Thursday 8 November 2012

It's Week 5 and I'm Stayin' Alive!

Sorry for a really late update, but a lot has been going on lately! Classes are definitely picking up with lab practicals to attend, mice to dissect, blood samples to examine, and species to compare. We got to tour the technology facility in the Biology department and saw a lot of expensive equipment worth over £600,000!! I would not want to be that student who brings a cup of water in the limited access rooms...and you know what would happen next.  

<---My partner Jacyln from Singapore and I in our lab coats


I also bought a lot of flashcards, markers, and other supplies to start on that study grind since my India trip will be stealing half my revision time away from me! I'm hoping to use those flashcards whenever I have free time in India (how little it may be...) At York Uni, every 1st and 2nd year student is assigned a tutorial group with a lecturer to learn study/research skills, so I was able to join one for this year. I have a German lecturer, Dr. Julia Ferrari, who also teaches one of the modules I'm in so it's a great chance to get to know one of my lecturers personally! I of course assumed she was Italian...but she told me everyone assumes that as well haha. She's a very good lecturer and has high expectations in our tutorial group (of about 3-4 students). We've already had to do a short presentation on bacterial symbionts, and now I have an essay due Monday for it as well! I'm at a bit of a disadvantage from the other more experienced English students, so I'm going to have to work harder to achieve good marks/feedback from Dr.Julia.


Secret Santa: My lovely housemates and I picked secret santa out of Emma's peter pan hat this week so we have until Week 10 to get presents for our secret santas! We recently did a housemate walk to the closest pub to our college, Charles XII. The food was really cheap and not bad quality! Drinks weren't too expensive either, so I can imagine why the pub was packed to the brim. I'm still not a fan of alcohol, but minuscule amounts in drinks like flavored ciders I like! It tastes like soda to me :)



Emma's mum came from Manchester to see Emma and brought Marieke, Emma, and I to the York Designer Outlets for half a day to walk around and get lunch! We had yummy bagels, mcflurries, but didn't get too much shopping done. It was a good bonding experience anyways and were too afraid to shop for our secret santats together since we can't tell each other! haha. We did see one of the most horrendous works of dresses ever though....
 
                Nao in the nurse's room

Another day when I had a day off, I took my housemate Nao to the St John's Hospital near the city centre because he sprained his ankle badly from football. He could barely walk by himself so we took the taxi together. We had to wait two hours to get Xrays and his ankle examined...but get this, EVERYTHING WAS FREE! They even let him borrow crutches for free as well! Perks of a NHS!
Emma and I have been going to weekly Tuesday Christian Union (CU) meetings for small group and it's been great! We've looked into passages of Luke about God showing his power and remembering everything points to God's power. We've each received this AMAZING little book to study Luke with friends and share the gospel with them! We're hoping to get some of our housemates involved to just share about our faith together.


http://uncover.org.uk/start



Weather update: a couple weeks ago IT SNOWED FOR A NIGHT! in OCTOBER!!! WOW. I was flabbergasted. and yes my face is so timely covered with a snowflake.

Other that that, it's been quite windy and chilly. Today was just an exception and we had a bit of sunshine! It gets very dark by 4pm as well...yikes!

This coming weekend I'll be heading off to Edinburgh for two half days and a night with Dustin, a friend from UCEAP who also studies at York. Next blog update will be that hopefully! :)

Cheers!

xxx

No comments:

Post a Comment