Well, I hope I'm getting this up early enough for everyone this week ;) I slept a bit late today because I've been getting up early every day this week in an attempt to get a good start on the paper that I have to write for my animal class.
I finally got the result of my human anatomy exam back on Monday. I was really nervous to see it, but I got a 77%!!! I know, you're thinking, "Megan, that's a C. You need to rethink your excitement." But here that's actually a really high score. For whatever reason they write the exam so that a professional in the field would get a 100% and they expect us to get about 60. 50 is a pass, 60 is merit, 70 is distinction and 80+ is high distinction. So I was only 3% away from the highest that you can get. So I'm pretty psyched about that! The average for the class was 60 and quite a few people failed, so I'm feeling good. Now if I just did as well on my animal exam I'll be really excited.
Tuesday I really cracked down on working on the paper that I have to write for my animal class. It isn't due for a few weeks yet, but since I haven't written a paper in a long time I thought I should start early. Plus we have another human exam coming up on the 7th, so I'll have to spend most of my time this week studying for that. Anyway, the paper is a comparison of the data from a site that we had to analyze to other contemporary sites. It would be fine, but its really short, so its hard to fit in everything I want to say and stay within the word count. I've analyzed all the data and started writing, but I'm going to have to do major rewrites next week after the exam is over. Tuesday night a few of the girls went out for Italian food in Bournemouth. The food was pretty good, but I again got wet on my way there. Every time I go to Bournemouth it rains!
Wednesday I pretty much spent the entire day on campus working on the paper. I had woken up with a stiff neck though, so whereas I usually go see a foreign film after choir I just went straight home. I guess it was a good one though, so I'm sad that I missed it.
Thursday was again spent on campus. Some of my classmates were also there, so I didn't get a whole lot of work done, but we did compare some of our analyzed data and saw that we all had the same answers, so that was reassuring.
Friday I got to campus really early and got quite a bit of work done before anyone else got there. By the end of the day I had about half the paper written, but it is way over word count so major revisions will be happening. Ah well, it feels good to have a good start on it.
Yesterday I went to the gym for the first time in forever. It felt good to go back. Plus the pool is open over there now, so maybe I'll start swimming. After coming back and showering I went to a cafe to study for the human bone exam that we have a week from Monday. I spent about 4 hours there and then went home for some dinner. Then another girl and I went to see a vampire movie at The Lighthouse, just down the street. It was called Thirst and was very bizarre. I don't really think I'd recommend it, but it was something to do, so that was nice.
Today I have to read a few articles about the differences between sheep and goat bones. We're having a discussion about it on Tuesday in class. I guess its a pretty important question in Europe because goats were introduced later than sheep, but if you can't tell the bones apart then you can't say if goats were on the site or not at certain time periods. I also need to read some articles about bone tools, as that is what I want to do my dissertation on. I talked to my advisors this week and one of them gave me a bunch of books and a reading list. So that's a bit intimidating, but I must do it.
Well, I suppose that's all for this week. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Talk to you later.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
End of Tests Partay, Recovery and Sunday Lunch
Well, its Sunday again, so here it goes...We didn't get our exam results back on Monday in class. Apparently they had a few more left to score, so we are going to get them back tomorrow. I thought that class would be getting easier from here on out because we'd already done the skull, but no. We spent the entire lecture on the scapula, clavicle and humerus. And all the muscles and ligaments associated with them. It was rough. Then I went to the animal lab to do a bit of last minute revising before the exam on Tuesday. While we were in there, one of the course advisors came in and had us haul in a bunch of boxes of bones that had been brought over from somewhere in a truck. I'm not sure where they were from or what they're doing with them, but they are now in storage thanks to our efforts :)
Tuesday we had our animal bone exam. We got to take it in the human bone lab though, because with 16 of us our lab is too small to take an exam in. I think it went pretty well. I don't know when we'll get the results of this one back either. Hopefully Tuesday, but as there was a lot to write about each bone it may be the week after. After the exam a bunch of us went out to lunch on campus. Then we planned to meet up later at night to go out and party in celebration of both of our exams being over. Stine and I had to go to Bournemouth from Poole, so we took a bus around 8 to meet everyone downtown. We hung out at a pub for awhile and then headed to The Orange Rooms, which is a club that everyone always goes too. I think my flatmates spend almost the entire weekend there most of the time ;) Because it was Tuesday I thought that it would be really dead, but there were actually quite a few people there. One of the guys in my course brought glowsticks, so we were pretty awesome. There was a lot of dancing and hanging out with people that I never see outside of class, so that was nice. Then around 1:30 Stine and I went home. We had to take a cab because the late bus only runs on weekends.
Wednesday I did a whole lot of nothing. I pretty much didn't even leave my room.
Thursday I was convinced that it was Saturday and was really confused the whole day. I did go to campus and get some work done though. I have all the numbers crunched for the paper I'm working on and I have some of the comparative materials. I'm still going through that though. Basically, we had to analyze a bone assemblage and then compare it to assemblages from other sites of the same time period in south west England. Its kind of interesting, but kind of boring at the same time.
Friday I went to the Lighthouse cafe to study. I got a lot of reading done there, so it was good. I've been reading a lot about antler wear because I may be doing my dissertation on something to do with antlers. Not sure though. If not, I'll just have a lot of weird antler knowledge. I also got some of the assemblage comparisons read. Later Friday night I went out with all of my flatmates to, you guessed it, The Orange Rooms. Baitalikee's friend was in town so we all went out with them. It was a pretty good time. At about 3 I gave it up and went home. I was really tired and needed to get stuff done the next day.
