I am SHERlocked

This week has been my week of doom. Three exams in the span of five days. Luckily, I've been able to de-stress in other ways...

On Thursday, my friend Laura B. messaged me "Supposed Sherlock filming at the Uni", right near the Law Building. A quick check of the #setlock tag on twitter confirmed the story. I charged out of bed and threw on my orange sundress. The weather was gorgeous, I couldn't blame them for filming on a day like today! As I walked up to the intersection at Corbett Road, I saw a sizeable group of Sherlock-watchers gathered.

Film Trailers too!

I talked to a girl about it as we crossed the street together. She seemed intrigued. I met up with my friends Laura B and Lieselot, as well as Laura's flatmate Bronwen. We saw Benedict Cumberbatch! He was walking to a trailer, but he took the opportunity to wave at us. The shrieking from the crowd was quite something. It was interesting seeing the behind-the-scenes crew working. I saw some costumes being ferried around. I'm not really one to speculate but they did seem pretty flashy...

Lines of trailers  

Benedict ended up hopping into a black Jaguar, but not before giving us another wave.

Creeper shot

Lieselot, Laura B. and I got in touch with Kirsten B. about meeting us (Bronwen had since gone to get lunch). She had been at a lecturer's office hours and she apparently walked through some film setup on her way out. We made the trek to the Glamorgan Building as quick as we could.

Seagulls are omnipresent on campus. This one found a perch on a filmcrew van!

Totally inconspicuous! 

That crewman is wearing a Doctor Who Crew shirt! We enjoyed admiring him while we waited. 

There weren't too many people hanging around at this point (exams were in full-swing I'm guessing). We just sat around and nicknamed some of the setcrew. One of them was really rude. He was carrying something and just said "In the way!" to a group of girls gathered at the foot of the stairs. There are nicer ways to ask, and they weren't blocking it on purpose...

Benedict popped back out again. He was actually really stealthy. I noticed him first (just by chance) and  the words "There he is!" escaped my lips. I said it a little louder than was probably appropriate. Everyone twirled their heads around so fast, I feared whiplash injuries. I waved at Benedict, and he waved back. Eat it, Tumblr.

The back of Benedict's head 

Laura B. ended up walking into the frame but it turned into a very artsy little shot. 

He looks shorter in real life, maybe that's just because I'm used to seeing 6ft 6" rugby players...

He returned inside and I introduced myself to some of the other girls nearby. They were both nursing students from Cardiff Uni, which was super cool! I told them my mom was a professor of nursing and they said "Yes, someone who understands our plight!". We bonded over all sorts of stuff like science stuff and fandoms. They told us about when they met Matt Smith in Live Lounge last year in Cardiff. It was after they shot Doctor Who. The girls I met were dressed up in togas for a theme party and they got a picture with him! He mentioned the encounter afterwards in a Graham Norton interview. Haha. They also talked about seeing Jamie Roberts because all their nursing and his medschool classes are on the same campus. They've seen him riding around on his Vespa (As a note, Jamie is 6' 4" and around 235 lb). The mental images, I just can't stop laughing...

I swear I talk about things other than Rugby. I promise!

Set pieces in the trucks. I wonder what they're for? Also, Benedict's and Martin's cars await their passengers

That one horsehead really freaked me out when I noticed it

We saw the crew walking out of the building, carrying equipment and props. I saw some large snake-vases and spears. Don't ask what it means, because I couldn't tell you.

There were also extras dressed up in military garb. Some were also dressed in a costume I saw being carried around earlier! Then, the moment we all had been waiting for...

This was supposed to be a shot of Martin Freeman, but some other guy got in the way. 

He sees me! Maybe he's thinking "Oh, it's that crazy American with the orange sundress again".

While everyone was getting photos of Benedict getting into the car, I documented the fandom.

Martin Freeman seemed like he was in a bit of a rush, but Benedict waved again to us. Such a nice guy! I'd say that was the best revision break ever.

On a different note, My Word! This blog has been viewed over Two Thousand times! I'm flattered that everyone enjoys seeing my weird life so much.

Cheers!

What are classes like?

One of the biggest differences between Saint Mike's and Cardiff Uni would be the classes. To give you a better idea of why, I'll go through my Saint Mike's schedule for a previous semester, then attempt to explain the craziness that is the Cardiff one.

