Space Camp- The rest of it
Blogging from the summer school kind of went out of the window- I really didn't have time! The lectures were interesting, even though the "relavent" one turned out to be all about metorites. They at least showed a picture of the moon on the slideshow though, at which point everyone I'd been whinging to about the lack of lunar stuff turned around and gave me ironic thumbs up, the bastards.
The social side blew me (and us all, I think) away- first there was an elizabethan banquet in Hatfield House, which I was dreading, expecting it to be some kind of theme dinner with a few jugglers putting you off your food. It turned out to be basically a dinner show, with Henry VIII and his courtiers holding session at the front of this massive hall, and free wine, mead and wenches flowed forth. After we'd all got quite a lot tipsy there was a cheesy disco, and I maintain that the sight of 100 drunken physicists dancing to "Come on Eileen" is possibly the best thing in the world.
The next night we went for a cruise on the River Thames. Two old private-hire red routemaster double-deckers picked us up at the campus and drove us into central London (me and some other guys raced to the front seats on the top deck, of course). We had an hour or so to sightsee around the embankment before the boat sailed- London at night looks amazing, and the buffet was great (and free) and the bar was well-stocked (and also, amazingly, free- thanks University of Hartfordshire!). So that night was bloody good as well. Add in the general good mood of most people there, and the "fresher's week" kind of atmosphere most nights and it turned out to be a good week, and I've very glad I went.
The only problem, as I mentioned, was it wasn't all that relavent for me, and I was sitting in the lectures feeling a bit worried about not doing enough reading for my project- so to that end I sent claire on a daring mission to pillage Hugh Owen library of lunar geology books which I picked up from Aber on the way back up (in between the very fun geek 'n' troma nights and hogging her new copy of Spore). So that was a very nice end to the week, even with the horrendous drive to aber (7 hours!). Got back on Sunday for my dad's birthday and had a great meal and yet more booze, had yesterday in bed/playing Spore (it's amazing).
Today I've taken Murphy to hydrotherapy- he soaked me to the skin but he's chasing the toy back and forth and not utterly panicing any more. He seems to enjoy the swimming a lot, and even after only 3 times his stamina is well improved, so there's hope for the poor dog yet.
Right- after that monster week I have a million and one things to sort out for the move back to Aber, including sorting through 3 years of undergraduate shite to see what to take back/to the tip- nice fun afternoon there then!
The social side blew me (and us all, I think) away- first there was an elizabethan banquet in Hatfield House, which I was dreading, expecting it to be some kind of theme dinner with a few jugglers putting you off your food. It turned out to be basically a dinner show, with Henry VIII and his courtiers holding session at the front of this massive hall, and free wine, mead and wenches flowed forth. After we'd all got quite a lot tipsy there was a cheesy disco, and I maintain that the sight of 100 drunken physicists dancing to "Come on Eileen" is possibly the best thing in the world.
The next night we went for a cruise on the River Thames. Two old private-hire red routemaster double-deckers picked us up at the campus and drove us into central London (me and some other guys raced to the front seats on the top deck, of course). We had an hour or so to sightsee around the embankment before the boat sailed- London at night looks amazing, and the buffet was great (and free) and the bar was well-stocked (and also, amazingly, free- thanks University of Hartfordshire!). So that night was bloody good as well. Add in the general good mood of most people there, and the "fresher's week" kind of atmosphere most nights and it turned out to be a good week, and I've very glad I went.
The only problem, as I mentioned, was it wasn't all that relavent for me, and I was sitting in the lectures feeling a bit worried about not doing enough reading for my project- so to that end I sent claire on a daring mission to pillage Hugh Owen library of lunar geology books which I picked up from Aber on the way back up (in between the very fun geek 'n' troma nights and hogging her new copy of Spore). So that was a very nice end to the week, even with the horrendous drive to aber (7 hours!). Got back on Sunday for my dad's birthday and had a great meal and yet more booze, had yesterday in bed/playing Spore (it's amazing).
Today I've taken Murphy to hydrotherapy- he soaked me to the skin but he's chasing the toy back and forth and not utterly panicing any more. He seems to enjoy the swimming a lot, and even after only 3 times his stamina is well improved, so there's hope for the poor dog yet.
Right- after that monster week I have a million and one things to sort out for the move back to Aber, including sorting through 3 years of undergraduate shite to see what to take back/to the tip- nice fun afternoon there then!