Baby Jesus, Let's Plan on Finding Some Seaweed Together

Yeah, so, as evidenced by my lack of posts all last week, I didn't do a whole lot of anything over study break, which, by now, I'm okay with. What did I do over study break? I played World of Warcraft for the first time since the end of January. I also got a good amount of skyping with my friend Alicia which always makes a good day into an awesome day. WORD.

Each day over break was pretty much the same with a few ups and downs. Because I didn't write anything down and each day was pretty much the same, I don't have much to say for each of the days individually. On Monday however, I signed up for classes for the fall. And boy, and I excited.

I had to take French to fulfill the language requirement for my BA which is fine, yeah, have to take it. I'm taking two biology seminars which meet once a week each for 3-3.5 hours: Ecology of Disease Vectors (with a professor I haven't had yet but is supposed to be great; he works close with my lab professor Deb who I can't stop raving about) and Population Genetics (with a grad student/Post-Doc? under the head of the department). Both should be great classes. For my fourth class I'm doing another directed lab study with Deb (which I did last fall). In addition to getting my single a couple weeks back, Fall 2010 is looking freaking awesome!!

My schedule for next fall is pretty awesome too: on Mondays, I have French starting at 12 noon then my Disease Vectors seminar right after until 4 or so in the afternoon (long day but should be a good day). Tuesdays I only have my French discussion in the late afternoon. Wednesdays I think I only have my French lecture, and Thursdays I only have my Genetics seminar in the afternoon. Fridays, as long as I get my lab work done, is free. I believe I'm not required to do lab work for either of my seminars, which is great. Because I'm taking seminars, it leaves my schedule open with large chunks of unscheduled time, which gives me great blocks of time to do my directed lab study such that I should be able to have Fridays off. I think this semester I'm going to make it a habit of doing lab work in the evenings after dinner, because the bio building is nice and beautifully quiet then.

This week I also applied for a summer research fellowship, which would supply me with a stipend and housing. Given I'd be continuing a project I've already started with a faculty member and I'll be a senior, I'm really hoping I get it. This would also mean I would be in Worcester almost ALL of my remaining summer, but it would be a great lab experience. Looking ahead to the end of this semester, I'm hoping my finals will be scheduled to the front of my two week final exam period. After six more weeks of classes which I started today, we have a 7-day study break before finals start, which go over two weeks. If I can manage, I'd like to try to change my flights a few days earlier. This would be beneficial in several ways: one, I'm more likely to get a lift to the airport by a friend if I leave earlier rather than after exams (which would save me a $60 cab fare; granted changing my flights might cost be $50 or so) and I'd have more wiggle room time at home before my lab studies, if I get the fellowship. Ideally, I'd love to have a few days before I have to go to Worcester and a few days at home before the semester starts. We'll see though. All I can do is  hope and chill out and wait. Oh, and the final exam schedule should be out this or next week.

During the week somewhere in there, Connor and I took the train into Perth city to visit his flatmate Tracey in the hospital. We brought her a few things and picked up her car from the carpark and drove it home. It was fun going in with him, but kinda sad to see a lot of young people out on the night. It made me miss my Clark friends and Boston. I hope to tear up Boston a lot this fall! The drive back was especially interesting since Connor wasn't too sure where to go but I almost sorta did. We got home with no problem.

So yeah, signed up for classes and played a lot of WoW, that's basically all I did in a addition to going into Perth once. I'm cool with it though; I relaxed and chilled out.

This week I have to catch up studying, plan out a lab project, and write a paper for next Monday. I just found out today (thank Baby Jesus I checked) from my Plant Diversity lab (the one I passionately hate) notebook that I'm expected to collect seaweed samples from an area beach to bring into lab. I panicked at first, but as long as I can find some seaweed (hopefully I can find some at South Beach) I'm actually kind of excited. I don't have Plant Diversity lecture on Thursday (which means Thursday is open), so I'll go then. It might not be a nice day, but Jesse said he might go with me. I'm pretty stoked!

So tonight I'm starting to work on my paper, and tomorrow, Tuesday, I only have one lecture (50 minutes) and I'll be able to plan out my Microbiology lab project (who I'm working on it with my two Australian mates Tim and Mitch and my American gal pal Allie) and prep for the Micro lab we have scheduled for Wednesday with ease, in addition to getting in some work on my essay that's due Monday. Then on Wednesday I'll get some more work done on my essay; Thursday I'll go to the beach and collect some samples, prep for the Plant Diversity lab on Friday, and Friday I should have a decent day in lab. Nothing too stressful. This weekend I'll finish my paper for next Monday, and next week I'll start studying for finals (composing study guides from notes, etc.). I believe that after this paper for Monday and a few lab related things here and there, I really don't have much at all until finals, so I will have plenty of time to study and be comfortable by the time finals come. Let's do it to it!

Today after my lecture and my discussion, I went shopping with Greg who had been away all week on the second Northwest trip. Man, I love this kid. He made me laugh so much because he is such a funny, laid back, goofy kid. It was a great food shop (and I love food shopping) and I didn't spend too much this week which was great. I had to buy more shampoo and toothpaste (that will last be the rest of the semester) so my bill was a little higher, but I think I'm on track to keeping to a good, low food budget. Word!

Now I must turn to my paper which I'll be working on all week and weekend. (I'm sitting across from Jesse--who, like Greg, was gone all week on the trip--in the library, and he is also working on a paper.) I got back my group paper today and was not satisfied with the result: a 70, which is a B in Australia (they call it a distinction). Looking it over, only my section was nearly spotless. The buggers in my group didn't provide heaps of citations they used in the text in the reference list!! I'm so mad about that! Oh well, it's all the motivation I need to totally own this paper. HERE I GO!

Saturday, April 3rd - Sunday, April 11th: 6
Monday: 7.5