My last winter as an undergraduate

Three weeks ago I finally finished my dissertation. So far it is the most epic piece of literature I have ever produced, coming just under 30 pages of pure scientific gobbledegook. It was almost fun writing it, although I had to undergo three all-nighters to meet mostly self-imposed deadlines throughout the last 2 weeks before the submission deadline; these I most definitely did not enjoy. I did however discover the joys of epic music through the small hours of the night, and these kept me awake better than any coffee would. The interesting part of the year now behind me, and no exciting lab work to look forward to before the summer, the only thing that remains is toiling hours on end on Masters/PhD applications and studying so I can actually graduate. One of the courses I chose for this term, biotechnology, has had me more interested than most of what we did throughout these four years. From exciting topics such as optogenetics (activating genes by light) and creating basically any microscopic shapes from DNA (DNA Origami) to bioremediation and enhancing metabolic pathways in plants, this course has introduced me to a range of topics I would love to explore further in my future graduate studies. What remains is to successfully apply to one of the degrees. Easy!

Apart from stressful university life I still try and attend 5 trainings of karate a week, as well as still playing 1st Flute in the Kelvin Ensemble. I’m having great fun, but I can’t wait for next year when I won’t be the Karate Club Captain and Kelvin Ensemble Treasurer anymore. Working with other people is mentally and, on rare occasions, physically challenging. This feels like basically working two part-time jobs during university (and time-wise it’s not that far off, except that I’m not getting paid). All things considered, however, I definitely have a lot to be proud of. The atmosphere, training quality, attendance, and actual competition results of the Karate Club have skyrocketed since the tumultuous last year. We now have a professional trainer helping us out every Sunday too, meaning I don’t have to spend two hours meticulously crafting trainings every night before and conducting semi-effective attempts at leading circuits classes. During this year’s BUCS (British University Championships in Sport), our club has celebrated quite a  success, and  I have finally broken the curse of males in our club never medalling, winning a Silver for Intermediate Kata. The Kelvin Ensemble is going fine, although this year the events have been slightly more fun thanks to an amazing chairperson. I have also developed a perfect way of money collection – roasting people in front of the whole orchestra. Merely the threat of repeating what I did last term to late payers has led to all the memberships having been paid in a very timely manner, indeed earlier than ever before.

I am still cooking as usual. I hope to get into baking soon too, although apart from bread I just can’t find the motivation. So far I have made kombucha, I’m planning on brewing my first pale ale in a week (as soon as the equipment I ordered comes), and I’ve discovered the joys of using a slow cooker. I can’t wait to get my blog finished so I can actually start posting on it, for some reason procrastination and studying always seem to win.