that's not a slug on the window, it's a seagull... offeringI had a really good Christmas and New Year's! I got to spend it with my family (+ Zaheen who was visiting) and we had lots of good times, like buying the Dr Seuss of Christmas trees and purchasing 50lb. of salt which the deer, for some reason, absolutely refused to lick. (And watching my dad light 12 sparklers at once on New Year's Eve and stand there, holding them, going "oh god guys i think this was a bad idea help"). And baking. Lots and lots of baking.
But now all that is done and I'm back in Brighton, a town where, as you can probably tell from the picture I posted, has decided that road salt should be reserved only for the widest and flattest of roads, so all the narrow twisty streets on 30° grades (of which there are MANY in Brighton) have been pretty much told by the council to get fucked. Which is why I get woken up at 9AM every day by the sound of tires squealing and cursing from the guy across the street. Also, seeing as snow is somewhat of a rarity in Brighton, nobody is, shall we say, sartorially equipped to deal with it... so campus is just full of girls in miniskirts, leggings, and canvas sneakers acting like they're not cold. Just like my first winter in Toronto. Road salt will do a number on chucks, guys.
As for the school end of things... I guess I should talk about that a bit too. Campus has managed to be open every day this week in the face of nearly insurmountable obstacles (3" of snow), so I got to meet all my profs yesterday! Technically the first day of school was two days ago, but I had such a blinding migraine I couldn't see straight, so yesterday was actually my first day. Anyway! Impressions.
The first class I had was Atmospheric Chemistry. I thought it was going to be really interesting until I realized it was being taught by the same guy who did Bonding and Spectroscopy last term and utterly fucked it up by insisting they rearrange the course so all the spectroscopy stuff came before the quantum mechanics stuff that was meant to explain it. Apparently on the first day, he admitted he had no idea what atmospheric chemistry was (he's a physical chemist) and was sort of learning it as he went along. What the christ.
Anyway, then I had a really long break, which I used to run errands (yell at Barclay's, yell at the library...) apparently Barclay's shipped my debit card on the 16th of December, which is news to me, so they put a block on it and are mailing out a new one, which I should get in "a few days". Which probably means somewhere around April. Next, I went to the library, as they were charging me £20 in overdue fees for a book I returned almost a month ago. So I copied down the serial number and, sure enough, there it was on the shelf. I have to fill out a form to get my late fees back, though, since they think I just went back into the stacks and mysteriously "found" the book in my pocket or something. ENGLAND
After that I had States of Matter, Organometallic Chemistry, and Strategy in Organic Synthesis. I don't know why they can't just call these courses physical, organometallic (okay that one they kinda did) and organic, but who knows.
States of Matter is, as I said, physical chemistry, basically. It seems like pretty standard stuff. The professor is Eastern European and painfully skinny and has a ridiculous accent. I'd say more about the content of the course, but as I said, Eastern European prof. Meaning, I have literally no idea what he was saying the entire time. I'm going to need to spend a lot of time looking at the online notes for this one...
Next up, Organometallic Chemistry. This one sticks out in my mind because the course handout had a giant picture of a ferrocene molecule on it. That fucking molecule is stalking me I swear to god
And then, finally, Strategy in Organic Synthesis aka Hope You Like Drawing Arrows. This is basically exactly what the name suggests: learning the rules and basis behind various reactions and how they "go". However, I mainly noticed how ridiculously French the professor is. I mean, if he came to class wearing a beret and a striped shirt, I would not be entirely surprised. He asks us to guess mechanisms before he tells us, and then he walks around the class looking over everyone's shoulder and muttering "Tres bien" if you get it right and stuff like that. Also, when he messes up drawing something, he goes "Merde!". Ridiculous.
Okay, that ended up being pretty long, but hey, I had a lot of stuff to recap. And now, I have a lot of lab to prepare for. :(
[edit] Oh yeah, guess I should say something about yesterday being my birthday. Yesterday was my 22nd birthday. My lovely housemates gave me a stack of old comic books, two cards, and a cake <3 :D
But now all that is done and I'm back in Brighton, a town where, as you can probably tell from the picture I posted, has decided that road salt should be reserved only for the widest and flattest of roads, so all the narrow twisty streets on 30° grades (of which there are MANY in Brighton) have been pretty much told by the council to get fucked. Which is why I get woken up at 9AM every day by the sound of tires squealing and cursing from the guy across the street. Also, seeing as snow is somewhat of a rarity in Brighton, nobody is, shall we say, sartorially equipped to deal with it... so campus is just full of girls in miniskirts, leggings, and canvas sneakers acting like they're not cold. Just like my first winter in Toronto. Road salt will do a number on chucks, guys.
As for the school end of things... I guess I should talk about that a bit too. Campus has managed to be open every day this week in the face of nearly insurmountable obstacles (3" of snow), so I got to meet all my profs yesterday! Technically the first day of school was two days ago, but I had such a blinding migraine I couldn't see straight, so yesterday was actually my first day. Anyway! Impressions.
The first class I had was Atmospheric Chemistry. I thought it was going to be really interesting until I realized it was being taught by the same guy who did Bonding and Spectroscopy last term and utterly fucked it up by insisting they rearrange the course so all the spectroscopy stuff came before the quantum mechanics stuff that was meant to explain it. Apparently on the first day, he admitted he had no idea what atmospheric chemistry was (he's a physical chemist) and was sort of learning it as he went along. What the christ.
Anyway, then I had a really long break, which I used to run errands (yell at Barclay's, yell at the library...) apparently Barclay's shipped my debit card on the 16th of December, which is news to me, so they put a block on it and are mailing out a new one, which I should get in "a few days". Which probably means somewhere around April. Next, I went to the library, as they were charging me £20 in overdue fees for a book I returned almost a month ago. So I copied down the serial number and, sure enough, there it was on the shelf. I have to fill out a form to get my late fees back, though, since they think I just went back into the stacks and mysteriously "found" the book in my pocket or something. ENGLAND
After that I had States of Matter, Organometallic Chemistry, and Strategy in Organic Synthesis. I don't know why they can't just call these courses physical, organometallic (okay that one they kinda did) and organic, but who knows.
States of Matter is, as I said, physical chemistry, basically. It seems like pretty standard stuff. The professor is Eastern European and painfully skinny and has a ridiculous accent. I'd say more about the content of the course, but as I said, Eastern European prof. Meaning, I have literally no idea what he was saying the entire time. I'm going to need to spend a lot of time looking at the online notes for this one...
Next up, Organometallic Chemistry. This one sticks out in my mind because the course handout had a giant picture of a ferrocene molecule on it. That fucking molecule is stalking me I swear to god
And then, finally, Strategy in Organic Synthesis aka Hope You Like Drawing Arrows. This is basically exactly what the name suggests: learning the rules and basis behind various reactions and how they "go". However, I mainly noticed how ridiculously French the professor is. I mean, if he came to class wearing a beret and a striped shirt, I would not be entirely surprised. He asks us to guess mechanisms before he tells us, and then he walks around the class looking over everyone's shoulder and muttering "Tres bien" if you get it right and stuff like that. Also, when he messes up drawing something, he goes "Merde!". Ridiculous.
Okay, that ended up being pretty long, but hey, I had a lot of stuff to recap. And now, I have a lot of lab to prepare for. :(
[edit] Oh yeah, guess I should say something about yesterday being my birthday. Yesterday was my 22nd birthday. My lovely housemates gave me a stack of old comic books, two cards, and a cake <3 :D