Saturday I headed to the Lighthouse again. I was getting a lot of work done, but then a ton of people started coming in. I think they just came early for the 2 o'clock show, but by 1 I couldn't take it anymore and had to leave. It was starting to rain when I left, which was bad because my flatmate Som and I had planned to go to the Christmas Village in Bournemouth Square that afternoon. At 3 it was still raining so we decided to see if it had let up by 4. It hadn't, but we decided that since it rains all the time we should just go anyway. I swear that by the time we got outside it had started raining even harder. The wind was blowing toward our backs so the back of my pants were soaked by the time we got to the bus. It was slightly less rainy by the time we got to Bournemouth. There were a whole bunch of cool little shops and then there was food. We started with fried potatoes and garlic mushrooms, which were delicious. Then we had bratwaursts and strawberry beer. The beer was good, but really sweet so we couldn't drink the entire thing. We had planned to get crepes for dessert, but by the time we'd eaten all the other stuff we couldn't manage it, so we got a sausage and a crepe to take home to the losers who didn't join the wet adventure and went home. So although we were pretty soaked it was really fun to do and it was nice to hang out with Som because I usually don't get to do that.
I had to venture out again Saturday night because we had tickets to a show at The Lighthouse. It was a local theater company and they did just a whole bunch of songs from all different musicals. It was pretty good. Some of the songs I recognized and some I didn't. You had to pay 2 pounds for a program though, so we just chose not to know the ones we didn't recognize. The show was really good and afterwards we went down to The Slug and Lettuce to hang out for awhile. I know it sounds gross, but its actually a pretty nice place. We all just got smoothies, so the waiter made fun of us the entire night, but it was a good time.
Today I went out for Sunday lunch with a bunch of girls from Corfe House. I had roast beef with gravy, fried potatoes, yorkshire pudding, stuffing, peas, carrots, and brussel sprouts. It was delicious and so filling. Then I had to go grocery shopping on the way back. That was pretty unappealing, but that's probably for the best. Hopefully I can get the last book section that I have to read done tonight and start writing the paper tomorrow. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the week so that I can start on the next one. We'll see how that pans out. I'm pretty much a procrastinator and always have been, but I'm trying to change that.
Side note: I made french toast, sausage and bacon for a bunch of friends last Sunday. I only mention this because the British boys could not wrap their heads around the idea of eating sweet and savor things at the same time. They refused to put the sausages on their plates until they were finished with the french toast. And they even had a hard time believing that you were suppose to put fruit and whipped cream on your french toast. So I'm not sure how much they liked it, but the Norwegian, Thai, Indian and Dutch people liked it :)
So I think that's all now. Here is a like to the few pics that I have taken in the last couple of weeks. And I know I was talking about Ireland in the last post, but it ended up being quite expensive because we couldn't book the tickets until late. Oh well, maybe some other time. Here are the pics.
Tuesday we had our animal bone exam. We got to take it in the human bone lab though, because with 16 of us our lab is too small to take an exam in. I think it went pretty well. I don't know when we'll get the results of this one back either. Hopefully Tuesday, but as there was a lot to write about each bone it may be the week after. After the exam a bunch of us went out to lunch on campus. Then we planned to meet up later at night to go out and party in celebration of both of our exams being over. Stine and I had to go to Bournemouth from Poole, so we took a bus around 8 to meet everyone downtown. We hung out at a pub for awhile and then headed to The Orange Rooms, which is a club that everyone always goes too. I think my flatmates spend almost the entire weekend there most of the time ;) Because it was Tuesday I thought that it would be really dead, but there were actually quite a few people there. One of the guys in my course brought glowsticks, so we were pretty awesome. There was a lot of dancing and hanging out with people that I never see outside of class, so that was nice. Then around 1:30 Stine and I went home. We had to take a cab because the late bus only runs on weekends.
Wednesday I did a whole lot of nothing. I pretty much didn't even leave my room.
Thursday I was convinced that it was Saturday and was really confused the whole day. I did go to campus and get some work done though. I have all the numbers crunched for the paper I'm working on and I have some of the comparative materials. I'm still going through that though. Basically, we had to analyze a bone assemblage and then compare it to assemblages from other sites of the same time period in south west England. Its kind of interesting, but kind of boring at the same time.
Friday I went to the Lighthouse cafe to study. I got a lot of reading done there, so it was good. I've been reading a lot about antler wear because I may be doing my dissertation on something to do with antlers. Not sure though. If not, I'll just have a lot of weird antler knowledge. I also got some of the assemblage comparisons read. Later Friday night I went out with all of my flatmates to, you guessed it, The Orange Rooms. Baitalikee's friend was in town so we all went out with them. It was a pretty good time. At about 3 I gave it up and went home. I was really tired and needed to get stuff done the next day.
Saturday I headed to the Lighthouse again. I was getting a lot of work done, but then a ton of people started coming in. I think they just came early for the 2 o'clock show, but by 1 I couldn't take it anymore and had to leave. It was starting to rain when I left, which was bad because my flatmate Som and I had planned to go to the Christmas Village in Bournemouth Square that afternoon. At 3 it was still raining so we decided to see if it had let up by 4. It hadn't, but we decided that since it rains all the time we should just go anyway. I swear that by the time we got outside it had started raining even harder. The wind was blowing toward our backs so the back of my pants were soaked by the time we got to the bus. It was slightly less rainy by the time we got to Bournemouth. There were a whole bunch of cool little shops and then there was food. We started with fried potatoes and garlic mushrooms, which were delicious. Then we had bratwaursts and strawberry beer. The beer was good, but really sweet so we couldn't drink the entire thing. We had planned to get crepes for dessert, but by the time we'd eaten all the other stuff we couldn't manage it, so we got a sausage and a crepe to take home to the losers who didn't join the wet adventure and went home. So although we were pretty soaked it was really fun to do and it was nice to hang out with Som because I usually don't get to do that.
