Right I left of last time saying that I was going to update you on my timetable, I must say it's not too bad, but I do have a few early starts and no days off this semester! And there's also about twice as much contact time this year, so I've been a busy bee:
Monday:
4-5pm Small Groups
Tuesday:
9-10am Prac Lab
1-4pm Statistics and Research methods (ouch!)
Wednesday:
11-1pm Personality and Individual Differences
Thursday:
10-12pm Project Talks
1-3pm Learning and Language
5-6pm POPPS
Friday:
9-11am Social Psychology
So all in all not a bad timetable, but Thursday are pretty painful!
Anyway, it was my birthday last week and it was an eventful one to say the least. On the Friday I walloped my nose on Will's roof rack producing a very audible cracking noise and an instant feeling sickness! I decided not to go to A&E (possibly a mistake =P)and just went to bed with an ice pack on it. Then we went out on Saturday night to celebrate me getting old and we had only made it to the second pub when I passed out completely and the paramedics had to be called. I was apparently totally unconscious for about 15 minutes and then slipping in and out for a further 15, bad times. After an ECG and a lot of blood being taken they couldn't see any cause for it, so we're going with the paramedics diagnosis of a delayed concussion as they normally know what they're talking about!
So when it came to my actual birthday on the Sunday I was feeling pretty ropey, and a bit battered and bruised so I stayed in and opened my cards and pressies and was treated to a yummy Sunday dinner by Will. So not a total disaster in the end. =]
I'm afraid the updates to this blog will probably continue to be sporadic at best as I am hugely busy this year, I've already submitted 2 assignments and have another 5 that I'm working on at the moment! I also have 4 midterms in 4 weeks time to prepare for and I'm also applying for a position to help Dr. James Intrilligator to carry out his experiments this year. I love his name - "It's kinda like alligator but not... I believe its something to do with being a bookbinder in Latin" (this was how he introduced himself) I'm assuming he gets asked about it a lot!
Friday 16 October 2009
Wednesday 30 September 2009
Back to Work.
I went back to Bangor on the 12th of September and moved into my new house. It's very nice and now that I've got all my stuff sorted it's looking pretty homely. We've managed to set up the Internet and the phone so that's all sorted now, so it's getting to be a proper little house!
Fresher's week started on the 21st and it was rather hectic with both Will and Dave's birthdays falling in that week, but it was good to get back into the swing of student life. =]
Lectures began on Monday, my Monday's aren't bad as I only have one lecture and it starts at 4, but sadly most of my friends get Monday off! Tuesday's are slightly more annoying as we have a 3 hour lecture of stats in the afternoon (soul destroying!). Our lecture started this weeks one off with a surprise test to see what we remembered from last year! FUN. Today I have my first personality and individual differences lesson and a talk from the head of year, so I'll tell you all how that goes later in the week!
Fresher's week started on the 21st and it was rather hectic with both Will and Dave's birthdays falling in that week, but it was good to get back into the swing of student life. =]
Lectures began on Monday, my Monday's aren't bad as I only have one lecture and it starts at 4, but sadly most of my friends get Monday off! Tuesday's are slightly more annoying as we have a 3 hour lecture of stats in the afternoon (soul destroying!). Our lecture started this weeks one off with a surprise test to see what we remembered from last year! FUN. Today I have my first personality and individual differences lesson and a talk from the head of year, so I'll tell you all how that goes later in the week!
Sunday 6 September 2009
A trip to York!
Everything of this week has sort of blurred into one big mush! I've tried to separate everything our into the right days but I'm still not 100% sure!
Tuesday
I went to York to visit Rob with Will and Becky, after an appalling drive weather wise we arrived and headed pretty much straight into town after unpacking the car! We decided on the Old White Swan, a gorgeous pub that serves lots of different kinds of sausages with mashed potato, the food was lovely and once we'd stuffed ourselves we moved onto a little pub called the King's Arms. It was a very interesting place, it floods alot as it's right by the Ouze but doesn't close down unless the water goes over the bar! The whole thing is obviously built to withstand flooding as the bar looks more like a battle defence than anything else! They also brew their own vodka (served in measures of 35ml rather than the standard 25!) which was absolutely gorgeous. We then headed to the Punch Bowl which is one of their Wetherspoons as this was a place that offered cheaper drinks for me and Becky as we weren't on the beer that night! We stayed until chucking out time and rolled in home at about 2am, we then chatted in the lounge for a bit and went to bed at about 3.30. =]
Wednesday
Having had a rather late one the night before no one rose very early the next day, but once everyone was awake we ventured into York to do some more touristy things as we'd arrived to late to do anything like that the day before. We found a wonderful little milkshake shop that makes hundreds of flavours right in front of you, I'm not exaggerating when I say you can have pretty much whatever you want, I went for a rather unadventurous but delicious Wispa milkshake, whereas Will went for peanut butter and chili... which he actually thoroughly enjoyed and so did everyone who tried it! We enjoyed our milkshakes in the sunshine on the grass by St Mary's church and then as the weather started to turn we decided to head to the railway museum as that was free, and it actually turned out to be a very fun place, which we all enjoyed. =] Then we headed for drinks and dinner in a pub that can't for the life of me remember the name, it was nice little place that was built under the ground, it had the appearance of a bomb shelter but did lovely food for not much money, 2 meals for a tenner! Then after tea we ambled down to the Rook and Gaskill one of Rob's favourite pubs, it was a resounding success with everyone, particularly Will due to the large arrays of interesting beers on offer! We headed home at about midnight that night as everyone was tired and I had a bit of an earache!