Last Spring (Sophomore Year), I took 4 courses: Evolution, Medieval Christianity, Organic Chemistry and Elements of Calculus. This amounted to 16 credits (which is pretty standard). All the classes, except for Medieval Christianity, met for an hour each every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Organic Chemistry and Evolution had a three-hour lab each that met weekly. Medieval Christianity met for an hour and a half every Tuesday and Thursday.
Fairly straightforward, don't you agree?

This Spring (Junior Year!), I am taking five courses: Horror, Fantasy and the Media (the filmstudies course I can't stop raving about), Welsh Culture and Folklore, Cytogenetics and Human Genetics, Medical Microbiology, and Genome Expression and Regulation. They do not have a nice, tidy schedule like my Saint Mike's classes. At least, the science courses don't.

• HFtM has a two hour lecture on Mondays, a film screening Monday evenings and a seminar (group discussion) on Thursday.
• Welsh Culture meets for an hour on Fridays (although we have some fieldtrips planned for other days).

My science classes meet twice a week (some twice in one day!) for an hour each. Labs are called Practicals and meet for three hours. They also have something here called "Workshops". I had one today for Med Micro about "Epidemiology and Related Issues". Our lab coordinator (Dr. Beatrix Fahnert, she speaks British English with a German inflection) had a slideshow and activity prepared for us. I felt so accomplished when I was able to diagnose a patient with either anthrax of the lung or pneumonic plague (It was a potential bioterrorism situation). Turns out it was anthrax (in Cipro we trust). Score one for the Vermonter!

Cheers!

Classes!

Figured I'd wait until I had some actually interesting material. Apologies for the wall of text to follow, there's going to be a lot of content.

Monday-
     Classes started! My first course was Horror, Fantasy & the Media from 12:10 - 14:00. It is a third-year (senior year-level) film studies course focusing on horror and fantasy movies. Screenings include: Thor (2011), Spirited Away, Hostel, and selections from Torchwood: Children of Earth (which I just happened to finish watching before I came to Cardiff!). Sounds pretty awesome, right? The intro lecture talked about common views on these two genres, why they merit study, and the origins of the two genres. Very interesting stuff. I have little background in film studies, per se, but I am very much in-tune to literary analysis techniques. I am incredibly excited about this course, challenges and all!
Immediately after, I had a mandatory 3 hour lab to learn aseptic technique (Technically, it was the lab of a course called Microbiology. I just needed to attend today so that I would be prepared for my real course in Medical Microbiology). We were practicing starting bacterial and yeast cultures, as well as making dilutions. I had some background in this, but I did get to learn how to pour agar plates and do slope cultures! Also, holding things with my pinkie and palm. Good thing I played violin for all those years or else my child-like hands would've otherwise put me at a severe disadvantage.
Immediately after this lab, I had a 2 hour screening for HF&tM. We watched the 1931 Dracula movie. My initial reaction: cheesy as all get-out. But if I put on my analysis goggles, I saw the use of chiaroscuro (influenced, no doubt, by German Expressionism), the female protagonist clad all in white (Would you believe she's a blonde too! Really going for the pure and innocent motif there!), the cutaways before Dracula bit anyone, the use of shadows of gruesome scenes/characters' reactions to them to show how gruesome they were. Maybe also some subtle xenophobia. Not bad for a film studies newbie!

Now, you may be asking, when did you have lunch? And the answer is that I just had a packet of salt and vinegar crisps from a vending machine as I ran back and forth from class. See, I didn't know that the lab would go on for three hours, and I didn't know about the screenings until the professor told us about it that very day. I also left for my first class very early so that I would get there with time to spare/get lost in. Now that I know this about my Mondays, I am going to pack myself a lunch.

Come to think of it, lab was a bit of a bummer too. Since I was just taking that one lab for technique, I didn't have a partner (odd number of international students). And to top it all off, my cultures were knocked on the floor as I was getting tape to seal them up. The frowny-face emoticon does not even begin to convey the gravity of this situation. Since I was feeling all sad, my homesickness decided to pay me a visit and the tears started welling up. Luckily, my London roomie, Kirsten, was taking the class too. She calmed me down and we got the aforementioned crisps from a vending machine. I figured that my film professor could deal with me missing the very beginning of Dracula instead of me fainting like that girl in Microbiology lab....

