Friday - Was kind of a lazy day. I had to go up to campus around noon, to put my order in for the Forensic Society's Hoodie. I did that, took two minutes, and then headed to the library. I had to renew a Forensic book, that I only had out on a one week loan. Stupidly, while I was doing this - I forget my BU student ID in the machine. So I am hoping that maybe someone handed it in at the library. I will be checking Monday. I got back to my flat in the afternoon, and tried to clean up my room a little bit, it was still a little messy from all the freebies I got at freshers fair...lol I made some dinner in the kitchen with my flatmates, and chatted for a bit. I was invited by my friend Orla (from Ireland) to a little party up in their flat on the 8th floor, so decided to go to that. My friends in Corfe House - Tauheed and Hilary were also going, so we all were going to meet in my room around 10pm. That worked out great, and we all headed up to 807 together. We all hung out and met a few new faces in the building, and had some cider. Hilary and Tauheed left before midnight, but I had some friends still up there so I wound up staying til well after 3am....lol But was a really fun night.
Saturday - I got up and got ready to meet Nwadi and Hilary at 11am, down in the lobby. We were going to the market that is held in the town square on the weekend. We headed down there, and started at one end and went to all the little carts. They had things from jewelry, to vegetables, to meats, and much more. And the great thing was that all the prices seemed really reasonable. We did that for a few hours and then started stopping in some of the shops that were on the street. We eventually made our way to the Quay (pronounced Key) which is where the end of High Street meats the waterfront. I had never been down there, and it was so pretty. They have ships and lots of walkways by the water. So we walked a bit up the Quay, and then decided that it would be best to return to our flats to drop off all our "goodies" from the day. The plan was to go to our flats, drop our stuff off, eat some lunch and then meet back down in the lobby in an hour. Easy plan - right. Well I got up to my flat, and was feeling kinda icky. I had been up late the night before and was tired that morning, so didnt shower and threw my hair up in a pony tail. So I decided to take a quick shower and then I'd make some lunch before meeting the girls downstairs. Shower was quick, and I got out and was drying off --- and the fire alarm starts going off! So I quickly grabbed some clothes and shoes....wet hair, and headed to the hallway to head downstairs. All my flatmates were also in the hallway and we were confused about why the fire alarm was going off. There was no fire or smoke or anything. And poor Georgia also had just gotten out of the shower. We looked a mess, hair dripping and in mismatched clothes...lol So we go into the hallway to head downstairs, and realize that the alarm is only going off in our flat. So Damla and Tianyi offer to go downstairs and tell the front desk, while me and Georgia waited in the hallway. They came and turned off the alarm and checked all our rooms - and said it was safe and had to call in the alarm. So we finally are allowed back in. By this time, I have 10 minutes till I have to meet everyone downstairs....lol So I got dressed, heated up a cup-O-soup -- ate just the noodles, and headed down. It was truly a crazy hour. We then decided to head back towards the water and walk all the way till the end. A bit ambitious, but we just set out and kept walking. Along the way we took a bunch of cute pictures along the pebble beach, and by the water. It was such a fun afternoon - we didn't even realize the time or how far we had walked. So I checked my pedometer and we had walked over 5 miles! So we found a cute spot and took a little sit. That did us in, we all were then starting to feel a little tired...lol So we decided to head back - another 5 miles. We got back to the Quay and were pretty hungry. So we got some really delicious "chips" (french fries, but better) We had our chips, at sunset, on a little stone wall - right on the water. It was a good way to end the day. We all headed home after that. I came home and just lounged around for the rest of the night (we got in around 7pm) And then fell asleep around 10, and woke up around 1am....lol but shortly went back to bed.
