REVISION,REVISION... AND MORE REVISION!!!:(:(

Aidan here...so the coming week is the big one so far for me as a college student!!Ive got four tests and a lab assessment coming up...ya its gonna be difficult but i cant wait to get it all over and done!!at least we can all relax then over the christmas! Ive got chemistry tomorrow which im useless at so im not expecting much there..its not on til 12 so maybe a cramming session is in order in the morning! Im so looking forward to this thursday..i think a class party should be organised anyway!!haha A bit a celebration wouldnt go astray after the week ahead eh??  anyway ive got to cut this short because ive another lab report to do and ive got to go find some graph paper somewhere!!ha talk about leaving things til the last minute... wish me luck tommorrow!!!!!!

NOT happy with mastering physics!!!

Oh this physics homework has my head only wrecked...IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!! and having to do it online is making matters even worse...ive just tried this weeks homework and I was only able to answer 2 out of about 7 questions!what a disaster...this has been the worst so far! and its so frustrating because I do the calculations and im 100% sure they are right and when I go to submit the answer it either doesnt go through or else it just says incorrect..incorrect???well thats a great help..how are you supposed to find out how its done if alls it says ia incorrect?? I never thought id say this but I wish I could go back to doing written homework!!!

CIT and UCC march..

Aidan here.. So I went to the student march yesterday from CIT to UCC and then to the city! it was good craic now...me and a few of my friends went into CIT around quarter past 11 and the students union were giving out free t shirts and whistles!there was a good crowd around the canteen and the nexus centre and there was a right buzz around the place...we set off marching at half 11 accompanied by the entire garda of cork!ha literally ive never seen so many guards for a crowd this size! They must of thought we were going to wreck the place!! so we marched up past dehennys cross making as much noise as possible and then into UCC (which was the best part of the day for the chants and singing!!haha) the two crowds joined and we left for the city...it was all very organised and 'peacefullish' enough. There was lots of members of the students union keeping everything in order. I didnt see any shocking incidents or anything like the scenes in Dublin except for somebody throwing a pigs head outside AIB bank which was hilarious!!! I also heard today that there was a clash between the guards and students at some part of the day...theres a pic above

Adieu

Wow, I cannot believe that the first term is nearly over, one eight of the course almost finished it is amazing. I cannot believe the lovely class that is Biomedical Science, everyone is lovely and I have never heard a bad word uttered by anyone-well no bad word that is memorable anyways!!

A bit up the walls at the moment with study and work but it is a nice up the walls it is good to be busy and liking what I am doing. I am really very lucky. Looking forward to the holidays though!!

I love the weather-boy is it cold but it is nice and dry, with a little snow which is nice and hopefully the rain will stay away at least for another while.

I guess it is a sign off from me on this blog, it has been fun!!

Mary Claire.

The End!

Really can't believe this is my last blog!'m so used to doing one a week at this stage that it'll feel weird after this.........i'm sure it won't take to long to adjust ;)It's also hard to believe that the first semester is almost over it feels like we've only been in college a few weeks,i suppose it's been such a whirlwind of change that time just flew!not that that's a bad thing but it's nearly christmas and i'm pretty much full on in the festive mood and ready to just relax!!.......problem is there's that little matter of all the exams :(It's a pretty scary thought it's gonna be pretty full on untill the 9th of December.It'll all be worth it in the end,i've never been finished so early before Christmas!i'm delighted!
Can't wait to start putting up all the decorations and make it proper christmassy.....if that's a word !It snowed today so that really added to the feeling!Walking to college was another story though....i was slipping and sliding all over the place..it was kinda funny though :) hopefully no one will get hurt by it!
Our group gave our liver presentation yesterday,i was nervous but i enjoyed it all the same and i am very happy to have it over haha :D
So that's it!finished!Hope my blogs were worth reading and enjoyable over the past few month,thanks for reading!

For the last time,Dylan.

The Last Blog

So this is my last ever blog! Its coming to the end of our first semester , cant believe how fast the time went.
We did our presentation today which went well , absolutely delighted to have it over with I was really nervous about it.
The other presentations were really interesting , especially the rescue remedy one. Disappointed I didnt win a candy cane haha.
So our tests are starting this Friday and some serious cramming needs to be done :-P.
I cant wait for christmas , the mixture of the toy show , the freezing weather and listening to christmas songs when im at work have really got me in the mood. :-)
 Its brilliant that were finished on the 10th , plenty of time for shopping and just relaxing. Alot of my friends are'nt finished til the 20th!!
Well not much more to say I have to do a lab report now , so thanks for reading my blog and i'l leave ye with my favorite christmas song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXfd5ATIogc&feature=fvst

Aoife

Mentor Interview :)

I totally forgot to put this up a few weeks ago when myself and Mary-Claire did the interview with Ciara and Esther!Oh well better late than never!!

