A whole week late! I have no idea what happens to time, I always think on Sunday that I’ll write then I forget then I think oh I have Monday and Tuesday before I know it it’s Wednesday and now it’s Saturday… I’m confused! Anyway last week, I’m trying to think back as it’s not been entirely eventful!
Mainly I’ve been working on my literature review and trying to get somewhere in labs though it is very slow work, the one experiment I am working on just won’t separate so I’ve just been trying lots of different things. I still don’t feel any better about working in the lab, I don’t know why I can’t shake it, no one tells me off or tells me I’m doing something wrong but I still panic. The thing is; I just want to finish my literature review!
The strikes are still going on all over the place but I don’t really hear anything about them except on the radio as the researchers are employed by a company and are not university funded so no strikes for us, which I couldn’t be more grateful for! I know a lot of other people are affected by them, Rob and Sarah, Shusaku, people in my French class. We got round to organising the fancy dress party this week, inviting people and making a crown for Rachel (Aphrodite), it looks very impressive, I will post a link to pictures (since I do not know how to load them on to here) after the party. We spent hours cutting out leaves, putting twine on for the veins, covering them in shiny gold crepe paper then glitter and sequins. We stuck them to a hair band with superglue, it looks awesome, if I do say so myself. We caved this week and decided to buy some Malibu, because although we are not drinking wine, we didn’t say ‘no alcohol at all’, although we were very sensible and I think we ended up watching a DVD. Wow, we’re so boring sometimes!
Not through any fault of our own I hasten to add, we all had a lot of work to do, Rachel and Andrew have some distance space learning to send to Glasgow, forgive me for not feeling more sympathetic after having done nine assignments since I arrived, and this literature review.
I have to admit I am getting slightly worried about all this work, and choosing a project for next year, the university forgot to send me my work. How likely is it that they’ll forget to send me the project choices? I really need to sort them out quickly because I need to do something relevant to antidepressants, or drug delivery, to keep heading in the right direction. I really want to do a PhD on this stuff (yet another thing to worry about) and so I don’t want to loose any chances. This however does bring up another problem; I have been speaking to Anna, another student on the year in Europe placement from Chemistry. She has found the same problem; the support from Edinburgh has been pitiful! I don’t know what I expected and I know we’re old enough to get on with it on our own but a little support to provide information about work needed to be done, timings and some advice wouldn’t be bad. I guess it must be quite difficult to keep track of everyone and as it happens I seem to have survived…
French class was alright, it’s still not ideal, we are being taught how to pass an exam, i.e. how to construct an argument! I may not be an English student but I do remember how to write an essay and if I didn’t then the literature review is refreshing me somewhat! I don’t really care about what we’re taught, the best bit is the ‘petit pause’ and afterwards when we can chat to people in French. Friday night was fun though, I went to Shusaku’s because his girlfriend is here at the moment; she speaks both French and English (and Japanese, of course), and spent an odd evening speaking in three languages. Japanese is so difficult but hearing them speak makes me want to learn it even more!
Anyway I’m surprised I managed to ramble so much, oh the weather was great this week! It should be like that all of the time!