I had to venture out again Saturday night because we had tickets to a show at The Lighthouse. It was a local theater company and they did just a whole bunch of songs from all different musicals. It was pretty good. Some of the songs I recognized and some I didn't. You had to pay 2 pounds for a program though, so we just chose not to know the ones we didn't recognize. The show was really good and afterwards we went down to The Slug and Lettuce to hang out for awhile. I know it sounds gross, but its actually a pretty nice place. We all just got smoothies, so the waiter made fun of us the entire night, but it was a good time.
Today I went out for Sunday lunch with a bunch of girls from Corfe House. I had roast beef with gravy, fried potatoes, yorkshire pudding, stuffing, peas, carrots, and brussel sprouts. It was delicious and so filling. Then I had to go grocery shopping on the way back. That was pretty unappealing, but that's probably for the best. Hopefully I can get the last book section that I have to read done tonight and start writing the paper tomorrow. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the week so that I can start on the next one. We'll see how that pans out. I'm pretty much a procrastinator and always have been, but I'm trying to change that.
Side note: I made french toast, sausage and bacon for a bunch of friends last Sunday. I only mention this because the British boys could not wrap their heads around the idea of eating sweet and savor things at the same time. They refused to put the sausages on their plates until they were finished with the french toast. And they even had a hard time believing that you were suppose to put fruit and whipped cream on your french toast. So I'm not sure how much they liked it, but the Norwegian, Thai, Indian and Dutch people liked it :)
So I think that's all now. Here is a like to the few pics that I have taken in the last couple of weeks. And I know I was talking about Ireland in the last post, but it ended up being quite expensive because we couldn't book the tickets until late. Oh well, maybe some other time. Here are the pics.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Test, Thai, and Research
So it is Sunday once again after another semi-boring week. I had my human anatomy exam on Monday morning. I think it went okay, but I haven't gotten the results back yet. I'm not sure when we're getting them either. I'm hoping for tomorrow, but I don't know. Technically they have 3 weeks to get any graded work back to us, but as it was a test where you either got the answer right or not, I don't think it should take that long to grade. It was a pretty nerve wracking experience because there were 40 stations and you had 1 minute at each one to fill out the answer. Most wanted to know what the bone was, what side it was from, and what muscle attached to it. I felt pretty confident with quite a few of them, so hopefully that confidence was warranted :S After the exam I went home and did pretty much nothing for the rest of the day. My brain was fried from all the studying.
Tuesday I had my animal anatomy class. We have an exam in that one this week, so I've been studying for that. I don't think that it will be quite as hard or nerve wracking though because we get 3 hours for 40 identifications and 10 tooth wear analyses. That's just over 3 minutes per bone. There is a lot more to write about each bone, but that also means that if you don't get through all of the bones you can still do well if you are very thorough on the bones that you do get done. Plus we can use all of the reference collections and any notes or drawings or anything else that we want to bring with us to the exam. So its much less stressful. But I'll still be in the lab for most of the afternoon on Monday studying for it.
Wednesday a few of us went to lunch at the Thai restaurant in Poole. I got dumplings and green curry and it was really good. And we got a two course meal for only 6.95, which is a pretty great deal. After lunch we stopped at some of the shops on the high street on the way home. Then I had to head to campus because I had some stuff to do at the library and then I had choir and then I always meet a friend to watch a foreign film. This week it was Waltz With Bashir, which was really depressing.
Thursday I had to spend the day in research methods classes. We had to go in at 11am for an ethics lecture. The room was a bit small for all the people that needed to fit into it, but we were making due. Then when the lecturer, who is the head of the forensic program, came in he decided that all of the environmental people, museum studies and "osteology" needed to leave because the room was too small. He said he'd try to reschedule the lecture. Maybe for later that day. First of all, my program is not called osteology. I don't think that there is an osteology program offered at this school. Second he was so rude about the whole thing is made everyone really mad. And third, if he had scheduled it for later that day how were we suppose to know about it, was he going to call each one of us and inform us that it had been rescheduled? Only the forensics students were allowed to stay for his talk. The rest of us went off to bitch about him. Later that day we had a lecture about databases and how to use them. It was a bit long, but very useful for me because I will definitely need to be using them. Thursday night I went over to my friend Danielle's flat because we were planning a trip to Wales for this coming weekend. But all the train tickets that we found were really expensive. So then we started looking for other places to go. We looked at Scotland and France, but neither were really doable. Danielle has a friend in Dublin though and we found plane tickets for 75 pounds round trip. So she emailed her friend to see if we could stay with her if we went to Dublin.
Friday we had an even longer day of research methods. We had a 2 hour experimental design lecture in the morning and then a 3 hour statistics class in the afternoon. The first lecture was interesting, but not really that useful. The second lecture was really boring, but did remind me of some of the statistics stuff that I know. I have to look for my old book when I get home for Christmas. Then we had our rescheduled ethics lecture from 4-5. Most people had already skipped by this point so there were probably only 50 people there. He went on and on about the history of ethics and got into philosophy when all we needed were the ethics rules set out by the university on how to do research. Then his lecture ran long. The bus back to Poole only comes once every hour in the evening and it comes at 10 after the hour. So a bunch of us got up and left at 5 after 5 to go catch the bus. I guess it was kind of rude, but after how he had treated us the day before none of us felt bad about it. Friday night I went out with some girls to a pub in Poole. We got nachos and drinks and it was a nice time.