1 What is your favourite memory of 1st year Biomedical Science?Ciara and Esther:We liked meeting all the new people,it was really easy out in C.I.T in UCC the classes were so big you couldn't really get to know anyone.


2 What were your first thoughts when you were asked to be a mentor?Ciara:I volenteered to be a mentor,because we only got mentors at the end of 1st year and they were'nt much use to us then,so we wanted the new first years to have someone to ask questions about the course especially the maths and physics.


3 What do you feel the most important skill a mentor should have?Ciara:A mentor needs to be friendly.

Esther:They deffinately need to be able to communicate

4Very briefly,where are you from?Do you like Cork and do you like the course?Ciara: I'm from south Tip and i love cork iwas orginally going to go to Limerick to do biochemical engineering(was that what ciara said she was going to do i forgot to write it down? )andover all i love the course but obviously there are some parts i don't like.

Esther:I'm from North Tipp.I love Cork!I love Cork soo much i lived here during the Summer,i had the time of my life!I love the course it's really interesting.

5 on a social side of things,where do you think is the best place to go out in Cork?Esther:Suas!The bailey is good for class parties as well!

Ciara:I really liked the bailey,we had some great times in the bishpstown bar as well.The mardyke was god too(Esther) Maybe once a year!

6 If you could give one piece of advice to us as 1st year students,what would it be?
Esther:Tty not to fail any exams!it'll ruin your summer!I failed physics and it ruined my August!

Ciara:Try to as much as yyou can in labs,assessments to get a good percentage going into the final exam,it takes a lot of pressure off you.

7How does 2nd year compare to 1st year?
Ciara and Esther:we're in UCC a lot more,which i don't like,the classes are soo huge you don't talk to  much people and there isn't a big incentive to go to lectures as the lecturer wouldn't notice if you were there or not as well as that it's a lot more difficult to navigate in comparison to C.I.T. Also the materials you do in 2nd year are much more interesting than in 1st year.

8 Have you any funny lab stories?

Ciara and Esther:The UCC labs were funny,you know the way the aseptic technique is thought in C.I.T,like flaming the test tubes?UCC don't do that for safety reasons.we were in a lab once and this girl told a guy that we had to flame the test tubes for aseptic technique,the demonstrator was just walking over as he was about to put it into the flame and she goes No!you not supposses to flame the test tubes,the demonstrator said to her that she was very observant!

9Any exam advice for students?
ciara:Attend all your lectures,something's bound to go in and print notes as they're put on blackboard,don't leave them build up or you'll be waiting for hours at the last minute and get nothing done.

esther:Don't panic!Exams aren't the end of the world.

10 what's your favouriute biomed topic?

Esther:haemotology!it's really interesting and the labs are good too.

Ciara:Human biology was my favourite,i loved the labs!......except for THAT RAT ONE

The Toy Show!!

Yeah!! Late Late Toy Show, it is great :-) I like Ryan's jumper and although I never watch the Late Late show I would never miss the Toy Show!!

The Toy Show is also the highlight of my week, it is all study and work at the moment, it is great though so nice to be doing such interesting stuff and even better first Maths test is over!!

Unfortunately I am finding that CIT library is a bit of a noisy place to study, answering phones and have great conversations about nights out etc seem to be the norm-they would probably even be interesting conversations if I didn't have stuff to do but I am sure could be worse. Got ear plugs now so that will definitely help although I will probably look a little silly!!

The budget could be interesting-I guess we will find out more about it over the next couple of weeks, seems like a minor victory for college students as registration fees going up less than expected but it still seems a lot to me and I am sure to anyone who is or has family paying them.

Until next time, Mary Claire.

Good day :D

I guess the title doesn't really need to be explained but ya i had a good day today :D haha
Physics tutorial was a bit of drag but afterwards me and Aoife got like half our physics homework done....damn that stupid helium balloon!!
Anyway :) so we had our last micro-biology lab today,have to admit i enjoyed them much more than the biochem labs :P.We were finished after about an hour which is always a good thing.On top of that i was actually doing my work well today :O and i wasn't one the last to finish i was shocked :DGood times :)............i have got to stop saying that!
Then we went to the canteen for an hour and talked and all that jazz.We went to CMOD then for the first presentations.They were both really good!!and very interesting,kinda looking forward to our one next week but at the same i'm pretty nervous about talking in front of everyone......ah well it'll be an experience!
Continuing this good day the class are going to see the latest Harry Potter,really looking forward to that!
My friend told me about this band Flyleaf over the weekend,they're really good!Check um out>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X5lbZi6UUo  they have a lot of other really good songs as well :D
Just thought this is gonna be one of my last few blogs....wow time flies!!
Thanks for reading!
Dylan.

