It's been a while. I was finally able to upload a few photos! :) These three photos are from a lunch I talked about in the last blog from a town in Port Stewart. Pretty right?
So, quite a bit has happened.
I am trying to be slightly more sociable. So, I went to lunch with more lab people in May to Bushmills hotel where I had some good food. However, the most interesting part was it was Irish beef, and the hotel displayed an American and Canadian Flag. I thought it was funny. Nothing about my meal was American or Canadian...except maybe the gluten free bread?! It was just odd and out of place. It was nice stepping away from the lab for an hour.
I also went to dinner in a small town called PortRush to say goodbye to one of the post-doc students. It was at a Tapas bar, and I swear I had never seen such huge potatoes!
I had 'chips', so called spicy meatballs, and bacon wrapped dates. The dates were my favourite. My mojito was good too, but not as good as the French Mojito in Dundee.
So glad I can finally post photos. I hope you are able to see them.
I also had my ethics course and test, which I passed. After several days of panic and tears in 2016 and trying to put this moment off, I passed and the test took a whole 15 minutes. But the best part of the course was being told I had the quickest, cleanest, and best dissection the instructor has ever seen. :) (I would like to thank my Masters in Anatomy for that!) I do not like to brag, but in this case, I will... Go me! Speaking of dissection, one of the minions (AKA Placement students) was quite fascinated with how I was the girl in middle school who refused to dissect the frog. He couldn't seem to grasp how much I refused to do it back then.
To celebrate passing my ethics, I saw Beauty and the Beast in the cinema. Now, some how I was the youngest person in this theatre, but yet when I went to see Finding Dory, I was one of the oldest. Beauty and the Beast was good, but the original was better. I wont spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it (or hasn't seen either one), but LaFou's song was my favourite.
I have seen a few movies recently. I joined the Biomed society, and we watched Back to the Future...and I was the oldest student there, not to mention, the only American. It was odd that there were some that had never seen the movie. Which I am finding out, the classic movies I grew up on, like Hocus Pocus, many people have not seen... (no names will be mentioned, but you know who you are). I also watched Sing, which was way better than I expected and last night the lab people and I went to see The Mummy. Honestly, do not go and waste your money on The Mummy. The original was much better, but it was fun being out with all the international lab students. plus the one from England. I have also been binge watching/listening to Hell's Kitchen. After sitting in the dark room (AKA The red light district) or after killing my cells on accident, it is nice to have Gordon Ramsey take my frustrations out for me.
I had my confirmation viva (presentation) this week so I was stressed and adding to the stress students decided to join the assessors and listen to the talks. I just get nervous at public speaking. However, I think I did much better at this presentation and question session than the first one. It was still less questions and less people than the old project (and less questions than the last viva). So, I guess I can only get better. Luckily, only 2 more to go and the next one is a year away! Now, I am just waiting on that official letter that says I passed. I did get told I did very well and have a lot of data. (I had about 26 graphs, so I guess that is good). One supervisor said I had more data than a PhD submitted dissertation she read, so that is good.
Besides my presentation, my lit review (Introduction chapter is done- will just have to proof read and update statistics), make edits to chapter 3 and 4 (Which should be done by December at the latest), and continue adding to the materials chapter and start the cell chapters. I think it is going well. I kind of prefer working on the weekend in the lab as no one is really there so less people to get distracted with.
The weather here has been awful, well awful by my standards, lol. The hay fever here is like Spring back home times 100. I feel like I have been rolled in grass and covered in cat fur. And its hot. Well, hot for here. I miss the rain, and winter.
Other than that, I started Pilates again, which has been a nice start to the morning. I bought my first Pilates mat, and best part it was 50% off so that was even better. I can proudly say I can do the roll-up with both legs straight on the ground.
So all around, it has been a few good months, with passing my presentation, starting back with Pilates, and being a little more sociable. Hopefully the next few months will be just as good.
Enjoy the photos.
