Catching up

Sorry it has been a really long time since I have updated.  

Work is going well.  It has kind of become a shock that this time next year it will be over.  I have enjoyed my PhD project.  I am a little sad to see it ending.  Not really a lot to say about work as it is basically all writing and trying to piece my final experiments together.  

I did some demonstrating this semester for cellular pathology which went ok. The coffee shop on campus got to know my order really well on Wednesdays.  All I had to do (and still have to do) is just walk in and the ask if I want my usual.  I like that  a lot.  😁  I am also now a 'fill in when needed' anatomy teacher for the physician assistant course.   

Outside of work, life has been pretty good.  I have made some new friends, two are doing PhDs in politics or something of that area.  One is from here and she and I usually try to meet for coffee a couple of times a month.  The other is from Canada and lives across the hall.  We often stand in the hallway or her kitchen (She bakes gluten free food :) ) and talk a few times a week.  In March, we went to a charity event at the local tea shop for rare diseases.  I had a masala chi hot chocolate.  Probably, my new favourite hot chocolate now!  It was a lot of fun and it was nice getting to know these two girls outside of a work environment. 

Also in March, I went to the Anatomy Live event in Belfast!  I am a nerd.  :)  I will skip the details for you all, but it is basically a dinner and dissection event.  I was in Heaven.  I got told I had perfect dissection skills by the surgeon leading the event.  I left feeling quite pleased.  It was amazing.  One of the best nights ever.  If you want, you can see that they got their start on Dragon's Den (UK Version of Shark Tank)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otYqv4BJBHA 

 

For the past few months I have been going out with this guy that I have now known for 3 years.  Crazy to think I have been here for 3 years!  He is really nice and sweet.  He understands my crazy work schedule and makes sure that I put it first.  When an experiment goes wrong or I just have a bad day he is there to pick up the pieces and make me laugh.  He makes those days better.  We have cooked each other dinner (shocking on my end- he lived and I didn't burn it) and we have gone on several walks.   Meme would have been shocked that I started cooking, especially for someone else.  I hope she is getting a good laugh at this. We have gone to the arcade a few times where I tend to beat him in air hockey.  :)  He is teaching me chess, which near the end of my first game I started to get the hang of it.  It was a little more confusing than checkers.  All in all we have fun and we make each other laugh.

This is one of the first walks we went on.  It doesn't look like it but it was super icy and very cold.  This is the Mussenden Temple.  https://discovernorthernireland.com/Mussenden-Temple-and-Downhill-Demesne-Castlerock-Coleraine-P2928/   I highly recommend it.  We didn't get to go inside but I do hope to go back.  Behind the temple is a cliff where you can see the beach below.

This is the suspected Bansky panting in PortStewart.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portstewart  We tend to go there a lot.  It is a nice little town.  

This is Portballintrae.  I think this was one of my favourite beach walks.  Not sure why.  I just really liked the view of that huge house and the beach.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portballintrae

Maybe it is the walks or knowing my work is going well but I am finally catching up on some sleep.  Odd thing to be saying in my final year of my PhD.  I have always made it my goal throughout my studies to never pull an all nighter and so far I have not.  I have survived on 2 hours of sleep but never less.  As I finish up my final year I am starting to get back to the 6-7 hours a sleep a night that I use to have.

All in all, I would say things are going pretty well.  Not much else to really report.  Fingers crossed the next few months of writing and experiments go well as well as the job search.

Bye for now.

Happy 19 days of 2019!

Happy belated New Year.  I hope the first 19 days were wonderful.  I hope they were filled with happiness, and laughter, and your resolutions were kept.  I think I blew one of my resolutions within the first week.  Opps.

It has been a while since I updated you all.

Work is going well.  I am finishing up and am due to submit hopefully between October-December for this year.  Fingers crossed for that.  I feel like this time has flown by.  It is hard to believe that in a little over a year I will have a PhD.