Sunday - This honestly was quite a lazy day. I caught up on some reading and cleaned up my room a little bit. But about mid-day I went to the grocery store and got a few ingredients to make an apple pie for my flatmates and friends. It wasn't expensive and it actually turned out to be pretty easy to do. It also made the flat smell sooooo good. While it was baking I made some pasta with mushrooms and panchetta sauteed in it. And then Georgia decided to make Greek Lasagna! Well that night in our flat, there was so much food. Damla had a left over dish from the night before, we had Georgia's Lasagna, my pasta and then for desert the pie with ice cream! All of it was so yummy, and we had our friends Sara and Astrid down for the pie! They have requested that I make the pie again this weekend. We all like to spend time in the kitchen, cooking together but also eating together and just spending time with one another. I am really lucky to have such amazing flatmates and friends.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
First week of classes (04-10-10 - 07-10-10)
So this was my first week of classes. I only have class on Monday and Tuesday, and a few other additional meeting times on Monday and Wednesdays later in the semester. So It's a great schedule, and gives me free time to get my readings done, and be social on and off campus. I have decided to join the Forensic Society and also the Photography Society on campus - both will look good on my CV and are a great way to make friends.
Monday, the class that I had was Forensic Science. I really was a little uncertain about what we would be covering in that class. The way that we get our classes here, is a little different from back home. They 'assign' you a schedule, and you take the classes with the other people in your postgraduate program. In my case, I am FBA (Forensic and Biological Anthropology) - but I take alot of similar classes with the FA (Forensic Archaeology) and Recovery (Recovery of Human Remains) post grad students. In total, between all three programs - there are about 50-60 of us. So in the Forensic class, it is the FBA and FA students. We meet in a lecture hall, and its actually one of the nicer ones that I've been in. Although that first day, the a/c was on and the room was freezing cold! The explanation of the class was interesting. We will be having alot of guest lecturers from all different areas of Forensics, throughout the course of the term. And we will have a few short and long papers to write. But in general, we are learning about how all the different disciplines of Forensics come together and perform their tasks on a crime scene and or while in the field for research. We also meet for that class on Tuesday at 1pm (same time), but we meet in another building.
Tuesday is a bit of a rough day. I can't complain too much because my schedule is pretty open most of the week - but the amount of time I am in lecture on Tuesday, is quite exhausting. I start the day at 11am - so I usually will take the 10:10 bus. The first class is Legal Studies: Crime Scene and Disaster Management. That class seems like it will be interesting, our professor is a lawyer. He went over in general what we will be covering. It will be a lot of learning the proper procedures while working a crime scene, so that when we are called as expert witnesses we can better do our jobs. In the summer, there will be a "trial" were each one of us will be called in a mock court - to be an expert witness. Not yet sure what we will be experts on - possibly a paper we have to write, not sure yet. So it really is a hands on class, should be good information to learn. The only downside I see, is learning not only the US legal system and terminology - but also the UK one as well. The classroom that we are in, is a bit tiny for the amount of people that are crammed into it - they might move to a larger room? not sure. We have that class from 11-1 straight. Then immediately following, in the same classroom, we have Forensic Science. And then after FS (Forensic Science) We head over to our main Forensic building, across campus, to Human Skeletal Anatomy and Development. That class is one of my favorites, although I feel like I will be doing the most studying and work for it. My one osteology class did not prepare me enough for all that we will be learning....lol We will in depth, need to know all the bones in the human body - as well as a large majority of muscles. After the lecture part of the class, we have lab. The first lecture went by really fast - thank god she posted the power point on our blackboard - but it was an overview of what we will be getting into. Also for the lecture portion, we will have two tests. They are a mix of a sit down test and a lab practical - with diagrams and pictures. The lab that follows the lecture is broken into two groups, alphabetically - luckily I fall into the first group (so I'm done by 4). In our first lab, we were given boxes of human bones - both real and fake. And with the people at our lab stations, we were to put the skeletons together as best we could. I think they just wanted to see where everyone is at. Some people have no previous experience with any anatomy or osteology. Me and my friend Lauren (from NYC) did really well with our body. Most all the bones were in the correct locations, some of the left and rights were reversed. And we were so happy, all our ribs were correct - but they also were flipped around (the left ones on the right...lol ) So I think that working in the bone lab will be really great. We are allowed to go there anytime (we all have special codes to get access) and we can practice with the bones and later in the year - boxes that only have fragments of bone (not ready for that yet...lol) And when ever you are in the lab, everyone has to wear a white lab coat (they have them there) and gloves.
