Boring Friday

My Friday was incredibly boring. I had one class this morning (Chemistry) and unintentionally spent the rest of the day in lab. I had a meeting to test the electronic properties of one of my compounds from 1-3, and I was planning to take the rest of the afternoon off, get to the gym and relax a little. Instead, I spent the rest of the afternoon (till 6) in lab... fun fun! On the plus side I was pretty productive, which was a good thing. I'm also going into lab tomorrow to take things out of the furnace :(.

Tomorrow also needs to be a super duper productive for thesis writing. Fingers crossed for that too (I want to get a chapter written tomorrow :S).

[I think this might have been the most boring blog post in the world. Sorry about that!]

Classes and Vagina Monologues

Rivers belong where they can ramble,

Eagles belong where they can fly,

I've got to be where my spirit can run free,

Gotta find my corner of the sky

Every man has his daydream

Every man has his goal

People like the way dreams have of sticking to the soul

~Corner of the Sky lyrics from the musical Pippin

I still haven't chosen my classes for this semester, which is a source of some stress at the moment. I'm torn between wanting to take a great class that I'm going to love every minute of (I haven't found one that I feel this way about though) and one that's going to be easy enough that I have time to spend on my thesis (which I have a very very love-hate relationship with at the moment). I'm currently considering

• Music vs. Words (English/Music): I was beyond excited about this class, but the first two lectures have been okay and then terrible (the terrible one was poetry analysis. So epically not my kind of thing).)
• History of Science (History): I'm majoring in science, and so far this class has been okay. The professor is good but not outstanding and there are weekly reading responses and responses to other people's responses, which will make the class a little more difficult/time consuming.
• Art of Structure (Civil Engineering): seems like an interesting class and has great reviews. It's basically about form and function of buildings (which I am sort of interested in).

I'm leaning towards the civil engineering course, but I'm going to go to one or two more lectures for each one.

I went to BodyPump today, which was awesome. I love it! I went with one of my friends though, and she really didn't love it. We're not super close (I know it sounds mean but she's a huge social climber and cares about the quantity rather than quality of friendships, which I can't stand). She's also a little (probably 20lbs) overweight and never goes to the gym. I don't know why she disliked the class so much (other than that it was hard...she's normally a 2mph biker at the gym?! I don't get that, I love hard gym classes!). I suspect that her reaction might have had something to do with her realization that I am much, much stronger than her/that she's in incredibly bad shape. (Which, to me, is obvious. It was super tough for me at first to start going to the gym regularly, and even now if I'm lazy and miss a week it's a little tough to get back into the habit.)

I achieved one of my thesis goals today: I talked to my advisor! And it was way less terrible than expected. I wasn't able to show him a plan with chapter titles, but I know what he's expecting now and I also have someone else's old thesis which I'm meant to be (stylistically) following. He's also happy to read chapter drafts (up until 2 weeks before its due), which is a good thing. I'm not going to bother him with chapter titles, but I still want to have a proper list of it all by the end of this week.

The one bad thing was that apparently I have to stick to the 5 page max rule for the intro, so I'm going to have to scrap almost all of my existing work :(. (But, I am much more comfortable with the material now, which is obviously a good thing!).

[This is bit is a bit TMI. And I'm also a straight, non-feminist female, which colours my view here a bit]

I went to see The Vagina Monologues this evening. I thought I was going to really enjoy it and....I didn't. I know I'm a bit of a prude, but some parts of it were a bit uncomfortable (which is of course the exact opposite of the goal of it). I disliked being encourage to shout "c*nt" in one of the skits (I get what they're trying to do, but still...) and I also didn't like the portrayal of men so much. I felt that in a lot of it men were portrayed as "bad" and for many women they're an integral part of the sex/learning about their bodies.

Another thing that was probably a bit more in keeping with the goal was the whole orgasm thing. For whatever reason I haven't yet, and I felt like a lot of the skits were a bit focussed on it. Obviously it's an important part of everything (and I'm working on getting there), but I think it's also important to remember that that's not the only good thing about sex (that said I would really like to be able to).

Anyway, that all got a bit heavy at the end! Overall my day was good! (And I remembered how much I loved Pippin today :D)

Internet-less Adventures

I know the title to this post sounds strange but...the internet at my college stopped working from 11am - ~8pm tonight. At first I was a little freaked out...how am I meant to survive without twitter/facebook/wikipedia/email/Friends episodes??, but after a few hours I realised that it was actually wonderful!

