More from the lovely Sam...

So, here is instalment number 2 from the lovely Sam at Westminster - enjoy!

Monday 27th September

Throughout this first week, Ive found myself picking my mouth up from the floor on several occasions. We've been given a USB stick with all of our course information on: book lists as long as our arms for each module, and c.v.s that couldn't be achieved in a life time. Its all quite a lot to take in.

We've been allocated a time table for the next 6 weeks, comprised of 9-5 Monday Friday working days. Thursday was the first time we sat down as a group and presented our summer projects: mood boards presenting our likes and dislikes to the rest of the class. Whats very apparent is how different we all are. As far as I'm aware, there are just a few female students who are just 18 who studied fashion for 2 years, and everyone else has just completed Foundations. I am 1 of 5 men, and I'm not the oldest! The whole show and tell experience was really funny and at other times, quite controversial. Students come from a range of places, including: Italy, Germany, Sweden, a few from the South, and a lot of people from the North.

All the course tutors seem really down to earth, just like their students. I keep saying it to myself, but within this whole experience, I'm learning so much about myself and other people. We all feel really supported, and the tutors are there, together, each lesson we've had. We've had a few speakers in so far, and last Tuesday, we were sent to fashion week to take pictures of models/journalists/bloggers/designers. I pissed off a lot of models by asking them what they did, to which they replied, A model if that's not obvious. It made us laugh. So from then on, we just asked people if they were models so we didn't harm anyone else's ego.

The day was really fun and it was a good opportunity for students to pull together and help each other out. Our friend Gina got us in the Vauxhall fashion show, presenting Swedish fashion students work. And in the evening, my friend got us into see Lee Patons show at Conway Hall. All in all, I think we really enjoyed the experience.

Besides working and looking forward to our rigorous schedule, throwing up has been a regular occurrence, but the party must go on! Today we have been split into two groups for life drawing, and have a model coming in that has worked with Galliano on many occasions, apparently. Word on the street says that our first making project is a denim project and we've got a Vogue journalist coming in to talk with us tomorrow. Pattern cutting classes are regular, and each Wednesday we have sewing lessons, with two technicians on hand. What an absolute luxury! There are a few first year students from last year, repeating the year. One of which travels from Brighton! I also found out that one student hasn't ever made anything! Its great that we have such a mix of abilities, amongst everything else. Our course director said that we only have to get 40% to pass this year, and that doesn't go towards our final degree. In the second year, we have a placement tutor that helps us (hopefully) fulfil our ambitions. It seems that although, they assure us we are worked extremely hard, they do value that we have fun outside of our courses, and the tutors really want us to help each other.

Last Thursday, we all signed up to a fashion board to help get guest speakers to come and talk to us. Apparently Tom Ford is on the cards! We've all submitted who we'd like to come in (and I couldn't help but put in a dream list as well).

Here's to another fun filled week of fashion and stomach bile parties!