Oops, forgot to mention that fainting thing. I am up in the front of the class in my labcoat, waiting to be paired up with someone. I must have looked like a TA, because a girl comes in late. I show her where to put her bags and get a coat. A little bit later, she comes back over to me, drained of color (no U's yet, take that British English!), clutching the side of the lab bench, and saying "I don't feel so great". Classic "Holy S***, that's a bad sign" right there. Luckily one of the real TA's stepped in and attended to her. I felt terrible, because I am a lifeguard. I know what to do in those kinds of cases... I should have done something, anything. Still kicking myself for that.

TL;DR: Mondays are terrible, no matter which side of the pond I am on.

Tuesday-
     The day where I don't have any classes at all! I was able to sleep in a bit, which was very nice. I made a big, grand run to Tesco. For those not familiar, Tesco is the hybrid spawn of Staples, a grocery store, and Bed Bath and Beyond. Any basic thing which you need to live, they most likely have it. Since I had freetime, I decided to cook myself a dinner from scratch, instead of the miserable dinner I had the night before (chicken strips, spinach and my flatmates' pity).

Dinner! Salad and Pasta with hamburger and shredded-by-hand Cheddar cheese.

 How does that look?! The pasta dish was a little bland, I should add onion/garlic powder, or cumin or oregano or something to it. Hey, I am learning though.
I also decided to get a four-pack of Kopparberg Cider (Raspberry and Black Currant flavored!). I had a chuckle to myself when I was carded.

Fun Fact #7: If you look/are under 25, you better show some ID to go with that alcohol!

After dinner, I went with my flatmates over to Flat 7 (across the hall from my flat) for a birthday party. Birthday party here meaning "predrinking before going to a club". I joined them for the party, but returned to my room. No clubbing on a school night. That's where I'm drawing the line. In other news: I'm not definitively saying that I'm going to the Doctor Who Experience very soon, but don't be too surprised if there are pictures with me and Kirsten there at some point!

Fun Fact #8: The only weekday I have off of classes is the only day that the DWE doesn't do their student discount.

Wednesday-
     Classes again! I only had one today, Cytogenetics and Human Genetics. Hoo-boy, was I out of my depth here. I know that histones are proteins that DNA wraps around and that together they make chromosomes, but I was not prepared for this! There are 4 different types of histones (5 if you're an avian RBC), scaffolding proteins, sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins, different placements of centromeres, and all sorts of stuff. Guess what I'll be doing in my spare time?

After class, I went to the student centre and treated myself to a Magic Wrap. It's like Subway, but with more variety, probably healthier options and with wraps instead of bread. I got one with chicken, BBQ sauce, hummus, carrots, mozzarella cheese, lettuce and grilled halloumi (a Cypriot goat/sheep cheese that melts at a high temp. It's like a better feta... betta). The wrap guy called me "lovely" but I'm not sure if that's just what he says or if it was me.

Fun Fact #9: I dressed really nicely today because I have been putting off laundry. Shame on me!

 I also stopped by a coffee place called Costa Coffee. Apparently, coffee culture is still in its infancy in the UK. I had fun trying to make sense of the Fratalian (French and Italian, the official language(s) of coffee houses everywhere) and settled on a strawberry lemonade.

Fun Fact #10: UK Lemonade is a clear, carbonated lemony-flavored drink. US Lemonade is lemon juice, sugar and water (or yellow dye #5 and "natural flavors"). So if, for example, you ask for a vodka lemonade here, you will get a completely transparent drink.

To my shock, it was US style lemonade. Just when you think you have things figured out...

I also got to submit my first maintenance order! My window was unable to close all the way on one side, leading to a weird draft. Also, the toilet seat in my bathroom became completely detached from bowl.

Fun Fact #11: Talybont North is nicknamed "Taly-Bronx". Make of that what you will.

Luckily the maintenance guy showed up and fixed it. He was super kind and, hearing my accent, told me about his American penpal from Milwaukee from back in his school days. I told him I was from VT (land of Ben & Jerry's, I always feel like I have to follow it with that) and showed him my free-handed map of the USA.

I am so good at daearyddiaeth!

Well, that's really about it for the moment. Time to figure out the laundry machines and reheat some pasta.

Upcoming stuff includes: pictures of my room/flat, class buildings, a list of the differences in British/US college classes and some more attempts at cooking!

Cheers!

Edit: Added dried basil (Bay-sil, not Baah-sil) to my leftovers. Satisfied with results.