Another Weekend Over

So another weekend over.. Friday I wrote up my lab report to get it done and over with and then went to see Harry Potter!!
It was pretty scary to be honest haha but really enjoyed it!!
I was working 12-7 on Saturday so was home in time to watch X Factor :-). Was kind of disappointed with Matt's performance though.
I was working on Sunday aswel. Exteremly stressful day!!
It was wayy busier than Saturday which wasnt expected and there was only 3 of us on the shift.
To make things worse when I covered myself in crepe mix accidently so my clothes were destroyed.
Cant wait to get paid :-P. So my weekend was fairly busy and I didnt have time to study.... starting to get a bit stressed, I might do a bit of chemistry tonight.
Our maths test is this Thursday, cant believe its so soon.Its on the same day as cit christmas day so looking forward to that , especially because we have no labs on Friday!!

Exams-not so far away-Bummer.

Got our Christmas exam dates, CIT and UCC ones, gonna be a busy week  and even busier weeks leading up to it. It sounds far away-December that is-but it is a lot closer than I thought in fact I nearly had a heart attack gonna have to stick the head down and work hard. I feel like I am on a count down but the lovely Christmas Hols will be great.

Must admit it is the Chemistry I am finding the hardest at the moment, not that I am getting into physics much either!!

Town is getting busy for Christmas it is quite nice cause most people are in good form and that makes work pretty easy. Have heard quite a few domestics in the street and stuff though, girls giving out to their boyfriends that they are sick of them following them around and the poor guy looking half scared saying I am carrying your bags and I don't have any shopping to do-ha ha poor guys that will teach them to be nice.

Suffering serious hockey withdrawal as I am working during all the match's now!! Hopefully there will be a mid week game on soon.

Mary Claire.

So much to do......so little time!

I've been having some hectic day today!!First of all i forgot my pencil case this morning,had to get a loan of a pen all my notes ended up totally in black so had to re-write them when i got home,took about 2 hours!Then i started on the microbiology lab report due for this coming Monday that took roughly an hour :( then started on the 2nd m/b report,still have to finish that.....i had to get some of the results online because i ran out of time in the lab the other day cause we didn't start the experiment till about twenty till three(i'm slow enough as it is! haha).So i thought it better to get results than to leave some blank stuff :D Obviously i'm doing my blog now but i'm multitasking as i'm watching emmerdale as well :D who said men can't multi-task?!:P

So after i finish my lab report i'm going to start putting my part of the prezi together!After that?...Desperate Housewives of course!! So ya lots of work to be doing!i'll leave it there:)

Thanks for reading!
Dylan.

Online Homework??uurrggh

Aidan here... so things in physics are getting tougher. it was fairly basic in class so far and some of the stuff we are doing is fairly interesting to honest!but unfortunetly that only applys to a small part of the material we have covered! The online homework is by far the hardest part..there was only one week so far that i have completed it so you can tell thats its a bit difficult!!ha last weeks was a pure disaster..ill be honest and say i left it too late to do it but when i got help on what formulas to use i figured out how to get the answers!this was on friday so i said id give it another go during my break but of course the whole mastering physics website was not working all day on friday due to updates being installed or something like that...so im gonna have to do it a bit earlier this week.

I also got my second hep B vaccine yesterday...it was alot worse then the last time!!my arm was kind of dead all day and i was wrecked tired after it but im grand again today thank god!!the final one ill be getting in april and then i think were fully protected against the virus which is a big plus because some of the stuff we have been working with lately sounds a bit dangerous...with E.coli and  that stuff being passed around I was being very cautious.

