oscars

I've just realized the Oscars are this weekend and I won't be home for them. I'm not usually one to watch the Oscars but over the last few years there's been this routine of my mom calling me from the living room, waiting for me to trudge over, patting the couch next to her with a cutesy smile asking me to watch the Oscars with her. I'll roll my eyes and say I have homework but she'll tell me to bring it and watch it with her anyways. I'd shake my head and sigh but oblige nonetheless. Not this year. Which lets the spindles of homesickness creep over me just a bit more than usual. It's these small things that make the difference, you know? She did this over winter break, while I was studying for exams, and pulled me out of my room to watch the Golden Globes. My dad gave me stern looks from the kitchen table, asking, 'Shouldn't you be studying?'

I miss my mom. I'm trying to push her to apply for a UK visa so she can visit me on my birthday, which is over easter break. So far, she's yet to comply but maybe if I keep up the pestering...

new beginnings!

For whatever reason, I was particularly excited about beginning this second semester. I think I have a new zest for being in Manchester and school and all that jazz. I've only just finished my first week of this semester so we'll see how long this feeling lasts.

My first class of the week was Excitable Cells which lasted a total of 15 minutes. This is the class with the professor who told us to come in at 9.15am on Mondays. I took an immediate liking to him when, seconds after I expressed my surprise that so many people showed up to the first lecture of the semester, he said the exact same thing! He also used the phrase 'sexy science' during this lecture and provided this caption for a picture of a boy getting his teeth checked at the dentist:

"And there's some brat getting drilled ... "

I really quite like this guy. The class itself is about excitable membranes and action potentials and ion channels and I'd imagine it'll go on to be about neurons and the nervous system in its entirety. Should be fun. 

Then I've got From Molecules to Cells which is basically everything I already know about the biological cell and its components and organelles and blahblah. I quite like cellular biology though so this class shouldn't be too bad. The prof seems nice enough, just kind of straightforward and no nonsense.

My first optional course this semester is Psychology: Intro to Brain and Behaviour. Just as we sat down and picked out the lecturer, my friend Matt and I began to discuss, based on appearance and presentation, how good or bad this lecture seems to be. First off, the opening slide was plain black and white and entirely uninteresting. I pointed this out, mentioning that perhaps this woman was a very bland and colourless individual. Matt retaliates that the woman did have a colourfully striped scarf on but I had to say that the scarf looked like a Gap colourful scarf, like a sad attempt at being colourful but staying too far within the lines. Matt conceded that she was in fact wearing all black otherwise. Then I pointed out that she looked like the Trunchbull. And then the woman opened her mouth and all our suspicions that she was a pretty boring mundane monotone lady were concretely reaffirmed. She was very superfluously verbose too which got on my nerves quite quickly. For one, she began by saying that we really really really really really really need to read the textbook for this course. To which I said, Really? And Matt said, Nah I think it's just optional. She also started off by addressing the Psychology students who make up the majority of the audience (with a small portion of us being the more elite Neuroscientists) by saying, "You may be wondering why you have to worry about the brain and know about it and its functions." Um. What? Right, because psychology has absolutely NOTHING to do with the brain. And at the second lecture (two lectures a week), this woman took about 45 minutes to explain the process of picking up something hot and then reacting by dropping the pot. See how I did that in less than a sentence? Hers went something like this: 

"Imagine one day you're at home, cooking some soup in a pot on the stove. When the soup is ready, you pick up the pot of soup and begin to walk to the table to put it down. You take two steps away from the stove and your fingers start to feel a bit warm. But you're still 5 steps away from the table. And you have to decide what to do. Meanwhile, your hands feel warmer ..."

At this point, I zoned out. Once I regained consciousness, I heard:

"... and the signals travels up through your neurons and tells your brain, 'Oh! I think I should put this down. My hands are hurting.' And then your brain has to send a signal back down to your hands and ..."

Oh. My. God. This woman also cannot pronounce anion. You know, cations and anions? CAT-eye-ons and AN-eye-ons? Oh no sorry, AN-yons. AN-YONS?! And then she pointed at the chemical symbol for Cl and called it Calcium. I am just flabbergasted really. Is this woman really qualified to be teaching us a biologically based psychology course? I think not. Good thing we switch lecturers every couple lectures or so based on expertise. This does make for a very disjointed and disorganized course, though.