I wish I could say more, but there really isn't much to say about the research just yet.  Just know it is going well and my supervisors remind me that they are really impressed with my work.

I did go home for Christmas, but it was really short, so if I missed seeing you I am sorry and I hope to see you next time.  I did get to see some friends which was great and so nice to catch up.  The rest of the time was with family.  To an extent it didn't feel like Christmas.  I missed Meme and moms family, and Aunt Diane's Brunch, and a Christmas Story playing on loop for 24 hours.  But it was fun seeing the kids get all excited for Santa and seeing where their Elf on the Shelf ended up each morning.   I introduced Ty to Anne Frank.  I had bought Tyler a "Who is Anne Frank?" book a few years ago and said I would read it with her.  This was the time.  We read the book every day, and she loved it.  She said she wanted to know more about her and read her real book.  This was probably the best Christmas gift ever; someone I can pass my interests, love, and passion about the Holocaust down to.  Tyler isn't much of a fiction reader.  She loves the book that she contains short stories of real people.  That's my kind of books as well.  But the way she wanted to learn more about these people and about the Holocaust, made me proud.  Meme would have been happy.  Meme bought me my first book on the Holocaust and then added to my collection whenever she could.  I am so glad I can do this for Tyler. Now, if I could only get her to use a bookmark vs. folding the edge of the page, I would be thrilled.  :D   Outside of reading Holocaust stories, the kids got the book, the Wonky Donkey.  If you have not heard of it, go and Youtube it now!  It is hilarious.  For months it was sold out everywhere here.  The guy at the store told me they had to do reprints of the book because it was so popular.  I do not think there was a day that went by where we did not read it at least twice.  And dang is it easy to memorize.  When I tried to mix up the words to catch them off guard, Lane and Mattie knew the correct words.  Smart kiddos.

I crossed an item off my bucket list.  I wanted to shoot a gun.  I did and I am good to never do it again.  I did, however, and always have, liked archery.  So, I liked shooting Lane's bow and arrow he got for Christmas.

I got a ton of coffee mugs for Christmas, some handmade gifts, and a pretty bracelet with Scottish coordinates on it.  :)  I also got a 23 and Me kit!  I got the health one as well as ancestry.  When I got my results back this past week, I was beyond thrilled to learn I had Jewish roots.  I am a strange one.  Ever since my first book from Meme, I became obsessed.  I remember sitting in the classroom with my awesome Genetics professor talking about my project modelled after the Shoah and he said to me that he thinks I may be Jewish by ancestry.  Well, sure enough.  I don't know why this makes me so happy, but it does.  I was happy to learn I have an increased risk of Alzheimer's and Celiac's Disease, and that I hate the sound of people chewing their food, but to learn I have Jewish ancestry, was cool.  It was also a little interesting to see the differences in my brother and I.

So, I came back after a week long trip and was sick over New Years.  But it was a good new years.  I talked to a friend and welcomed in the New Year as we chatted, got my hair cut, and relaxed a bit before school started again.

School here is odd.  Exams are after Christmas.  Those poor undergrads are expected to study during Christmas for their exams.  I do not get it.  And exams take place in a big lecture hall where there are security outside and random teachers inside.  So, what happens if you have a question about your exam and your teacher isn't there?  It just blows my mind.

I am on book 7 of Harry Potter.  I have become a little obsessed.  Not sure what I will do after it's done.  I feel like if I would have known I would have liked it this much I would have read it slower to make it last longer.  Oh well.

I did travel to Belfast last weekend.  Spur of the moment too.  Went into some new stores, well new to me, and had some Canadian Coffee.  I have 2 theatre plays coming up.  One is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the other is called The Suitcase.  I have never been to the theatre on campus, but heard it was nice.

That is about it for now.  I will try to update more often this year, but no promises.

Fingers crossed as I hunt for a job that starts around September goes smoothly.

Hope everyone is well and is having a good start to 2019.