Saturday my flatmate and another friend went out to lunch. We wanted to go to the Chinese buffet, but there was a line out the door just to get a table. So we ended up going to an Indian place instead. Overall it was a pretty awful experience. When we walked in the place smelled a bit funny. We thought maybe it was just at the entrance, but it wasn't. It just all smelled vaguely of wet dog. But we already had menus and stuff so we felt like we had to stay. Then there were two little kids running around and screaming. That was really annoying. The food was pretty good, but when we asked the waiter to pack up the leftovers he refused to give us seperate containers because he said that our food was pretty similar so he'd just mix it together into one container. It was bizarre. Luckily neither me nor Baitalikee had eaten straight out of the dishes and we live together. Then while they were clearing the plates another man that worked there came up and touched the belt that I was wearing and told me it was nice. This was creepy, but I said thanks. Then he went on the say that it was nice because it held my stomach in, which was mostly just insulting and again creepy. Then he just kind of kept standing there. So all in all, it wasn't a good experience and I will not be going back there.
Then we went to the theatre because we were going to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Someone had told me that it was strange and she didn't really like it that much, but I loved it. The people that I went with liked it as well. Two of the girls were then going to see 2012 that evening, but I can't see that one on principle because in the trailers they call the Maya "the world's oldest civilization" Which is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. There are a million civilizations older than the Maya. The Maya were only a few hundred years ago.
Today I have to do a ton of reading so that I can take back all the library books that are due this week. I also have to look over all of my notes for my test on Tuesday. Then this evening I'm hosting Breakfast for Dinner. I'm making french toast with fruit and whipped cream, sausage and bacon. Then after dinner Danielle and I are going to book our flight to Dublin. (Assuming the tix are still available. I hope so!) We'll be leaving early Wed morning and coming back early Sunday morning. So you should have some really cool pictures and stories to look forward to next week.
Well, I suppose that's all I have. I should get back to some actual work. Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from you soon!
Tuesday I had my animal anatomy class. We have an exam in that one this week, so I've been studying for that. I don't think that it will be quite as hard or nerve wracking though because we get 3 hours for 40 identifications and 10 tooth wear analyses. That's just over 3 minutes per bone. There is a lot more to write about each bone, but that also means that if you don't get through all of the bones you can still do well if you are very thorough on the bones that you do get done. Plus we can use all of the reference collections and any notes or drawings or anything else that we want to bring with us to the exam. So its much less stressful. But I'll still be in the lab for most of the afternoon on Monday studying for it.
Wednesday a few of us went to lunch at the Thai restaurant in Poole. I got dumplings and green curry and it was really good. And we got a two course meal for only 6.95, which is a pretty great deal. After lunch we stopped at some of the shops on the high street on the way home. Then I had to head to campus because I had some stuff to do at the library and then I had choir and then I always meet a friend to watch a foreign film. This week it was Waltz With Bashir, which was really depressing.
Thursday I had to spend the day in research methods classes. We had to go in at 11am for an ethics lecture. The room was a bit small for all the people that needed to fit into it, but we were making due. Then when the lecturer, who is the head of the forensic program, came in he decided that all of the environmental people, museum studies and "osteology" needed to leave because the room was too small. He said he'd try to reschedule the lecture. Maybe for later that day. First of all, my program is not called osteology. I don't think that there is an osteology program offered at this school. Second he was so rude about the whole thing is made everyone really mad. And third, if he had scheduled it for later that day how were we suppose to know about it, was he going to call each one of us and inform us that it had been rescheduled? Only the forensics students were allowed to stay for his talk. The rest of us went off to bitch about him. Later that day we had a lecture about databases and how to use them. It was a bit long, but very useful for me because I will definitely need to be using them. Thursday night I went over to my friend Danielle's flat because we were planning a trip to Wales for this coming weekend. But all the train tickets that we found were really expensive. So then we started looking for other places to go. We looked at Scotland and France, but neither were really doable. Danielle has a friend in Dublin though and we found plane tickets for 75 pounds round trip. So she emailed her friend to see if we could stay with her if we went to Dublin.
Friday we had an even longer day of research methods. We had a 2 hour experimental design lecture in the morning and then a 3 hour statistics class in the afternoon. The first lecture was interesting, but not really that useful. The second lecture was really boring, but did remind me of some of the statistics stuff that I know. I have to look for my old book when I get home for Christmas. Then we had our rescheduled ethics lecture from 4-5. Most people had already skipped by this point so there were probably only 50 people there. He went on and on about the history of ethics and got into philosophy when all we needed were the ethics rules set out by the university on how to do research. Then his lecture ran long. The bus back to Poole only comes once every hour in the evening and it comes at 10 after the hour. So a bunch of us got up and left at 5 after 5 to go catch the bus. I guess it was kind of rude, but after how he had treated us the day before none of us felt bad about it. Friday night I went out with some girls to a pub in Poole. We got nachos and drinks and it was a nice time.