Wednesday I was able to finally get my computer back from IT, and its working great :) And I also had to go on campus. We have a "personal tutor" per our department, and she is there is any of us need anything. So she was holding sessions to meet everyone and have us fill out sheets about ourselves. So I met some friends and attended an afternoon session.
Thursday, I stayed in - and tried to clean my room and get a little bit more organized around my flat. I have to go to campus tomorrow and get some books from the library for the weekend. I have a paper that is due in about 2 weeks, and I have to get started on it. Its a 1500 word paper, but the hard part is that it must have between 15-20 sources. Mostly from books or journal articles. That is the first of many papers I will have to do while I'm here. I also attended the BU Photography Society meeting tonight. They had the meeting at a pub in Landsdown (by Bournemouth) and my friend Lauren lives 5 minutes from there - so I met her at her flat. We walked to the 'meeting'. It was upstairs at this cute pub, and we basically had drinks most of the night and got to know the other members that came out. We will be doing scavenger hunts and maybe some trips later in the year. I had a fun time, and met some really cool people.
Monday, the class that I had was Forensic Science. I really was a little uncertain about what we would be covering in that class. The way that we get our classes here, is a little different from back home. They 'assign' you a schedule, and you take the classes with the other people in your postgraduate program. In my case, I am FBA (Forensic and Biological Anthropology) - but I take alot of similar classes with the FA (Forensic Archaeology) and Recovery (Recovery of Human Remains) post grad students. In total, between all three programs - there are about 50-60 of us. So in the Forensic class, it is the FBA and FA students. We meet in a lecture hall, and its actually one of the nicer ones that I've been in. Although that first day, the a/c was on and the room was freezing cold! The explanation of the class was interesting. We will be having alot of guest lecturers from all different areas of Forensics, throughout the course of the term. And we will have a few short and long papers to write. But in general, we are learning about how all the different disciplines of Forensics come together and perform their tasks on a crime scene and or while in the field for research. We also meet for that class on Tuesday at 1pm (same time), but we meet in another building.
Tuesday is a bit of a rough day. I can't complain too much because my schedule is pretty open most of the week - but the amount of time I am in lecture on Tuesday, is quite exhausting. I start the day at 11am - so I usually will take the 10:10 bus. The first class is Legal Studies: Crime Scene and Disaster Management. That class seems like it will be interesting, our professor is a lawyer. He went over in general what we will be covering. It will be a lot of learning the proper procedures while working a crime scene, so that when we are called as expert witnesses we can better do our jobs. In the summer, there will be a "trial" were each one of us will be called in a mock court - to be an expert witness. Not yet sure what we will be experts on - possibly a paper we have to write, not sure yet. So it really is a hands on class, should be good information to learn. The only downside I see, is learning not only the US legal system and terminology - but also the UK one as well. The classroom that we are in, is a bit tiny for the amount of people that are crammed into it - they might move to a larger room? not sure. We have that class from 11-1 straight. Then immediately following, in the same classroom, we have Forensic Science. And then after FS (Forensic Science) We head over to our main Forensic building, across campus, to Human Skeletal Anatomy and Development. That class is one of my favorites, although I feel like I will be doing the most studying and work for it. My one osteology class did not prepare me enough for all that we will be learning....lol We will in depth, need to know all the bones in the human body - as well as a large majority of muscles. After the lecture part of the class, we have lab. The first lecture went by really fast - thank god she posted the power point on our blackboard - but it was an overview of what we will be getting into. Also for the lecture portion, we will have two tests. They are a mix of a sit down test and a lab practical - with diagrams and pictures. The lab that follows the lecture is broken into two groups, alphabetically - luckily I fall into the first group (so I'm done by 4). In our first lab, we were given boxes of human bones - both real and fake. And with the people at our lab stations, we were to put the skeletons together as best we could. I think they just wanted to see where everyone is at. Some people have no previous experience with any anatomy or osteology. Me and my friend Lauren (from NYC) did really well with our body. Most all the bones were in the correct locations, some of the left and rights were reversed. And we were so happy, all our ribs were correct - but they also were flipped around (the left ones on the right...lol ) So I think that working in the bone lab will be really great. We are allowed to go there anytime (we all have special codes to get access) and we can practice with the bones and later in the year - boxes that only have fragments of bone (not ready for that yet...lol) And when ever you are in the lab, everyone has to wear a white lab coat (they have them there) and gloves.
