Canada

Hello Patient Readers, hope you're all enjoying your holidays. I'm now in Canada studying at Guelph University. 

The beginning of my Journey was pretty stressful, there was an altercation at the US visa desk that basically means due to faults of their own I was not allowed on the flight, meaning i had to pay an extra £450 for a direct return flight that didn't go through America. Which was very annoying i'm currently in the process now of getting a refund!. 

Immediatly when i got off the plane into Canada, I went to the immigration desk and they'd ask me questions about my course to see if anything didn't add up! I was naturally pretty nervous at the time which was probably detected as I was starting to wonder if i wasn't meant to go Canada after what happened with the US but... when i get past there i went to baggage where i saw a friend I had been talking too from Keele who was going, that was nice being with someone who was going through similar things that i was going through. After getting our luggage we both went to an international students desk where a man from Guelph greeted us and took us to where all the other Guelph students were waiting. Toronto airport was so much more advanaced then any airport i'd ever been to they even had a monorail to take them between terminals!. Manchester you had to walk about 20 minutes to each terminal!. Although I have a feeling they are more gun concious as all of them there were equipped with body armour and what looked like concealed firearms. 

But anyway meeting people at the airport was nice we got talking, we were all pretty tired after our long journey and we were all relieved after the about 2 hours of waiting at the airport that we could get on a bright yellow school bus (Commonly used here) and depart to Guelph. Upon being on the Bus i noticed how much larger the buildings were here, how people all drove on the right and how each village signs each had populations of each city which was nice!. Anyway i think i've talked alot about all that... Don't want to bore you guys!. 

So those of you who are thinking of studying abroad and might be reading this blog, the process is a long hard one but if you get to the end of it it's worth it!. The classes are actually easier!, other than one where i have to present a paper every week (Something i've never done before and i'm nervous about) But confidence is my middle name (Kinda) (not at all really) so i'm looking forward to it. 

The campus here is much better than Keele, cleaner, bigger, happier, and the weather is suprisingly hot! 34 degrees. I am starting to miss little things about home like the friends at my university and in Burton but... I've made alot of new friends here which is nice!.

Right now i'm in my room revising neuroscience!, Yesterday i went niagra falls... I've done an awful lot while here so if i did it all i think you'd all be bored so maybe i'll post next week. Bye Bye readers l

Sun, Sea and Canada

Malia
So i've returned from Malia, I've added a picture from my holiday return as i told you I would! :). It was a pretty good holiday, I've just been struggling to recover from a week of alcohol, guess i'm not as young as I once was in 2 weeks time i'll be in my last year as a teenager and that'll be scary...

Canada 
Well everything to do with Canada seems to be going well.. I've been in contact with my 3 housemates for next year they're all Canadian, been speaking to a few Canadians on Facebook, Sorted my insurance out running me into another £180..., I'll be living on my overdraft during this period of study abroad! and eating a pure noodle diet!. 
I'm just questioning what to pack now as the United States has such a strict Immigration Procedure that i'm scared about what i should bring also i need to make sure i have all the apropriate documentation with me if i lose any of that i am screwed!.
 I'm considering getting a study permit while over there so i can work while i'm there but i'm unsure about that idea
Recently
I haven't been up to much... on the friday and saturday I was out with friends at night clubs and house parties. On the sunday I was playing football with friends but since then i've been doing nothing! and the nothing is driving me bloody crazy.
Perhaps i'll start revising a bit of neuroscience to help with my course :). Ah well that's all i have to write thanks for reading

Easter Holidays!

Hello readers, how are you all? Good? I'm glad to hear it.

I'm in my last week now before the holidays kick in and my god it couldn't have come soon enough, it seems the terms are just the perfect amount of time any longer would have just put me in an endless bad mood, I hate routine!.

My Mathematics is pretty much out of the way until after the holidays!, all i have to do now is attend lectures which shouldn't be too hard, it seems a few of the maths lecturers are really crazy with there jokes, like one lecturer constantly makes jokes that are so unfunny they are funny!, e.g: putting a band under the projection and saying ''this is my favourite band' or him seeing this is the key to it all thinking he's going to point to the statement but instead getting a key out :P Hilarious.

Biology I want to ammend / rewrite some of my Drosophila paper but the deadlines tomorrow so I don't want to do too much.
In Human Bio, we got set work yesterday in for Friday which is annoying but it's on ECG's which are very interesting, so I'm sure I can get through it!

Study abroad application went perfectly, no issues suprisingly... All i really need to do now is get good results and that'll be that :D

Varsity came up, I didn't get chose for the squad but i think it was best as the position i would have filll defence sub only got played for 50 seconds, it was much better standing at the sidelines drinking! and making chants at the staffs players. Suprisingly Lacrosse was the sport with the most fights at one point staffs squad got reduced from 11 men to 7 for starting fights. There's always good chants at varsity games such as
'we go somewhere you don't go, uni, uni'
'we pay your benefits'

 That's it for now I may get a nap of something before my next lecture!, see you all next week

 

Going so fast!

Semester 2 is going so fast!, it's scary to think that i'm already half way through it. I'm just reflecting on my experiences here while being at university and it's amazing what I've learnt.

I think socially I am a better person, I am more confident, I enjoy myself much more and university has opened up much more oppurtunities for me to develop my skills in the job world.

Sports

Recently I've been getting much more times getting chosen for the first team of Lacrosse, although Study Abroad lectures often conflict with the game time so I cannot go, which is annoying but I suppose it's a nescary sacrifice!.