Then I have Drugs: Molecules to Man with the most INSANE LECTURER OF ALL TIME. The entire first lecture was on cocaine and I think he meant it as a hint to say that he himself is on crack. Seriously. First off, he got our attention by telling us he would appreciate it if we all shut up. And then he went to say that the one thing that really pisses him off is students coming late to lectures so whoever walks in after 9.02 is going to be heckled and harassed by him. Just after saying this, a poor boy walks in to be Contestant Numero Uno. The lecturer pretty much leaped in excitement and sprinted up the theatre steps to shove the microphone in this boy's face and demand why he was late. The boy mumbled some sort of response that he was sleeping to which the lecturer retorts as simply being lazy. Then he goes on to say that the only excuses he will accept from anyone are excuses that he himself would use for being late. 1) Because the river junction by his house had flooded, 2) because the excess of snow had blocked his way into work, or 3) because his children were ill. Another day, a guy walked in late and when his excuse was 'I don't know,' the lecturer said that must translate to plain stupidity. And then a giant group of people traipsed in and he was like, 'Oh ho ho! What was this, a late night orgy?' WHO SAYS THAT. And then right after that, a boy walked in on his own and the lecturer goes, 'Oh, all alone? Well we know what YOU were doing last night.' HOW INAPPROPRIATE CAN YOU GET. By the by, the class is all about drugs and receptors and affinity for drugs and agonists and antagonists. Not that it matters since we're all so distracted by the madman we have teaching us.

Last comes my history module called Technologies of Everyday Life. The title sounds pretty dull and the class isn't too enthralling but I enjoy it. The prof is really nerdy and awkwardly so, like a teenage boy who got stuck in the awkwardness of adolescence and never grew out of it. And I adore him. So far it's all about the Industrial Revolution in England and we'll be using Manchester itself as a jumping off point about learning about industry and technologies and how they shaped the world. 

For two paired weeks (that's four total), I have three three-hour labs a week, starting this coming Monday. Hopefully those'll be fun too.

Something else pretty major started up this week too but it's going to get its own post because it's pretty supermassive and awesome and incredible and a very very long story. So watch out for it!

Hope you're all having great second semesters so far too!

picnik

Recently, I've developed a love affair with the glory that is picnik.com. It's a photo editing site that's purely online and free (for all but the "premium" features) and it has such awesome effects and it's so ridiculously easy to use. It's just brilliant and it makes pictures look amazing. It's basically simplified Photoshop and it's fantastic. 

I just wanted to share a handful of pictures (and their originals) that I've edited on picnik that I think turned out pretty wickedly awesome. This is also how I've spent the majority of time over the last few days. I'm not obsessed.

  

  

  

  

I suggest you take a trip over to that site immediately for your own healthy dose of photographic glory.

anisah, krupa & sorina

There are a few introductions I've yet to make for no reason, really, except that these people fit into my life so subtilely  that it didn't occur to me that I need to make a big fanfare of it. But, as it were:

Sorina is my next door neighbour. She's from Romania and is the cutest sweetest person I know. She's super smart and creative and fun and colourful and adventurous and funny. I adore her, everyone does. 

Then there's Krupa who lives down the corridor. She's a hardcore Indian via Kenya. She's the sportsy one of us all and is also our mom. She's the tiniest one of us too but she could probably beat us all up at once if she tried. She is also an amazing amazing cook and our Resident Indian (because Aamna isn't Indian enough). Hopefully hopefully hopefully Krupa will be living with me in Flat 1 of Woodthorpe* and I shall get loads and loads of her delicious cooking next year.

And lastly but not leastly is Anisah. Anisah is from around Manchester and sort of the most recent to become really good friends with us all. I mean, she's always been our friend -- mainly Krupa's -- but now she's more of a fully integrated part of our group. And I am absolutely in love with her. She studies straight Latin and is beautiful and awesome and fun and funny and pretty much shares my brain. It was like we suddenly had a revelation that we were meant to be together and here we are. And she loves Oxford. And art. And all things gorgeous. I am so so so happy to have truly met Anisah because she has a special place in my life. She really does. We're going to have a day of art when we go buy canvas, set up shop and paint all day. Asjigdsfjgkjhdf, I love Anisah!

So yeah. Those are the newest three most important people in my life right now to add on to my long long list of lovers. I really enjoy knowing the people that I do. They make my daily life so much better than it usually is.

