Week 2 & 3: Soccer & School

October 6- October 17

Hello from London!

The first 2 weeks of actual class are done! The first real week, my classes were all part of the course “Principles of Animal Form and Function” (PAFF). We’re currently in the locomotion unit so all of the lectures were focused on tissues, muscles, and bones and thinking about the musculoskeletal system and movement. All really interesting! I’m hoping to share some interesting facts eventually so keep an eye out for that post soon! 

Each lecture is about 45 minutes and there’s usually 2-4 lectures a day with 1-2 online assignments to do between them. I really like the short lectures. It’s definitely a lot of information packed into a small window of time but at least it doesn’t drag on! Most days, I’m on campus from about 9am to 4pm except for Wednesdays, which are half days. 

I went on a stroll through Islington!

Like I mentioned last time, I was recruited for the football team. I did end up going to the “Give it a Go” Day on Wednesday! I had a great time! The team plays at the Hawkshead campus which is about 20 minutes by train from King’s Cross plus an additionally 10 minute bus ride from the station to the campus. I played in goal and made a few friends and then went on to the outdoor volleyball taster session. Immediately, I decided to stick with soccer. The volleyball people were nice but the girls on the football/soccer team were just so fun and welcoming. At the end of the soccer practice, the captain had asked me if I was going to come to the game. I had said, “Oh, maybe! Most likely but we’ll see!” I hadn’t quite made my mind up. But the following day, the captain had messaged me on Instagram asking about the game. When I hadn’t responded within the hour, she had texted a girl I befriended on the way to practice to text me and make sure I signed up. So, needless to say, I was signed up for the game before noon that day!

The rest of the week was more lectures and practicals. Practicals are labs and are meant to be hands-on learning experiences. We started the first week with things called “Point-to-Points” where we just compared skeletons across species and pointed to the structures. Then, we moved up to plastinated specimens (bodies preserved with plastic polymers). Then, by that Friday, we had a full-blown dissection! The preparation for the practical had a video doing the dissection on a fox so I had expected fox cadavers. Imagine my surprise when I walked in to see we would be doing the dissection on dog cadavers instead. It definitely took a second to regroup and mentally prepare but I just reminded myself that these dogs were donated so that I could help dogs in the future. I’ll spare you any more details about the cadaver though! The dissection, however, was focused on extrinsic muscles of the forelimb so we had to identify the major muscles closest to the skin surface. 

That first weekend was also way too short! It flew right past. Saturday I took advantage of getting to do nothing. I slept in, did some lectures, and called it a day because Sunday was a full day. I had a soccer game! 

The game was at the Bacon’s College Community Community Sports Centre on the other side of the Thames. I was up at 7 am to walk to the bus station with a teammate and then rode said bus for an hour. We did cross the river and I got a glimpse of Big Ben and the London Eye which I hadn’t seen yet! 

The London Eye! Taken from the top deck of a double decker bus

The game was good though. We unfortunately lost but considering we all had just met on Wednesday for the first time, we played pretty well! Then, I had to trek an hour and a half back to my place and try and get stuff done for the day. I ended up meeting several friends out and trying a “Sunday Roast” which is a very British thing. It’s a big feast of roasted chicken and all kinds of sides, including crispy roast potatoes, carrots, and Yorkshire pudding. I also had something called a “pig in a duvet” which was, in fact, different than a pig in a blanket. A pig in a duvet is sausage wrapped in bacon! As you can imagine, it was really good. They also served the meal with a big boat of gravy.

Then this past week had been equally busy. Lectures were focused on immune system function and bone fractures! No dissections this past week but we had a palpation lab where we got to palpate (but honestly mostly play with and pet) one professor’s dog. He was a super sweet beagle named Ted and after about 5 minutes, he decided he wasn’t given enough treats for all the hard work he was doing. I also had football (soccer) practice on Wednesday in Hawkshead which was nice break from the studying. 

This little dog is usually in this window on my walk to campus in the morning!

Then, I left for Edinburg after classes on Friday! I just packed up my backpack, sat through a few long lectures on agribusiness and then walked 15 minutes down the road to King’s Cross and boarded the train to Scotland. It was so incredibly easy. And in about 4 hours, I was there! 

I’m hoping to do a separate post with pictures about the weekend soon so keep an eye out for it! 

Now, I’m back in London and back to studying!

Until next time! 

Love,

Sam