bk again!

hey guys,

sorry for the delay in getting back to you this week! i've been quite busy this week, so i'll try and sum up what i've been up to...

monday was as usual the longest day of the week, with a 9 to 5 pretty much, followed by a neuroanatomy supervision between 6.15 and 7.15... tuesday wasn't too bad, only had one lecture, but then i got roped into playing football at the last minute because the college 1sts were short of players, and only just made it in time for my pathalogy supervision (5-6pm) followed by my pharmacology supervision (7-8pm)..

wed wasn't too bad, but again i had a supervision from 5-6pm, this time for pharmacology practical stuff. thursday is always 'neuro' day - had a neurophysiology practical in the morning, then a lecture, then a neuroanatomy practical in the evening. to top it off i had my usual neuroscience supervision at addenbrooke's (the 'local' hospital in cambridge - i say 'local' cos it's a 2/3 mile bike ride from college!), by the end of which i was pretty knackered!

the thing i've noticed so far about the 2nd yr in comparison to the 1st year is that not only is the work a bit harder, but the fact that you have two or three more supervisions a week can get really tiring, and that's the reason why people always say the 2nd year's the worst. to be honest, it isn't actually that bad - in a sense, because you're required to do more work, you actually do end up doing more work, so it's def not a question about not being able to cope!

friday was a lot more relaxing as usual, and even the usually-boring friday afternoon pathology practical was quite fun, as we were doing tests on human blood/urine with antibody/antigen preparations e.g. testing for pregnancy by observing the presence of HCG in maternal urine. quite cool!

friday evening i had a formal hall - it was one of my friend's birthday, so we had a good time... the menu was roast duck (it's usually quite posh for a friday formal), but because i'm veg i ended up with a dish that was OK, but basically all potato! - mash with a potato stuffing (!) and with roasted potatoes as a side dish - crazy!

afterwards we had the halloween bop, with the usual suspects dressing up in mad outfits... all in all a pretty good evening!

other than that i can't think of much else to say... bit busy at the moment with this path essay, so i'd better get back to it and stop procrastinating!

catch you ppl l8r.
kief

this week's been pretty good so far... had a 3 hour pharmacology practical on monday afternoon though which was a bit *yawn* boring, but otherwise was ok. i think one of the key differences between the 2nd yr of med at cam and the 1st yr is that in the 2nd yr, although the work is harder, it's def more interesting, because it's tied in a lot more with 'real doctor' stuff i.e. clinical aspects. i've got more supervisions than last year though, which is why it can get tiring e.g. on mondays i pretty much have a 9 to 5 timetable, and then have a supervision from 6.15 till 7.15, by the end of which i'm just about to fall asleep!

friday afternoon practicals are even more sleep-inducing. whilst at school you're used to 9 till half 3, with some free periods in the 6th form, here the timetable's a lot easier. however you do end up doing more work though, outside 'school' hours, supervisions being a prime example, so you do get more tired.

weekends are always quiet in college - last night was rowing cocktails, another 'all you can drink for x pounds', so i'm guessing a lot of people are nursing their hangovers right now! i went to churchill formal hall last night, called 'superhall' (cos the food's supposed to be nicer on fridays), with some of my old school friends, which was good fun. the weird thing about superhall at churchill though is that there's no ticket system as such - you're supposed to buy your tickets online (via the college website), but no-one checks you've got a ticket for formal hall! instead, they trust that all of their students have tickets...

it doesn't take a genius to work out that a fair few come to formal without having any tickets. what in fact happens is that when the doors are opened at 7.30, everyone runs in to try and grab a place at a table, as every now and then there's some unlucky people left without a seat! it's definitely not the case at most other formal halls. robinson's pretty well organised by comparison.

the food was pretty good, and wasn't bad even for my vegetarian needs (usually vegetarian options aren't all that!)... formal hall got a bit out of control nearing the end though, with most people having had too much to drink, corks flying across the room, and all sorts of random foodstuffs becoming airborne too!! this def hasn't happened at any other formal hall i've been to!

just finished writing an essay for pathology this morning - i get essays set for pathology and neurobiology every other week, so that way i'm not overloaded with work every weekend! got to do some pharmacology practical questions, which are heavily maths based and quite hard - think i better get back to that now as i'm gonna b out most of tomorrow playing football in the morning, auditioning for a concert in the afternoon, and then going to trinity hall formal hall in the evening! it's all good! ;)

i'll b bk in a week!