Thursday
As we weren't too late the night before we got up relatively early and headed into York again, it was absolutely chucking it down so we drove halfway and parked up to cut about 20 minutes of our journey. =P We then headed to Mr Sandwich a place where you can get a fresh made sandwich from a choice of abut 30 flavour for just a pound. Will also brought a cookie there that was nearly as big as his head for just 75p! We consumed our sandwiches on a bench listening to some interesting music performed a couple dressed in old-tyme attire! Then we headed to beer shop so Will could buy some beer to take home with him and then it was back off to the milkshake shop again for more interesting flavours! I went for Oreo Cookies this time and Will yet again out did this with Coffee and Custard... not quite the success of his last one but he still seemed to enjoy it. We then drove to Somerfield to pick up something for dinner. Once we'd eaten we went on a ghost tour round York with Rob's flatmate John which was great fun, and quite creepy in places! Then we headed back to the Punch Bowl and stayed there for the whole evening as its cheap and cheerful, and we picked up a takeaway from Ali-G's on the way home!
Friday
Another late night, another late rise! We headed straight to Somerfield for something to eat and some stuff for the journey and after pizza and chips we waved Rob off as he left for work, said goodbye to John and then started on the long journey back home, it was a slow one as there were a couple of accidents but on the whole not too bad.
All in all a good few days. =]
Tuesday
I went to York to visit Rob with Will and Becky, after an appalling drive weather wise we arrived and headed pretty much straight into town after unpacking the car! We decided on the Old White Swan, a gorgeous pub that serves lots of different kinds of sausages with mashed potato, the food was lovely and once we'd stuffed ourselves we moved onto a little pub called the King's Arms. It was a very interesting place, it floods alot as it's right by the Ouze but doesn't close down unless the water goes over the bar! The whole thing is obviously built to withstand flooding as the bar looks more like a battle defence than anything else! They also brew their own vodka (served in measures of 35ml rather than the standard 25!) which was absolutely gorgeous. We then headed to the Punch Bowl which is one of their Wetherspoons as this was a place that offered cheaper drinks for me and Becky as we weren't on the beer that night! We stayed until chucking out time and rolled in home at about 2am, we then chatted in the lounge for a bit and went to bed at about 3.30. =]
Wednesday
Having had a rather late one the night before no one rose very early the next day, but once everyone was awake we ventured into York to do some more touristy things as we'd arrived to late to do anything like that the day before. We found a wonderful little milkshake shop that makes hundreds of flavours right in front of you, I'm not exaggerating when I say you can have pretty much whatever you want, I went for a rather unadventurous but delicious Wispa milkshake, whereas Will went for peanut butter and chili... which he actually thoroughly enjoyed and so did everyone who tried it! We enjoyed our milkshakes in the sunshine on the grass by St Mary's church and then as the weather started to turn we decided to head to the railway museum as that was free, and it actually turned out to be a very fun place, which we all enjoyed. =] Then we headed for drinks and dinner in a pub that can't for the life of me remember the name, it was nice little place that was built under the ground, it had the appearance of a bomb shelter but did lovely food for not much money, 2 meals for a tenner! Then after tea we ambled down to the Rook and Gaskill one of Rob's favourite pubs, it was a resounding success with everyone, particularly Will due to the large arrays of interesting beers on offer! We headed home at about midnight that night as everyone was tired and I had a bit of an earache!
Thursday
As we weren't too late the night before we got up relatively early and headed into York again, it was absolutely chucking it down so we drove halfway and parked up to cut about 20 minutes of our journey. =P We then headed to Mr Sandwich a place where you can get a fresh made sandwich from a choice of abut 30 flavour for just a pound. Will also brought a cookie there that was nearly as big as his head for just 75p! We consumed our sandwiches on a bench listening to some interesting music performed a couple dressed in old-tyme attire! Then we headed to beer shop so Will could buy some beer to take home with him and then it was back off to the milkshake shop again for more interesting flavours! I went for Oreo Cookies this time and Will yet again out did this with Coffee and Custard... not quite the success of his last one but he still seemed to enjoy it. We then drove to Somerfield to pick up something for dinner. Once we'd eaten we went on a ghost tour round York with Rob's flatmate John which was great fun, and quite creepy in places! Then we headed back to the Punch Bowl and stayed there for the whole evening as its cheap and cheerful, and we picked up a takeaway from Ali-G's on the way home!
Friday
Another late night, another late rise! We headed straight to Somerfield for something to eat and some stuff for the journey and after pizza and chips we waved Rob off as he left for work, said goodbye to John and then started on the long journey back home, it was a slow one as there were a couple of accidents but on the whole not too bad.
