University of Aberdeen Blog

It is hard to believe, but another academic year has come and gone and the quiet days of summer are upon Aberdeen again. However, quiet does not mean idle or uneventful, at least not in my case. Quite the contrary, actually. It is not just the weather that is heating up, but my PhD work, too. I have recently finished a draft version of the first chapter of my PhD thesis, which I am very happy about. I am currently trying my best to get chapters two and three done and dusted, too. Once that is done I will have about half of my PhD sorted and can breathe a slight sigh of relief.

The last few weeks have not been very helpful in that regard, as I have been rather distracted. At the end of May my oldest sister got married down in Piperdam near Dundee. We had crystal clear skies, and plenty of warmth and sunshine, which confused a lot of the guests who were in Scotland for the first time and had only ever heard horror stories about the Scottish weather. Some had to go into Dundee to buy shorts and t-shirt, only having brought woollen jumpers and raincoats… The wedding itself was wonderful and I have never seen my sister look more beautiful or happy then when she said yes.

I only had about a week to recover from the wedding, as my best friend and I went on a Nile cruise in Egypt at the beginning of June. This was totally irresponsible from a financial point of you, but a bit of a dream come true as I have always been fascinated with the ancient Egyptian civilisation. We saw plenty of ancient monuments, temples, and pyramids. After having lived in Aberdeen for about seven years now, it definitely took some getting used to the Egyptian sun. We had an average of 42 degrees Celsius, with the thermometer hitting the 49 degree Celsius mark one day! Overall, it was a really great holiday and I am glad I went despite it being so warm and rather expensive.

Looking out my window while I sit here writing this shows me nothing but low-hanging grey clouds at the moment which bring my feet nicely back on the ground in the here and now. I have had my fill of sun and fun for the time being and will now go back to work on my PhD. Until the next time, be well in all things.

David

It’s that time of year again where for about a period of 2 weeks, I have to put away my party shoes, and bring out the evil textbooks. It’s not really as bad as I make it sound, coursework does have its advantages.  For both my courses this semester 30% of the final grade is based on a mixture of lab reports and problem solving exercises, so at the end of the day if I don’t do too well in the exam that 30% may come in handy. So this last week has been spent in front of my laptop typing away and the end result was actually very satisfying. One of the assignments involved writing up a lab report and formatting it to look like something out of the British Journal of Pharmacology, and it felt really good to see my name on a fancy looking report. All I have left to do now is a problem solving exercise and one final lab report and then I am free!!

Coursework luckily hasn’t completely taken over my life, I still have managed to find something to do that doesn’t involve staring at textbooks and lecture notes. I was recently elected onto the Societies Committee as an Ordinary member, which basically means that I am now some what incharge of helping all the general interest societies, and I get free pizza every other Thursday (though this depends on me attending a meeting). This Friday is one of our big events to raise money for societies, a James Bond themed party. I’m really looking forward to dressing up as a cool spy or Bond girl, and it’s a good opportunity to meet loads of new people. I’ve also got the final pub quiz of year at the Union on Tuesday, where my team has to defend its title as champions of the pub quiz which is always a good laugh. The final thing on my calender is the Humanist Society Scotland meeting tonight which I will be going to with the Atheist, Secular and Humanist society (AUSHAS) which is supposed to be really interesting and will be a good distraction from work (I am the queen of procrastination).

Wow reading that last paragraph has made me realise how busy my life has been recently and I’m not complaining. I was talking to an old graduate a couple of weeks ago, and we both agreed that even though university life does come with a fair amount of work, taking part in as many extra-curricular activities as possible really does make the experience of living the student life even better. At the end of day you have loads of fun, meet people from all over world, and sometimes have more things to put on your CV, which is always useful. Anyhow staring at a computer screen is making me sleepy, I’m off to go on a caffiene hunt before I hit the books again.

Nooreen