes my job so enjoyable is the people there (hence the huge tangent.) All I meant was that it is one less thing for me to worry about now and therefore one less thing to write about.

Likewise the boyfriend situation. Miss MacNeill and Sophie R,  if you are reading this I am not saying that a significant other is important for making one feel happy, merely that it's one less thing that I can moan about to all and sundry.

My real point was meant to be that things are finally picking up in my life where they have previously been points for me to complain incessantly about and that this might, in the long run, hail the end of my wonderful (under appreciated) blog. Even my weird and wonderful Uni crisis has sorted itself out; I am now going to study German at Nottingham, not what I originally planned, but I think it's the right choice. As My Grandad and Dad often say, everything happens for a reason.

Anyway, as you can see, this post is more accurate and on topic than my last post. Why does this always happen? And so, dear readers, I must be going now as the Land of Nod awaits. Much love and that x

The End of "Stuff..."?

Hello Internet folks, I am currently pondering a dilemma and I wonder if you can help. (Although, given your usual level of response to this blog, I am not holding out much hope!) It's not a big problem to be honest, quite the opposite, but it may mean the end of this blog forever...

You see, my problem is that I don't actually seem to have any problems right now.

I have a job which, although it's not the best job in the world, I'm earning money from. And sure, it's kind of boring and the pay's not as good as it could be, but any job which you can do with minimal qualifications will be boring and, given that I'm not entitled to minimum wage, I actually earn more than I would in a bar or in most shops. Plus everyone is really nice which, for me, is more important than the work itself. And it's not like I'm even just saying that; literally everyone is nice.

There's Graham, who works for "the agency" (dun dun duuuun) but is planing on going full time. Graham has been really nice to me since I started working there, but his jokes are awful! Then there's Dannii, who only works a couple of days a week, but is absolutely lovely and I always spend too much time talking to her because she's so interesting. Also prescanning is Caroline who, although she seems lovely, I haven't had much chance to get to know, but she's always so happy and smiley. In my recent job development, I've been working more closely with Mark (who wants to join the army) and Richard (who wants to be a Social Worker/Social Work teacher, but works doing whatever he can whilst he's waiting to get the job he wants.) Mark and Richard are both great guys, although they do sometimes talk a little loudly, especially about things which should probably not be repeated here. And the army. Then, of course, there's Chloe and Anya. When the Boss isn't around, Chloe and Anya effectively run the joint; they are in charge of all the admin, all the orders, paying everyone, running meetings and making sure everyone knows what's going on. They're amazing at what they do, even if I annoy them sometimes. Then there's Matt...

I think Matt deserves a paragraph to himself. As most of you will have seen, Matt is my fantastic new boyfriend. Yes, we are that nauseating couple. No, we don't mind. Yes, we know how awful we are, but it's OK because Becky, who is terrified of inter-personal relationships says we're not just that couple, because we're also funny together. Errr, yay?

So, as you see, there is nothing for me to write whiny blog posts about any more. Does this mean the end of "Stuff I Ponder"??!?!?!?!?!

Well, in a word, "no." Weird and wonderful stuff is still guaranteed to happen in my life; I'm still doing the scouting (we've got the Beach Weekend this weekend) and I'm about to head off to Uni, which should provide many an interesting story. Plus, with a boyfriend in tow, there'll even be someone to share it with!

P.S. Good luck Mark for today and tomorrow!

My New Job

PhatPocket. It's such an American name. Which makes sense, because the manager (and owner, as far as I can tell) is American. So, as many of you know, I got a new job recently. Therefore I have been pondering it.

My job itself is incredibly weird. I'm a PreScanner, which means that I arrive at 9.30 and spend five minutes or so piling books onto my desk in about six stacks, each about two foot high, then I scan them all into a computer programme or, if they're old enough not to have barcodes, I enter the ISBN number by hand. The programme tells me whether the book should be accepted by the company to sell on or not. If the book is accepted then I have to judge its condition (good, very good, acceptable, library or non-library etc.) and put it on the relevant shelf. If the books are rejected by the system, then they're thrown in the recycling (literally thrown, it's great fun) or put in a box for the School Aid charity in Africa.

Alternatively, it seems to be an actual company policy that books which would otherwise be thrown away can be taken home if we want them for ourselves.