All in all a good few days. =]
Tuesday 25 August 2009
What Ruth Did This Summer...
Right this is gonna be an epic post basically explaining everything I can remember from this summer as I havn't blogged for ages!
From the 21st to the 28th of June me and Will went on holiday to the Isle of Arran in Scotland. We packed alot into our week there with walks, bike rides (mainly Will doing those but I did brave it once... and it was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done, fun though!), a tour of the distillery in Lochranza and a day out with my auntie Sheila. =]
At the end of June me and Will and Becky went to Cadbury World which was an incredibly fun day, it's changed loads since I went there last and there's alot more fun, interactive things to do there. =)
Then we helped Robert move out of C Block and into his new house, which is lovely if not a case of cramming as many bedrooms into a house as possible!
Then me and mum and Rob went on an awesome holiday to Portugal, we went to Lagos on on of the days and went on a dolphin safari which was amazing. We also went a place called Pera to this really cool sand sculpture place.
We also spent a lovely weekend down at Chris Harris' birthday BBQ, the weather was good (for the most part) and the food was tasty, we also got to stay out and look at the stars. =]
And the final piece of news is that I've spent the last week tidying my bedrom! It is now pretty much done and looking absolutely massive! Can't believe how much trash was in there though, we got rid of about 12 bin bags from my room!
From the 21st to the 28th of June me and Will went on holiday to the Isle of Arran in Scotland. We packed alot into our week there with walks, bike rides (mainly Will doing those but I did brave it once... and it was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done, fun though!), a tour of the distillery in Lochranza and a day out with my auntie Sheila. =]
At the end of June me and Will and Becky went to Cadbury World which was an incredibly fun day, it's changed loads since I went there last and there's alot more fun, interactive things to do there. =)
Then we helped Robert move out of C Block and into his new house, which is lovely if not a case of cramming as many bedrooms into a house as possible!
Then me and mum and Rob went on an awesome holiday to Portugal, we went to Lagos on on of the days and went on a dolphin safari which was amazing. We also went a place called Pera to this really cool sand sculpture place.
We also spent a lovely weekend down at Chris Harris' birthday BBQ, the weather was good (for the most part) and the food was tasty, we also got to stay out and look at the stars. =]
And the final piece of news is that I've spent the last week tidying my bedrom! It is now pretty much done and looking absolutely massive! Can't believe how much trash was in there though, we got rid of about 12 bin bags from my room!
Tuesday 16 June 2009
I'm a terrible blogger!
Oh dear yet another month has passed with no blogging in sight, I don't really have an excuse as I havn't been hugely busy now that University is over for the summer, I just didn't ever feel like sitting down and writing a blog!
I arrived home from Uni on Sunday afternoon and it's quiet here to say the least, Rob's still in York and mum's still working so I'm alone in the house each day, but it has at least given me the chance to catch up on all the lost sleep and make up for a few months of late nights.
I don't have many concrete plans for the summer except for going to Arran on Sunday and Portugal late in July. At some point I will probably go down to Swansea to meet Will's family and hopefully we'll find enough time to go and visit Rob too as he wants to show me and Will some of his fantastic pubs and bars!
Since I last blogged the only really interesting things I have done are go to the beach:
And going camping! It was absolutely wonderful, the campsite was only about 30 seconds walk from a beautiful beach and we found ourselves in the middle of a heatwave, the best weather I've seen for a very long time!
Probably won't blog again until after I'm back from Arran!
I arrived home from Uni on Sunday afternoon and it's quiet here to say the least, Rob's still in York and mum's still working so I'm alone in the house each day, but it has at least given me the chance to catch up on all the lost sleep and make up for a few months of late nights.
I don't have many concrete plans for the summer except for going to Arran on Sunday and Portugal late in July. At some point I will probably go down to Swansea to meet Will's family and hopefully we'll find enough time to go and visit Rob too as he wants to show me and Will some of his fantastic pubs and bars!
Since I last blogged the only really interesting things I have done are go to the beach:
And going camping! It was absolutely wonderful, the campsite was only about 30 seconds walk from a beautiful beach and we found ourselves in the middle of a heatwave, the best weather I've seen for a very long time!
Probably won't blog again until after I'm back from Arran!
Wednesday 13 May 2009
Sun, Sun, Sun.
The weather these past few days has been glorious to the point where we even got out and did a bit of sunbathing!
However, now that I'm off Uni and all done for the year, the weather's taken a turn for the worse! Sod's law I think. Hopefully it'll perk up soon!
However, now that I'm off Uni and all done for the year, the weather's taken a turn for the worse! Sod's law I think. Hopefully it'll perk up soon!
Wednesday 6 May 2009
Oops...
My life it's been a long time since I blogged! I got out of the habit of it over the Easter holidays and then sine I've been back in Bangor I've been rather a busy bee with assignments and preparing for exams. I've had 5 assignments due in since I got back and handed the last 3 in today, now all I have left is an exam on Friday and another on Tuesday and then my first year at University is over!
