That Time Again

It's that time of the semester. When teaching comes to an end and everything comes to a close, the semester draws to it's final days: examinations.

These are the days that arrive twice an academic year for most people. The days every student dreads. The days every student looks forward to seeing the end of. Once these days have gone, vacation is upon us. And who doesn't love vacation? Some of you will be finishing your studies and moving into a new era of your life: work.

Examinations at my university begin this week and run to the 12th of May. This semester, I have just one single final exam: Neuroscience 2; a dreadful 9-credit course whose exam is set to run for 3 hours. This shall be conducted May 6th, after which I will proceed to enjoy the much needed vacation time.

This summer will be a somewhat shortened one, having a summer semester which begins June 21st and runs till August 20th. I'll have 2 weeks of pure vacation to enjoy before the next semester begins. During this summer semester, we will be doing a research elective. Fun fun fun.

So, for those struggling along with your studies, keep your head up and get enough sleep! Take care of your bodies during this time but always remember to never give up! I wish you all the best! Good luck!

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

I hope you're all doing what you can to please Mother Nature, not only on this day but with every passing day.

Be good to our planet. There's only one of it and we need to take care of it.

"The poetry of the earth is never dead."

~ John Keats

The Big 2-0!

Yesterday I hit 20...on the 20th! All in all it was a most magnificent day. I've been truly blessed with amazing friends to celebrate with. Truly.

I started off the day with going to class at 10 and leaving just after 11. Paid some bills, bought my cake and went home. Opened up all the windows in the house and hoped for some good breeze to keep it all cool. It was still too hot. Oh well. Then my guests started arriving! The day just kept getting better from there.

Normally, when I have my little get-togethers at home, we play Rock Band. It's like...one of the main things happening at my house. Eventually the guys end up playing Fifa as well (boring!). For this one, I decided that we would have no XBox games. None. So, we went old school. Board games and whatever we could do. I wanted to have a super interactive day with everyone and, to be quite honest, that was only more possible without the presence of the grand XBox.

Taboo, Clue, Uno, Jenga, Sorry, Dominoes, Mafia and classic boardgames like chess and backgammon helped make my birthday an amazing day.

An amazing day with amazing people. I hope everyone had a huge blast like I did. =)

Qinghai Earthquake

Have you heard of it?

If I didn't watch CCTV9, I wouldn't have known

about it. I don't watch much TV but my Mom watches CNN on occasion and she never heard anything about it there or on the BBC. But we did find out on CCTV9. Why is it that it hasn't been broadcasted worldwide? Or has it? We haven't heard about the news elsewhere.

The Qinghai Province of China was hit on Wednesday April 14 by an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 followed by 18 aftershocks measured over 6.0.

The death toll has been rising as the days pass and currently stands at 1706. Over 200 people are still missing. Tents for shelter were erected in time for survivors to make it through a snow storm that occurred on Saturday. Yushu County has been disinfected as a preventative measure against disease.

Various countries have been expressing their support and condolences to the victims of the earthquake and South Korea has offered US $1 million in emergency relief aid and relief supplies.

As always, my prayers are with the victims of this devastating earthquake. I know China is a strong nation and is already well on its way to recovery.

[Images from CCTV]

Going 3D

3D movies

So many great movies are coming out on 3D this year! Clearly, it's the trend for the year 2010.

Not that I would know their 3-dimensional greatness. Here, in Barbados, we are deprived of a 3D cinema and so all our movies are well enjoyed in 2D. How sad. I'd like to see at least one movie in 3D for a change.

I saw the trailer for a movie coming out September 24. It was mesmerising. At the end it said "Take flight in 3D" and I was slightly bummed. Would I like to see it in 3D? Of course, I'd love to. It would be quite lovely to have that option.