Complex sentence: After the stifling experience of school, Gibbons found the university exhilarating, and made numerous friendships among her fellow-students, particularly with Ida Graves, an aspiring poet who, although on a different course, attended some of the same lectures as Gibbons.
Split into simpler sentences: After the stifling experience of school, Gibbons found the university exhilarating, and made numerous friendships among her fellow-students. She formed a particularly close friendship with Ida Graves, an aspiring poet who, although on a different course, attended some of the same lectures as Gibbons.