2nd week of school

Monday September 27 was the start of our second week at Glasgow University. The day started with a little sleep in, because the first lecture of that day was cancelled. The lecturer, who was supposed to teach us, was on holiday on Malta the week before and had gotten decompression sickness. We didn’t mind that the lecture was cancelled of course, but we’re afraid we’ll have to know the content of the presentation for our class exams in December anyway. I think the lecture(s) will probably be given another time during the semester.

Our first ‘lecture’ of that day was a meeting with Angela Watt, Adviser of Studies for the School of Life Sciences. She wanted to talk about our PDP (Personal Development Planning,) in which we have to put a job application letter, a curriculum vitae, a lab report, a S.W.O.T.-like document (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and some other things by the end of the semester. It's a kind of portfolio-like thing. Since Angela assisted us, I could also ask her if I can do anything for the Life Sciences/ Biochemistry department with regard to my IRUN ambassadorship. She told me she would think about it.

We used our lunch break to upload some photos, since we still have a bad internet connection. In the afternoon we had another seminar about the library. This time we had to do some assignments to get familiar with the article databases the Glasgow University uses. In Nijmegen we usually use PubMed, but the university here has bought the licenses of Medline (Ovid) and Web of Knowledge. They're a bit different to work with.

Last Friday Leoni and I went to have a look in the swimming pool of the university. I don't often swim, so it was a bit weird to be in a swimming pool again. Especially without the screaming little children and the smell of chips. Since I now knew where to change and stuff, I went to the swimming drop-in session on Monday evening. I realized that I definitely need to buy myself a pair of goggles.

Tuesday Mathilde and I had our first 'tutorial'. It was actually just a meeting with our tutor and we scheduled our next (real) tutorials. In the afternoon there was a ticket sale from the International Society for different trips. We were there quite early, so we would be in front of the queue. We really wanted to go to the first trip to the Isle of Skye, but unfortunately they were already sold out by the time it was our turn. We couldn't go to the second and third trip they organize to the Isle of Skye, because during the second trip Mathilde's parents, Leoni's parents and Guy are coming over and the parents of Leoni will still be here when they organize the third trip. To bad we won't be able to see the Isle of Skye anymore, but they will organize loads of other things for us.

That evening I went to the first meeting of the Astronomy Society (AstroSoc), since I heard they organize interesting lectures every now and then and they also have a/some telescope(s), so you can see the beautiful sky above Scotland. I signed up for the society (only 2 pounds for a year) and was allowed to have some of the free beer & donuts they promised us when we would join. I'm not really a beer-person, so I had some coke and a really large cupcake. So much sugar! There were far more people then they had expected, so it was really hot inside. I walked into three physics people and together we went to have some fresh air on the roof of the building. Although it was already dark, we had a great view of Glasgow (University) and they told me it looked even more beautiful when the sun was low and the big tower of Glasgow University was shining bright orange and gold.

We had finished the enzyme laboratory class last Thursday and we were told to hand in our lab report Monday 4 October. I think you can guess what our 'free' Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon looked like. On Friday I had a little break around tea time (dinner) to attend my first Scottish Zumba dance class (it is quite the same as in the Netherlands, of course) and after that I was in the library till about 9pm. By then I thought my lab report was pretty much finished. Leoni and Mathilde however, stayed until midnight or so! The library is actually open until 2am! They wanted to have their lab reports finished before their Aberdeen trip that weekend.

I'll post another update soon about my trip to Carlisle that same weekend!

Love, Samantha
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Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
Glasgow University Library: http://www.lib.gla.ac.uk/