Semester One Update

The last month has been totally non-stop and it's gone so quickly! It feels like we only had our first week of teaching a couple of weeks ago when in fact there are only three weeks left until we break for Christmas. It's scary how fast the time is going; I got told it would fly by when I applied for the course but little did I know just how true that would turn out to be. 

Loads of things have happened in the space since my last post. The first big milestone, I feel, is the submission of the first piece of coursework! That means that Sedimentology and Stratigraphy is well and truly finished (unless you count the fact we haven't received the results yet). I actually found it really interesting learn a brand new skill (at least for me) during this course - creating sediment and stratigraphy logs. We used Abobe Illustrator in order to do this; whilst at first the software looks like another language, it was actually very easy to pick up following a practical session with one of the technicians. I found myself having a lot of fun with the different methods of displaying data, and ending up with a swanky (if I do say so myself) set of sediment logs at the end made it very satisfying. Let's hope that the write up that goes with them is of a high enough calibre to earn myself a nice first mark of the course.

Another memorable event in the last month was the London Quaternary Lectures held at RHUL. We (the masters cohort) hosted a wine reception following the lectures for the speakers and guests. It was a great opportunity to meet new people within the scientific community. The most valuable conversations for me (at this point in time) were those discussing the course with previous students. It was particularly useful because we have been in the process of choosing our optional modules for semester 2. The majority of us seemed to be debating with ourselves over which modules to take. I'm not sure if I just speak for myself or not but speaking to some previous students really helped me to make my mind up on what I have now decided to study next semester.

Which leads me nicely on to the last thing I want to talk about in this post - choosing our optional modules. We were able to choose 5 out of 10 available modules to study over the course of next term. I spent a good while reading up on the syllabus' for every module I was debating whether to take. There were three modules I was dead set on taking: Tephrochronology, Luminescence Dating and Microfossils. The last two I struggled to decide on for a while. But in the end I decided on Micromorphology and Glaciers. They all sound like really good fun and I think I've chosen a nice broad range of topics whilst at the same time really feeding my interests.

So there's for my whistle-stop update of the last month. In all, I'm so glad I chose to apply for and do this course; I'm having a really good time despite the workload, and I've loved learning all kinds of new things, which I'm sure will continue throughout the year!

Two modules down

This first month has gone by in a flash; two modules down already! This course really is full steam ahead but it's been brilliant. I've learnt so much more than I thought I would have done in such a short space of time and I've felt really engaged in the subject of Quaternary Science.

It would take me an age to describe everything I've been up to over the last few weeks, so I'll just focus on a few stand-out moments.

The first of these is a lecture the majority of our cohort attended at UCL given by Bill Ruddiman, who has formulated the 'overdue glaciation hypothesis' and the 'Early Anthropocene hypothesis'. This was a real opportunity to begin to engage with the current scene of the Quaternary science community, and thus we all jumped at the chance to attend, especially considering we had been talking a lot about these hypotheses in our lectures. Bill was a brilliant speaker - clear and concise, and obviously passionate about his work. He definitely provided some food for thought and sparked a few opinions in the room, evident from the questions asked at the end of the talk, and it was intriguing and somewhat amusing to see how the community engages in debates about current topics.

Secondly, we went on two trips over the last two weeks for the second of the compulsory modules - Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. 

The first was a field day to Hunt's Bay, South Wales for sedimentology. The day was by no means the best day of the year in terms of weather (we all got very wet!) but nonetheless we all had a good day looking at the cliff sequence and conducting analyses on different aspects of the sediments at different sections along the exposure - turns out it was more than just a bit of rock, who would've thought! So now it is our job to create sediment logs of these sequences showing analyses such as lithology and clast orientation, and to correlate each section together in terms of the sedimentologies. I'm excited to see what the final product will look like!

Hunt's Bay, looking out from the cliff.

Hard at work.

During the second week of the module, we had a two-day trip to East Anglia for the stratigraphy component of the course. Across the two days we visited seven sites, from quarries to beach exposures, in order to interpret the nature of the sediments and to take notes allowing us to go away and correlate every site together based on the nature and ages of the sediments. This is slightly different to the sedimentology trip as here we are inferring what time period each section at each site correlates to and using this information for our write-up, whereas for sedimentology we purely focus on the depositional environments of the sediments and carried out more in-depth investigations in order to interpret this.

