University of Aberdeen Blog

As I sit here writing this blog entry I am counting down the hours to my first ever proper Halloween party. Having grown up in a non-English speaking country Halloween was always something that only happened on The Simpsons or in movies. And even after coming to Aberdeen to study I never really saw the appeal to celebrate Halloween. I would normally just stay in and get annoyed at all the guisers (that’s “trick-or-treaters” for you non-Scots J) ringing my door bell and demanding candy.

All that has changed a bit this year, mostly due to me making a whole bunch of new friends and becoming involved in new societies. One of my fellow PhD students from the States invited some of us around for a pumpkin carving session on Wednesday. I had fun carving my first ever Halloween pumpkin and I am well pleased with how well it’s turned out. Plus, the pumpkin soup we made was quite delicious. On top of that I attended Ab-Fab’s pre-Halloween party on Thursday. Ab-Fab (short for Absolutely Fabulous) is Aberdeen’s LGBT society and they’re a lovely bunch of people. This is the first year that I am a member and so far I have no regrets about joining. Their Halloween party was quite entertaining and there were some fabulous costumes on display. There were quite a few pirate costumes and as we know everything is better with pirates. I didn’t dress up for this event, simply because I didn’t get around to buying a costume in time. So I just claimed to be a ninja in disguise J

Tonight’s Halloween party is organised by one of my fellow PhD students and she has made it quite clear that everyone has to wear a costume. Thankfully, I did manage to find one while doing my food shopping this morning. It won’t be the most elaborate of fanciful Halloween costume ever, but it should serve me quite nicely for tonight. It says devil costume on the label, but it’s more like a long black cultist robe with fiery flames. Either way, members of the other new society I joined would probably get a chuckle out of it. AUSHAS (Aberdeen University Secularist, Humanist, and Atheist Society) is a brand new society and still trying to find its feet, but we’ve had some very good and interesting meetings so far.

To top it all off I might be travelling down to Edinburgh on Saturday to attend a proper Halloween ball. I guess I would be making up for all the years I didn’t attend Halloween events by having four this year. Or maybe I’ll just leave it at three. It all depends on how I feel after tonight’s party. Whatever camp you’re in when it comes to Halloween I hope you’ll have a great weekend. Until the next time, be well in all things.

David

Freshers Week…possibly my favourite part of the university calender, and maybe even the busiest. It’s the time of year when all my friends come back to Aberdeen, get into study mode and then kick back and enjoy our last week of freedom. It’s great having my group of friends back, we’ve recently made Fridays our home cooked night, involving a lovely meal (usually roast chicken) and awesome summer stories.

Fun aside, it is time to possibly contemplate burying my head in the textbooks (for once). At Freshers week, every student has to go meet their advisor of studies; someone usually linked to the degree programme you’re studying. The last two years it has always involved talking about what courses I need to do and then random summer banter, but this time round I had to talk about what I want to do after this degree (scary music plays in the background). I’m planning on applying to study Medicine, which means I will joins the ranks of thousands of students who have to fill in their UCAS form. I still have a year before the actual form filling, but I’m slightly crazy and paranoid, so I’ve already started planning. Luckily the university’s Career Service is really helpful , especially when it come interview techniques and CVs. Fingers crossed, if all goes well I will one day be Dr Nooreen Akhtar - cardiothoracic/neurosurgeon.

All this talk of work is making me sleepy, so time for a change in subject. Right, what else have I done these last weeks….  Well I went to watch RocknRolla (brilliant film), and am planning on watching it again sometime soon, had a day trip down to Edinburgh which made a nice change from the 4 walls of my flat (got to love friends with cars) and then there a really interesting lecture on the new Alzhiemers drug the university have been working on. You never know, we might have a 5th Nobel prize to add to our collection. Right I think that’s enough typing for today, I’m off to a friends house (yes I am Madam Popular) for pizza and more summer banter.

Nooreen