Saturday my flatmate and another friend went out to lunch. We wanted to go to the Chinese buffet, but there was a line out the door just to get a table. So we ended up going to an Indian place instead. Overall it was a pretty awful experience. When we walked in the place smelled a bit funny. We thought maybe it was just at the entrance, but it wasn't. It just all smelled vaguely of wet dog. But we already had menus and stuff so we felt like we had to stay. Then there were two little kids running around and screaming. That was really annoying. The food was pretty good, but when we asked the waiter to pack up the leftovers he refused to give us seperate containers because he said that our food was pretty similar so he'd just mix it together into one container. It was bizarre. Luckily neither me nor Baitalikee had eaten straight out of the dishes and we live together. Then while they were clearing the plates another man that worked there came up and touched the belt that I was wearing and told me it was nice. This was creepy, but I said thanks. Then he went on the say that it was nice because it held my stomach in, which was mostly just insulting and again creepy. Then he just kind of kept standing there. So all in all, it wasn't a good experience and I will not be going back there.
Then we went to the theatre because we were going to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Someone had told me that it was strange and she didn't really like it that much, but I loved it. The people that I went with liked it as well. Two of the girls were then going to see 2012 that evening, but I can't see that one on principle because in the trailers they call the Maya "the world's oldest civilization" Which is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. There are a million civilizations older than the Maya. The Maya were only a few hundred years ago.
Today I have to do a ton of reading so that I can take back all the library books that are due this week. I also have to look over all of my notes for my test on Tuesday. Then this evening I'm hosting Breakfast for Dinner. I'm making french toast with fruit and whipped cream, sausage and bacon. Then after dinner Danielle and I are going to book our flight to Dublin. (Assuming the tix are still available. I hope so!) We'll be leaving early Wed morning and coming back early Sunday morning. So you should have some really cool pictures and stories to look forward to next week.
Well, I suppose that's all I have. I should get back to some actual work. Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from you soon!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Studying, Shopping and Tapas
I'm updating early today because I want to put off the inevitable studying a little bit longer. I have my first exam as a master's student on Monday. Its a spotter test in human anatomy, which means there will be pieces of bone laid out on tables in the lab and we'll have to go around and identify each one and important parts of it and which side of the body it comes from. In the 5 weeks we've been in school we've only done the cranium, mandible, vertibrae and ribs, so that gives you an idea of the level of detail we are working with. I really do feel like I know most of the info, but I'm still pretty nervous about the test. Its 20% of the grade I believe, so not too much but still enough. So anyway, I have to do a bit more reviewing today and then I'm putting away the books until after the exam. I don't want to be completely burnt out before the test.
Due to the test, this was a pretty boring week. I was in lab every day and studying outside of lab a lot of the rest of the time. A few of us took time out on Tuesday though to go to a tapas bar in Bournemouth. Tapas are a Spanish thing where you order a bunch of small dishes that everyone shares. Unfortunately this place was not very good. Nothing had much flavor and the chorizo was almost like jerky :( Luckily we had gone to Bournemouth early so that we could do a bit of shopping before dinner. I found a really cute dress at a little shop there, so the whole night wasn't a loss.
Wednesday I had choir and we are apparently having a Christmas concert with the orchestra. Its going to be on a Sunday night though, so I don't know if I'll make it. Its hard to get a bus to campus on a Sunday and I'm not paying 15 pounds each way for a cab. We're going to perform once before that though on a Thursday night, so that should be fine. I also have a big paper due the day after the Xmas concert, so it may be a bad time for it anyway.
Thursday and Friday were spent doing more studying. On Friday we got out a box of juvenile skeleton pieces so the skull wasn't fused. That way we could see if we were able to identify the bones using real bones. We did a pretty good job of it I felt. So I'm not too worried about the exam, but still worried......Then Friday night we had a group dinner. Two girls from Holland made us soup. One was pumpkin and the other was zucchini. It was really good. I may have to ask for the recipe.
Saturday I went down to the coffee shop near my house with another girl and studied there for about 3 hours. I now pretty much know the muscle attachments on the back of the skull. Or some of them anyway. On the way home from the coffee shop we had to stop at the drug store, so we wandered through the mall. I'd been told there was a library in the mall so we went looking for that. We found it and signed up for library cards. Then we realized that you have to pay for the movies at the library. They are fairly cheap, but still! I guess that's pretty common, because when we were telling people later, they weren't surprised. So on our way out of the mall we passed a shop with boots out front. I've been looking for a pair of black boots because I have a bunch of clothes that won't go with my brown ones, so we stopped in. And I found some nice ones! They are flat, which is awesome, with just a little bit of detail to make them interesting and not crazy. So I was really happy about that. Then we finally got to the drug store and went home. Because the girls had made so much soup the night before, we went over there to have dinner again. It was still delicious and we still couldn't finish it all, so some ended up getting thrown away. After that I came back to my room and watch tv until I went to bed.
Today I must do a bit more studying and then I have to go find a cool hat. One of the other flats is having a hat pot luck next week. I don't know what this entails exactaly, but it definitely means I need a hat. Too bad I didn't bring any of the ones I have at home. Its kind of rainy right now, but hopefully it clears up this afternoon so that I can go out. Otherwise I may have to put off the hat buying until tomorrow.
Well, I suppose that's all I've got for today. Hopefully next week will be a bit more exciting, but probably not because I have a test in my animal anatomy class next Tuesday. Woo! Take care and I hope to hear from you soon.
Due to the test, this was a pretty boring week. I was in lab every day and studying outside of lab a lot of the rest of the time. A few of us took time out on Tuesday though to go to a tapas bar in Bournemouth. Tapas are a Spanish thing where you order a bunch of small dishes that everyone shares. Unfortunately this place was not very good. Nothing had much flavor and the chorizo was almost like jerky :( Luckily we had gone to Bournemouth early so that we could do a bit of shopping before dinner. I found a really cute dress at a little shop there, so the whole night wasn't a loss.