As a first job, this is both excellent and crazy at the same time; unlike many employers, PhatPocket don't take advantage of the fact that under 22 year olds aren't required to receive minimum wage and pay everyone equally. What's more, the job is the perfect balance of sitting at a desk all day and strenuous physical exercise; every so often a new crate of books is required, or the bins have to be moved, or we have to get a new trolley to fill with books, all of which are quite laborious jobs.

Other hilarious aspects of the job include some of the stories told by my co-workers (most of which involve drinking), and the day we had a huge amount of frogs in the warehouse. Being on a farm, there is a high chance of escaping wildlife; a lamb apparently got into the warehouse in the spring. A few weeks ago I arrived at work to be told that there were baby frogs everywhere and that I should be incredibly careful where I trod. This then led to a mass exodus of tiny frogs from the warehouse to the pond and a lot of watching where I walked for the rest of the day.

Frogs apart, Margaret is the funniest thing to have happened in my time working at PhatPocket.  When conditioning the books we often find interesting and questionable things being used as bookmarks. The most notable of these was a plain brown envelope simply addressed to "Margaret". Although not that outstanding in itself, this envelope and what it has grown to represent have changed our lives forever. Margaret has become a cult figure at work; one of the men has considered leaving his wife for her and everyone has been accused of secretly being Margaret as a cunning ruse. On Friday we found an actual address for (probably a different) Margaret and we are planning to send her a letter in the near future.

There is so much more to tell you, including the 11:00 read, the collection of "That's not my..." books and how scary Mark is, but this post is becoming unbearably long and there'll be time for it all in another update on my life. Suffice to say that I am (somehow) enjoying my new, quite boring, job and I look forward to the next several weeks of my working life. Primarily because the other benefits of this new job are excellent, but more about them another time... ;)

Exams (Yes, it's that time again...)

Dust off the revision guides and get out those massive (and incredibly cool now that hipsters are a thing)  reading glasses, it's revision time again! Yes, the time of year where we ponder the previously pondered is upon us. We all know what this means; it means that we should've all been relearning what we've already learnt before we've even learnt it since about February, because otherwise WE WILL ALL FAIL AND NOBODY WILL EVER LOVE US EVER AGAIN!!!!!

Just me? Oh, OK then :)

For myself and my peers, this year holds a much greater threat than any other previous year. As Nicole said in RS the other day: "Before, if we did badly, we could just resit. Our pride would be hurt, but that's about all. Now, if we do badly, we don't get into university and the rest of our lives are ruined." Ok, so I don't agree with the ruined lives bit, but this is effectively true. Whilst there are some universities (apparently St Andrews is one of these) which prefer to offer places to people who have already secured their grades and have gained a little life experience, the fact that one is required to retake some A Levels does not sit well with many places of study. Plus, as my Dad points out on every available occaison "taking a gap year and traveling the world is one less year in which you could be earning." Unless you work through your accidental gap year (yay), but then again, who would want to employ someone who doesn't even have A Levels (or at least good A Levels) in this day and age?

Grade inflation has a lot to answer for.

Plus, if you do get a job during your gap year, it can only really be part time because, of course, you have to revise for those fabulous exams again. And this time is even more serious because there's no way you'd be considered for anything if you had to redo your A Levels twice.

Or maybe none of this is really a possibility and I'm just panicking because at my school we're all expected to be able to recite Pi to several thousand digits by the end of year seven.

A Driving Ambition?

Welcome back, Internet Dwellers, to my cave of mystery. My name is Plato (not really) and I have many wonderful things to discuss with you. Or not. At all.
Today I am pondering driving, because I am terrified of it. And I thought I'd let y'all know.

So basically, whilst I am enjoying learning to drive and am looking forward to the day when it will be another skill I can claim I have, I am also worried that, every time I get behind the wheel of a car, I'm going to break/damage some poor, unsuspecting citizen. Or Jason.

Jason. No, sorry, that's Andre...

For those of you who don't know, Jason (Peter Andre) is my driving instructor. He is known as Peter Andre because that's who he reminds my parents of. (Sorry Jason, if you're reading this, but then again, I don't know why you would be. Actually, it's not exactly rude, so I'm not sure there's anything to apologise for apart from giving you/him a nickname that wasn't known about.)