I've been going gym much more often and am beginning to enjoy it, I always thought it was superfacial but there really is a good feeling going with friends to lift weights and you get a feeling of self betterment

Next month i'm entering the Born Survivor which is a 10km run for Cystic Fibrosis, that probably will be hard as i'm not much of a long distance runner!, so I may get training myself up for that soon!.

Academics

My maths assignments are producing high marks, my Human Biology course i'm doing well in. It's just the Genetics and Evolution module I think I am struggling most in at the moment and there is another examination for that this thursday which I'm not looking forward for! But I will be revising loads for it. I may hold off going out until thursday to make sure I'm in shape for it!.

In Human Biology in my lab this week we got to perform a blood test to determine blood types which was interesting and we also performed a urinalysis.

My study abroad module I am finding a bit easy and boring in lectures but I am enjoying researching the Canadian culture and progressing through my application. I have chosen my modules for Mathematics and Human Biology at Guelph now. (Second year we get optional modules! :D, so I feel like i'm making my degree) I am taking Applied Differential Equations & Linear Algebra for Mathematics and for Human Biology I'll be taking Population Genetics and a Neuroscience module, Which I had to consult my subject tutors about and get them to approve it, I've enjoyed the process as it's helped me learn more about my next modules and helped me look more at the Canadian education system.

So there will be plenty to look forward to in the future!

Thanks for reading!, I'll upload another one next week.

Life in the wide world goes on

Study Abroad
They're many issues you have to consider when thinking to study aboard, I think my main issues are what will my grades be like which I find out by the end of this week and the accomodation for when I come home. I have already signed a contract for a year so I can either find someone to sublet my room to for 6 months which I don't see as being very likely or I could transfer tentants with a guy in my Block.
Difficult things to think about. for study abroad as well I have to complete a 12 page documents half on completing questions about my destination country things like politics and heritage, the other half which I haven't completed yet is a SWOT Analysis which i'm fairly clueless on.

 Biology
Right now the modules are really interesting in Human we are learning about the blood and the Immune system which I find very interesting!, I did a pratical yesterday where we had to prick our fingers and examine the blood under a microscope which was interesting as we could examiine each of the type of cells one we administered a stain. In Genetics we're learning all about how every trait is inherited we are conducting an experiment on the Drosophila melanogaster (Fruit Fly), where we use genetically altered flys combined with various mutated ones mate them and see what the outcome is.  I'm loving the Biology modules at this point I am finding them ever so more interesting then last semester.

Events

Keele student union always has events on, last wednesday I was attending a mixed Disney social (Dress up as a disney character) with womens and mens lacrosse, on valentines day I went to a traffic light party and yesterday I went to the night where it was a pound a pint but unlike my block mates I only went to play Pool and after that went home prettty early, I had a 9am lecture the next day, we also had a fire drill at 5am today interupting my sleep further so I'm certainly not the most awake person in the world right now.

Burton

Last weekend I went back to burton for my sisters Birthday which was Niice, we had a take away on the friday, then on the saturday I went to the millhouse with a group of friends from my secondary school and later on went into town with friends from sixth form and on the sunday I believe I went town with my 13 year old brother. I like the fact that even though time passes between each time I see my friends we are all still pretty close, we certainly haven't losst as much contact as I thought we would had.

Thanks for reading I'll try to post more periodically I hope i will be posting next week, hope you enjoyed it! 

Exams and Being back

Exam revison
I had 4 different exams, 2 exams from Human Biology: Cell and molecular biology and introduction to human physiology. 2 from Mathematics Calculus I and Algebra I.

First came Algebra I, I thought this would be the hardest exam so I overly revised for that and that turned out very nicely suprisingly I could answer every single question, 60% of my mark came out of this (40% from in class tests and assignments).

Second came Cell and Molecular Biology, this was all multiple choice but suprisingly still very hard unlike A Level where the multiple choice questions were pretty obvious. I think I revised enough for this but I think i slightly underestimated it as I only used the slides where I had forgot about the module handbook which contained all the Praticals. This was 75% of the mark (25% from a scientific paper).

Third came Calculus I, this was suprisingly hard I thought the majority of it would be A Level I still revised the hell out of it but they were about 2 questions I was unsure about, this was like algebra: 
60% of my mark came out of this (40% from in class tests and assignments).

Lastly today was Introduction to human physiology, 50% of the exam mark was through an Essay, I chose to do one on the GI System i did 4 pages (Hopefully enough!), and the other 50% was multichoice. The exam was 75% of the mark and the other 25% was from an Assessed Pratical.

Being Back

After the first semester I think I have learnt some pretty valuable lessons which I could hhave only learnt from experience, I have started writing up everyone of the Biology presentations at the end of every week in order for me to have a running knowledge of the content as well as this for Maths i'm going to rewrite the examples so i can master the method of everything i've learnt so far. Semester 1 was quite expensive so I've learnt not to go out on every instance to spend money and more budget myself with food and everything. So far i've been to 3 out of the 5 events I've had an oppurtunity to go to and have managed to save myself money by restraining myself :).

New Modules

 I have 5 new modules!, I have one for study abroad and I managed to get my first choice university which I am extremely happy about as it was quite a popular choice Guelph!. I have 2 new modules for Biology both of which seem very interesting compared to last years which I found the content reasonably dull, This semester we are learning more about genetics related to disease and get a conduct experiments on fruit flys. In my other module I get to learn about the Lungs, Heart and Blood which is going to be very interesting and cannot wait for that to progress throughout the year.