On a more positive note I got a text last night saying my brother had won the local lotto...im delighted for him (but only if he gives me some!!haha) so maybe it is true about the myth of the bird dropping on you bringing you luck...it just brought it to the wrong brother!!haha

A busy weekend

So on Friday we had our last chemistry lab. I tightened the retort stand a bit too much which caused the burette to break..... glass everywhere :-(. Oh well!! When I went home I felt exhausted and kind of sick .. I think it might have been from the hepatits shot I got on Thursday. I fell asleep from half 7- 10pm ..woke up , ate some dinner and fell asleep from 11 til 12 the next day!! I've never slept that much in my life. Then I had to get the bus into town to start my first day of work. I started at 2 and didnt get home til half 8. Work was fairly stressful I must say. I didnt get time to learn how to do the crepes doughnuts and coffee so I was in charge of the cash register and ice-cream for most of it. On Sunday I had to catch up on lab reports and I attemped to do the physics homework... it is impossible I spent an entire hour trying to do it and couldnt even get one question right!! So its a start to another week and I planned on starting studyin tomorrow, the tests are alot sooner than I thought. Just found out that im working this Friday, Saturday and Sunday!!! So probably wont get much study done.. Im absolutely gutted because I was hoping to see Harry Potter this weekend. Really looking forward to seeing it :-). Thats all my news.
Aoife

First news letter-done!!!

What a mad week, was good though it went very fast. We got our first news letter done which I have put in our Mahara account. and am trying to figure out how to put it up here!! It was fun to do and really nice to see finished-I hope that the second one will be as fun!!

Found out a bit about the physics exam at Christmas as well it is going to be an in class one which might not be so bad fingers crossed. The maths one is a two hour evening one so not so nice.

There is the CIT exams and labs too so I guess we will be kept busy!! :-)

Got the second Hep B injection too was not so bad at all I hope that I remember to go back in April for the next one I have reminders on my phone to try and make sure I don't forget!!

Gonna go and do some physics homework now-I think-although X-Factor has started.

Mary Claire.

Bit of everything

Well we had our first chemistry lab assessment last week. It didnt start off too smoothly ..we had three titrations to do but in our first titration there was no colour change. So myself and Dylan replaced everything but it still didnt work so finally we figured out our indicator was contaminated ..Just our luck haha. Overall it went grand. I was delighted to hear that this Friday is our last chemistry lab for this semester :-) so we'l be finished at 1 every Friday!! I used the gym for the first time last week and lasted an entire 30mins. Im really unfit so I was kind of proud of myself. My legs were killing me after the treadmills!

I didnt get up to much for the weekend , just met up with a few friends , babysat and relaxed. Still havent started work but I think Oso ( the place il be working) is supposed to be opening this Thursday but I wont be getting trained in til the week after. Thats all my news for this week. Thanks for reading. Aoife

All Ireland Scholarships!

So i went to Limerick this weekend for the award ceremony of the All Ireland Scholarships :)Basically this scheme was set up to help students continue into 3rd level education.It's sponsered by JP McManus and it's like a grant in that the person receives money every month for the costs of college.I was one of the lucky 125 this year to receive a scholarship :DSo immediately after college on Friday my family,including my mom,nan,granda,two uncles,aunt,godmother,and gran aunt,collected me and drove straight to Limerick :)We stayed in the Absolute hotel,which was one of the nicest hotels i've ever stayed in!the food there was delicious!The award ceremony was on Saturday morning which meant an early start for me!Registration was at 10:30 in UL,we left about half 9.After i met with my old principle and registered we had to wait around and be organised into a long line around the room.At 12 we walked in a kind of procession upstairs and into a theater.We took our seats,the crowd was then addressed by the trustee's including JP McManus.Afterwards people were called onto the stage to receive the certificate for the scholarship and a gift.A picture was then taken with JP McManus and another member of the trustees.Needless to say my stomach was doing flips as i walked up for mine!After everyone had received their certificates,Dermot Desmond(a successful Businessman) who was the special guest gave a speech.There was then a group photo of all the scholarship winners together and the ceremony was over.This was followed by a lunch which was delicious!JP McManus was really nice and stayed around to take pictures with everyone :) He even complimented my suit! :DThe gift turned out to be a gold pen engraved with "All Ireland Scholarships '10" It's really cool :D
I had a great day and it's definitely a day i'll never forget :D

Here's a pic of me with JP McManus and My old Principle Mr.Culhane>(here's a link to my facebook if you want to see more pics                                     http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2100123&id=1230721593&page=5 :) )


Thanks for reading,
Dylan.

off the fags!!!

Aidan here..its half 11 on a monday morning and im glad to say i had a great lie in this morning!!which is very hard to come by when you have a timetable like ours!!anyways your probally wondering what the title of this blog is about...I decided to give up smoking!iv a few reasons why Im doing it...firstly i just cant afford it anymore...secondly i suppose theyre bad for you!!ha...and thirdly,this year ive been plagued with chest infections,sore throats etc.,so ive started to realise maybe smoking has something to do with it!!!ha ive been smoking for the past 3 or 4 years so im not gonna go on the patches or anything like that...its all down to shear will power anyway if you ask me!!i really think i can do it...the hardest part will be going out with my friends because the majority of them smoke but im gonna give it a go!  oh no all this talk about smoking has given me a serious craving!!:(:( and its chemistry next...ahh no!!!!!

