Last week

I'm just going to tell you a bit about my last week because I feel like I did something that  could mention in my blog haha. Anyway here we go.

We had a different timetable last week and I'm not really sure why but we did which meant that I had college only on Wednesday and Thursday. So on Monday and Tuesday I was basically home the whole day and then had training in the evening on both days. Watching netflix has become a part of my life since lovely Nina borrowed her account to me and I've become so lazy.. I'm definitely gonna change that part! After all I did go to training so I'm not as lazy as I could be.

On Wednesday I just had college for 2h and we had our last company meeting before the college gig which was on Thursday. Most of you probably don't know what a company meeting is so we are basically having a meeting about all the things we need to do and have done before the gig. We have that every week and we decide all the things in that meeting, like what venue we are playing in, where does the money go to, deciding what job roles people are going to have regards the gig etc. and that is all recorded and we are using that as evidence in our folders where we have all our work that we've done during the year. After college I just went home and went trough all the songs that I'm performing, packed everything up for Thursday and went to sleep early because Thursday was gonna be a long day.

On Thursday I had to be at college for 12h....... From 9am to 9pm because we had our final college gig. I was in 2 bands and I did seven songs all together and the songs were: Treasure - Bruno Mars, Son of a Preacher man - Dusty Springfield, Somebody to love - Queen (we did the Glee version though), Forget you - Cee Lo Green, Killing me softly - Fugees, Happy - Pharrel Williams and The Hunter which was an original song that we did with the band. So the whole day we were just sound checking in the hall where we were performing as well. We also had to set up everything and pack it all down after the gig.

On Friday I had a day off from college as well so I was just home and in the evening I went to one badminton player's goodbye meal. She studied at Birmingham uni and that was her last day in England before she flew back home to Slovakia so we went for a nice meal in Frankie & Benny's.

On Saturday I spent the day home and I went for a run and just chilled inside. Even though I don't want to keep being lazy I still need my days when I don't do a lot haha.

Yesterday I went to town with Liam. We went to Nando's and watched Pitch Perfect 2 in cinemas. Everyone who knows me probably knows that I really enjoy films that have a lot of music in them or are about music so I did really enjoy that as well haha. In the evening I was just home chilling and I decided to write this post since I haven't written anything in a while.

I also got a really cute keyring from Loushanna since she came from

Jamaica!

 

Anyways I really hope you enjoyed this little post and just to let you know if there are any future exchange students or people who are thinking about being an exchange student you can always ask me questions! You can put comments in the box down below or send me a message in facebook if it's easier. I would love to answer all your questions, especially if you are thinking about coming to England since there aren't that many people in England as exchange students. You can put the questions in Finnish as well so I will answer them in Finnish if it's easier.

 

Hope you all had a nice week and I'm going to enjoy my next week since it's half term and no college. Yay!

 

-Hanna xx

Bath Bronze & Berkshire Silver

Helloo youu! I've been quite busy these last few weeks since I've had training, college and tournaments. So I thought that I could tell you about two tournaments that I was in these last few weekends. One of them was only for the Saturday 18th (Senior Bath Bronze) and the other one was for Fri-Sat 24th to 2th (Senior Berkshire Silver). Over here in England they have 3 different types of senior tournaments; Bronze, Silver and Gold. Since I don't really have a lot of points and my ranking in England isn't that high, I can basically go to all of them. So I'll start with Bath.

Bath

So because Bath was only for a day and the matches started around 9-10am we had to leave really early on Saturday. I was getting a lift from one guy's, Ryan's, dad since Ryan was playing there as well and I was playing mixed with him. Ryan's dad came and picked me up Friday evening and I stayed over night at Ryan's house from Fri-Sat because that was easier than for them to pick me up from home.

We had to wake up before 6am because we had to leave at 6.30 since we all had to be there about 30min before our matches and it took about 1,5-2h to drive there. Ryan's dad made us breakfast and we packed everything and left. Everyone was really tired in the car and people didn't really talk much. Wonder why.. :D

Breakfast<3

We arrived around 9am and went to the boys' hall because the girls' one wasn't open yet. Girls' matches started about 30min later so we hung out at the boys' hall for a while before we made a move. A couple things that I have noticed about the badminton halls here in England: 1. They don't have badminton mats, they only have like a wooden floor that has all the lines painted on it. 2.They don't usually have heating in the halls which is really weird because in Finland we have heating in the badminton halls at least when it's cold outside.