It's a terrifying thought, and the time has passed incredibly quickly, but I've enjoyed every second of it and am so glad that I chose to come to Bangor, it was definitely the right place for me!
We've found our fourth housemate for next year so I'll be resigning me contract and paying my quarter of the retainer on Monday, exciting times! I think I'll really enjoy living in a proper house next year, this year didn't really have quite the uni experience with a warden on our corridor and towards the end on our backs as well, that's one part of halls that I definitely won't miss! I will miss living in Cefn Y Coed though, I've made some good friends here and despite the warden situation I do feel I was very lucky with the halls I ended up in. =]
Now that I'm nearly done with the semester I'm starting to plan my Summer, with trip to Arran already booked and a camping trip on the cards for late May I can't wait. =]
It's a terrifying thought, and the time has passed incredibly quickly, but I've enjoyed every second of it and am so glad that I chose to come to Bangor, it was definitely the right place for me!
We've found our fourth housemate for next year so I'll be resigning me contract and paying my quarter of the retainer on Monday, exciting times! I think I'll really enjoy living in a proper house next year, this year didn't really have quite the uni experience with a warden on our corridor and towards the end on our backs as well, that's one part of halls that I definitely won't miss! I will miss living in Cefn Y Coed though, I've made some good friends here and despite the warden situation I do feel I was very lucky with the halls I ended up in. =]
Now that I'm nearly done with the semester I'm starting to plan my Summer, with trip to Arran already booked and a camping trip on the cards for late May I can't wait. =]
Sunday 22 March 2009
Sun, Sea and Sand.
It has been a gorgeous week here in Bangor, if I didn't know better I would have thought it was Summer! Everyone's been out in t-shirts and shorts, lying on the grass and going to the beach. We went back to Treaddur Bay on Saturday (photos are on Facebook), our makeshift buckets and spades got another airing and we had a lot of fun. =]
My giving up of chocolate for lent is still going strong, and I'm now more than half-way through! It's been hard in parts, but I'm starting to think that I may actually make it!
My giving up of chocolate for lent is still going strong, and I'm now more than half-way through! It's been hard in parts, but I'm starting to think that I may actually make it!
Monday 16 March 2009
Fun in the Sun.
Yesterday was an awesome day, the sun was shining in Bangor (a rare thing) so we decided it was far to nice to be cooped up indoors and headed for the beach at Treaddur Bay. We went via Tescos and picked up some make-shift buckets and spades (flowers pots and trowels, they worked very well!) and headed on our way.
We spent hours building 'castles' and a giant boat (which didn't quite get finished) and then had some ice cream. We then decided it was time to head home as the weather was getting colder. Once we got home I checked my email and discovered that we had been chosen as the new tenants for a house we viewed on Friday night. I wasn't holding out much hope for it as 5 sets of people were looking at it, but the landlord and landlady seemed to like us and I think that worked in our favour.
Just a quick blog really, because I felt I had such a good day that it needed to be shared! Photos will go up on Facebook later on probably and now I'm off to my lectures!
We spent hours building 'castles' and a giant boat (which didn't quite get finished) and then had some ice cream. We then decided it was time to head home as the weather was getting colder. Once we got home I checked my email and discovered that we had been chosen as the new tenants for a house we viewed on Friday night. I wasn't holding out much hope for it as 5 sets of people were looking at it, but the landlord and landlady seemed to like us and I think that worked in our favour.
Just a quick blog really, because I felt I had such a good day that it needed to be shared! Photos will go up on Facebook later on probably and now I'm off to my lectures!
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Hectic.
I am absolutely exhausted! I think it's a combination of having a cold, having a very busy week last week and being in need of the Easter holidays!
Last week was crazy because I had my Brain and Mind midterm on Wednesday (40 MCQs, a diagram of the brain to label and 10 essay questions), I had to finish and publish my website (which led to a ridiculous amount of stress due to childishness) and because I had an assignment due in. Now to elaborate on the brackets! Brain and Mind went well I thought, it probably could have gone better, there were quite a few things I was unsure off/didn't know, but it also could have gone a lot worse. The website stress was because part of the assignment is grading the rest of your group, with 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% or 0% and they then receive this much of the final mark. It's there to stop people getting grades they don't deserve, however the fact that each group submits one sheet, and thus everyone has to decide on a grade can cause arguments amongst childish individuals. Ours ended up with two group members not speaking and one wanting nothing to do with the other, ridiculous. And definitely a case of 6 of one and half a dozen of the other I feel.
I did however have a very nice Friday, Mum wanted me to blog my day so here it is! Will went to his morning lecture whilst I finished off my assignment and then we made a picnic in the kitchen, consisting of numerous sandwiches, crisps, yogurt and angel cake. =] Then we got in the car an went to Tescos for petrol (me still not knowing where we were going!) I managed to guess halfway there that our first stop was going to be Church Bay on Anglesey, sadly it was raining so we had to eat our picnic in the car, but oh well I didn't mind. Then when we were done for food it was off to the next stop with each of my questions being fended of wish non-informative answers! Turns out our destination was Anglesey Sea Zoo! I had great fun, and your ticket is valid for a whole week so who knows maybe we'll pay another visit to the fishies. Then we just went for a little drive in Llanberis and ate crisps whilst looking at a rather foggy Snowdon. Then we made an awesome roast dinner, really really good. I made gravy from scratch! Mum has trained me well! =P We had roast chicken cooked in butter, garlic and white wine, with roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots and courgettes, and there was even some leftovers for my lunch the next day!
