Hej san,
I can finally say that I have successfully (as far as I know) completed my first full course at Uppsala University! It was time-consuming, occasionally stressful and overwhelming, and altogether one of the best biology courses I've ever taken. My compatriots and I studied long and hard for the exam, which was a different style than I've experienced at home. It consisted of eighteen free response questions, and we had five hours to answer them. It is definitely the longest single exam period I've ever sat for. I feel relatively good about it; I nailed the several questions on the vision system (despite the fits it gave me while studying) and I knew enough to guess at the questions I wasn't sure about. (The regulation of appetite is still a little muddy for me.)
I should get my results back in a week or two, and though I know it will only be recorded as pass/fail on my CU transcript I hope I did well. Neuro was a comfort to me when everything else was strange and different, a way to meet interesting people from all over the world interested in the same nerdy things I am, and a wonderful challenge.
Mixed in with the end of neuro was some bad news; one of my ski cross racing friends, Brooke Dunleavy, crashed at a race in Norway and wrecked herself pretty badly. Six breaks in her pelvis, four broken vertebrae in her neck, and two dislocated hips landed her a helicopter trip to the best hospital in the region. The good news: that's Uppsala University Hospital! While I'm not pleased about the reason for her visit, I'm glad that she ended up here, where I can go and visit her. I went twice last week, and she was upbeat and rather more alert than I expected her to be, given the morphine drip. Her parents, Jan and Peter, were also glad to see a familiar face. At the last update, Brooke had surpassed her doctors' expectations by weeks and stood up for the first time. I hope to go see her again soon.
As I mentioned several posts ago, my friend Henri and I had decided that when I finished with my Neuro course (and he with something about surface physics that sounded even harder!) we would go to Rome as a much-needed holiday from classes. We flew out Wednesday evening after our exams, and spent the next five and a half days exploring the Eternal City. I can safely say that it was one of the most incredible holidays I've ever had. I finally know a little bit of something about the history of the Roman Empire (it's so much more interesting when you can touch the marble reliefs!) and I even managed to get a bit of a sunburn. Our time there was jam-packed with adventures, so I'll share them all in a different post (to come soon after this one!)
We returned to Uppsala on Tuesday night, and I've spent the last several days doing laundry, sleeping in, and figuring out what I'm going to do now. Even with my new course starting up next week, I'm still going to have an incredible amount of free time. My philosophy course, called Happiness, only meets for two hours once a week! This will certainly be a change from Neuro, that's for sure. So what am I going to do with all this time?
My first priority (after laundry!) has been cleaning out my academic life (email, desk, folders, etc) to get ready for my next course. I've also managed to study a bit of Swedish, and I'm currently working on applying for a First Year Class Advisor position on PLC staff next year. Once I finish that, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I do plan to put the time to good use doing something interesting!
I'll leave this for now, as above-mentioned laundry needs to be changed, but watch for a post about my adventures in Rome soon.
Until then, hej då!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
The Big Bad Brain
Hej san!
I'm afraid this will once again be a relatively short post, and I can already tell you not to expect much next week either. It's crunch time for neuroscience! Our final is officially less than two weeks away, and we present our research projects next week. This week has been crammed full of studying, revising my research paper, and occasionally some Swedish homework. The worst part is that it's been gloriously sunny at least every afternoon, and I really want to soak up all the rays I possibly can.
Despite my continual obsession with the sunshine, neuro is as fascinating as ever. This week we had lectures about behavioral genetics, neurotoxicology, neurogenetics, and consciousness. What does it mean to be aware? Is there a genetic component to intelligence, or sexual preference, or mental disorders, and if so, how much of a role does it play? These lectures were structured more as seminars because of their controversial nature, and it's a good contrast to just memorizing the different classes of receptors.
When I can't focus on neuro anymore I turn my attention to Swedish homework. Sometimes it seems like the most intuitive language (which could possibly be because of five weeks of exposure to it before the class started) and sometimes it's just downright puzzling. For example, when you want to make a Swedish noun plural, you don't just add "s" to the end, you have to add a different ending depending on what letter the noun ends with and whether it's an "en" or "ett" noun. (Swedish nouns have a "gender" the same way Spanish nouns do.) It's fun to learn, even though I don't know enough yet to really read anything all in Swedish.
Occasionally I can't help but go out in the sunshine. I discovered last weekend a trail running through the trees just past the ICA (grocery store) and it's my new favorite place to go walk or run. My other fun adventure for this weekend: Henri is teaching me how to makes crepes, the French way. I'm so excited! But after that it will be back to the crunch, at least for a little bit.
Until next time,
Hej då!
I'm afraid this will once again be a relatively short post, and I can already tell you not to expect much next week either. It's crunch time for neuroscience! Our final is officially less than two weeks away, and we present our research projects next week. This week has been crammed full of studying, revising my research paper, and occasionally some Swedish homework. The worst part is that it's been gloriously sunny at least every afternoon, and I really want to soak up all the rays I possibly can.
Despite my continual obsession with the sunshine, neuro is as fascinating as ever. This week we had lectures about behavioral genetics, neurotoxicology, neurogenetics, and consciousness. What does it mean to be aware? Is there a genetic component to intelligence, or sexual preference, or mental disorders, and if so, how much of a role does it play? These lectures were structured more as seminars because of their controversial nature, and it's a good contrast to just memorizing the different classes of receptors.
When I can't focus on neuro anymore I turn my attention to Swedish homework. Sometimes it seems like the most intuitive language (which could possibly be because of five weeks of exposure to it before the class started) and sometimes it's just downright puzzling. For example, when you want to make a Swedish noun plural, you don't just add "s" to the end, you have to add a different ending depending on what letter the noun ends with and whether it's an "en" or "ett" noun. (Swedish nouns have a "gender" the same way Spanish nouns do.) It's fun to learn, even though I don't know enough yet to really read anything all in Swedish.
Occasionally I can't help but go out in the sunshine. I discovered last weekend a trail running through the trees just past the ICA (grocery store) and it's my new favorite place to go walk or run. My other fun adventure for this weekend: Henri is teaching me how to makes crepes, the French way. I'm so excited! But after that it will be back to the crunch, at least for a little bit.
Until next time,
Hej då!
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