Needless to say, the last two weeks have been incredibly tiring, but they have been an invaluable experience in our journey through this course. 

And so it begins...

This week has been the first of the MSc Quaternary Science course. It has been really enjoyable and interesting, but I sure am tired! It's been really good getting to know the other students on the course and the staff who are teaching us. 

The other students on the course are all lovely, and I think we each have something to contribute, both as student and as friends. As well as seeing everyone during lectures, most of us went to the pub after lectures one day to celebrate one of my housemate's birthday. It's really nice to wind down after a long day of concentrating and working hard, and start to really get to know one another. 

The staff are all brilliant. They are all so enthusiastic about their work and about teaching a new set of masters students. Not only that, but they seem really friendly and willing to engage in 'normal' conversation, i.e. not about Quaternary Science. They all seem really interested to learn about our opinions and to take part in discussions with us, and even just this week that enthusiasm has resulted in myself taking part in discussions I never would have done before now, and not being afraid to voice my opinion on subjects that, thus far, I don't have any specialist knowledge on. 

Now I'm going to throw in a few scientific words. This week is the first half of the module 'Palaeoclimatology'. At first I had no idea what this would involve. But I have found it a brilliant starting point for the course as it is bringing everyone up to the same point where people have come from different universities and some may have been taught more than others. Especially for the way I work I have found it useful, as I like to start from the beginning rather than having someone assume I know something, even if I do. I find the ideas and knowledge become more embedded in my mind that way, and my understanding of the subject increases. 

I have particularly enjoyed learning about the "overdue glaciation hypothesis" and the "Anthropocene hypothesis". They are both concepts I have not come across until now, but have actually stimulated my mind in to really thinking about the for and against arguments for these theories. My housemates, a few others on the course and myself have planned to go to a lecture at UCL later this month, where the speaker is William Ruddiman, who has provided the argument for the "early Anthropocene hypothesis" and the "overdue glaciation hypothesis". I think this will be an invaluable experience and will be one of the things that, for me, really shows the difference between undertaking an undergraduate degree and a postgraduate degree. 

So that's all I have for now. The course is going really well so far and I'm excited for what's to come!

First day and a bit in Egham!

Yesterday I moved in to my new house in Englefield Green, Egham. As per every girl student, I brought more stuff than I need. However, my room now looks really homely. After unpacking the car and dumping all my stuff on my bedroom floor, I made a start on the grueling task of unpacking. I had absolutely no idea where to start; thank goodness for mum's help! After getting through most of the big suitcases and bags, we decided to head in to Egham for a bite to eat at Costa, after which we came back, I said goodbye to my mum and continued to unpack. At this point I'd got to the stage where I could start to make my room look really pretty and homely. I'm really happy with the result and it's easily the nicest room (and house) I've ever lived in whilst at uni.

I also met my housemates for the first time after only ever speaking via email. It was really exciting but I was also pretty nervous! There was no need to be, however, as they are all really lovely and I think we'll all mix well together and (hopefully!) get along pretty well.

Here are some photos of my new room, followed by photos of the RHUL campus:

My bed with fairy lights hanging above it; I've never hung fairy lights up before and I like how it looks, especially in the evening when it gets darker.

One corner of the room. I hung up my homemade bunting in the top corner which I think adds a really nice touch to the space. I also love the top of the chest of draws with all the bits and bobs I've put there.

Dressing area and desk. I love having a little corner space entirely for all my cosmetics and jewelry etc. And I really like how the wall space in front of the desk has turned out. I love hanging up little keepsakes, I really think it makes a house a home (pardon the cliche!). 

Another view of the corner from the first picture.

Today, my new housemates and I wondered on to the campus of Royal Holloway. We went to complete the ID check before having a mooch around. Above is the courtyard of the big Hogwarts-y looking building, Founder's Building. The photo doesn't do it justice at all; grand, tall and elegant.

The Queen Victoria statue in the center of the Founder's Building courtyard.

Panorama of the entire courtyard. 