Wednesday I was able to finally get my computer back from IT, and its working great :) And I also had to go on campus. We have a "personal tutor" per our department, and she is there is any of us need anything. So she was holding sessions to meet everyone and have us fill out sheets about ourselves. So I met some friends and attended an afternoon session.
Thursday, I stayed in - and tried to clean my room and get a little bit more organized around my flat. I have to go to campus tomorrow and get some books from the library for the weekend. I have a paper that is due in about 2 weeks, and I have to get started on it. Its a 1500 word paper, but the hard part is that it must have between 15-20 sources. Mostly from books or journal articles. That is the first of many papers I will have to do while I'm here. I also attended the BU Photography Society meeting tonight. They had the meeting at a pub in Landsdown (by Bournemouth) and my friend Lauren lives 5 minutes from there - so I met her at her flat. We walked to the 'meeting'. It was upstairs at this cute pub, and we basically had drinks most of the night and got to know the other members that came out. We will be doing scavenger hunts and maybe some trips later in the year. I had a fun time, and met some really cool people.
Sum - up of my time here (up til classes starting)
OK, so I thought that a blog would be a better way to keep up with everyone back home and share my adventures here. I'll try to start from the day I left, and give a taste of what my days here have been like :)
Before I even left, I had to make a quick trip to NYC - with Kari - to get my UK visa. That was a super quick 3 day trip. I did get to see Cat! I flew home from NYC on Thursday afternoon, ran a few errands in Wilmington - and got home around 7pm, to start packing. I only slept for an hour that night, and was lucky enough to have Mike and Shannon helping me pack. I kept weighing my bags, and taking things out...lol
The next morning Mom, Dad, me and Mike all left for ILM at around 4:30am. I thought that I would be fine, saying goodbye to everyone -- but it was much harder than I thought. I flew first class from ILM to Charlotte (which was pretty cool) and had a delightful 10 hours layover. Between attempting to sleep in the connected chairs, while still watching my carry on, texting, reading and talking to random people - it actually went by pretty quick. Once it was finally time to board, I was pretty excited. Walked onto the plane, and for once got to turn left - into business class! My seat was huge, and the flight attendant greeted me with champagne...lol A nice old guy wound up being my seat mate, which was cool - was talked a bit over the 8 hour flight. Oh, and our amazing 3 course meal and unlimited alcohol - was pretty cool :)
Arriving in the UK, it was about 7am. Made it through customs just fine, and headed to the nearest Coach stand to buy my ticket to get down to Poole. Did not expect the ticket to cost almost 40 pounds (don't have the British pound symbol..lol) With a huge duffel, one big suitcase, a rolly carry-on and a big purse - I made my way to the Coach. From the London airport to Poole, it was a long 4 hours bus ride - most of which I managed to sleep. Once finally here, I had to walk with all my bags about 5-10 mins up the road to the nearest taxi stand. He was super nice and got me here to my building, pretty cheap. That first day here, I got in around 2pm in the afternoon and the day from there was kind of a blur. I felt bad, because my cell phone was not working and I was unable to let the family know that I arrived here okay. But was able to contact them the next day. That day and the next I slept alot and tried to unpack, since Monday was the first day of orientation classes.
I met my flatmates over the weekend as well, and right from the start we all got along great :) I also met a really great girl from upstairs and a few other people in my building. That first week of 9-5 orientations was mind numbing, and hard trying to fight my jet lag. But made it through, and we had Friday of that week off, as a free day! Over the course of the week I had been slowly trying to get to the store to get things I needed, like linens and some food. But that Friday me and my flatmates went and did some serious food shopping...lol That first Saturday here my friend Nwadi, my flatmate Tianyi and myself went to "freshers fair". Basically they have vendors and club that all come in and give away free stuff. We cleaned up and all got alot of things, like pens, key chains, food, and even some jump drives. It was a fun day. After doing that all morning my two other flatmates met us on campus and we decided to go to Bournemouth downtown and do some shopping. The shopping there is really good, and it was fun to walk around and pop into all the cute stores. I got a few things, but still waiting on my loan money to come in - so had to hold back a little...lol We finally made it back to the flat sometime around 6pm and we were all a bit tired. We all cooked dinner together in our common kitchen and everyone went to bed early - because we had a trip the next morning. We had to meet the Coach at 715am, to go to London - a trip for international students. It was about 2.5 hours to get into London, and then we had a driving tour with a guide for about another hour. And after that we wondered all around London, enjoying the sites and went to Oxford Street to do a little shopping :) We walked over 7 miles around London (thank you pedometer..lol) and didn't arrive back in Poole till about 9:30pm. Class for me, luckily, was not until 1pm the next day.....