Time to start juggling!!!

Just got a part time job at Boots-how cool is that. The people there are all really great and am learning new stuff all the time, first full day tomorrow so hopefully I wont make too many mistakes!!

Got the physics homework done early this week and boy am I glad now I think I would cry if I had to face into it now!! Chemistry lab today was very interesting it was on the hardness of water. Cork water is very soft and the tests for it were interesting to do.

Fair play to everyone who went to Dublin and protested about the fees-not condoning the violent part of it but I don't think that was students-overall it was a really impressive protest and caught a lot of attention. 

On that notes I will sign off, Mary Claire.

Protest!!!

Yesterday i went to the student protest in Dublin,organised by the Union of Students in Ireland(USI),we left from the western gateway building in UCC where we got free T-shirts promoting the cause :D woo :)Our bus left roughly about quarter past 9 and we arrived in Dublin about half one,having stopped at a food court along the way.I got a chicken burger and me and Marilyn shared some cheesey curry chips(just felt everyone should know about my eating habbits :) )We started protesting from parnell square and i'm not really sure where we went from there as even though i've been to Dublin a few times i'm not familiar with it's streets haha :) The number of students at the protest was huge!apparantly about 44,000 :O Needless to say the streets were packed with people in yellow shirts.The crowd was shouting,singing and chanting things like "no if's,no but's,no education cuts!" or "they say cutback we say fightback!"(here's a clip i found on youtube of some speechs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncj6tjAcTQs )We eventually reached a point in the city were the crowd could no longer proceed and the majority of people dispersed we then headed back to our bus,which took us ages to find :/The journey back was extremely long at 6 hours,2/3 of which was spent leaving Dublin! :O As if things were'nt bad enough there was about 3 or 4 lads on our bus who started drinking,got drunk,and proceeded to urinate in bottles and down the emergency exit of the coach.Needless to say everybody on the bus was absolutly disgusted!I got home about half 10 and i was wrecked!It was only then that i learned things had gotten violent in Dublin :O I realised then what was happening when some people were climbing over a spiked fence.....an evenful day to say the least!
On a totally unrelated note,the video for P!nk's new single,raise your glass,is out :D here's the link,check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4mtDr3gNHw&ob=av2n

I did the interview for the newsletter yesterday with medical scientist Helen Keeffe. Shes my friends mom so I knew her previously . She was the person who got me interested in biomedical science. The interview went well and I found it really interesting. Helen even showed me around the labs afterwards so that was nice of her!! You can read the interview for yourself and hope ye like it.

Interview with Biomedical Scientist - Helen Keeffe

1) Why did you decide to become a biomedical scientist?
My career guidance counsellor thought I had all the right skills for it and that this job would suit me perfectly. I didn’t even no what it was.
2) What is your favourite aspect of the job?
I like the variety of work involved in histopathology - health and safety, training, quality etc. I love the bench work and the fact it’s a hands-on job.
3) What do you like least about the job?
Well first of all the current state of the country - lack of funding and budgeting. Also the introduction to extended working days . The whole career path has changed , there is an uncertainty for the future in the labs.
4) What are your working hours like?
Well in histology the hours vary. The core hours would be 9 to 5, but other days  I could be working 8 to 7. On average it’s a 35 hour week.
5)What is the most difficult thing you have examined?
The Air India disaster in 1985. It was an extremely difficult time in the hospital, 130 post mortems were carried out and at the time we only had basic facilities. The entire hospital was grief stricken by it.
6) What qualification did you receive?
I received a diploma in med lab in D.I.T and I did my dip in training and education in NUI Galway.
7)How relative is what you learnt in college to your everyday work?
I use about 50% of what I did. All the science subjects I did were completely relative but I also had to do French and maths…
8)What advise would you have for someone going into a career in Biomedical Science?
Go straight through and do your masters because it is so difficult to get a job at the moment.

Pendulums!!!

Wow physics is really hard, I am just going to keep going through it and hopefully it will eventually stick. The homework stuff is helping though cause you have to keep practising the stuff so every bit helps!! We had a pendulum experiment last week-sounds lovely and the practical part was, except I kept losing count of the pendulum swings-it was only to twenty so felt pretty stupid-but the write ups are really difficult I struggle with it but hopefully it will get easier every lab-only 7 more to go!!