Wednesday I had choir and we are apparently having a Christmas concert with the orchestra. Its going to be on a Sunday night though, so I don't know if I'll make it. Its hard to get a bus to campus on a Sunday and I'm not paying 15 pounds each way for a cab. We're going to perform once before that though on a Thursday night, so that should be fine. I also have a big paper due the day after the Xmas concert, so it may be a bad time for it anyway.
Thursday and Friday were spent doing more studying. On Friday we got out a box of juvenile skeleton pieces so the skull wasn't fused. That way we could see if we were able to identify the bones using real bones. We did a pretty good job of it I felt. So I'm not too worried about the exam, but still worried......Then Friday night we had a group dinner. Two girls from Holland made us soup. One was pumpkin and the other was zucchini. It was really good. I may have to ask for the recipe.
Saturday I went down to the coffee shop near my house with another girl and studied there for about 3 hours. I now pretty much know the muscle attachments on the back of the skull. Or some of them anyway. On the way home from the coffee shop we had to stop at the drug store, so we wandered through the mall. I'd been told there was a library in the mall so we went looking for that. We found it and signed up for library cards. Then we realized that you have to pay for the movies at the library. They are fairly cheap, but still! I guess that's pretty common, because when we were telling people later, they weren't surprised. So on our way out of the mall we passed a shop with boots out front. I've been looking for a pair of black boots because I have a bunch of clothes that won't go with my brown ones, so we stopped in. And I found some nice ones! They are flat, which is awesome, with just a little bit of detail to make them interesting and not crazy. So I was really happy about that. Then we finally got to the drug store and went home. Because the girls had made so much soup the night before, we went over there to have dinner again. It was still delicious and we still couldn't finish it all, so some ended up getting thrown away. After that I came back to my room and watch tv until I went to bed.
Today I must do a bit more studying and then I have to go find a cool hat. One of the other flats is having a hat pot luck next week. I don't know what this entails exactaly, but it definitely means I need a hat. Too bad I didn't bring any of the ones I have at home. Its kind of rainy right now, but hopefully it clears up this afternoon so that I can go out. Otherwise I may have to put off the hat buying until tomorrow.
Well, I suppose that's all I've got for today. Hopefully next week will be a bit more exciting, but probably not because I have a test in my animal anatomy class next Tuesday. Woo! Take care and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Salisbury and Halloween
The week started off and usual. I had class on Monday and Tuesday and then I went into the lab on Wednesday before going to choir rehearsal. We were learning about teeth this week in human anatomy. And teeth are gross. Human teeth aren't as bad as animal teeth, but they still aren't nice. We have a test coming up next week in human, so I'm going to be spending every waking moment in lab this week. Sadly... In animal lab we are plugging along with identifying different species of animals, tooth wear, fusion of bones, taphonomy, etc. I feel like I'm learning a lot more useful info in that class than in the human one. Yeah, maybe I can name all the bones in the skull and some of their defining characteristics, but its not anything that I couldn't look up if I really needed it. Oh well.
Thursday was the exciting day of the week. Danielle and I got up early Thursday morning and caught the bus into Bournemouth. From there we had to catch another bus for a 1.5 hour ride to Salisbury. We were going to see the Cathedral there. (A bit of history about the origins of this trip. My second week in England my course leader took all of us to Stonehenge and some sites around there. Then we went to the Salisbury Museum where a lot of Stonehenge artifacts are kept. To get to the museum we had to walk by the Cathedral, which was beautiful. Someone in the group told me that you could climb the tower of the cathedral and that it housed the oldest clock in England and one of 4 surviving copies of the Magna Carta. So I had to go back and do those things since we didn't have time that day. So I roped Danielle, who is a Museum Studies major, into going with me.) We caught the bus from Poole at 9 so that we could get the student discount. They don't let you get the discount until after 9 for some reason. So we got all day bus passes for only 4.50 pounds. Usually it would have been 7.50. We got to Salisbury at about 11am after seeing signs for some awesome places along the way. Including a waterpark that I suspect may just be a small lake...
As soon as we got off of the bus we found an awesome stationary store. So we spent a bunch of time in there and found some pretty sweet Christmas cards. Almost all of which say "Merry Christmas". It apparently isn't the political craziness here that it is in the States. We then walked the couple of blocks to the Cathedral. It was still amazing. We took a ton of pics of the outside of it and then headed inside to look around. We got a tour from one of the volunteer guides that works there. She was great. We got so much more out of it than we would have if we had just walked around on our own. She told us all about the clock and how it used to ring the bells in the tower, but when they made the tower higher, the ringing of so many bells would have knocked it down from the vibrations. So they built a special bell tower near the Cathedral. Later, the Cathedral was in a state of disrepair, so they brought in an architect called Wyatt and he knocked down the bell tower. He also white washed over the murals on the ceilings and brought tombs in from outside. Then he leveled the rest of the graveyard. He is a very hated man. This was in the 1500's I think, but don't quote me on that for sure. I bought a book about the Cathedral, but I can't be asked to look everything up right now. If you have questions either google it, or ask me via email and I'll look things up in my book for you.
Anyway, after the tour we were starving so we went to a Chinese place that we'd seen on our walk in. They had a set lunch of soup, main and dessert, so we order that. It was really good. I had Sechwan chicken. Mmmm....then ice cream for dessert. Yummy. Then we went back to the stationary store to buy Xmas card since we had time to kill before our tower tour.