Anyway. Driving is possibly the most scary thing I have ever done. Ever. Including Operation Saw which wasn't actually that scary, but involved beans. How can people do this on a daily basis? If you do it wrong, you die. Then you're dead. Forever.

Also, why did anyone ever invent the car? We would have no need for them if the buses and trains worked better; if we didn't have cars we'd be healthier because people would be more inclined to walk short journeys. Buses would run better because there'd be more need for them and less traffic and they'd cost less because there wouldn't be such a need to conserve petrol, lowering fuel prices.

Plus there would be far, far less pollution; cars produce more CO2 per person than any form of public transport, including planes and boats. Not having cars would reduce that, especially with things like commuting and school runs which often only have one or two people in the car anyway, whichis even worse.

Sorry, rant over. But basically, once I pass my test, I will not be driving very often if I can possibly help it.

P.S. I found out why Ashley's hair is now the colour of a banana wrapped in sunshine. If you don't know, then I'll leave the surprise for you to discover for yourselves.

Passing The Time Between Sleeping

Hey, sorry it's been so long - yet again - since I last posted (not that anyone reads this anyway, unless I put a link on Facebook). Anyway, I've been all over the place recently, doing all sorts of stuff for various motives. What I thought would be an easy way to ease myself back into this would be to briefly outline everything I've been pondering (well, everything relevant) and maybe revisit them at a later time if I feel the need.

SUBJECT: University Entry
REASON FOR PONDERING (RFP): Education
EXPAND? Basically, by October 15th, I have to have decided the next apart of my future. Hazzah(!) Anyway, it's a lot of stress, because I have no idea what to think/do and, even though I know what I want to study, I'm worried I won't get into the place(s) I want to get into. And filling out the UCAS form continues to be a pain (ask my Dad...)

SUBJECT: School
RFP: Education
EXPAND? Once again, I have my nose thoughtlessly shoved up against the grindstone of the everyday system. Once again, I am having to wake up at 7.15 (yes, I know that lots of people have to wake up a lot earlier than I do, but I'm really not a morning person) and get into school, but this time I am adorned with more responsibilities and even more work, most I which I asked for (obviously not the work).

SUBJECT: EPQ
RFP: Education (again)
EXPAND: OK, for those who don't know, the EPQ (which stands for Extended Project Qualification) is exactly that. I have to do a long and interesting project on the removal of the prisoners' right to vote; it's actually really interesting (well, for me at least) and I'm really enjoying the work I'm doing, but I'm finding that I don't know what to research and I'm constantly worried that I've not done enough, even though I have done a lot of work for it. I also don't seem to have the time to get as much done as I want.

That in mind, I'm going to stop writing this now and actually get on with something useful, probably the EPQ. I'm sorry this turned into a rant about education, but that seems to be what's dominating my life at the moment. Much love xx

Coping with Stress

Hey sexy beasts (and Stanley). Today, for obvious reasons, My ponderings (ponderances? Ponders? Ponderations?) have been on stress, anger and how people deal with such things. What do people do to "release" themselves? I have some friends who work best under stress and don't like bing too relaxed around exam time. I have another friend who combats stress by doing more work, to prove she can. I have yet other friends who relieve their anguish by baking which is lovely, but means everyone I know will have diabetes and heart disease by the time they're 20, including me, but I was going that way anyway.

 

Other people do other things, such as trolling, dancing, sex, self-harm, knitting and a myriad of other, more socially acceptable things as stress-busting techniques. I, as always, have my own take on this. Personally, I do five things:

 

• Exercise; walk, cycle or cross train all my anger and stress away whilst listening to some arse-kicking power rock.
• Mind puzzles; solitaire, Majong, crosswords (to which I today answered slut and moist in the same puzzle) and www.memrise.com whilst listening to some arse-kicking power rock.
• Kick-arse power rock; sing, play, listen, annoy family with...
• Cry, shout, scream & get massively angry verbally. Usually at myself.
• Sleep. A lot.

 

These are all, I find, incredibly useful. As is eating, but I'm not allowed to do that any more :(
Another thing I do to stop from stressing/exploding is to change the topic of discussion, or what I'm thinking about. If I'm Stressed about exams, I'll think about saxophone music, or normal music, or about how awesome my life will be when all my exams are finished and I can finally do what I want. If I'm stressed about the future, or relationships (hahahahaha) or whatever, then thinking about work and upcoming projects is incredibly useful, or again thinking about music nc playing the saxophone keeps me from melting or something similar. If the stress is caused by an argument, I sleep.

