pogoism

I’m now more than half way through this placement, which worries me. When I came out here, previous placement students told us how the first 6 months go really slowly, and it seems like you’ve got all the time in the world. Then “bam”, its after Christmas, it’s February, and I’m starting to panic about my final presentation. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been working on any one project, and the results I’ve got are varied – plus I’m learning a completely new technique at the minute.

It’s not long until I’m in third and final year. I’ve been fairly complacent with my degree this far – I’ve got good results, but I know that I haven’t done the very best I can. It looks as though I’m heading for a 2:1, but as my degree is split 25% second year and 75% third year, it could go any way. I’m waiting to be sent the pack of possible projects for my Honours project, hoping that there’s one that involves the intracellular technique I’ve been doing this year. I’m actually really excited about it, I can’t wait to get stuck into a project and apply all I’ve learnt in the last few years. And then I’ve got to be thinking about postgraduate studies! Do I do a PhD? If so, where? Do I want to come back to the US? Do I want to stay in Belfast? Maybe I want to go to the south of Ireland? If I come back to the US, do I want to come back to Reno? So many questions, and I haven’t got a clue as to the answer to any of them. The only thing I do know is that I don’t want to go back to England. I lived there for 18 years, I need to do new things and go new places.

My friends are graduating in a few months, and I’m upset that I’m going to miss out on it all…

As well as all that I’m looking for an apartment to move into in September with Sarah and Stef. It’s proving to be quite tricky. We’re not fussy, all we want is a 2 bedroom apartment, new(-ish), at the bottom of Stranmillis, city center or the posh bit of the Lisburn Road for under £600 a month. Can’t be that difficult, can it? I really don’t want to live in any student areas next year – been there, done that. Certainly don’t want to do it again.

Anyway, just an update on what I’m up to at the minute. Sorry it wasn’t anything too exciting, but I’m trying to save money. I got my tax refund the other day (which made me feel very grown-up) and I’m trying to not spend any money so I can do fun stuff in the summer. Like skydiving! And white water rafting! And hopefully lots of kayaking. I can’t wait :)