Homeward-Bound

So tomorrow I fly back home for Christmas, I'm very excited to see my family especially from being ill for the last couple of months. I have decided to rest completely whilst home until I  have visited my GP and made a full recovery. This will allow me to concentrate on my work completely and put all my effort and energy into my work ready for my return in January.

The main project I will need to complete over the break is my magazine and  begin my booklet for my History class. I started researching for my booklet in the beginning stages of the project so this will help me alot over Christmas with how far behind I feel. Hopefully in a week or two I will be back on track and making vast progress in my work. I can say however on a positive note that my postcard project is completed and I am really happy with my work I have produced. I will blog about my work and the project soon.

NAP x

Cyprus Family Christmas

Whilst I have been ill my group of friends arranged a weekend away in the mountains for us to spend time together before our deadlines and the break for Christmas. We rented cars and a private villa for the weekend and headed to a small village just past Paphos. This was for us all to spend some time all together as when we return after Christmas only 6 of us out of 10 will be staying the full year. We visited the historic tourist site, Baths of Aphrodite, where it is believed the goddess of love and beauty used to bathe in a the small pool of the natural grotto. We also went on a little nature trail to see the full views across the bays and the landscape around us.

We also held our own Christmas day here with secret Santa, a quiz and a lovely Christmas dinner cooked by the boys with personal Christmas crackers for each of us. We also set up a photo booth with props we made out of card. It was a great way for us all to have a break away from work for a day.

I am still recovering and resting from being ill, I have now decided to rest completely until I am back home and visited my own GP. I will then continue with my work over the break for my return in January.

NAP x

Missing the NHS

Unfortunately I have been very unwell lately and my work has suffered because of this. Most of my time has been spent resting or traveling to see the doctor and visiting the hospital for further diagnosis and scans. This has also drained my energy and been quite expensive for me. The experience of visiting the doctors here has made me really appreciate our healthcare in the UK.

Through out being ill, I have notified my tutors of my circumstances and how it is affecting my work and they have been very understanding. I have been to talk briefly with them before I return home for Christmas with the current stages of my work and to arrange a plan of action with them. I have currently finished around 10 of my final 12 postcards needed and will be giving over 5 of my favourites to my tutor for production before I leave for Christmas. With my magazine I have around 10 of the final 24 required spreads and have arranged with both tutors to try my hardest to catch up with work over the break. I will also need to make a start on my conceptual booklet required for my history module, with some knowledge in the era I have chosen I will only need some brief research on what I will want to include in my book. I plan to have most of my work completed ready for my return in the new year and talk through with tutors to make any changes then.

NAP x

Troodos Mountains

At the weekend I attended a trip run by the Erasmus group here in Nicosia for all Erasmus students.  We took a coach to the Troodos mountains, a 3 hour drive to spend the weekend there. Within the mountains were little villages that we got to explore for ourselves with plenty of organised visits to some traditional houses for us too. We began our trip by arriving at a sweet factory to see how traditional Cypriot sweets are made and the full process of how they are produced. We then visited a rose house which the village was most well know for, unfortunately most roses had been picked by this point and were no longer able to see in the fields. We ventured to another little village further along the road, famous for its bread, and visited a nearby church and artefacts room, it was fascinating to me to see the culture and history of the religion in Cyprus. Further into our incline of the mountain range we came by the side of a remote waterfall, I found the scenery stunning and a perfect autumnal atmosphere surrounded us.

Once we reached our accommodation we all invited for a traditional Greek meze feast, I unfortunately wasn't feeling very well and had to miss out on the night ahead. The next day we had the pleasure of meeting a chocolatier based within Troodos who specialises in a certain brand of chocolate. We were handed plenty of samples and giving a brief history talk on chocolate and the process taken to make it.

Overall the trip was full of plenty to see and do, unfortunately due to me feeling unwell, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have like to. I would love to return to the mountains and see them in a different season as a contrast to the amazing autumn scenes I saw this weekend.

NAP x

History Brief Revealed

Our brief was finally given to us this week for my History module, I am required to produce a booklet with a minimum of 20 double page spreads on a given design era. We have been given a week to choose from a list of eras in this brief, however I have already made my decision to create my booklet on Art Deco. I have started my research briefly as I am starting to feel unwell and will hopefully soon be able to pick up when I'm feeling better.

Hercules & Eris

Meet the newest and littlest members of our family here in Cyprus, rescued from the horrendous storms we've been experiencing lately. I've decided to name them both after a Greek god and goddess with some help and history from my Greek classmates.

NAP x

Mid Terms

In my previous post I explained about my contribution with a new friend I made here and his Photography work. He showed me some of his final photos he is planning on using from both shoots and also mentioned that he will be entering them into an exhibition soon.

This week was our midterm critic's is class for the progress of our work in all projects. I began the week discussing my magazine spreads I had been working on and how I had interpreted the articles I found. It was great to see everyone's concept for their magazine and a variety of styles and the dynamic in the class of peoples way of presenting and talking about their work. This month I have been working on the logo development, typography choices, cover and some very early spread designs and grid layouts to experiment with the concept and identity of my magazine. I have also really enjoyed my design for production module and how my work is coming along in this class too. I have many ideas and concepts for each of my 12 needed postcards and will be putting them all into a digital format to work on them as a group.

This week I also had an exam on my Greek language and all that I had learnt from the previous weeks. My friend Vasilis had been helping me revise and setting my tasks to learn in preparation for my exam so I felt confident. I am really enjoying learning the language and feel I know a lot from my classes, mixing with the Greek classmates and trying to speak the language to people around me.

NAP x