overseas student

Most people,

when they find out I've come all the way from the States,

remark how brave I must be

but mostly,

I just feel incredibly stupid.

It just gets harder and harder to leave every time..

memory smell #6

When I was wayyyy little, easily younger than seven years old, when we lived in Kuwait, we used to visit one of my mom's best friend's lovely house. In the backyard, she had a small grove of tangerine and orange trees and once we went round and picked a bunch of tangerines and now, the smell of mandarin leaves and the little green star that connects it to the fruit reminds me of standing in her garden, early evening picking tangerines.

I'm going back on Thursday and it has easily been far too short a time here. This break did not go as expected -- not in a bad way -- starting from day one. It just started unexpectedly and then rushed head on into everything before I'd had the time to recover. So it's been good but far too busy. And once all the busy-ness ended, I suddenly had all this time that I was forced to fill with revision and that's not cool. These exams are going to be a pain in the bum.

In other news, I love California and my friends and Doctor Who which I am fully caught up to now and it broke my heart and pieced it back together before breaking it again and now it's caught in the mending stage hoping I can make it without David Tennant. Sigh. I saved three lives. I decorated sunflower cupcakes. I bought a pretty new journal from Paperchase (mmmmm). Home is the same and yet different, as always. I love Disneyland in December. I don't exactly love the chaos of not knowing what's going down for the next year and beyond but I guess that makes it easier to concentrate on what's going down right now. No need wasting energy worrying, right?

I have some new books, new music (NEED MOAR), and happy thoughts for the time being. Bring on the neuroscience.

obligatory new year's eve commentary

I’ll keep it short. 2009’s been excellent. Odd years always are for me, but I won’t let the evenness of 2010 break this new streak. Happy new year.

dissertation

I have to write a short dissertation this year which I am actually quite excited about because we get to choose our topics and from the range of interests that I suggested (neuronal development, epilepsy, olfaction & memory) my tutor prompted titles and I have chosen:

Why do Certain Odours Trigger Vivid Memories?

The connection between the sense of smell and immediate teleportation to a different time and place has always absolutely fascinated me so I really can't wait to start researching.

In the meantime, I thought I'd keep a random log of things, as they crop up, whose smells elicit strong memories.

• Dial soap which reminds me of being a kid in our little bathroom in Kuwait
• Right now, my brother's freshly painted room which takes me straight back to the first day I slept in my own newly painted room
• the pages of any Harry Potter book take me back to the days I would sit curled up anywhere reading, reading, reading..
• Pear Blossom lotion which sets me standing right in the middle of my room at Oxford
• and Pink Grapefruit lotion sits me down on my rough carpet at home smack in the middle of summer

Anything you guys can think of?

The Joys of Living in England (aka Why I Thoroughly Plan to Stay Here Forever):

- understanding this list of words and incorporating them into my everyday language.

- daily tea

- being dependent on toast

- custard creams

- corner shops

- ASDA

- Bollywood films & Indian food

- a grand plethora of accents

- good British films

- Doctor Who on the actual telly and not my computer

- Any and all British TV: Top Gear, QI, Live at the Apollo, etc

- Radio 1

- walking everywhere

- the train system

- the London Underground

- London in general

- watching football matches in pubs

- 99 flakes

- snow & a proper winter (leading to the owning of a winter wardrobe)

- appreciating the sun

- all sorts of seasons

- double decker buses

I'll keep adding and re-updating as I think of things..

realisation #84

I just had the strangest moment of thought.

I was thinking of all the places I love to eat or pass by in Manchester and thinking how I should go eat in the places I've not had in a while tomorrow before I leave and suddenly, I got tremendously & inexplicably sad knowing that there is going to be a day when I will make the final visit to those places, the last meal in each of them, before leaving possibly forever -- and now I smile, somehow thinking that's a good thing.