 

Again, eating is also useful, but bad.

 

Comments?

The School Library

Today, as I have a free period and I have already "exhausted my grey matter" I am pondering the joys of our school library. There aren't many. We come in here to work during our "study periods", or free lessons, and usually end up discussing anything and everything, including (but not restricted to):

• Politics
• Facebook
• The many escapades of Ella's dog Zak
• Ditto Hannah's dog Merlin
• Jacqueline and Beccy's work experience with lambs
• Misa's plan to conquer the world/universe/multiverse
• Cake
• The Queen
• Fashion
• Sophie and Henry's suppressed sexual tension (or whatever)
• Phillip Crout (and Mrs Georgia Crout)
• Scouts/Rangers/Guides/Splorers
• How much work we have to do
• The effects of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome on the exam process

However, more often than not we sit, in our small groups, discussing the work with whoever happens to be sitting nearby. For example, today Jacqueline has been checking that her revision notes for Biology are correct, Misa and Maria have been discussing maths and, whilst I've been writing this, Ella has asked me to Goggle some physics-y thing for her.

Unfortunately the wonderful Mrs Compton doesn't seem to understand how people need to talk to each other sometimes for work to be effective; we can't always be competely independent. Some bloke once said "Man is not an island" or something similar. We should respect that; how can we check that our German essays are accurate if we can't ask people like Leila or Stanley, who know everything? Etc. etc.

I could go on about this all day but to be fair, there are some people who abuse the library. Somehow it goes unnoticed if  Stanley and Maria play Library tennis (which was really funny, we should do it again next year), but it is noticed when Oliver lies across the table and starts singing at someone (usually Chris). Yeah, that was awkward....

Examinations (Part the Second)

So, my ponderings are back for "part the two".

Adults and other old people often say that exams are getting easier. This is possible, but it is more likely that the number of opportunities we have to resit and increase our marks has practically tripled. Apart from the fact that our exam system now is spead out over several weeks, so that if you have a bad day on the day of English paper 1, you can  make up for it with English paper 2, you can also then redo English paper 1 in six months time. And if, after that, you are still not happy, you can resit again six months after that.

However, I'd like to point out that the a Level exams are NOT easy! A "friend" of mine in year 13 said that he knows people who are resitting their AS Level English paper again this month for the second time because the exam board requires three essays about six different texts to be written in two hours and that requires superhuman speed and agility (or something). Secondly, Chemistry is almost as bad; if you write one incorrect word, you can lose three marks. And we're not even talking key words, just the difference between "lots more" and "increase in" or whatever.

Personally, I think the government should have away with compulsory written exams, give people the choice as to whether they answer with a written piece, a verbal response or some other form of assessment, such as a practical exam (which there already are for some subjects) as that would be a much fairer way of assessing people based on their own skill set. Or, as they've begun to do in primary schools, continuous assessment throughout your time at school, rather than three weeks of pressure at the end of every year; in what possible way is that an accurate representation of someone's performance??!?!?!

Thanks for listening to my random and annoyed/annoying wafflings. Have a nice day and good luck in your exams!

Examinations (Part the First)

So, here I am in a German lesson (hooray!) and I find myself pondering, surprise surprise, the impending exam period. Written exams are actually the most pointless invention of the human race since someone decided that the eyelash curler would be a step forward. When do I ever need to be able to write a coherent essay after I finish in education? Surely being able to write a decent letter which achieves a purpose is a much more marketable skill? Or being able to physically tell the difference between Hydrochloric acid and water, rather than the different effects they have on the human body after consumption. Isn't it a bit late by that point?

And what about the sheer number of exams we have to participate in? Seriously, next Wednesday I have two exams on the same day and I have to write five essays. Five essays. When will I ever have to write coherently about "Frankenstein" under timed conditions again (with the exception of the retake I'll have to undoubtedly do in January)? How is it in any way useful to put teenagers under this much stress for four years? I'm not suggesting that we should have the old-style exams, where your entire future was balanced on one five-hour long paper on the history of the sock or whatever, but there has to be a better way!

Seeing as this is going to turn into a very long rant, I'll post the next bit as a separate post. Stay tuned (or something...)!