So a very good end to a rather busy week. =] Still succeeding on lent, but who knows if I'll make it, I'm struggling a little bit now! And in just under 3 weeks I'll be back home!
Last week was crazy because I had my Brain and Mind midterm on Wednesday (40 MCQs, a diagram of the brain to label and 10 essay questions), I had to finish and publish my website (which led to a ridiculous amount of stress due to childishness) and because I had an assignment due in. Now to elaborate on the brackets! Brain and Mind went well I thought, it probably could have gone better, there were quite a few things I was unsure off/didn't know, but it also could have gone a lot worse. The website stress was because part of the assignment is grading the rest of your group, with 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% or 0% and they then receive this much of the final mark. It's there to stop people getting grades they don't deserve, however the fact that each group submits one sheet, and thus everyone has to decide on a grade can cause arguments amongst childish individuals. Ours ended up with two group members not speaking and one wanting nothing to do with the other, ridiculous. And definitely a case of 6 of one and half a dozen of the other I feel.
I did however have a very nice Friday, Mum wanted me to blog my day so here it is! Will went to his morning lecture whilst I finished off my assignment and then we made a picnic in the kitchen, consisting of numerous sandwiches, crisps, yogurt and angel cake. =] Then we got in the car an went to Tescos for petrol (me still not knowing where we were going!) I managed to guess halfway there that our first stop was going to be Church Bay on Anglesey, sadly it was raining so we had to eat our picnic in the car, but oh well I didn't mind. Then when we were done for food it was off to the next stop with each of my questions being fended of wish non-informative answers! Turns out our destination was Anglesey Sea Zoo! I had great fun, and your ticket is valid for a whole week so who knows maybe we'll pay another visit to the fishies. Then we just went for a little drive in Llanberis and ate crisps whilst looking at a rather foggy Snowdon. Then we made an awesome roast dinner, really really good. I made gravy from scratch! Mum has trained me well! =P We had roast chicken cooked in butter, garlic and white wine, with roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots and courgettes, and there was even some leftovers for my lunch the next day!
So a very good end to a rather busy week. =] Still succeeding on lent, but who knows if I'll make it, I'm struggling a little bit now! And in just under 3 weeks I'll be back home!
Friday 27 February 2009
I'm still alive!
My life it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged! In my defence University is a little crazy at the moment and I have also had a very intermittent Internet connection for well over a week now and that’s getting very irritating.
On Wednesday I took part in a skills session on the brain, it involved watching 3D movies, looking at fMRI scans and looking at human brains, that’s right real human brains! I got to hold one of the full, intact brains in my hands and it was a really cool experience, sobering but amazing. It was strange to think that not long ago someone was using what I had in my hands to live their life, that it made them who they were and allowed them to function, and that the small (but surprisingly weighty) thing allows us to do so much. Oliver Turnbull, the head of the school of Psychology put it well “The brain is a strange thing, you don’t really realise that you have one until you hold someone else’s in your hands” and he’s right, I’d never really sat and thought about my brain and everything it does, it was a very strange thing to experience.
The workshop was amazing though, I got to push my finger into the hemispheric fissure and touch the corpus callosum (which holds our hemispheres together) I literally had my finger inside someone else’s brain! The event involved 4 ‘stations’ the first I was at we looked at slices of brain that had been slightly plastically coated, still real but not very brain looking, we also saw slices of brains that were suffering from tumours and haemorrhages it was very interesting to see. The next station was the actual whole brain, the professor pointed out different bits and we talked about their functions and then the brain was passed around so that we could all get a feel of what it was like, very cool indeed! The next station was Guillaume’s one and we looked at a brain and saw inside using 3D glasses, it allowed you to have a good idea of where things sat as different pieces of the brain were taken away, something that’s very hard to do in real life. The final station was led by Oliver Turnbull, and he had several different hemispheres and lobes from various brains and showed us different parts inside the brain, as opposed to just the outside. We finished on this table a little early so he decided to split us in half and quiz us by pointing to bits of the brain and getting us to name them. My team won, and I identified 2 out of the 3 parts successfully so I take some pride in our victory!
I had a bit of a blonde moment in the brain workshop though, there were names written on the each table and the first one I went to had the name and the plate with the brain on was right above it, so I assumed that this was the name of the person whose brain it was. I then moved onto the next table and it said Giovanni (esteemed neurologist) and I thought it was a little odd that this guy had been a neurologist too as the last one had said the same. It wasn’t until I got to the final table and saw the words ‘Oliver Turnbull (head of school!!!)’ that I realised they weren’t the name of the person whose brain it was but in fact the person who was talking to us… smooth.