Girls' hall

Boys' hall (it was a lot bigger that was just the only

photo I was able to take haha)

The matches went well for me and I won the singles that weekend. In Finland we don't usually get money prizes but over here they almost always get them. I won £55 from winning the singles which is actually quite a lot of money (about 75€). I played the singles first and after that we had our mixed which didn't go that well.. We had our moments but this time it just wasn't enough and some of our opponents cheated the line calls as well.. I don't get why people can't play fairly? Why are people so desperate to win so they would cheat? Anyway we lost one mixed and won one so we didn't get trough our box.

Found this fróm the Girls' hall!

They tried to recruit me to Bath uni haha

Prize money ;)

After all our matches we went for a late night dinner with Ryan's and his dad's friends who were playing there as well. We went to a buffet place and they had all kinds of foods over there but unluckily I wasn't that hungry.. I still tried to stuff myself with food because there was so much of it and most of it looked good haha. Yes, I am quite picky about food so I mostly stick with the food that I know haha. After the meal we started driving home and can't remember the exact time when I was home but it was late haha.

Anyway I had a really fun Saturday and I absolutely fell in love with Bath! It's such a beautiful city and the university is just a dream haha. Who knows, that might be my future uni.. ;)


Berkshire

This tournament started already on Friday so I had to come straight home from college, pack rest of the stuff and head out the door. First I had to go to Birmingham New Street and then from there I had to catch one train that went to Reading and then a train that went from Reading to Bracknell. I had to do that all myself since my host mom couldn't come with an early train so she just came there later. Btw Reading train station is huge! I'm lucky I found my way out of there haha..

After I was safely in Bracknell, I asked them where the Hilton Hotel is and apparently I had to take a taxi to get there.. Anyway I had no cash so I had to walk to a high street with my really heavy badminton bag, get some money out of a machine and then walk all the way back. Well then I got a taxi and I got to the hotel so everything went ok. I'd never been in a Hilton hotel and I was quite excited because I always wanted to go to one haha. Well I'm just gonna say, it was nice.

I got to the hotel, checked in, went in to my room, stayed there a bit and had to leave to the hall. The hall was only like 10min walk from the hotel and it was basically straight all the time so it was easy. My doubles partner Til was already at the hall so I went with her.

My first match was a bit hard because well I was still tired from the last weekend and it was hard to keep the shuttle inside the lines.. When you tested the shuttle it was ok but when you played they were fast so.. But somehow I managed to win all 3 matches that I had on Friday and got to the semis in singles. My last match on Friday was at 10pm and I was a bit tired but luckily I was still able to concentrate. After my matches I walked to the hotel in the rain and showered and went straight to bed because I was tired and I had to wake up early the next morning.

I woke up around 7am (semi final was at 9am) and got everything ready and went to have some breakfast. The thing I hate about staying at a hotel during tournaments is that you can't really eat that much food in the morning, especially if you have to play quite soon after... And of course the Hilton hotel breakfast was amazing and I did eat too much haha.. There was just so much to choose from!

After breakfast I went in to my room, got all my stuff and left the room keyes with my host mom so she could give them to the reception when she'd leave. My match started on time and I was playing against the 2nd seeded. The match was okay but I lost in 3 sets, last one was 21-17.. It annoys me that it was so close and I could've won that match but I didn't manage to keep the shuttle inside the lines... Well at least I got in to the semi's. After that we had a double with Til and even though we should've won that, it didn't go so well and we lost. My host mom was already at the hall so I talked with her a bit and then I went to have a shower.

Meatball sub with cheese and bbq sauce! What a dream!!

We had a lot of time so we had to figure out something to do while we were waiting for our train to leave. Well we ended up talking first for about 2-3h at the hall then we caught a train and went to Reading, had to stay there for a couple hours and we talked that whole time as well and ate some food, and then we talked the whole journey from Reading to Birmingham New Street as well. At least the time went fast that way haha. Then we just caught a train from New Street to home and I was so tired I fell asleep quite soon after.

 

So this was how my two tournaments went and luckily I was able to enter them and everything went well. Have a lovely Tuesday!

-Hanna xx