* 25Feb update: Woodthorpe is the flats that are part of our halls but semi-detached-ish. Me, Amina, and Krupa plan to lodge in Flat 1 and although we, as second years, will have preference, we'll have even more preference if we're on the JCR Committee. So each of us is running for a post - me, secretary; Krupa; sports secretary; Amina, treasurer. I am currently running unopposed so fingers crossed I'll win, but we'll have to wait and see! And hopefully the other two will also win their positions so then we can all live together!**

** Aamna, Becca, Kat, and Anisah are all moving out to some flats across the road since they are home students and are not guaranteed a place in University accommodation, as we international students are. We'll probably invade their flat at any and all times. Should be fun.

first (proper) snow!

I was so excited to wake up on Monday morning, my first day of lectures, and find this view out my window:

It snowed! And it stuck! It's been snowing many times for the last few days but never once did the snow stick because the ground was always wet. But, look! Real white fluffy glorious snow! Sure, I've seen snow before. I've gone skiing and snowboarding and all that. But to watch it fall all night and then wake up to this -- cliché warning -- winter wonderland was beyond anything I'd ever experienced, snow-wise. It was the most perfect start to this semester's lectures.

I, of course, grabbed my camera on the way out to my 9am Excitable Cells lecture and took pictures the whole way there. 

Everything looks so much better blanketed in soft crystals of snow. The world could not be ugly that day. I love snow. I was like a five-year-old child on crack in the snow, but I just couldn't help it. 

Becca immediately went for the snowball attack as our friends rounded the corner, while I continued photographing because I was in a daze of awe.

Once we finally made it past Gabs' gates, we found the picturesque scene of Whitworth Park across the road (aka Rapist Park at night -- we've braved it a couple times now during the day so it's not as daunting). 

Right in the entrance of the park was a little snowdeer which I ran towards, instinctively. Like it was my long lost mother or something. I seriously am approximately three years old.

As we walked on, we saw all the roofs (rooves?) daintily covered in untouched snow, glinting in the rising sun's golden light. How's that for a melodramatic poetic description?

I seriously could not stop smiling the entire walk to class. We were practically skipping. 

When we finally got to class, we found a very amiable professor who I took a liking to from the very start when he announced that he didn't really like waking up for 9am lectures on Monday so he'd rather we all came in at 9.15. I think after he said that, there was a short hesitation of silence, expressing our disbelief before we all erupted in woos, cheers and clapping -- one guy near us even yelled "I LOVE YOU." Then the prof continued with a short intro lecture that lasted 15 minutes. FIFTEEN MINUTES. Meaning we were out of that lecture theatre by 20 past the hour. Which of course then called for a snowball fight. Which ensued on the small lawn of grass right outside the building. Which was awesome. And technically, my first proper snowball fight. 

And I continued to take pretty pictures of pretty things covered in pretty snow.

(Hogwarts, anyone?)

On the walk back, the low sun (Did you know the sun doesn't fully rise during winter? I don't recall this happening in Los Angeles. It still befuddles me.) lit up the background of the scenery on our walk home. It was so so so beautiful.

When we made it back to Gabs, it had started snowing again so we continued our snowball fight and attempted to make a snowwoman, which turned into a giant pathetic pile of snow. All during this, the builders on the construction site right next door were chucking freaking CANNONBALLS of snow from the rooftop! It was ridiculous. They were hitting the ground like bombs coming out of nowhere. Creeper.

(This is Maryam attacking me, by the way. She's a nice girl, really.)

Then Becca and I made our way to the netball court round back where we found what seemed like acres and acres of untrodden inches of snow.

So we trodded on it ourselves.

We then ran upstairs to the top floor to see our masterpiece in it's entirety.

It's glorious. And it lasted pretty much the entire day so whenever anyone on that side of Gabs looked out the window, all they saw was NOOR HI BECCA! written in snow. Because we're awesome.

I love winter.

nights on the town

This is the beginning of our list of Awesome Adventures, starting with our attempts to celebrate the end of exams. 

On the Friday after exams, Amina and I were just hanging out when we suddenly decided to go see "Twilight." Why? It's a long story. Unless you are willing to waste your money on a crappy movie that is absolutely unintentionally hilarious, do not see "Twilight." I mean, I knew it was going to be crap but I also knew it was going to be so horribly entertaining, so we went. And laughed our faces off.

Afterwards, we went back to Gabs to just chillax and watch American Idol. Later at night, Amina and I were chatting over some hot cocoa, ragging on CollegeBoard and SATs and standardized testing in general when the conversation took a turn to how university was not really what we expected it to be. During a lull in the conversation, Amina looks up and goes, "Do you wanna go out?" When I calmly replied yes, she said, "No I'm being serious." So was I.