Anyway, enough of the brain stuff this blog is going to be huge! I’m really busy right now as I have two deadlines next week and a midterm exam on Wednesday so I’m rushing around like a blue-arsed fly trying to get everything finished and get some revision done!
I got my exam results back the other week and I got an A- in Positive Psychology and a C in Clinical and Health so I’m very pleased with that, I also got a letter from the head of school congratulating me on a good first semester and all my grades so far, so that made me very happy indeed!
In non-work related news we came first in the pub quiz in Bar Uno last week winning £30 and second this week winning £8, so that’s been good fun. It’s nice going out as a flat every week because before we did all get on very well but only a few of us really socialised outside of halls.
Right I’ve rambled on for long enough now! Hopefully I won’t ever leave it this long to blog again!
On Wednesday I took part in a skills session on the brain, it involved watching 3D movies, looking at fMRI scans and looking at human brains, that’s right real human brains! I got to hold one of the full, intact brains in my hands and it was a really cool experience, sobering but amazing. It was strange to think that not long ago someone was using what I had in my hands to live their life, that it made them who they were and allowed them to function, and that the small (but surprisingly weighty) thing allows us to do so much. Oliver Turnbull, the head of the school of Psychology put it well “The brain is a strange thing, you don’t really realise that you have one until you hold someone else’s in your hands” and he’s right, I’d never really sat and thought about my brain and everything it does, it was a very strange thing to experience.
The workshop was amazing though, I got to push my finger into the hemispheric fissure and touch the corpus callosum (which holds our hemispheres together) I literally had my finger inside someone else’s brain! The event involved 4 ‘stations’ the first I was at we looked at slices of brain that had been slightly plastically coated, still real but not very brain looking, we also saw slices of brains that were suffering from tumours and haemorrhages it was very interesting to see. The next station was the actual whole brain, the professor pointed out different bits and we talked about their functions and then the brain was passed around so that we could all get a feel of what it was like, very cool indeed! The next station was Guillaume’s one and we looked at a brain and saw inside using 3D glasses, it allowed you to have a good idea of where things sat as different pieces of the brain were taken away, something that’s very hard to do in real life. The final station was led by Oliver Turnbull, and he had several different hemispheres and lobes from various brains and showed us different parts inside the brain, as opposed to just the outside. We finished on this table a little early so he decided to split us in half and quiz us by pointing to bits of the brain and getting us to name them. My team won, and I identified 2 out of the 3 parts successfully so I take some pride in our victory!
I had a bit of a blonde moment in the brain workshop though, there were names written on the each table and the first one I went to had the name and the plate with the brain on was right above it, so I assumed that this was the name of the person whose brain it was. I then moved onto the next table and it said Giovanni (esteemed neurologist) and I thought it was a little odd that this guy had been a neurologist too as the last one had said the same. It wasn’t until I got to the final table and saw the words ‘Oliver Turnbull (head of school!!!)’ that I realised they weren’t the name of the person whose brain it was but in fact the person who was talking to us… smooth.
Anyway, enough of the brain stuff this blog is going to be huge! I’m really busy right now as I have two deadlines next week and a midterm exam on Wednesday so I’m rushing around like a blue-arsed fly trying to get everything finished and get some revision done!
I got my exam results back the other week and I got an A- in Positive Psychology and a C in Clinical and Health so I’m very pleased with that, I also got a letter from the head of school congratulating me on a good first semester and all my grades so far, so that made me very happy indeed!
In non-work related news we came first in the pub quiz in Bar Uno last week winning £30 and second this week winning £8, so that’s been good fun. It’s nice going out as a flat every week because before we did all get on very well but only a few of us really socialised outside of halls.
Right I’ve rambled on for long enough now! Hopefully I won’t ever leave it this long to blog again!
Friday 6 February 2009
Let it Snow.
It seems strange having snow in February, particularly to this extent! We haven't really had proper snow in Bangor, probably as we're by the coast, but because I was sitting in the kitchen whingeing about how everywhere else had snow and we didn't my flatmate suggested we went on a snow hunt. As you can see in the picture we found some!
We had great fun playing in the snow, we had snowball fights, made snow angels and sledged down the hillside on bin bags, all in all a very fun evening. It wasn't until we got back to Ffridd Site that Mo proclaimed she didn't have her phone, so back we went equipped with Will's head torches to hunt for it. I had the clever idea of phoning it, and sure enough a patch of snow started glowing, the phone was fine and still in complete working order!
I'm not feeling at all well tonight, which I maintain has nothing to do with my night out last night. I think I'm coming down with something as I've been feeling a little under the weather the past few days and so have a couple of my flatmates, I've turned down the offer of going out somewhere and I'm just about to head off to bed so it must be bad!
Wednesday 28 January 2009
I've Been Bitten by the Brain Bug.
I've finally found out what getting As or Bs relates to in University words here in Bangor, and so far I have achieved:
3 Outstanding Firsts (A*), 6 Excellent Firsts (A+), 2 Good Firsts (A), 1 Low First (A-), 1 Good Upper Second (B+) and 1 Mid Upper Second (B). So 11 firsts and 2 2.1's basically, all in all I'm very pleased with myself, but am still waiting on the 2 coursework marks and 2 exam marks so keep your fingers crossed!
