Despite the title of this blog post, I haven’t been abducted by aliens! I have just had a really awesome week, and thought that I’d share some of the details. Varsity has been going really well so far. Honours is very different to undergrad, and I’ve learned more about flexibility within the last 3 weeks than I have in 2 years’ worth of yoga. The key to survival is to avoid planning at all costs – it means that when the psychology department suddenly decides to schedule some arbitrary lecture at some bizarre time, I don’t have to worry about rearranging my life!
Monday was spent in my usual never-ending stats lecture (2 and a half hours!), and then a quick visit to Luke’s lab to giggle over the photos from his birthday party (an event which deserves a blog post of its own). I then had to rush to work, while praying that I wouldn’t have to help with a dog Caesar when I got there. Fortunately, it turned out that the puppies had arrived the day before, and so I could train the new receptionist in relative peace, and didn’t have to help rip open birth sacs and convince tiny creatures to breathe while showing her where the fax machine is!
I also ran my first research design and stats tutorials this week – a somewhat nerve-wracking experience! My Wednesday class is horribly bright – they asked far too many questions and succeeded in confusing me to the point that I have no idea whether anything I said made any sense! Fortunately, my Friday class were just desperate to go home (the tut starts at 14:15), and so accepted everything I said. Next week will be the beginning of the real work though, because I’ll actually have to explain statistics to them!
I started swimming again this week, both because I routinely have 4 hours to kill at Wits every so often, while waiting for tutorials to start, and because my fitness level is relatively nonexistent – a small problem, considering that I’m going on a 20km hike next weekend! I’m really enjoying swimming though – the pool at Wits is somewhat big and scary, and so not many people venture into its depths. I was fairly impressed with myself – I didn’t drown after 2 lengths! In fact, I’ve been swimming at least 1.5km each time! The only disadvantages of swimming at Wits are the temperamental showers (you can either have boiling hot or freezing cold water – never a pleasant warm shower) and the lack of power-points, so I end up walking around with wet hair all day because there’s nowhere to plug in my hairdryer. The other problem, of course, is the audience – all the hubbly-smoking students at the Matrix on the one side, and the water-polo boys on the other. I’ve become somewhat addicted to the resultant endorphins from my daily swim though, so I’m no longer particularly bothered by my damp hair or the bystanders!
I finally tracked down my supervisor this week – an event which is being hailed as a minor miracle! I have someone been assigned to someone who only ever arrives at Wits at around midday – and who apparently works until 20:00. Since I’m a morning person, it’s somewhat problematic that my supervisor appears to be nocturnal – and there are some bets on that she’s actually a vampire, which is probably not a good thing either! But, the good news is that I have at least got my first choice in terms of my research topic, and will thus be exploring brains for the next 8 months! And, the vampire seems enthusiastic and has sent me off to read up on frontal lobes, so at least my project is getting somewhere!
The week was rounded off with Paul’s birthday party, which was… um… interesting! Paul is the brother of the ex-receptionist at the vet, and he and I get along incredibly well, despite having virtually nothing in common. Friday was his 27th birthday, and so he invited all his friends to have a drink at Taiyo’s in Norwood. I’d never been to the place before, but as I walked in, I suddenly realized that it was actually dodgier than The Doors – if such a thing is possible! Having navigated my way up the narrowest twirly staircase in the southern hemisphere, I met Paul and the others on the roof. Strangely enough, one of the people there was Govan (a random MSc student who I’d once met in Luke’s lab, and who I’d sworn I’d seen walking around Rosebank earlier that day – a momentous event, considering everyone thinks Govan is MIA! As it turns out, it actually wasn’t him who I’d seen in Rosebank though!). I was a little out of my element, considering that I was vastly younger than everyone else, and don’t drink or smoke, and was seriously considering leaving when I was suddenly saved by… my boss! Somehow, Richard (the vet) had also been invited to the party, and arrived at the same time as Paul’s sister, Gina, and her boyfriend, Chris. The 4 of us spent the rest of the evening chatting about pets (duh!) and extreme sports, and watching the Liberian party-goers next to us dancing away, while I tried to avoid all the second-hand marijuana smoke that was floating around (I failed and felt horrendous on Saturday). I learned a pretty cool “mind-over-matter” party trick from Chris though and had a really nice chat to both Gina and Paul, so the evening was actually a lot of fun! The highlight of the evening really has to be my boss asking if I was planning on partaking in the hallucinogenic substances that were floating around though!
After Friday night’s madness, it was almost a relief to stay at home last night, and I spent the evening watching the first season of the “X Files” that Helen lent me. It was awesome! I had completely forgotten how much I love that show, and the early episodes are awesome, on account of the 1990’s hairstyles, clothes and distinct lack of GPS’s (Mulder uses a map!) and cellphones! And the dialogue is hysterical – not nearly as serious as everyone thinks it was! I leave you with my favourite quote from the second, episode, entitled “Squeeze”, where Scully and Mulder are tracking a mysterious liver-eating serial killer, and enter his apartment:
SCULLY: It looks like the wall's deteriorating.