So here we were at midnight on a Friday night layering up and pulling on our coats, slightly abuzz with the anticipation for this outing. We decided we'd walk to the end of the main campus on Oxford Rd and do whatever we felt like in between. We skipped along, stopping to take some pictures here and there. We saw some guys in togas running down the opposite sidewalk. We conquered a bench in the middle of campus and just sat there, watching the people go by. We simply roamed the dark campus, going by the library to see if it was still open 24/7 (which it wasn't) and then walked around the quad-like bits that are our favourite parts of campus because they make us feel like we're actually on a proper campus, instead of a city road. 

The patheticness of our situation was only slightly brought to light when we were sat on the bench and Amina adamantly said, "University students would do this right? This is fun. This is something university students do." I just looked at her because if we were really convinced of that, no one would have felt the necessity to say that. But as it were.

After an aimless while in the freezing cold, we started walking back and I stopped to play with the long exposure settings on my camera, which resulted in some cool amateur photos. 

(overexposure of a car passing by with the camera sitting on the pavement.)

Right as we were about to turn onto our street, we decided to stop and get some dessert. So we went to Rush Away (Rushaway? Rush-away?) and got some brownies which the kind man at the counter heated up for us. Right when we stepped out, I saw Villa Pizza across the road and so we went there to get some pizza. Then we trekked back to Gabs and went up to the TV room to watch ... I don't remember. Hm. Wow, I literally have no idea what we watched ... "She's All That!" That's what we watched. 

Basically, the entirety of that night was one of us saying to the other, "Do you wanna ...?" "Let's go do this ..." or "Can we ...?" and the other simply responding, yes. I think we should have days and nights like that more often. I always feel like someone suggests something to do and we all agree to do it and then never come through. It's like an immediate gratification thing when you get to do exactly what you want to do right then but then, how often does that actually happen?

We were still in this sort of mood when we woke up on Saturday and heard from Kat that her friends at Slems (the guys' hall) had sent out an open invitation to the Gabs girls for 'non-alcoholic' drinks that night. Amina and I looked at each other and said, sure. So we went.

Apparently, 'non-alcoholic' drinks means go to Canal Street (the gay district) and find the nearest pub/club and down pints of beer. Honestly? None of the girls were prepared for this, dressed casually in jeans and jumpers, so we kind of just sat around. Then Amina and I started a game of Find As Many Gay Couples Making Out As Possible (I won by a single point with 5 total -- I got 2 points for witnessing what appeared to be a face orgy.) which kept us entertained for a little while. I actually wasn't having a bad time at all plus the Top 40 dance hits that were playing fit the situation perfectly and I quite enjoyed lip-syncing to them all. I felt bad though that some people of our little group were not really enjoying themselves all that much so I went home with them.

On the way back, we got the first season of "the OC" and popped that in for the night. Oh shoot that's due tonight. Excuse me for a moment.

That took a little longer than expected. ANYWAYS.

Our weekend of outings continued on Sunday when Amina and I (Aamna was away this weekend) decided to do something from our list of Adventures and find my mom's old hall. 

It's in the area where Gabs is so we just looked it up on Google Maps and found the address. We walked down our road, admiring the old buildings that look like classic run down abandoned haunted houses.

At the very end of a road perpendicular to ours, we found my mom's old dorm, which was just so surreal. It was too weird being somewhere I knew my mom had walked and lived and roamed about 30 years ago. Unreal. And it's a privately owned building now! It's let to students and professionals alike for a ridiculously cheap rate so me and Amina are thinking of moving in there for our third year ... if we make it that far. It would be awesome.

After our short walk, we went back and watched more of "the OC" before meeting up with some other Gabs girls to go see the amazingness that is "Batman Begins" AND "The Dark Knight" in IMAX. Those movies will never cease to be awesome. I could watch them over and over and over and always and forever, amen. If you have the opportunity to see these in IMAX, TAKE IT NOW! Or if you just haven't seen them, go see them no matter how small the screen. And it was snowing as we walked to the theatre which just added to the atmosphere of awesome.

And that was the end of our adventurously planned weekend. I came out of it with a sense of content and settled-ness and optimism. I think it's a good sign. Things already look better and I'm not sure whether it's my determination or that I have already settled in more quickly this time around. I'll keep you posted but for now, I'm quite happy.