Well, last Sunday I went out to lunch with a couple of my flatmates and some friends. I had been studying all weekend for my exam on Monday, so it was nice to get out of the flat and do something fun. Then that night we decorated the flat for Christmas. Two of my flatmates bought trees, so we decorated both. It looks very festive in our living room. (Link to pics further down)
Monday morning was my exam. First we had a lecture on the lower leg, but it wasn't being covered on the test, so a lot of people didn't show up. Then we had an hour break and then the exam. When we got into the room the prof said that he had made the test easier than the last one had been. It did seem much easier. There weren't any bones that I couldn't identify. A few I couldn't side, but then I panicked because the ones I did side were almost all left. But lots of people got that same result, so I guess its okay. But all the time I spent memorizing muscles was a bit silly because there weren't nearly as many on the exam as I thought that there would be. Ah well, I think I did well, so its all good.
Tuesday I got the results back from my animal exam. We didn't get the actual exam back yet, and we couldn't see the answers because one girl hadn't taken hers yet. But I did really well on this one too, so that's good. Then I had to start working majorly hard on my paper. It isn't due until Monday, but I wanted to be done with it and have it turned in by Friday so that I could enjoy my weekend. So I spent a lot of time this week working on that.
Wednesday I spent almost the entire day working on the paper. Pretty boring really...
Thursday we went back to the wet lab in the morning to look at x-rays and the lower body. The x-rays were kind of cool, but unless it was a bone break I couldn't tell what was going on. We did see an x-ray of a pregnant woman though, so that was pretty cool. We also realized that most of the x-rays were from the States. The guy there told us that its because private practices can sell their x-rays. In the UK all that stuff is tied to the NHS (National Health Service) and its very hard to get them. The wet lab stuff was really cool. The leg is just so huge with giant chunks of muscle. And we knew what they were when the demonstrator asked, so that was cool. It did leave us hungry though, because it looks like chunks of beef. Weird, I know. Then Thursday night I had a Christmas party with some of my friends from Corfe House. It was a pot luck, so we had lots of good food and everyone dressed up and looked really nice, so it was really cool. I got a really beautiful bracelet that matched the dress I was wearing and some earrings. Overall it was a good time.
Friday I headed in to school so that I could work on my paper and print it out. I was there until 10pm, but I finished it and handed it in! I'm super excited. It feels really good to have the first assignment out of the way and a clear weekend to do fun stuff.
Saturday I headed into Bournemouth with a few friends to do some Christmas shopping. I got a bit done and then we had crepes. Mine was nutella and banana. It was delicious. Then the girls went home but I had a bit more shopping to do so I stuck around. I tried on a really nice dress for New Years, but I wasn't sure about it so I didn't get it. Thinking more about it though, I really liked it. I may go back and get it this week. Hopefully its still there :/
Today we are having our flat Christmas party. We have a turkey defrosting on the counter and are going to make roasted veg, stuffing and apple crisp. It should be delicious. I'm not sure when I'll next be updating this because my flight back to the States is next Sunday. I'm going to London on Friday to go the some museums, so I probably won't be able to do it early, but I might. Anyway, have a great Christmas and New Year and I'll catch you back here in a couple of weeks.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Goats V. Sheep, Wet Lab and Studying
Yet another week has passed and its now only 2 weeks until I fly home for Christmas! I'm excited to be going home, but I have SOOO much to get done before I leave that its kind of stressing me out. This past week consisted of some really cool stuff and some not so good stuff. So here goes:
Last Sunday night I went out with 2 of my flatmates to Bournemouth to get dinner at a place called Aruba. It was really good food and had a cool atmosphere inside. It was decorated island style, but then also had Christmas decorations up, so it was quite the mishmash of decor. I have pics, but haven't gotten them up yet. I'll do that for next week's entry. Our other flatmates were suppose to come for dinner as well, but backed out at the last minute as usual. It was a fun girl's night out though.
Monday I had human anatomy as usual. We did the pelvic girdle and femur. Again, there was just sooo much to learn about only 2 bones. But on the plus side, because we are one lecture behind we will only be tested on the things from the last 3 weeks, so we don't have to know the lower leg and foot. Woohoo! We have our exam tomorrow so I've spent much of the week studying like crazy. I know a ton of stuff at this point, I just hope its the right stuff...
Tuesday we had animal lab. We were debating the different techniques for differentiating between sheep and goat skeletons. This is a problem in archaeology because people use sheep and goat for very different things, so if you can't tell them apart, you can't necessarily say what was happening at a site. They are also very similar to each other bone-wise, so it is very hard and very debatable to distinguish them from each other. If you would like to know more email me. No need to bore everyone here needlessly :)
Wednesday I was in lab for most of the afternoon. I considered staying into the evening, but just couldn't take it anymore by 5.
