First Day of School!

Well, technically second now. But I got distracted yesterday and didn't get a chance to write a post!

So far, so good. Which is pretty easy to say for just having one day of school down. Though it is slightly weird, because this first week is something they call induction week. If I had to boil it down to anything, it's like syllabus week back home, but if you only had one class to learn about. For example, yesterday they told us all about the structure of the program. Today we will be learning about library services. Tomorrow is our first lab session, just to make sure we can function properly in a lab. I would assume Thursday and Friday would be more about services the university offers, but I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that they will be feeding us lunch on Friday, which is pretty sweet. All in all, I thought we were going to dive right in. But amazingly I have a lot of free time this week, which will be nice to spend with some of the new friends I made!

As a reminder, I am getting my MSc (Master of Science) in Cancer Cell and Molecular Biology (CCMB). This is actually one of the most popular courses the department offers, which isn't really surprising to me. You can find thousands of masters programs in cell and molecular biology, but I'm pretty sure this is the only one that specifically focuses on cancer. I think that's pretty neat. When all is said and done, I think there are about 15 of us in the program. Maybe 20, because I'm not great at estimating things like this.

One of the things I really enjoyed about meeting these people is the sheer diversity in the group. It's definitely something I haven't really seen so far in my education. Surprisingly, there's another American in the group. He's from Virginia, so everyone probably thinks his accent is cooler, but whatever. There's a couple of girls from Turkey, one I met from Saudi Arabia, one from India, and of course a few from around the UK. Everyone was extremely friendly, and I think we'll all get along well. I'm really looking forward to getting to know them and learn more about their individual cultures.

Just a few notes about the program itself, because I'm continually amazed that they condense a masters in just a year. All in all, it does round out to about a year. But the vast majority of that is the project period, which is when we get to work full-time in a lab and just shovel out a dissertation (which may not sound exciting to most people, but I'm super pumped). The first three months, however, is us getting knowledge shoved down our throats. Lectures only take place on Mondays, which sounds awesome, but some days lectures go from 9am to 5pm without a break. The rest of the week is spent in a lab, working on different lab techniques and practicing for the real-deal that comes in January. It's very intense, with papers counting for the majority of our grade, and there's not really a break until we get to the end of November. In that respect, it is quite intimidating. But I love to be busy, I love to learn, and I'm totally ready for whatever is thrown at me.

I think this year is going to be the most unique year so far in my education. The structure of the program is vastly different from anything I've experienced thus far. I guess that's the main point of the Fulbright award. Whatever I learn here, I can take back with me and encourage others to join in an educational exchange program. That's pretty exciting!