The tower tour was really cool. We got to see all of the supports holding the whole Cathedral up and how they built it and the graffiti that the stone masons left hundreds of years ago. Its really weird to think that the Cathedral is older than the entire history of America. Well, white america, anyway... You know what I mean. The main part of the Cathedral was built in the 1200's. The spire was added in the 1300's. There are 333 steps to the top of the towers at the base of the spire. We walked up in stages, but it was still a lot of steps. At each new level the guide explained some the construction techniques or some unique aspects of the level. Finally when we got to the very top we got to go out on the ledge and look around. We got to go out all 4 sides of the tower and look around. It was amazing. We could also see the carving on the outside of the cathedral and the renovated parts that had been replaced in the last few years. It was very cool. Then we even got a pin to prove that we'd made it to the top :) Going down was a bit more rough. We pretty much just went down without a lot of stops, so I got pretty dizzy and had a headache for the rest of the day. But all we had left of the day was a bus ride home. So we got a little lost, but we found the bus station in time for the 4:30 bus back to Bournemouth. (Just to clarify, I live in Poole, which is the town next to Bournemouth. My university is called Bournemouth University, but its actually just over the border of the two towns in Poole. But the university is still a 20 minute bus ride from where I live.) On the way back it was already dark :( Then we saw a big accident on the road going the other direction. A car had flipped and there were a bunch of emergency vehicles all over and traffice was backed up for a really long way. Then when we got nearer Bournemouth our driver got on the intercom and said that there were more accidents so he had to go a different way to go around them. We got to the stop we needed though. Then we had to wait a few minutes for our next bus, but it came pretty quickly and we had about 25-30 minutes on that bus to get home. Overall it was a really great day and I'm glad I go to do it. Danielle and I are talking about trying to do a trip to Wales next month, so we'll see if we can get that planned.
Friday I had to do some studying, so I went to the cafe in The Lighthouse, which is the theater just down the street from where I live. It has live events and movies. The cafe was pretty nice, but didn't have a plug for my computer. So I did get a bunch of studying done there, but I definitely could have done more if my computer hadn't died. Oh well, I did get some stuff done. Then Friday night Stine (from Norway) was having a dinner party. She made risotto and it was delicious! That wasn't a very late night because we all knew that Saturday was going to be long :)
Saturday morning after I got back from the gym I went out and bought my makeup since I had neglected to do it before then. I got some good stuff though. Then I came home and made my belt buckle. I did a pretty excellent job, I think. Then I showered and put my hair up in that silly ponytail to dry in the right position. Then of course I had to paint my nails and make my arm warmers. I started my makeup around 6 and it actually didn't take as long as I thought that it would so I had plenty of time to sit around before putting on the rest of my costume. If you want to get to guess what I was look at the pics now, because I'm going to spill the beans pretty soon. Around 7:30 I finished off my lips and then started getting into the dress. Then I got the belt and suspenders on and fastened the glorious belt buckle on with scotch tape. So that part was a little bit tacky, but what can you do? Then I got the shoes and socks on and I was ready to go! RAINBOW BRITE! It was awesome and everybody knew what I was. Well, everybody who had ever heard of Rainbow Brite anyway, which was a lot of people. So then I headed off to a couple of Halloween parties that were going on on my floor. There were some really great costumes. I took a ton of pics, but I think the costume of the night was Melissa as the Mad Hatter from the new Alice In Wonderland. She was so creepy and hardly even looked like herself. It was really good, but I couldn't really look at her most of the night ;) So that's about it. We went out in Poole for awhile, and then came home. Today I must study and then I'm going with some other people from my class this evening for a group study session at a coffee shop/pub in town. So hopefully that's useful because I'm kind of starting to freak out about this test even though we're only expected to get about 60%. I think that's what bothers me. Even though I know what the expectations are I still feel like I should be striving for 100%. Its weird.
British consideration of the week: Double Decker Buses. They are really only cool if you sit in the front row of the top so that you can see everything as you're going. That's were Danielle and I sat for our ride to Salisbury and it was great. But for everyday going to school I usually just sit on the bottom so that I don't have to go up and down the steps. I guess they get more seats on the bus with two levels, but they lose so many on the bottom level having to put in the steps to the top that I'm not sure how it works out. So that's where I leave you this week. Hope you have enjoyed my rambling and I hope to hear something from you soon. Have a good one!
Thursday was the exciting day of the week. Danielle and I got up early Thursday morning and caught the bus into Bournemouth. From there we had to catch another bus for a 1.5 hour ride to Salisbury. We were going to see the Cathedral there. (A bit of history about the origins of this trip. My second week in England my course leader took all of us to Stonehenge and some sites around there. Then we went to the Salisbury Museum where a lot of Stonehenge artifacts are kept. To get to the museum we had to walk by the Cathedral, which was beautiful. Someone in the group told me that you could climb the tower of the cathedral and that it housed the oldest clock in England and one of 4 surviving copies of the Magna Carta. So I had to go back and do those things since we didn't have time that day. So I roped Danielle, who is a Museum Studies major, into going with me.) We caught the bus from Poole at 9 so that we could get the student discount. They don't let you get the discount until after 9 for some reason. So we got all day bus passes for only 4.50 pounds. Usually it would have been 7.50. We got to Salisbury at about 11am after seeing signs for some awesome places along the way. Including a waterpark that I suspect may just be a small lake...
