1/2 neuroscientist

You know you're halfway done with a neuroscience degree when suddenly, all the article titles on Nature Neuroscience start making sense to you. Even the ones made up of acronyms.

5/5

Last night Becca and I made a fort in her room, to celebrate the end of exams. It was epic. We couldn't get very good pictures of it though, sadly. Because it was big and the room is shaped weird.

on the way in..

from below, inside

Oh look, Frightened Rabbit, the Low Anthem, Passion Pit, and Yeasayer are all having cheap gigs in Manchester. I really shouldn't. Maybe just one. Hmmmm.

Now that exams are over, I'm excited to start 2010 and the new semester, officially. Finally.

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?