It's so rare that I get to be "disconnected" from the world. It happens a little at home (mostly because my UK phone doesn't receive emails), but now that I have internet in my room there it's so easy to just go on my computer.

It was relaxing not constantly getting bombarded with emails and feeling like I needed to be online working on things (but actually most likely procrastinating). And, one of the best parts of it was that no-one else had internet, so the rest of the world wasn't expecting me to be emailing them back etc. I certainly wouldn't like to never have internet/email, but it was sort of nice to be free from it for a few hours today.

In other news:

My first day of classes was fine (although there was a bit of upset when I realised that I'd started my last ever Chemistry class. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but the entire focus of my academic life for the last 12ish years has been science/Chemistry and it's sad and a bit scary to be coming to the end of that). I still haven't decided what my second class is going to be (I have to take a Chemistry class and my thesis counts as two classes, so I just need one more). I went to one today on Words and Song Lyrics that seems interesting but I'm worried that it might end up being a lot of poetry/lyrical analysis, which isn't really my thing.

I emailed my thesis advisor and set up a meeting for Thursday. I also started going through my introduction and added a new section to it (which is important, it's about how and why magnetism even exists).

My thesis is due in:

71 days (giving myself 5 days for binding at the end)

=~10 weeks = 1704 hours = 102,240 minutes = 6,134,400 seconds

I drunk a lot a lot of tea today. Which is a good thing. But also possibly a bad thing. I felt exhausted after my two hours of class today so took a looong nap (not good...I think I might be anaemic. I barely eat red meat at school and my multivitamin doesn't contain iron. Anyway, I've changed (temporarily) to one that does and I'm making a conscious effort to eat iron-rich foods - eggs, chickpeas, spinach etc). When I woke up from that I had a killer headache, which the boyfriend suggested might be from an electrolyte imbalance from drinking so much tea. Anyway, I put salt on my dinner (which I rarely do) and I'm going to stay aware of that and try to increase my salt intake, which should hopefully help.

I have a clear day tomorrow, which really means a whole day to work on my thesis. My plan is to spend the morning in my room, plowing on with the introduction (I also need to read the full thesis guide and come up with an outline/list of compounds before my Thursday meeting, so if I finish the first run through with the intro I'll move onto that). I'm planning to spend the afternoon in lab doing whatever I need to do there (and if there's not much to do there I'll go back to what I was doing in the morning! Or start writing my chapter for this week...)

How would you spend a few hours if your internet temporarily stopped working?

Thesis Progress and Mung Bean Hummus

Good news: I finished the first draft of my first chapter of my thesis, which was my goal for this week! I may try to take a quick look through it before bed, but at least I've achieved my goal for this week! My goals for next week are:

Talk to my advisor about my thesis (I haven't actually talked to him about the actual written thing I need to hand in yet)

Come up with an overview plan (chapter titles) with my advisor/get them approved by him

Run through my first draft of my first chapter and at least get something fully written (at the moment there are some blank spots that I need to fill in)

Write one more (compound) chapter

My day has been verrrrry boring - really just writing my thesis. The major highlight was: Mung Bean Hummus!

I have loads of mung beans (and I'm trying to use things up/clear up my room) and I wanted to see if I could make a healthier version of hummus.

I used:

Mung Beans

From http://www.alibaba.com/product-tp/116513357/Green_Mung_Bean_yellow_mung_bean/showimage.html

Lemon juice

Garlic

http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-plant-garlic.html

Canola oil (we didn't have any olive oil)

From http://beforesixdiet.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

I mixed everything up with our blender. It turned out like:

(My old camera is terrible! Everything keeps coming out blurry :( )

It was pretty good. A little "thick", I think next time I'm going to put in more lemon juice (and more garlic - I love garlic in my food!)

In other big news...next semester starts tomorrow!! I'm excited, sad (my last semester) and also nervous. I'll let you know how it goes!

Wow, I fail

And haven't blogged in almost 2 months. Really not good.

My goal for this week will be to blog at least every other day :D.

The thing that's been eating up all my time recently has been getting back to school/choosing courses/thesis (I have to write one! Urgh!) and law school applications.

I'm taking social psych, intro to microecon, game theory (which is hard! But I feel like I'm learning a lot) and history of photography.