I'm loving the brain and mind module we've just started, it's really challenging but incredibly interesting. It's taught by Professor Guillaume Thierry who is French (as you may have guessed) and is very amusing. It's got a very steep learning curve to it I feel as there is so much specialist language involved, for example you can't say top, bottom, front, back, you have to say dorsal, ventral, anterior, posterior (I think!) and then of course there's all the different parts of the brain, very complicated, but really interesting.
Oliver Sacks and 'the man who mistook his wife for a hat' were mentioned today, and I was glad to have a bit of knowledge on same of the cases Guillaume was talking about having read the book (thanks Chris Harris!), we also watched a video of a man whose excessive binge drinking had damaged his limbic system, in particular he'd damaged his mammillary bodies and his fornix had detached from his hippocampus (spellings may not be right as I'm doing this off the top of my head!) this essentially left him with a 2 minute memory, and it is a very strange thing to observe.
Even better yet we'll get to see the first human brain dissection here at Bangor University, and should even get a chance to hold the brain in our hands! I am super excited about this, when do you get a chance like this?! Some of my peers don't seem so psyched and some seem utterly repulsed, but oh well I guess it means I'll be able to get closer to the front. =]
So yes, that's enough brain chat for now, but I'm sure you'll here more soon if it stays as interesting. I'm off to go re-read my Oliver Sacks books. =)
3 Outstanding Firsts (A*), 6 Excellent Firsts (A+), 2 Good Firsts (A), 1 Low First (A-), 1 Good Upper Second (B+) and 1 Mid Upper Second (B). So 11 firsts and 2 2.1's basically, all in all I'm very pleased with myself, but am still waiting on the 2 coursework marks and 2 exam marks so keep your fingers crossed!
I'm loving the brain and mind module we've just started, it's really challenging but incredibly interesting. It's taught by Professor Guillaume Thierry who is French (as you may have guessed) and is very amusing. It's got a very steep learning curve to it I feel as there is so much specialist language involved, for example you can't say top, bottom, front, back, you have to say dorsal, ventral, anterior, posterior (I think!) and then of course there's all the different parts of the brain, very complicated, but really interesting.
Oliver Sacks and 'the man who mistook his wife for a hat' were mentioned today, and I was glad to have a bit of knowledge on same of the cases Guillaume was talking about having read the book (thanks Chris Harris!), we also watched a video of a man whose excessive binge drinking had damaged his limbic system, in particular he'd damaged his mammillary bodies and his fornix had detached from his hippocampus (spellings may not be right as I'm doing this off the top of my head!) this essentially left him with a 2 minute memory, and it is a very strange thing to observe.
Even better yet we'll get to see the first human brain dissection here at Bangor University, and should even get a chance to hold the brain in our hands! I am super excited about this, when do you get a chance like this?! Some of my peers don't seem so psyched and some seem utterly repulsed, but oh well I guess it means I'll be able to get closer to the front. =]
So yes, that's enough brain chat for now, but I'm sure you'll here more soon if it stays as interesting. I'm off to go re-read my Oliver Sacks books. =)
Monday 26 January 2009
Lectures.
Lectures start up again today and I have to say I'm glad, I've wasted the last couple of weeks sleeping, watching movies and sitting in the kitchen; it'll be nice to get back into a proper routine!
My timetable's very different to the last semester, I only have one hour of lectures in the morning! and even that doesn't start until ten, on a Thursday I don't start until 2pm!
I don't have anything particularly interesting to say, I'm just ready for my 12 o' clock lecture earlier than I had anticipated and my soup is too hot to eat so I figured this was a good way to waste some time!
It's Sandra's (my new flatmate) birthday on Saturday and Phil seems to think this is an ideal time for her to get drunk, I feel I'll be doing my very best to protect her from him as she obviously doesn't want to! But I can see where he's coming from, it is now part of the student life these days, but still everyone has the right to their own decision and if she doesn't want to drink then hats off to her.
Right I think my soup will now be cool enough, I figured I should have a proper meal (if soup and crumpets counts as that) because I don't really have any 'portable food' left and I'm in lectures for four hours today!
My timetable's very different to the last semester, I only have one hour of lectures in the morning! and even that doesn't start until ten, on a Thursday I don't start until 2pm!
I don't have anything particularly interesting to say, I'm just ready for my 12 o' clock lecture earlier than I had anticipated and my soup is too hot to eat so I figured this was a good way to waste some time!
It's Sandra's (my new flatmate) birthday on Saturday and Phil seems to think this is an ideal time for her to get drunk, I feel I'll be doing my very best to protect her from him as she obviously doesn't want to! But I can see where he's coming from, it is now part of the student life these days, but still everyone has the right to their own decision and if she doesn't want to drink then hats off to her.
Right I think my soup will now be cool enough, I figured I should have a proper meal (if soup and crumpets counts as that) because I don't really have any 'portable food' left and I'm in lectures for four hours today!