kief :)

hey guys,

can't believe i've only just done a week - seems like i've been here for ages! so far it's been really gd - meeting up all my old m8s and catching up on what went on in the summer, etc. work hasn't been too bad - we've started lectures and supervisions properly this week. neuro and pathology hav been pretty interesting, but the pharmacology lectures hav been just collections of graphs and equations! and i just got a list of all the drug names we have to learn this year in pharm, great fun!

still find plenty of time to do other things though. got cuppers athletics tomorrow; cuppers is basically an intercollegiate cup competition, which robinson almost won last year, so hopefully we can build on it this year! i'm running the 100m and 200 hurdles, the latter which i've never done before, so should be a laugh to watch! cuppers in all sports are always really fun events, cos there's such a wide variety of abilities, and at the end of the day, wherever you come, it all adds up to valuable points for your college. some colleges always do well esp. the likes of trinity, which is so big it has ppl in just about every event!

workwise i've got two essays to do - one for my pathology supervision and one for neuro. it's not like school homework though; the supervisors actually ask you what work you want set (!), cos at the end of the day it's to help your own learning. essays are pretty much the best way to learn topics, cos to write a gd essay you have to know your subject well (and of course, there are essays in the exams)!

bought a small fridge the other day for my room, but the noise it makes has been doing my head in so i'm thinking of taking it bk! you'll b surprised how little background noises can put you off when you're working in your room.

watched 'bride and prejudice' last night - was really cheesy but really funny at the same time - def recommend going to see it! tonight is rentals cocktails in college; rentals is the drinking society, so rentals cocktails 'all you can drink for £7' is an annual event of extreme drinking with obvious messy endings!! i don't drink so didn't really see the point of going (plus i did it all last year), so i thought i'd quickly write a blog, as tomorrow i'm prob gonna spend the morning finishing off my neuro essay and then running all afternoon!

other than that it's all gd fun, so far so good!

kief :)

hey,

it's the weekend now... woo! weekends on the whole tend to be pretty quiet, but as this is like the first proper weekend of term, we have a huge ents (short of entertainment, i.e. party) event tonight where most of the halls in college get turned into music rooms with different types of music, from rnb and hip-hop to club classics and 'cheese'... cheese is basically like all the old chart classics, from s club 7's 'dont stop movin' to the foundations' 'build me up buttercup'... get used to cheese, cos u'll find it a lot here in cam!

feeling a bit ill at the mo - everyone seems to b down with fresher's flu, but hopefully should b bk 2 normal soon!... had a few lectures - this year the core subjects are neurobiology and human behaviour, pharmacology, pathology and human reproduction. only start doing repro at the end of this term, but the first neuro lecture was pretty interesting... path lectures take place not just for the medics and vets, but also for the natural science students (nat scis) who take it as an option for Ib.

still feeling slightly crook so i think i might sign off now - try and get bk to normal before the real work starts next week! will b writing shortly...

K

hey guys,

bk in cam now - finally sorted out my room and got settled in!! my room at robinson this yr is pretty similar to what i had last yr, pretty big and ensuite ;) def a big '+' for robinson! met loads of freshers over the past few days, bin pretty manic. the really gd thing about the college set up is that you're not all housed together (like it is at some campus unis). there are some other medics on my staircase but also historians, english students, lawyers, etc and it's def a gd thing compared 2 hanging out with medics all the time!

got my timetable etc sorted as well... this yr is lookin pretty tough, but it's early days yet so hopefully things should go ok this term at least! more practicals and lectures than last term though, so the weeks are pretty full. nevertheless there r very few 9 to 5 days; i've got on average 3 9am starts a week, nothing on sat morning (this term at least!), and 3 afternoon sessions a week too.

the canteen's pretty gd here at robinson - the foods pretty gd by uni standards - but i think i'll do a bit more cooking this year just for a change. not tht i'm a ken hom, far from it in fact! pasta's pretty much the bog standard student dish cos it takes like 10 minutes to do, but i'm experimenting some stir fyr techniques (!) this amoy stuff rocks!

can't really think of much else to say. i've got to head off to a supervision meeting in a few minutes, to meet my supervisors for this year and organise supervision times for every week. last year we had 3 supervisions a week (one for anatomy, biochem and physiology), but this year we're doing more subjects so have around 4/5 supervisions a week, going up to 7 supervisions in lent term!

better sign off now though, gonna try and enjoy the rest of freshers week before lectures start! i'll write sum more soon...

K