Before I even left, I had to make a quick trip to NYC - with Kari - to get my UK visa. That was a super quick 3 day trip. I did get to see Cat! I flew home from NYC on Thursday afternoon, ran a few errands in Wilmington - and got home around 7pm, to start packing. I only slept for an hour that night, and was lucky enough to have Mike and Shannon helping me pack. I kept weighing my bags, and taking things out...lol
The next morning Mom, Dad, me and Mike all left for ILM at around 4:30am. I thought that I would be fine, saying goodbye to everyone -- but it was much harder than I thought. I flew first class from ILM to Charlotte (which was pretty cool) and had a delightful 10 hours layover. Between attempting to sleep in the connected chairs, while still watching my carry on, texting, reading and talking to random people - it actually went by pretty quick. Once it was finally time to board, I was pretty excited. Walked onto the plane, and for once got to turn left - into business class! My seat was huge, and the flight attendant greeted me with champagne...lol A nice old guy wound up being my seat mate, which was cool - was talked a bit over the 8 hour flight. Oh, and our amazing 3 course meal and unlimited alcohol - was pretty cool :)
Arriving in the UK, it was about 7am. Made it through customs just fine, and headed to the nearest Coach stand to buy my ticket to get down to Poole. Did not expect the ticket to cost almost 40 pounds (don't have the British pound symbol..lol) With a huge duffel, one big suitcase, a rolly carry-on and a big purse - I made my way to the Coach. From the London airport to Poole, it was a long 4 hours bus ride - most of which I managed to sleep. Once finally here, I had to walk with all my bags about 5-10 mins up the road to the nearest taxi stand. He was super nice and got me here to my building, pretty cheap. That first day here, I got in around 2pm in the afternoon and the day from there was kind of a blur. I felt bad, because my cell phone was not working and I was unable to let the family know that I arrived here okay. But was able to contact them the next day. That day and the next I slept alot and tried to unpack, since Monday was the first day of orientation classes.
I met my flatmates over the weekend as well, and right from the start we all got along great :) I also met a really great girl from upstairs and a few other people in my building. That first week of 9-5 orientations was mind numbing, and hard trying to fight my jet lag. But made it through, and we had Friday of that week off, as a free day! Over the course of the week I had been slowly trying to get to the store to get things I needed, like linens and some food. But that Friday me and my flatmates went and did some serious food shopping...lol That first Saturday here my friend Nwadi, my flatmate Tianyi and myself went to "freshers fair". Basically they have vendors and club that all come in and give away free stuff. We cleaned up and all got alot of things, like pens, key chains, food, and even some jump drives. It was a fun day. After doing that all morning my two other flatmates met us on campus and we decided to go to Bournemouth downtown and do some shopping. The shopping there is really good, and it was fun to walk around and pop into all the cute stores. I got a few things, but still waiting on my loan money to come in - so had to hold back a little...lol We finally made it back to the flat sometime around 6pm and we were all a bit tired. We all cooked dinner together in our common kitchen and everyone went to bed early - because we had a trip the next morning. We had to meet the Coach at 715am, to go to London - a trip for international students. It was about 2.5 hours to get into London, and then we had a driving tour with a guide for about another hour. And after that we wondered all around London, enjoying the sites and went to Oxford Street to do a little shopping :) We walked over 7 miles around London (thank you pedometer..lol) and didn't arrive back in Poole till about 9:30pm. Class for me, luckily, was not until 1pm the next day.....
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