Beginnings

It's the final year. After delaying it for as long as I could, I'm here, at the start of my last year of uni, and as much as I'd like to say I'm looking forward to finishing, I'd be lying. No, I like being a student. I love the nights out, and the long conversations, the dropping in, and the not having any responsibilities whatsoever ('cause let's face it, I don't). So I'm starting this year with a lot of apprehension, and doing as much as I can (outside the classroom) to make up for the fact that it's the last time I'll be able to. I'm going out. I'm joining clubs. I'm meeting people. I'm buying drinks. One thing I haven't done yet is write a post here, though.

I started a few posts. A couple of them technical (they're still in preparation, they will be posted at some point), a couple of them stories. But I didn't feel like publishing them, they didn't feel right, partly because I didn't feel right.

I haven't published anything in about a month, because I have not been writing anything publishable. A lot of poems, a fantasy diary (might publish a couple of entries of that in due time), a lot of work on one of the novels, but nothing "suitable" for the blog, whatever that means. I haven't been in the mood, or rather, everything that I tried to write became either too technical or too personal to publish. So here goes.

Uni started a couple of weeks ago, and I've been back in London for a bit less than a month. Since I've come back I've been going out a lot, drinking quite a bit (mum, dad, if you're reading this don't worry, nothing dangerous), and I've met a lot of people. I needed it. I needed to get it out of my system that a lot of people in my year have graduated (though loads of them are still at Imperial, which helps), and that I'd be graduating in a few months, and that this year is going to be tough. I wouldn't say that I've been happy exactly, just a bit frantic about doing as much as I could. I think that mood is over now, and I can go back to being my usual lazy self. Maybe. I've quite enjoyed these two weeks of exciting, but I'm afraid if I keep this up I won't graduate! So let's see, exactly what have I been up to?

There have been celebrations, which were good fun, but I'm not going to talk about here, since they involve my friends and I don't know a) how many of them read this or b) how happy they would be if I did write about them, there have been restarts, and there have been new starts.

Let's start with the restarts. I'm back in ICSE full time! I'm ICSE treasurer, we've already had one rehearsal, and I'm back to being able to attend most rehearsals. The first rehearsal was lots of fun with plenty of new freshers and what I thought was a good social afterwards. I'm so happy to be back playing my viola and back seeing the ICSE crowd, I hadn't realised how much I'd missed them. As a spinoff from that (a fantastic recommendation from a fellow ICSE member), I've been watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which are FANTASTIC, and you HAVE to watch them if you haven't yet (I refuse to explain what they are, no description does them justice).

I'm also back at Uni, which in itself is fantastic. I'm enjoying the M3D (molecules in 3D, about how to determine molecular structure and dynamics) lectures like you wouldn't believe, but also just being around Uni, having interesting people who do so many different things around (this sounds so cliché, but seriously, after working in a place where people's only interest was science for a whole year it's amazing to be able to sit down with someone and discuss films or music or books... not that I didn't last year, but there's just a lot more chances this year). I also love not having to commute though (small confession) I miss having the quiet time to read. It seems that as long as I have internet and a phone I am completely incapable of switching off for a while and picking up a book (to my own embarrassment).

Now for the new starts: I have started going to DebateSoc meetings and I've joined Fellwanderers. The first DebateSoc meeting was great fun, and I think I'm really going to enjoy being part of the society. They talk, they talk well, and they like to argue about stuff. About stuff that they don't necessarily have strong feelings about. This is my kind of people. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, and hopefully I'll go on a trip with them sometime soon: one thing I've learnt is that the best way of becoming a "real" member of a Uni club is to go for a trip with them. It may sound unrealistic, but spending a couple of days with people you don't know that well really does make you more comfortable around them. Which leads to the second start.

This past weekend I went on the Fellwanderers Freshers trip to Snowdonia, and I have to say, I had lots of fun. There was a lot of hiking (which I hadn't done in a while, and it felt fantastic), a lot of talking and faffing about, a few games on Saturday evening and it was just generally a really good weekend. I hadn't realized how much I needed to diversify, do something that I hadn't done in ages, and just spend a weekend from London (of course, I did go to the US, but that was with my parents, and as much as it was an amazing trip, I needed some time off that wasn't family related).

Anyways, that's it for the first post of the (school) year. I hope that I'll be able to post about horse evolution, vesicular transport and maybe a bit about crystallography of membrane proteins soon. Then again, I might just do a really long post on what I think education should consist on. Hope you're all doing well!

H