Sunday 18 January 2009
Home Sweet Home.
The weather is terrible. I mean phenomenally bad, winds of 93mph were measured last night in Betws-y-Coed which is not far from here and things were equally bad in Bangor I would say, I was nearly blown into a bush when I left the flat!
Sadly for me we were meant to be viewing a house at 6pm yesterday (the height of the storm) and I was soaking by the time I arrived back home due to the fact that the rain was going sideways, so a hood made no difference what so ever and even the clothes under my waterproof coat were soaked! Things have calmed down a bit here now but there's still wind and rain around, I hope it gets better soon!
Find the penguin has reached new levels of popularity with Will and Phil now joining the game. Will is ridiculously good at it; he credits this to a 'misspent youth'.
Sadly for me we were meant to be viewing a house at 6pm yesterday (the height of the storm) and I was soaking by the time I arrived back home due to the fact that the rain was going sideways, so a hood made no difference what so ever and even the clothes under my waterproof coat were soaked! Things have calmed down a bit here now but there's still wind and rain around, I hope it gets better soon!
Find the penguin has reached new levels of popularity with Will and Phil now joining the game. Will is ridiculously good at it; he credits this to a 'misspent youth'.
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Back Home.
This is a bit of a belated post as I have now been back in Bangor for over a week, but I've been rather busy. =] With exams coming up I've been doing a lot of revision, in amongst looking for a place to live next year and just chilling out and catching up with my friends.
I did not sleep at all well last night, for some reason I just couldn't switch off and it was 3am before I finally managed to drift into sleep. This sadly did not last long though as at 3:23am an incredibly drunk lad claiming to be called Luke decided to ring the doorbell continuously as he "wanted to talk to Sean". I'm glad that I chose not to answer the door as it took Phil about 7 minutes of arguing to get rid of him. Sean and Will somehow managed to sleep through this cacophony, but the rest of the flat was woken up, and apparently his name isn't Luke it's Fred.
Fred now has a £75 fine for breaking exam period silence and he's going to have a disciplinary hearing, hooray!
Other than that life has been good though, we don't have many of these sorts of problems here, it's quite a chilled uni compared to others I think! Welsh monopoly has been played a few times now and everyone seems to be loving it, the other one hasn't been used yet this semester, and me and Mo are now embarking on a game we like to call 'Find the Penguin' which involves taking her tiny penguin figurine and hiding it in the kitchen, when it is found it is then rehidden and so on and so forth. Good fun. =]
I've been trying to expand my cooking horizons slightly. Still remaining in the safe domain of pasta, but I did make a pasta bake big enough to serve 4 the other night and very nice it was too, so that was something a bit new.
And I'll end this incredibly long blog on a word of caution, to you Rob more than anyone else. Never play a drinking game called 'Face Your Fear'. It involves either kneeling or standing with your hands behind your back and falling forward, you have to be brave enough not to put your hands out to stop yourself. Whether he was the only one brave(/stupid) enough or just the first one to try it I do not know, but 3 cracked teeth and 9 stitches later I don't think Will will be playing again anytime soon. I think it's a boy thing. On the plus side the kitchen has gained a fancy blender though, as Will is now living on liquid food until he can get to a dentist.
Right that's enough rambling I reckon you're probably up to date now. =]
I did not sleep at all well last night, for some reason I just couldn't switch off and it was 3am before I finally managed to drift into sleep. This sadly did not last long though as at 3:23am an incredibly drunk lad claiming to be called Luke decided to ring the doorbell continuously as he "wanted to talk to Sean". I'm glad that I chose not to answer the door as it took Phil about 7 minutes of arguing to get rid of him. Sean and Will somehow managed to sleep through this cacophony, but the rest of the flat was woken up, and apparently his name isn't Luke it's Fred.
Fred now has a £75 fine for breaking exam period silence and he's going to have a disciplinary hearing, hooray!
Other than that life has been good though, we don't have many of these sorts of problems here, it's quite a chilled uni compared to others I think! Welsh monopoly has been played a few times now and everyone seems to be loving it, the other one hasn't been used yet this semester, and me and Mo are now embarking on a game we like to call 'Find the Penguin' which involves taking her tiny penguin figurine and hiding it in the kitchen, when it is found it is then rehidden and so on and so forth. Good fun. =]
I've been trying to expand my cooking horizons slightly. Still remaining in the safe domain of pasta, but I did make a pasta bake big enough to serve 4 the other night and very nice it was too, so that was something a bit new.
And I'll end this incredibly long blog on a word of caution, to you Rob more than anyone else. Never play a drinking game called 'Face Your Fear'. It involves either kneeling or standing with your hands behind your back and falling forward, you have to be brave enough not to put your hands out to stop yourself. Whether he was the only one brave(/stupid) enough or just the first one to try it I do not know, but 3 cracked teeth and 9 stitches later I don't think Will will be playing again anytime soon. I think it's a boy thing. On the plus side the kitchen has gained a fancy blender though, as Will is now living on liquid food until he can get to a dentist.
Right that's enough rambling I reckon you're probably up to date now. =]
Thursday 1 January 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
