Well that was genuinely stressful. I actually can't believe it's all over in a matter of clicks. I'm not going to reveal my decision just yet (though my Facebook friends...everyone that's following me on here will already know what I've chosen), so I'll give you a bit of background information behind my conundrum.
I'd long decided that it would be between Nottingham and Warwick. Interestingly, in my epic blog about all my possibilities, Nottingham reigned supreme, and if I remember rightly, Warwick wasn't even on the list, which is rather bizarre considering it's suddenly jumped o the fore front of my choice list, regularly being referred to as my "Insurance" choice in conversations. And yet, over the past months, Nottingham has been doubted, and Warwick was gradually getting closer and closer to the top. So in order to contribute to my final decision and having already seen the stunning Nottingham campus, I ventured to Warwick to even the odds.
I should make the point that only one factor of them has a bearing - Italian or not. Warwick offers Italian, Nottingham doesn't. The French part is super similar.
The venture did absolutely nothing except confuse me even more as to where I want to go. The Nottingham campus is more picturesque, with the Warwick campus seemingly more city-like. I prefered the Nottingham French department as it seemed much more like a University building, and had much more character about it. The Warwick French department was much more modern, full of kind of boring, long corridors. I did prefer the Warwick Students' Union, but only fractionally. I couldn't tell the accommodation apart, but for the fact that the Nottingham accommodation is very slightly more expensive. This was getting as hard a decision as a fat person trying to choose between Burger King and Maccy Ds - BK has the better chips, Maccy's has the better burgers...actually, fuck that, BK wins every time but the price. Major issue there.
Jesus, what the hell was I supposed to do? They both are so incredibly similar, I genuinely couldn't make a decision. I had to go back to the Italian or not conundrum.
Pros of Italian:
Ability to learn a 4th language.
Improved chances of getting a major job in later years.
Cons of Italian:
A lot more work. A lot more.
A risk of starting a totally new language from scratch that I may not like anyway.
See what I mean? Pros and cons are the biggest piss-take in history. I'd done all my research into them and I couldn't tell them apart. Warwick even gained first place for a while. But then I remembered an absolutely crucial point that I hadn't even considered yet. It was so blatantly obvious, I completely missed it. It was hiding in plain sight.
Nottingham was where my heart was set on from the word go. Everything about it was perfect. The location. The nightlife. The course. The Students' Union. The accommodation. Everything was perfect. I realised that I only considered Warwick because of its name and status. Nottingham has a superb reputation for languages, it's the best University for research in the UK and is in the Top 10 of teaching standards year in year out. I was naive enough to think that a name would be better than what I truly wanted. I want to be fluent in French. That's it. No fancy flowering with Italian. French is my favourite language and has been since I started learning it (yes, even under the guidance of Miss Rees). French is better than Welsh, English, German, Italian, any language I've ever heard before. It gets annoying at times with all the grammatical rules that you have to follow, but after a while, you get used to it. Imagine how hard it must be for French people learning English with all the stupid little tiny things the language has, the different sentence structure, the 've at the end of should/would/could and all. It makes sense now. French will hopefully be the most important aspect of my life. I have a lifelong ambition to just fuck off to France for the rest of my life. Nottingham can help me do that.
Nottingham. Say hello to your new potential undergraduate. Scary, right?
God, this sentimental business doesn't look good, I better add something at the end.
Hayley Williams is hot.
Ahh, that's better.