Getting stuck into our first newsletter now it is going well, Aoife has the interview with a biomedical scientist tomorrow so I hope that will go really well for her.The rest of us are doing our bit too so we are splitting up the tasks and stuff now, hopefully it will be interesting in the end. If its not it wont be from lack of trying!!

I am starting part time job with Boots this week-am so lucky to get a job I really hope it will work out now, it seems like a lovely place to work so am very very lucky.

Had a few trick or treaters visit my house last night some of the kids (and adults) had great costumes!!

Other than that it is a quiet week after the exams and everything last week-nice!! Pity about the weather, I like rain but i don't like wind and rain so hopefully it will improve over the next few days!!

Until next time, Mary Claire

Relief!

Well it's been a mad week!Course we had this Monday off which was brilliant except for the fact i had to spend the majority of the day studying for the cell biology MCQ!On Tuesday morning it was pretty ominous going into the test since we hadn't really had a test yet......it went well :D some questions were tricky especially those where you're pretty sure it's 2 of the answers,not to mention the negative marking!whoever invented that is sick!haha
It was good to have cell biology over,but that didn't relieve the stress yet.......we had our intro to biomed 1 assessment on Thursday morning!We got our 2nd cell bio lecture on Wednesday off so we could study (thanks Lesley! :D) but we had to wait around for a physics lab so didn't get too much work done(we also went to subway....it was worth it :D)The physics lab was a nightmare!Our 3 demonstraters who i think are students themselves were each telling us different things and everything got so confusing!it was horrible(the pic of the cat proves physics is useless),i was delighted when it was over but this was about 6 o clock so the pressure was on to study for the following day!Thursdays exam went well,aside from a few tricky calculations t'was all good! :D Delighted at having finished everyone was eager to celebrate!Most people went out that night,i couldn't go cause i was 17 but thanks to Marilyn i still had a brilliant night :D She invited me,Aoife and some others to her house before they all went out,we had a great laugh!(pictures soon :P)
So that brings everything up to speed it's great relief to have everything over and done with for now.........................going to relax for the weekend :D
Happy Halloween and all that Jazz :D
Until next time,
Dylan.

A Hectic Week

Well the long weekend went really well .. definitely needed the break from all the lab  reports!! Went to my friends house on Sunday , we were having a surprise party for my friend cept she thought she was heading to town so when she arrived she was half drunk haha it was a great night!! I was absolutely shattered on Monday and I had to study for cell biology :-(. The test went well thank god ..passed it :). Not a fan of the mcq though!! I think the test went good aswell today ...I hope it did anyways. So thats all the assessments done for the next few weeks and a few of us are going to celebrate in town. Cork city limits is having a Halloween party and im looking forward to wearing my hippy costume!! Its going to be a late night so a 9-5 day at college tomorrow is not what we need :P .  Our newsletter is due in 2 weeks and I've scheduled the interview with the biomedical scientist for next Tuesday. Thats all my news for this week .... thanks for reading Aoife

An over-enjoyed weekend...

Aidan here, so remember I was telling you all about the party me and my brother were having??Well heres a slide show of pics from the night me and my uncle made up... and yes there are some messy ones in there!!  but the celebrations were a bit over extended as the party continued for nearly the whole weekend! I am seriously regretting it now as it was not the best idea when I had two important tests this week...needless to say I got no study done whatsoever!!and ya i suppose i got what i deserved in cell biology-a fail!!oh by the way negative marking, i hate you!!i also had an intro to biomed test today which didnt go down well either but i think i may have scrapped a pass...hopefully anyway!! im off now to decide weither im gonna dress up or not tonight!!I think once a year is enough!!haha

MCQ!!!!!

Another exam down-this one didnt go so well, my first negative marking MCQ ever and I just hope I didnt fail it!! They are not for the faint hearted-you read it you think "I know this" and then you realise your answer is not there-oops. Still though we will all have learned from it no doubt. One left to go on Thursday now and hopefully that will go ok.

The weather has turned pretty miserable these last couple of days no more fooling ourselves it is definitely Autumn, I kinda like it though when I am inside!! :-)

Doing up an article on mentoring at the moment with the team and I think we have it fairly sorted, unfortunately due to days off, clash of lectures and exams we have not been able to get a picture of the team with the mentors-I hope one of just the team will be enough!!

Just found out-CIT men's hockey team won the Hockey Intervarsities!! A fabulous display from a part time students team, many of their opposition play club hockey together all year around!!