As soon as we got off of the bus we found an awesome stationary store. So we spent a bunch of time in there and found some pretty sweet Christmas cards. Almost all of which say "Merry Christmas". It apparently isn't the political craziness here that it is in the States. We then walked the couple of blocks to the Cathedral. It was still amazing. We took a ton of pics of the outside of it and then headed inside to look around. We got a tour from one of the volunteer guides that works there. She was great. We got so much more out of it than we would have if we had just walked around on our own. She told us all about the clock and how it used to ring the bells in the tower, but when they made the tower higher, the ringing of so many bells would have knocked it down from the vibrations. So they built a special bell tower near the Cathedral. Later, the Cathedral was in a state of disrepair, so they brought in an architect called Wyatt and he knocked down the bell tower. He also white washed over the murals on the ceilings and brought tombs in from outside. Then he leveled the rest of the graveyard. He is a very hated man. This was in the 1500's I think, but don't quote me on that for sure. I bought a book about the Cathedral, but I can't be asked to look everything up right now. If you have questions either google it, or ask me via email and I'll look things up in my book for you.
Anyway, after the tour we were starving so we went to a Chinese place that we'd seen on our walk in. They had a set lunch of soup, main and dessert, so we order that. It was really good. I had Sechwan chicken. Mmmm....then ice cream for dessert. Yummy. Then we went back to the stationary store to buy Xmas card since we had time to kill before our tower tour.
The tower tour was really cool. We got to see all of the supports holding the whole Cathedral up and how they built it and the graffiti that the stone masons left hundreds of years ago. Its really weird to think that the Cathedral is older than the entire history of America. Well, white america, anyway... You know what I mean. The main part of the Cathedral was built in the 1200's. The spire was added in the 1300's. There are 333 steps to the top of the towers at the base of the spire. We walked up in stages, but it was still a lot of steps. At each new level the guide explained some the construction techniques or some unique aspects of the level. Finally when we got to the very top we got to go out on the ledge and look around. We got to go out all 4 sides of the tower and look around. It was amazing. We could also see the carving on the outside of the cathedral and the renovated parts that had been replaced in the last few years. It was very cool. Then we even got a pin to prove that we'd made it to the top :) Going down was a bit more rough. We pretty much just went down without a lot of stops, so I got pretty dizzy and had a headache for the rest of the day. But all we had left of the day was a bus ride home. So we got a little lost, but we found the bus station in time for the 4:30 bus back to Bournemouth. (Just to clarify, I live in Poole, which is the town next to Bournemouth. My university is called Bournemouth University, but its actually just over the border of the two towns in Poole. But the university is still a 20 minute bus ride from where I live.) On the way back it was already dark :( Then we saw a big accident on the road going the other direction. A car had flipped and there were a bunch of emergency vehicles all over and traffice was backed up for a really long way. Then when we got nearer Bournemouth our driver got on the intercom and said that there were more accidents so he had to go a different way to go around them. We got to the stop we needed though. Then we had to wait a few minutes for our next bus, but it came pretty quickly and we had about 25-30 minutes on that bus to get home. Overall it was a really great day and I'm glad I go to do it. Danielle and I are talking about trying to do a trip to Wales next month, so we'll see if we can get that planned.
Friday I had to do some studying, so I went to the cafe in The Lighthouse, which is the theater just down the street from where I live. It has live events and movies. The cafe was pretty nice, but didn't have a plug for my computer. So I did get a bunch of studying done there, but I definitely could have done more if my computer hadn't died. Oh well, I did get some stuff done. Then Friday night Stine (from Norway) was having a dinner party. She made risotto and it was delicious! That wasn't a very late night because we all knew that Saturday was going to be long :)
Saturday morning after I got back from the gym I went out and bought my makeup since I had neglected to do it before then. I got some good stuff though. Then I came home and made my belt buckle. I did a pretty excellent job, I think. Then I showered and put my hair up in that silly ponytail to dry in the right position. Then of course I had to paint my nails and make my arm warmers. I started my makeup around 6 and it actually didn't take as long as I thought that it would so I had plenty of time to sit around before putting on the rest of my costume. If you want to get to guess what I was look at the pics now, because I'm going to spill the beans pretty soon. Around 7:30 I finished off my lips and then started getting into the dress. Then I got the belt and suspenders on and fastened the glorious belt buckle on with scotch tape. So that part was a little bit tacky, but what can you do? Then I got the shoes and socks on and I was ready to go! RAINBOW BRITE! It was awesome and everybody knew what I was. Well, everybody who had ever heard of Rainbow Brite anyway, which was a lot of people. So then I headed off to a couple of Halloween parties that were going on on my floor. There were some really great costumes. I took a ton of pics, but I think the costume of the night was Melissa as the Mad Hatter from the new Alice In Wonderland. She was so creepy and hardly even looked like herself. It was really good, but I couldn't really look at her most of the night ;) So that's about it. We went out in Poole for awhile, and then came home. Today I must study and then I'm going with some other people from my class this evening for a group study session at a coffee shop/pub in town. So hopefully that's useful because I'm kind of starting to freak out about this test even though we're only expected to get about 60%. I think that's what bothers me. Even though I know what the expectations are I still feel like I should be striving for 100%. Its weird.
British consideration of the week: Double Decker Buses. They are really only cool if you sit in the front row of the top so that you can see everything as you're going. That's were Danielle and I sat for our ride to Salisbury and it was great. But for everyday going to school I usually just sit on the bottom so that I don't have to go up and down the steps. I guess they get more seats on the bus with two levels, but they lose so many on the bottom level having to put in the steps to the top that I'm not sure how it works out. So that's where I leave you this week. Hope you have enjoyed my rambling and I hope to hear something from you soon. Have a good one!
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