In Advance of Cultural Exchanges

(Just as a foreword, I actually wrote this five days ago, but due to internet problems and the lack of a properly functioning short-term memory, it's only just being posted now)

"Cultural Exchanges" they tell me... Cultural... Exchanges...? At first I thought this was some kind of foreign exchange programme, but with extra added culture. Was my university planning to trade me for some French kid and ship me off to the Louvre? I still don't understand quite why it's called that, but never mind; that's its name.

Basically, the university has set up a week of talks, workshops, guests and events for us to go to and to learna nd become all cultured and stuff. In return for this, we get a week off lectures. Well, not all of us do. As far as I can work out, it seems to be only Drama and Creative Writing that are off and, seeing as those are the subjects I take, hello 'week off'. But they didn't really explain that to us properly in the beginning and thus one of my friends, who shall remain nameless, had arranged to go home for half the week and booked her bus/train/other form of public transport tickets before discovering that only half of her course was off. Oops... It's not just a week off though, our duty is to attend and we Creative Writers have been given the mission of adding to the blog (see this blog) to talk about it, so here I am!

My main problem with this week though is the limited places and occasional fee. Admittedly, I understand the fees, it's just that we're all students and are cheap. The bit I don't get is making certain things so limited. I've been hearing about things with only thirty places. If they want us all to go and take part in this event, shouldn't they have given us more seats? Having attempted to book a few events, I found that all but one of them were already full up. The only one from my first choice selection which hadn't been booked up was the one I was least interested in and thought was most likely to be full. But apparently not... And the range of subjects is a bit iffy in my opinion. The Drama students get their lessons off, but there are hardly any Drama things to get involved with, which seems a little odd. But alas, we shall have to try our best. I shall hopefully return to inform you on what happened.

Anon, blog readers... Anon.

Claire Baldwin

The practical details

Cultural Exchanges is a regular, week-long programme of events in and around the Faculty of Humanities of De Montfort University, Leicester. It's open to the public and most events are free. You can see the programme by clicking HERE.

The week runs from Monday, 25th - Friday, 29th February. On the Monday, as part of Cultural Exchanges, there's a conference on Slash Fictions and Fanfic. The programme can be found HERE, courtesy of Sheenagh Pugh's blog.

You are a successful businessperson...

Or maybe not. But we've got lots of them coming here, so if you've spent January procrastinating resolutions then stop reading this.

Well done! Oh, there's still a bit of sand in your hair - do brush it before you attend the slash fiction workshop (£20/£12 conc.) or perhaps Mark Clayton can help you make it in the music industry.

Either way, you have an oppourtunity here, and it would be a shame to waste it!

PS I'm being held hostage, but I must stress I was not forced to write this in any way, shape, or form.