Anyways until next time, Mary Claire

Well the long weekend has finally arrived :) . Its been a long week .... Monday had our first lab assessments which went kind of okay ... I realised an hour into it that I was the only person not wearing gloves (woops). We had our chemistry test yesterday which I think went good enough , glad to have it done and over with.  Our class party was last night , only half the class went out because alot of people went home for the weekend and some people arent 18 yet ( Sorry Dylan ). We got 30 free jello shots and only 9 of us were there at the time haha we still drank them all . I had to leave at 12 o clock though because I was up at half 6 today and I am absolutely exhausted now haha. I got a job in a new place opening up in town soon ... Il be making doughnuts and crepes etc . Today I was practicing making all different types of coffees , there is wayyy too many of them it gets fairly confusing .. I was able to master a cappichino (cant spell it) by the end of the day. I have to start studying tomorrow ... cell biology and microbiology tests next week :(. But on the bright side cant wait for X Factor!! Its been a hectic day ...only arrived home an hour ago and im going babysitting in a while so il finish off with a link to a really catchy song I heard on the radio earlier http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Gpul2E3pE.   Aoife

Exams!!

First laboratory exam done and first chemistry exam done and in fairness they could not have been fairer, exam pressure however is horrible no matter how fair the exam is!!!

I think that the lab exam was a bit extra stressful because none of us really knew how it would go as we had never done anything like it before. It was ok like a normal lab only quieter!! Hard to know how we got on but hopefully everyone will pass!!

Chemistry was a bit more traditional as it was a written test and it was not too bad, I had a couple of false starts-no matter how many times you tell yourself to read the questions carefully I always seem to forget this very simple rule as soon as a paper arrives in front of me. Once I calm down a bit it is not so bad-I hope!!!

Long weekend now which is lovely but must study for two more exams next week as well-could be a lot worse!! I hope it stops raining soon though that would definitely help!!

Unfortunately I missed the class party last night as I was going home so I hope everyone had a great time :-)

Mary Claire.

17 in college......not so great... :O

Here i am in the ucc computer centre writing my blog while practically everyone else is getting ready to go to the class party in the bailey,bad times haha :( Oh well hope everyone has a great night anyway :DSo ya that's the downside of being in college at 17,and to add insult to injury i won't be 18 untill June :O.....It won't be all bad i suppose.Marilyn our entertainment rep said she'd organise a night where those of us who aren't 18 can go :D good times :D Thank you Marilyn! :)
On a college note,we had our first written assessment today,it was pretty ominous waiting around for it to start as for me and practically everyone else it was our first written college exam.Thankfully it was a fair test and i was very happy that i chose to do chemistry for the leaving cert :) For those who didn't do it i heard things went well enough for them soo that's great news :D Aswell this week we had our first lab assessment....tense to say the least evrything was soo quiet and as usual i was a bit behind everyone else, but i got there in the end and i think things went well overall :D
Looking forward to a 4 day weekend!Finally being a member of both UCC and CIT has finally paid off :P haha Got a lot of studying to do...two more written assessments :O they would be on the week after the long weekend ><
Oh well :)
Have a good(long)weekend! :)
Dylan.

Chemistry??HELP!!!

Aidan here..so weve got our first chemistry assessment coming up this thursday and i must say feeling under pressure is a major understatement for me!I am one of the few less fortunate ones in the class who havent studied chemistry since junior cert and its safe to say im not the only one who is struggling!! its the same for physics but at least the majority of us didnt do it for the leaving so thats moving alot slower then chemistry which is absolutely flying past me by the way!!  im putting most of my effort into studying chemistry this week...the notes i have are just a jumble of words to me now so if youre in the same situation as me i would recommend buying the revise wise chem book for the leaving cert...its much clearer and better laid out but the woman in the shop said they are flying off the shelves so hurry up if youre looking for one!:)  on a more positive note ive got my brothers 21st/my 18th birthday party/fancy dress this weekend so im looking forward to that!!im still looking for a costume though so if ye ave any ideas let me know!!! oh ya i would also recommend this ingenius equipment below for dealing with exam stress!!!!

Its all good

What a great week, I am really getting into the course, it is excellent.I am starting to enjoy labs a lot and am not so scared of the Bunsen Burner any more either!! We are really very busy and have a couple of exams each week for the next couple of weeks. We really don't have time for hanging around much but everything is so interesting it really doesn't matter.

                                                                                                                     

We did get our first Hepatitis B vaccine this week. I really hate injections, they make me feel queasy but the nurse was lovely and it was not bad at all.

We had our first UCC Physics Lab this week, the instructors are really nice and could not do enough to help us. I must be honest I found all the calculations quite confusing. Only thing is we only have 9 labs in the whole year and only every second week.

