Didn’t write anything here for a long time – I know you missed me so I will no longer keep you waiting! Actually at the beginning I thought that I won’t manage to update the blog till the 19th of February – the day of the true nightmare – the Biological Chemistry exam. But then I thought that my revision (or re-learning to be more exact) would be more efficient if I distract myself from it from time to time. I must admit that I ended up not doing anything, but promise to start studying like crazy from tomorrow.
So this brings me back to my first New Year resolution – introduce into my life some sort of a study plan. I really did not need it in Bellerbys – everything has been already organized for us by our teachers (thank you all very much again, it is greatly appreciated, especially now!). But university is the time to become independent and take your own responsibilities. Staff from Biochemistry department showed this to us in a very efficient manner. Obviously they were always telling us how important is to go through the lectures, understand and learn the material as the year progresses and do not leave it for the last minute. But we would not be students if we would have listened to them. So they just gave us a test on all the examinable material in biological chemistry course with just one week to prepare. An important take-home message – it’s not GCSE or even A-level - it’s simply impossible to learn everything in a week, even if you are a genius as a couple of people in Imperial definitely are.
My second resolution is to finally start doing some sport – I have been thinking about it from time to time since the beginning of the year (if not since I came to the UK). But there has always been something – fresher’s week, societies, friends, parties, essays or lab reports - to stop me from giving it a go. This term was about to start in the same way - the test followed by an exam – what a good excuse! I felt that if I will not start now I will not do it until the next year.
I can tell you that the feeling was weird – I did not have a clue where things are in the sport’s center, had no idea how machines at the gym work (luckily after reading the instructions and with a help of a few boys I kind of sorted it out). It was painful – after the first class my legs were trembling so I could barely climb the stairs (surprisingly it got better after some time in the pool) and it hurt for at least three more days. But actually I felt good. Cannot say that I was very productive in terms of my study afterwards but I definitely felt better. Together with another one of my new year resolutions (yes, I have got a couple of them as you can see) – to sleep at least 8 hours a day - even my parents have noticed the difference during our traditional talk on Skype.
So far so good but then it was Monday and…it was my birthday (I am 19 now for those who don’t know and are interested for some reason)! And my entire perfect study/sleep/sport plan has collapsed.
On the day itself I went to my friend’s house where we cooked, ate the birthday cake, watched a film and talked till very late. You might think that it was it as I really liked my new life according to my new rules…but actually breaking them felt even better!
For the rest of the week I ended up wasting my time in endless phone conversations, watching movies for which I did not have time during the whole previous term and preparing for the big party. I decided to organize a cocktail night at my place and invite my dear girls – this obviously involved quite a bit of planning and even a bigger amount of shopping. But the party was definitely worth it – the pleasure to see everyone (my ex-neighbour even came from Edinburgh to attend the party!), some very kind words in the cards and do not forget the beautiful presents - this is just a perfect celebration.
Everyone seemed to like the food and the process of cocktail selection and preparation was just awesome! The birthday cake (#2) was very special as well. We girls just love Martini Asti - it’s simply the best sparkling wine ever! I obviously had a few bottles in my fridge but what I could not expect was one more…chocolate one! Ordered especially for me it was definitely the most unique and fabulous cake in my life (see the photos!!!). As you can probably guess we did not go to bed early.
A few girls stayed overnight so I started my morning (or afternoon to be more precise) by trying to clean some space in the kitchen to cook the breakfast. The breakfast itself continued for almost the whole day starting with fried eggs and finishing with another piece of my gorgeous cake. Sitting there at the centre of complete chaos we chatted, looked through photos made yesterday and drank an endless amount of coffee.
As soon as the guests left I started cleaning and washing up - that wasn’t much fun and I did not finish till very late that night but the satisfaction I felt when I saw my flat returning to its initial state with every glass perfectly clean and shiny can only be compared to finishing a huge and awfully complicated assignment. Ok, I have to end it here or I will ignore my “8-hour sleep a day” rule completely one more time. Hope you all had a very nice Christmas and now ready to party hard, work even harder and probably change something in your lives as well.
Good luck to us!
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