We also had a peak inside the chapel. This was seriously impressive. I almost felt as if I were in another country looking at a momentous chapel covered in elegant artwork and filled with the beautiful sound of the organ playing. My housemate Rachael, who has been at RHUL since her first year of undergrad, said they held her graduation ceremony here; I really hope we have ours here too! That would be such a special day in a beautiful setting.

That pretty much concludes my time here so far; I'm sure there is a lot more to come this week during induction. An update will come at the end of the week!

Let the house shopping begin!

Today I went in to town and bought the first few new things for decorating my new bedroom when I start at Royal Holloway come September! It's made me so excited already to really make my new place feel like home and to have a fresh canvas to make entirely my own. 

I thought I'd share the few bits of decor I bought today as a teaser before I can reveal my finished bedroom once I move in.

New bedding in my favourite colour! The pattern is floral and the cover is reversible so I can switch depending on what mood I'm in!

Some cute little decorations I found in a crafts store. I'm planning to hang the wicker hearts above my window and to dot the paper bows around the walls. I think it'll look really cute :)

I got creative in the past few weeks and decided to make my own bunting! I'm really pleased with how they turned out, especially considering I've have *very* limited artist capacity. I've got this little six-flag length which I want to put above my desk and another longer length which will go around one of the corners of my room, probably next to the wardrobe.

And last but by no means least, no geographer is prepared without his/her trusty colouring pencils! I found these in Tesco which come in a really cool pencil shape box. I think this will look awesome just stood on my desk or window sill :)

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this little room decor teaser!

House photos

I went to check in to my new house this morning. The area looks gorgeous and the house itself is really lovely. Here are some (rather bad quality) photos I took. It's empty at the moment, but I'll post more photos once we've moved in and of my decorated bedroom :).

Taken from inside my car (sorry!). The house on the far left is my new house!

Hallway leading to the kitchen.

Lounge.

My room!

Second view of my room

As you can see there's nothing at all in the house apart from some furniture. I can't wait to put my own stamp on my bedroom and make it more homely! :)

Finding a house (and housemates!)

This has to be one of the things I was most worried about when I decided to apply for a masters somewhere I'd never been to before and where I knew no one. I had no idea how I was going to find any housemates, let alone an actual house in an area I knew nothing about. 

Fortunately, everything played out relatively smoothly (apart from one minor blip). 

When I went for my interview the course leader (Simon) explained how the year before he had gathered a list of students who were interested in house sharing and shared this list of names (along with everyone's emails) among everyone, and that it had seemed to be quite successful in helping students find somewhere to live. So he planned to do the same thing this year. My name was added to the list, and I promptly emailed my new classmates who were on the list asking who would be interested in a house share. 

During my interview, I was given a tour of the geography department by two current students. I asked them how they went about finding their accommodation, to which one of the girls told me that after Simon had sent the list out, she volunteered to help people find a place as she was already at Royal Holloway and knew the area well enough to know the process of getting a house there. So after receiving replies from people, some saying they were just going to apply for halls and some saying they were interested, I emailed the the group of people who wanted to house share and asked if any of them were already from Holloway and whether they could initiate a house search. Luckily, a girl called Rachael was and offered to look for a house for the five of us included in the email. 

She was incredibly helpful and organised, and began looking for 5-bedroom houses straight away. Here comes that minor blip I mentioned earlier. She found a lovely looking house that was a good price and would've been perfect for us. Everyone responded saying that we thought it looked great and to go for it. The last person to reply said that they had applied for halls and wanted to wait until they found out if they had a place before committing to a house. Personally, I thought this was ridiculous because why wait for a place in halls when we'd already found a good price house?! But he wanted to do it his way, so unfortunately the rest of us had no choice but to ask him to choose if he was in or out on the house because we all wanted it sorted before the halls places were allocated. He decided on out, and so Rachael was a gem and set about looking for 4-bedroom houses. 

Finally, she found a lovely looking place and we got things rolling with the estate agents; signing paperwork and paying invoices. Tomorrow, I am going to Englefield Green in Egham to collect the keys for our new home for the next year. I'm really excited to see what the house looks like! Photos to come after tomorrow.

Let me know what experiences any of you had as a new postgraduate finding housing.