During the break I didn't do too much. I watched a lot of movies, did a little studying and made sure that I just spent some time enjoying the beautiful weather by making sure I spent at least an hour a day outside. I did this by going for walks into town and by going out and throwing the lacrosse ball around a bit.
Aside from the boring routine of my holiday, I did have some excitement that happened to me one Sunday night. I was watching a movie and was startled (a bit) when I heard some noise coming from over by the window & heater. I took a look just in time to see a mouse run behind the heater. I went over and took a close look to see if I could see where it went but it disappeared. I waited and watched for a bit to see if it would show itself again but it didn't, so I went back to my movie. About 30 minutes later I heard the noises again and just like before I was too slow to catch or see where it went, but I did notice what it was going after which was a large piece of the carpet that was about 5x bigger than the mouse (which was really odd since it passed some good cardboard and didn't even take a small bite of it as it made its way to the carpet!). I then searched even harder to find it, but no luck and so I sat and waited even longer to catch it ... but since then I have yet to see it again. To make it more interesting as I was sitting and waiting a wasp flew in through my window (since none of the windows hear have screens). I waited for a chance to get the wasp but it seemed to stay on my light bulb (which I was afraid of breaking if I tried to hit the wasp and if I missed the wasp might fall on my bed where I would likely loose sight of it). In the long run the chance to get the wasp never arose, as instead the wasp managed to find a hole behind the light fixture which it flew into and went somewhere in the wall (or at least that's were I assume it went and died, since I never heard from it since). Since that night I found that I have had to keep my window closed, as I have had to kill one every time I open my window. Needless to say I've been keeping the window closed until I absolutely need it open, since I have learned (the hard way) that I can't even open the window a crack without a wasp coming in!
Over the break I also received a big care package that my work had sent me. The package had a (pre-)birthday card inside along with a tone of Canadian foods such as some Tim Horton's coffee, kraft dinner, peanut butter, maple syrup, pancake mix, soda crackers, froot loops, alphagetti, and all of the other foods that I have been missing. I was so happy when I got the package that I managed to spend an hour or so going through it all. The next morning I had an awesome breakfast filled with pancakes and Tims! I think that I'll be able to ration it all out (a bit) since there is still a bit left! I think it should be enough to hold me over until I get back to Canada...at least it better be enough :P
The last week of the break the campus started getting a bit busier, but even now that school is back it's still fairly quiet. I can only assume that it is because of all of the flight cancellations, causing many international students from making it back to campus. It's weird though because I always thought that the noisy people on campus were local UK students, but I guess that's not the case.
Even with a lot of the students missing, classes have now resumed and so its class as usual...well for the next two weeks ;)
All for now,
Jeff
*Word of the Week: In Canada we have "band-aids" but in the UK they are known as "plaster", which just doesn't make any sense to me :P
Pardon me, but I have been considering doing the same thing as you have... going to England to study optometry. I was wondering if you could post about the experience of applying, what they look for, what their selection criteria seemed to be, differences in application between American and UK schools, and such.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI just posted about my application experience and I you will find it somewhat useful.
As for what the school's are looking for I'm not really sure. I assume that the UK schools are looking for similar qualities as the North American optometry schools. They most likely try to look for student who wont change their minds and switch programs part way through, and students who are likely to be able to study at a University level. Some sort of experience in the field would always be an added bonus. I have found that basically all of the International students already have an undergraduate degree (which not only helps us to get in to the program and succeed, but it also makes it easier to go back to North America to practice, if you want). Also a good personal statement section in your application will be key, as most of the Universities in the UK do not hold interviews so the only way they get to see who you are and your passion for the field is through the personal statement.
I found that all of the UK schools have slightly different entrance requirements for international students and the requirements listed online were a bit confusing, so what I did was I ended up e-mailing all of the 8 UK Universities. In my e-mail I explained my qualifications and GPAs, and asked if they thought that I would meet their entrance requirements. From the e-mail I got a wide variety of responses from "you should definitely send in your application" to "these are our entrance requirements which it doesn't look like you meet".
I hope all of this information will help you and let me know if you have any more questions.
Best of luck with the application,
Jeff