Start of week three and I'm writing about the end of week one, I’ll catch up eventually! So, after lectures on the Friday I made the short (ish) trip from Vancouver to Seattle. Having recovered from a minor stress period when I was convinced the bus was heading in the opposite direction (the human compass slightly inaccurate briefly) I settled down on the 4 hour journey down the Pacific Coastline to visit an old Edinburgh friend in Seattle for the weekend. My welcome to the US of A wasn't quite as pleasant as I hoped; I wasn't expecting banners or trumpets but a smile or two wouldn't have gone astray. American customs lived up to its reputation of minor interrogation and G. W. Bush homage; there are photos of the man EVERYWHERE as if we need reminding who he is. Plus discrimination against my New Zealand grown apple left me completing the remainder of the trip feeling rather hungry.
Once in Seattle it was well worth it, it was fantastic to see a friend who already knows my name, age, hometown etc. Whilst meeting new people is one of the most exciting things about exchange, it can be hard work as I’m sure those of you that have done the fresher thing will recall. Seattle itself is a great city and somewhere I plan to return to in the future, highlights of the trip included ferry boats, market shopping and awesome views of the city from the space needle (which in reality is not a rocket, just a very tall building.) Sunday evening I made the return journey back across the border with Canadian customs proving to be a rather more pleasant experience that their American counterparts.
Week two of lectures and I managed to retain my 100% record of 8am lecture attendance. Labs started this week which ranged from 3 hours of microscope squinting; in which I concluded that my eyelashes are too long and I didn't know what I was looking at, to 3 hours of looking at mammal skulls. The latter proving to be vastly more entertaining - my only hope is that I remember all the bones, condoyles, fossa and foramen well enough for my test this afternoon.
The application to academic studies has been made harder by the fact that British Columbia (BC) is currently in the middle of a heat wave. So far the beach has won any competition between the two. The nearest beach to my house is a 15 minute walk; incidentally, this also happens to be the nudist beach. Whilst clothed people are certainly in the majority (myself included) the necessity to avert one's eyes occurred fairly frequently. I did brave the ocean waves (albeit briefly!) then settled down to dry on the sand. On Sunday we ventured to pastures new, i.e. a more clothes orientated beach, played Frisbee and watched the sun go down, all in all not a bad way to end the week!
And so it’s back to the now familiar routine of the week; classes, labs and all the more interesting things in between as week three continues….. Scary how time flies!
