Midway into Semester One

Wow, have the weeks flown by! My last post was discussing the first week back at university, and already I'm coming up to the end of my seventh! 

My sincere apologies for not getting back sooner.. I didn't have much time to slot blogging into my timetable, but I do hope I can change this! My only days off are Sunday, and even then, I'm E-Mentoring and tying up the loose ends from the week, and as for Saturdays I have volunteering followed by work.. My weekdays, they're just lectures and practicals - so a lot of work needs to get done unfortunately! 

So my week started off with a few lectures on Monday morning, followed by a 40 min Exam Style Essay question, on LDLs. It wasn't assessed, but the purpose of the exam was for us to get a feel for the sort of question difficulty we might get. We haven't been assessed with ESQs before (even in first year), so it'll definitely prove useful in the long run. I also thought I gave it a good shot, but fingers crossed! I get my feedback in a few weeks time. On Tuesday, I had some more lectures and a workshop on Restriction Mapping as part of my Molecular Biology module. Wednesdays are off for me, but I did have some E-Mentoring to do. What else.. I also finished off my application for the Unilever R&D summer placement! 

I've carried out some research into their placements, and I just loved the sound of it. I shan't bore you with the details, but I attended their careers talk and I felt it was the perfect way to gain some experience in industry over the summer, so I went ahead and applied. It's not in tune with my long-term plans of a medical career, but it interested me so much and I figured the experience would be absolutely amazing if I did manage to secure it. I thought the application form went off to a really good start.. until it got to last question which I really, really needed to work on to formulate my best answer. The good thing is, it's out of the way now, and it feels so good! Even if I'm unsuccessful, I'll be pleased knowing I tried. :) Alhamdullillah. 

Wednesday also opened up to movie night, and Interstellar was the choice. Amazing film! Highly recommend it, especially for science students like myself! The end though, just wow! 

My Thursday budged some more room with no lectures, but I had to write up a painfully long Redox practical, as well as arrange a meetup with my tutorial group on Friday. We're working on a group video about cancers, and for the first time I feel like I'm really beginning to connect with my tutor group members! All in all, a good week for me. 

As for university overall so far, it's been rather hectic. Yes, the contact hours are a little less compared to last year, but I'll tell you, it's compensated by thicker, more info-packed lecture slides and longer practicals! Nearly every handout is new territory and it'll be exciting going over them again.. some day. Just not yet. Right now, it feels like it's a case of staying alive through the week and getting into the safe harbor that is known as: the weekend. I don't know who I'm kidding, it's not as if my weekends are even free so I don't really know what I look forward to. It's this false sense of security that's keeping me going, but if it's keeping me going - I don't care if it's false!

I haven't had a good day off properly since October. It's 20:56 and I'm not ready for the nine o'lock start that awaits me tomorrow.. 

Take care everyone!
Lots of love!