The Chile Miners rescue this week was really interesting and for once it made all the news reports really positive. It is really cool the way so many different skills were used to co-ordinate the rescue.Teamwork is definitely the way to go after seeing that success!!!

Mary Claire.

Well today wasnt the best... I got my hepatitis B vaccine. I have a bit of a phobia of injections so was fairly nervous in the waiting room. I must admit it wasnt too bad ....the waiting was the worst part. I was delighted to get it done and over with until the nurse reminded me that I have to get another one in a month :-( . We found out today that our chemistry test is in a week!!! We all thought it wasnt for another 2 weeks so not too thrilled about that. Our biomedical lab assessment is next Monday.... im beginning to feel the pressure a bit --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtrEN-YKLBM ( Arent ye glad i didnt put up the Jedward version haha). I went to Captain Americas with a few friends last night for dinner and the food was unbelievable!! Got lasagne for dinner and all of us shared a volcanoe cake ..It was amazing...it was basically a mountain of ice-cream and then 4 brownies on the side!!! So thats all my news for this week . We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow 9-5.... cannot wait for the weekend!! A major sleep-in is needed and looking forward to X factor .....I suppose il squeeze in studying at some stage.    Aoife





                                                                         

Back to Tae-Kwon-Do!!

I guess the title is fairly self explanitary! so ya after about 10 months of a break i returned tonight :D.It was brilliant!i really enjoyed it!It was mostly dynamic floorwork tonight,which was pretty tiring but great fun!It's great to be back,but i'm absolutely exhausted now haha!my legs and arms are really tired and i'm walking to western gateway building tomorrow.......yay......haha.A bit of background info about my club,i'm a member of The Pyong-Hwa Tae-Kwon-Do club part of  The Global Tae-Kwon-Do Federation(GTF).It's run in Colaiste Stiofain Naofa on tramore road and it's great!It's family run,classes on Monday and Wednesday,there's small class numbers and great interaction between students and instructors.Here's a link to the website in case anyone is interested ( http://www.pyong-hwa.com/).  In any case it's needless to say i can't wait to get to bed haha :)
On a college side of things......Lab today wasn't exactly the best,ended up being one of the last to finish with some hiccoughs along the way!Ah well,there's always gonna be some bumpy days :) thanks for reading :D
P.S sorry about bad audio in the video,it's a totally new concept to me!haha

Dylan.

Another Week Down!!

Well another week has passed and to be honest im still not sure how i feel about the course. It has its ups and downs. After an extremely stressful leaving cert I expected college to be alot easier (well 1st year of college anyway). The course is interesting but its so time-consuming ....im finding it really difficult balancing college life(28 hours a week and writing up lab reports),meeting up with my friends,family,clubs and societies and on top of that i need a job so I dont know how im going to fit that into my hectic schedule. I must admit i am enjoying the course itself and i've made alot of new friends, I just thought id have alot more time to myself. Its a bit confusing .

Alot of people have been asking me which college do I prefer C.I.T or U.C.C? Even though I enjoy going to U.C.C, I prefer C.I.T ... the lectures are alot better because the class is so much smaller. Its alot easier to find your way around and its alot nearer to where I live. I like the way our course is joint between the two colleges because we get the best of both worlds. Im looking forward to use my free membership at the maradyke even though im really unfit at the moment haha. I'l probably only last 10 minutes on the treadmill!! Well thats all for this week ....thanks for reading :)   Aoife

Nothing To Report...

To be quite honest nothing much has been happening to me lately....nothing interesting at any rate.It's not really surprising though,with 28 hours a week there isn't that much time to get up to other things.....unfortunately.So ya this week was pretty much the same as usual,lectures,labs,cit,ucc,that's not to say things are boring,don't get me wrong!Labs are always good,probably due to the feeling of actually doing something rather than just sitting around taking notes :D
We're another week closer to our first assessments(Oh no! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr-SqRWImmI ) which is pretty ominous!Lets hope they're not too hard!
Despite my lack of activity this week i've got a good few plans for this weekend and the coming week.....maybe i should have waited tilll then to write this blog.....oh well!!For tommorrow i've been roped into helping one of my friends in 6th year in finding her way around ucc on the open day,after that i think i'll finally register for the mardyke and go to the gym!On Monday i'll be going back to Tae-Kwon-Do after almost a year's break to focus on the leaving cert,should be a good laugh but i know i'll be very stiff the next morning...that would be the day i've to walk up to the western gateway building first thing in the morning!So ya really looking forward to that!:P
Anyway if you managed to stay awake while reading this or had the patience to read it all,thanks for reading and hopefully i'll have something more interesting to write about next time :D

Dylan.