Thursday I spent 9.5 hours at school in the lab. At least 8 of those hours were spent studying bones. It was a ridiculously long time, but I really made a breakthrough and learned the muscle attachments of the scapula, pelvis and clavicle pretty well and even made some inroads on the humerus, radius and ulna. So I felt good about the day despite getting home at 9:30 at night :( Who knew that grad school would require this level of commitment and work ;)
Friday was pretty exciting because we got to go to the chiropractor's college to their wet lab to look at cadavers. One of the people on my course has a car, so she drove a few of us over there for it so that we didn't have to take a bus. That was awesome and it was my first time in a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side! The wet lab was really cool. When we first got there the smell was crazy and I thought it might make me sick, but after awhile you got used to it. It was the formeldahyde that they use to preserve the bodies that is so smelly. These cadavers had been dissected so that we could look at all the muscles on the upper body and arms. It was really amazing. The demonstrator there even showed us all the anatomy of the soft tissues like the heart and lungs that we don't generally deal with in class. It was kind of odd that I would do something like this as an archaeologist, but I'm in class with mostly forensic anthropologists who might actually find soft tissue on their murder victims, so it was good for them I guess. But it was really neat to get to see. After finishing there I went, you guessed it, back to the bone lab on campus. I was there for a reasonable amount of time and was home by about 5:30 or so.
Saturday was terrible because I still didn't feel comfortable with the material so me and a friend went to lab again :( But after going through a few boxes of bones of the entire body I feel fairly good about it. We stayed a few hours and then came home. We went and got milkshakes as a reward for all of our studying and did some browsing in the shops. Then we went to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner. We had turkey curry. It was quite delicious. After that I did a bit more studying then watched tv and went to bed.
Today I don't plan to study much. My flatmates and a few other people are going to the chinese buffet down the road for lunch and then I'm going to try to get a few Christmas things for my secret santa exhanges. When I get back I think I'll read through my notes one last time and put it away until tomorrow morning. My brain can't hold anymore info at this point. Then I think I'll finish addressing Christmas cards and try to get those sent tomorrow. I meant to have that all done by this point, but am behind as usual. Then this evening we are decorating our flat for Christmas. We have garland (which they call tinsel here) and balls and beads, so it should look nice. Well, I suppose that's all I've got. Hope you are doing well. Talk to you soon.
Last Sunday night I went out with 2 of my flatmates to Bournemouth to get dinner at a place called Aruba. It was really good food and had a cool atmosphere inside. It was decorated island style, but then also had Christmas decorations up, so it was quite the mishmash of decor. I have pics, but haven't gotten them up yet. I'll do that for next week's entry. Our other flatmates were suppose to come for dinner as well, but backed out at the last minute as usual. It was a fun girl's night out though.
Monday I had human anatomy as usual. We did the pelvic girdle and femur. Again, there was just sooo much to learn about only 2 bones. But on the plus side, because we are one lecture behind we will only be tested on the things from the last 3 weeks, so we don't have to know the lower leg and foot. Woohoo! We have our exam tomorrow so I've spent much of the week studying like crazy. I know a ton of stuff at this point, I just hope its the right stuff...
Tuesday we had animal lab. We were debating the different techniques for differentiating between sheep and goat skeletons. This is a problem in archaeology because people use sheep and goat for very different things, so if you can't tell them apart, you can't necessarily say what was happening at a site. They are also very similar to each other bone-wise, so it is very hard and very debatable to distinguish them from each other. If you would like to know more email me. No need to bore everyone here needlessly :)
Wednesday I was in lab for most of the afternoon. I considered staying into the evening, but just couldn't take it anymore by 5.
Thursday I spent 9.5 hours at school in the lab. At least 8 of those hours were spent studying bones. It was a ridiculously long time, but I really made a breakthrough and learned the muscle attachments of the scapula, pelvis and clavicle pretty well and even made some inroads on the humerus, radius and ulna. So I felt good about the day despite getting home at 9:30 at night :( Who knew that grad school would require this level of commitment and work ;)
Friday was pretty exciting because we got to go to the chiropractor's college to their wet lab to look at cadavers. One of the people on my course has a car, so she drove a few of us over there for it so that we didn't have to take a bus. That was awesome and it was my first time in a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side! The wet lab was really cool. When we first got there the smell was crazy and I thought it might make me sick, but after awhile you got used to it. It was the formeldahyde that they use to preserve the bodies that is so smelly. These cadavers had been dissected so that we could look at all the muscles on the upper body and arms. It was really amazing. The demonstrator there even showed us all the anatomy of the soft tissues like the heart and lungs that we don't generally deal with in class. It was kind of odd that I would do something like this as an archaeologist, but I'm in class with mostly forensic anthropologists who might actually find soft tissue on their murder victims, so it was good for them I guess. But it was really neat to get to see. After finishing there I went, you guessed it, back to the bone lab on campus. I was there for a reasonable amount of time and was home by about 5:30 or so.
Saturday was terrible because I still didn't feel comfortable with the material so me and a friend went to lab again :( But after going through a few boxes of bones of the entire body I feel fairly good about it. We stayed a few hours and then came home. We went and got milkshakes as a reward for all of our studying and did some browsing in the shops. Then we went to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner. We had turkey curry. It was quite delicious. After that I did a bit more studying then watched tv and went to bed.
Today I don't plan to study much. My flatmates and a few other people are going to the chinese buffet down the road for lunch and then I'm going to try to get a few Christmas things for my secret santa exhanges. When I get back I think I'll read through my notes one last time and put it away until tomorrow morning. My brain can't hold anymore info at this point. Then I think I'll finish addressing Christmas cards and try to get those sent tomorrow. I meant to have that all done by this point, but am behind as usual. Then this evening we are decorating our flat for Christmas. We have garland (which they call tinsel here) and balls and beads, so it should look nice. Well, I suppose that's all I've got. Hope you are doing well. Talk to you soon.
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