I'm not sure if I've talked about this, but I'm applying to (US) law school(s) at the moment, to start next year. I wanted to go straight from University to law school, because if I start working I don't think I'd be able to get myself back into the "school" frame of mind. Anyway, I have a bit of a difficult situation because my GPA is mediocre (3.3 ish. Which is good, but when places have a mean GPA of 3.9 for accepted students...), but my LSAT (the standardized test you have to take) is good. So, it's even more impossible than normal for me to have any idea about my chances at a particular school. (Also, they're not due until February or something, but they have rolling admissions so it's seriously advantageous to apply early.)

I'm probably going to end up applying to 12-15 in the US (which I know is totally ridiculous. I was advised to apply to 10-12, but I'm risk-averse and I'm so unsure about my chances of getting into these various schools). I'm going to be applying to one early. If I get in, it's binding. I'll find out 15 days from when I submit the application (which will probably be this week or next week). Anyway, all pretty nerve wracking!

With regards to being healthy etc, I have been AWFUL about going to the gym. I just haven't gone in so long, mostly because I've been so busy with law school apps. I did have a bit of a wake up call over the weekend though - I started getting ill (not with anything serious, just a cold/flu), but I realised that I'm going to be much less productive if I get ill. (And I'm pretty sure that the reason I started to get ill was from eating too much sugar and not looking after myself well enough).

Anyway, I promise more updates this week!

New York and Grades

My mum was in NY today, so the boyfriend and I spent the day there and then met up with her for dinner, which was really nice. It was also great to get off campus - the boyfriend is so so much more relaxed and happy when we're not on campus.

With regards to grades...I'm still waiting for one of them, but so far I'm really pleased with them. I got a B+ in my lab work (which I'm pleased with as I didn't think I was going to do that well) and I got an A in Sociology, an A in my engineering class and an A in my Chemistry class. I am so super pleased with those results (and my GPA is looking much better as a result of them!). (I'm still wavering a bit about whether my A in Chemistry was fully deserved. I am so pleased with it, but I really wasn't expecting it. My entire grade in that class hinged on my final paper, which, due to the professor not wanting to set an exam, made up 100% of the grade. I did work hard on that paper, and I certainly understood my stuff for it, but it just seems like I worked much less hard for that class than my other classes. On the other hand, I guess compared to everyone else in that class I did work hard and learn and achieve a lot.)

I can't believe that a year ago I got B-,B-,B-,A-. It seems like I've come so far since then! I'm not sure if it's because I'm taking easier courses/am more settled into everything here or if it's because I'm getting better at school! To be honest, I think it's a combination of both, but it's certainly nice to see my hard work paying off.

I've talked about the academic support here before, but I really do think it's incredible. It completely helped me to turn my grades around (from averaging about a B to an A-). I think I said in an earlier post that the boyfriend and I are going to talk to the head of that program tomorrow in the hopes that they'll be able to help him a bit as well (despite the fact that he's gone before and didn't find them helpful). Fingers crossed for that...I'll let you know how it goes!

Last Day of Class!

So, today was my last day of class for this year, which I have mixed feelings about. Like I said yesterday, I don't like change, and I don't like things ending, so this is tough from that point of view. I still have exams and papers for all my classes (lots of them!), so they're not totally done. I have really enjoyed my classes this semester, which is great, but it makes it harder when they (start to) end.

At the beginning of this school year (October), I saw a counselor a few times. My college provides counseling to students free of charge, so it seemed like a good time to try it. It's also easy because the health center is just a few minutes from my dorm. I'm not sure what it was about it, but I didn't really like it. I really thought it would be my kind of thing - I'm definitely the type of person who likes to talk out problems.

But...I'm not convinced that the person I was seeing was well matched to me. She specialized in chronic mental health problems, Asian/Asian American issues and eating disorders in minority populations. She was really nice and all, but it wasn't helping me work through my issues. Part of the issue is that I'm definitely someone who dwells on things. It wasn't her fault, but it meant that I'd have to go back and go over issues from the previous week. Anyway, I eventually stopped seeing her, which I think was a good decision. I did later see someone who specialized in biofeedback (which is how I got into coherence), and talked over some of my issues with him. He suggested that if something's upsetting me I give myself five minutes to think about it/dwell on it, and then try to move onto something else. Obviously it's not always that easy to just say "ok, this is really bothering me, but my five minutes are up", but it does get easier with practice!

Anyway, that was all a very long way of getting to the point, namely that if I start stressing about the end of classes again I'm going to give myself five minutes to think about it, and then try to move on to doing or thinking about something else! (If I remember) I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Does anyone have any other coping mechanisms for things like this?