Some of my samples, pre-sorting.

It’s been a while, again. You may have noticed that I’m blogging less this year. This is because I’m a thousand times busier making sure that I make the most of the last six months of my degree. This means being with my friends as much as poss, doing as much work as I can, and also getting ready to go into the big wide world.

So, what have I done since I last blogged? Well, I went and saw “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” with Tom and John, had my first Tissue Engineering lecture, my first Advanced Biomaterials lecture, and had 281 samples to analyse. I also made it to the pub three times, had tea late at night with Lucia twice, and drove down to Devon.

First impressions of the courses I experienced this week are good. This may be because I did so much orthopaedics over the summer, and I also know a little bit more about tissue engineering than I thought, apparently! The introductions were very quick and easy, and the first two lectures of each course were interesting.

And post-sorting.

It made me reminisce about the days in first and second year – in Materials, the first two years are filled with compulsory lectures which are common to everyone. You have lectures everyday, then lots of labs and tutorials to keep you occupied in-between times. Compared to then, I have only got six hours of lectures a week of timetabled stuff now, with just my project as my coursework. I’m the only person on the course doing my combination of subjects. It’s up to me to decide how much time I spend in the lab, and how much I’m revising for exams in six months – actually so much more high pressure than the course used to be.

It’s good, though. I’ve enjoyed the progression. The course has been so totally worth it!

We're back to basics for tutoring.

Present from Simon <3

Combining art and revision (Carlos bought coloured chalk. That was a BAD idea.)

I had my first exam of the year this morning. It was Systems Physiology – a module that Carlos, Saj and I took with the bioengineering department, as part of our efforts to biology it up this year. Basically, we had to learn the anatomy and basic operating processes of the brain, heart, lungs, musculoskeletal system, and genetics. The exam was OK – I did some maths, which I was very happy about (the Nernst Equation – like, the easiest equation in the world), and blagged my way through answering some bits where I knew the information but wasn’t exactly sure what was being asked. We shall see. Four exams away from the end of my time at Imperial. Yes!

I’ve started a new tutoring thing with a lovely little girl in Knightsbridge. I’m to teach her piano and help her with maths, so I started that on Monday, and it was good. She’s very lively and bright, and I can only see myself enjoying it. It does mean I’ve spent ages trying to think of ways to play games with maths – and also looking up the syllabus for the Key Stages 2 and 3. My next step is going to Hamley’s, to see what educational toys they have.

Revision or play-time, you decide.

Well, it’s a good excuse, right?

I made a stew in the slow cooker the other night, which I was very proud of cos it had dumplings in it. I didn’t know what dumplings were – I’d never eaten them let alone made them, and I have to say, they were horrible. Even the picture looks horrible. Yuck.

Knitting is going strong. I’ve completed one glove, received 600 beads and 800 buttons for some scarf projects (I’m doing 11 in ’11 – knitting 11 scarves this year, pretty self-explanatory. If you care, I’ve started a crafty blog so that I can talk about CREATING to the internet, and stop annoying all my friends.) Tom’s parents bought us Wii Fit for Christmas, and it has told me I need to lose quite a substantial amount of weight. (Yuck). After studying the Systems Physiology course and learning about atherosclerosis, and knowing that since I stopped riding regularly (stupid project, getting in the way of my leisure time…I jest…) I’ve put on some weight, this is all going to combine into a massive plan for the next six months. Leave notes in college, run to and from college and home (the Oyster fare just went up, which is largely responsible for that little one), get a first and lose the weight that the annoying voice on the TV is telling me I need to.

Mmmmm, delicious...NOT.

I’m going to the pub tonight, then back to work tomorrow. I’m actually feeling really inspired, and am looking forward to blasting through the last six months of my degree with as much debauchery, studying and jollity as possible. I start Advanced Biomaterials, and Tissue Engineering next week, and I can’t wait.

Ciao for now!

Corrie

Arranged in pleasing height-order (on the whole), the NYE crew.

Bet you’ve never seen a blog with this title, huh?

This lot of revision has been reminding me an awful lot of the exams this summer, in which I totally shunned writing blogs and resorted to stupid little videos of me staring at the camera in various states of disarray (and in one, totally pushed askew by the effects of codeine). I decided not to do that this time. Mainly because I’ve been rolling out of bed at 7 am, and back in at about 1 am, still in my pyjamas, ready to repeat the next day, and the thought of the world seeing me in my pyjamas is truly horrifying.

This revision technique is a totally different tactic to anything I’ve ever tried before. I’m generally really good at staying on top of everything during the term, but as you may have gathered last term, I’ve found fourth year quite hard so far. Anyway, to put it simply – I got back to London on the 27th after a week of intensive relaxing, and have ever since been cramming as hard as possible, with a few breaks for brotherly visits, some board-games, a planned trip to the cinema which turned into an evening wrapped in the world’s softest blanket because the cinema plans went awry, and, of course, New Year’s Eve (which resulted in 1/1/11 spent wrapped in my duvet, drinking copious amounts of Berocca, eating bits of chicken on each shaky trip past the fridge on my way to the sink for more water, and definitely not getting any revision done).

Twitch and I indulge in one of our favourite games.

I don’t recommend this technique to anybody. I’m not sleeping well, because I have painted versions of the heart, neurons, the respiratory system and The Cell dancing in front of my eyes, and also because I’m not getting any exercise done at all and as a result, although I’m exhausted mentally, my body just doesn’t want to play. The amount of chocolate I’m eating isn’t helping. (I must have put on several increments of mass, depending on your preferred system). I’m living like a hermit, which I hate. I have eaten practically the same meal every night for the last ten days (spaghetti with mince and cheese!) due to the bulk-quantity cut-price ingredients I managed to buy. I am craving human company, but denying myself the pleasure as I know I have basically an entire A level to learn. I’m listening to more Coldplay than is good for me. My ability to write in short sentences has fled (on the plus side, one of my friends once said that I write like I talk, which means that you have an idea of how quickly I blurt words out in between breathing).

Unfortunately, I am well aware that many people at Imperial employ the tactic, and it has good results for them. We shall see.

Luckily for me and my support network (I’d like to acknowledge Tom, John, Toby, Beth, Greg, Mum, Dad, Casey, Ashton, Ben and Lucia in this post), my exam is on either Tuesday or Wednesday. I feel a little bit ready for it. Tom is back tomorrow, and the hamster and I have tonight been celebrating the only way we know how; by building little racing tracks out of kibble, and timing how fast it takes us to collect it up again.

My life is fascinating.

I’ll see you on the other side, hurrah!