Post Internationals/Freshers Week Orientation/Party Zone

So it's been a long, arduous journey of drink-ups and new discoveries; everything that comes with adjustments of moving outside the comfort zone and into a new surrounding and different culture.  Add to that, being in a minority group...Well, at the tender age of 47, you can imagine my head is still spinning a tad.

I was blessed to celebrate my Whoppin' 47th on September 25th.  It was nice; beautiful, calm.  My day began with a great pay-off for investment with my earlier networking at ISH (International Student House). Namely, I landed my first guest lecture spot at Bucks University for March 2013.  Woohoo!

Next I was treated to a lovely lunch in Sheen with my ultra-kool sister-in-law, Lisa.  After giving her a ketchup on uni-life, she treated me to cupcakes, touches of home: a plant, candle, etc. and to top it off a fantastic bottle of Moet et Chandon! Nothing says, "Happy Birthday" better, than a class-act bottle of champers!

Mid-week, I had an opportunity to net-work at a cocktail party at New Zealand House at Charring-Cross, which offers fantastic panoramic views; inside and outside, from it's fabulous penthouse suite. This was a collaborative effort between both the NZ, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in UK.   Lotsa' neat folks there, including a prolific author, an artist (us artsys had to suss each other out in a crowd of corporate-types) and  a crew of helicopter specialists, that really gave me a run for my money in the party animal dept.

This week also marked my first class.  Now in the UK, they do it just a bit different, and I'm all too ready as a pro, to roll with the punches.  So it goes, my course orientation was chased up with wine/snax, and followed by a hard whollop of research methodology.  ZZZZ...  Can we say, "good bedtime reading"?

As for what degree I am actually taking? Well, due to new changes in faculty structure, I'm apparently now enrolled in an MSc Applied Music Psych vs. an MA Applied Music Psych. Not sure I like the change - and especially what it means toward my dissertation research; quantitative vs. qualitative; and here's me with no stats or lab tools background whatsoever, to serve this science. 

Manoevering the UK Uni system makes tackling that stock-pile of tangled Christmas tree lights feel more like solving a juvenile jigsaw puzzle.

I have to keep remembering, "This is a test. This is only a test."