Monday was spent in my usual never-ending stats lecture (2 and a half hours!), and then a quick visit to Luke’s lab to giggle over the photos from his birthday party (an event which deserves a blog post of its own). I then had to rush to work, while praying that I wouldn’t have to help with a dog Caesar when I got there. Fortunately, it turned out that the puppies had arrived the day before, and so I could train the new receptionist in relative peace, and didn’t have to help rip open birth sacs and convince tiny creatures to breathe while showing her where the fax machine is!
I also ran my first research design and stats tutorials this week – a somewhat nerve-wracking experience! My Wednesday class is horribly bright – they asked far too many questions and succeeded in confusing me to the point that I have no idea whether anything I said made any sense! Fortunately, my Friday class were just desperate to go home (the tut starts at 14:15), and so accepted everything I said. Next week will be the beginning of the real work though, because I’ll actually have to explain statistics to them!
I started swimming again this week, both because I routinely have 4 hours to kill at Wits every so often, while waiting for tutorials to start, and because my fitness level is relatively nonexistent – a small problem, considering that I’m going on a 20km hike next weekend! I’m really enjoying swimming though – the pool at Wits is somewhat big and scary, and so not many people venture into its depths. I was fairly impressed with myself – I didn’t drown after 2 lengths! In fact, I’ve been swimming at least 1.5km each time! The only disadvantages of swimming at Wits are the temperamental showers (you can either have boiling hot or freezing cold water – never a pleasant warm shower) and the lack of power-points, so I end up walking around with wet hair all day because there’s nowhere to plug in my hairdryer. The other problem, of course, is the audience – all the hubbly-smoking students at the Matrix on the one side, and the water-polo boys on the other. I’ve become somewhat addicted to the resultant endorphins from my daily swim though, so I’m no longer particularly bothered by my damp hair or the bystanders!
I finally tracked down my supervisor this week – an event which is being hailed as a minor miracle! I have someone been assigned to someone who only ever arrives at Wits at around midday – and who apparently works until 20:00. Since I’m a morning person, it’s somewhat problematic that my supervisor appears to be nocturnal – and there are some bets on that she’s actually a vampire, which is probably not a good thing either! But, the good news is that I have at least got my first choice in terms of my research topic, and will thus be exploring brains for the next 8 months! And, the vampire seems enthusiastic and has sent me off to read up on frontal lobes, so at least my project is getting somewhere!
The week was rounded off with Paul’s birthday party, which was… um… interesting! Paul is the brother of the ex-receptionist at the vet, and he and I get along incredibly well, despite having virtually nothing in common. Friday was his 27th birthday, and so he invited all his friends to have a drink at Taiyo’s in Norwood. I’d never been to the place before, but as I walked in, I suddenly realized that it was actually dodgier than The Doors – if such a thing is possible! Having navigated my way up the narrowest twirly staircase in the southern hemisphere, I met Paul and the others on the roof. Strangely enough, one of the people there was Govan (a random MSc student who I’d once met in Luke’s lab, and who I’d sworn I’d seen walking around Rosebank earlier that day – a momentous event, considering everyone thinks Govan is MIA! As it turns out, it actually wasn’t him who I’d seen in Rosebank though!). I was a little out of my element, considering that I was vastly younger than everyone else, and don’t drink or smoke, and was seriously considering leaving when I was suddenly saved by… my boss! Somehow, Richard (the vet) had also been invited to the party, and arrived at the same time as Paul’s sister, Gina, and her boyfriend, Chris. The 4 of us spent the rest of the evening chatting about pets (duh!) and extreme sports, and watching the Liberian party-goers next to us dancing away, while I tried to avoid all the second-hand marijuana smoke that was floating around (I failed and felt horrendous on Saturday). I learned a pretty cool “mind-over-matter” party trick from Chris though and had a really nice chat to both Gina and Paul, so the evening was actually a lot of fun! The highlight of the evening really has to be my boss asking if I was planning on partaking in the hallucinogenic substances that were floating around though!
After Friday night’s madness, it was almost a relief to stay at home last night, and I spent the evening watching the first season of the “X Files” that Helen lent me. It was awesome! I had completely forgotten how much I love that show, and the early episodes are awesome, on account of the 1990’s hairstyles, clothes and distinct lack of GPS’s (Mulder uses a map!) and cellphones! And the dialogue is hysterical – not nearly as serious as everyone thinks it was! I leave you with my favourite quote from the second, episode, entitled “Squeeze”, where Scully and Mulder are tracking a mysterious liver-eating serial killer, and enter his apartment:
SCULLY: It looks like the wall's deteriorating.
MULDER: No, somebody made it.
(Mulder and Scully make their way to part of the room where a wall looks like it's crumbling)
This is a nest, look, it's made out of rags and newspapers.
SCULLY: This looks like the opening, think there's anything inside?
(Mulder feels the opening and gets a slimy substance on his hand)
Oh my God, Mulder, it's smells like, I think it's bile.
MULDER: Is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?
(Mulder quickly flicks the stuff of his fingers)
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