So my 2-week-or-bust deadline is here, which means another post as promised.
Problem is I have a ton of vague ideas in my brain but nothing concrete to write about… which means another round of what I like to call…
“Things in parts bingo”.
Basically, you:
- Pick a random number between 2 and 12
- Look up “things that come in [xyz number] “
- Assign attributes or find symbolic meaning to said parts
- Write about something that is related to each of those attributes
- ?????
- Profit (with a blog post that seems more cohesive than it actually is)
In the past (on a different, older blog) I have done Avatar the Last Airbender elements , Fates of Greek mythology and sorta for Blossoms as well, all to relative sucess.
So in honor of the last few weeks of my summer break, I’m doing the four seasons – starting with spring!
Spring (春 chūn) – New Beginnings & changes. Planting the metaphorical seeds for a better future.
Daily Diary progress & Habitica
I’ve been working a bit more on developing better habits, since… well let’s face it.
I’m 20 years old now and have NOT acomplished anywhere as much stuff as I wanted to do by this point in my life.
Earlier in my summer break, I decided to start keeping a diary about my life and goals. It’s not the first time I’ve done so (I have diaries dating back to when I was 12), but this is the first time I have kept at it for more than a month or so without giving up.
I honestly really liked doing it and will probably continue into the school year, since writing acts as a nice way for me to reflect on my day. I might post a bit more about it in the future!
In other habit news, I’ve also been experimenting with different apps to improve my productivity for the upcoming school semester. If you have any suggestions for apps I should check out, feel free to comment below or contact me!
Summer (夏 xià) – Joy, Vitality & Enthusiasm. Watering the positives and weeding out the negitives with whole-hearted enthusiasm
Ecology field work with Oriental magpie-robins
Over the summer, I have been doing some field work with a HKU professor’s lab, studying Oriental magpie-robins (Copsychus saularis).
Essentially, I have been going around to different nest boxes around HKU campus, checking on their status by taking photos of the nests, eggs and chicks. Unfortunately, all the chicks in the nest box this year didn’t survive, so we weren’t able to “ring” any of the juveniles. 😦
I have one last check next week (since their breeding season ends around the end of the summer), then I might continue to work with the lab doing some literature reviews, or helping out with the playback test data collection (essentially isolating the recorded OMR songs with a program called Raven).
Either way, I’ve loved the work I got to do over the break and can see myself making it into a long term career. So glad I picked ecology as my primary major! 🙂
Fall (秋 qiū)- Transition & culmination. Reaping the harvest from what has been sowed.
End of the first year of HKU quidditich, and the start of year two!
Basically the subtitle. So HKU has this rule that in order to become a full fleged association with the student union, you have to comply with a whole list of stipulations.
One of the requirments is that the club must have existed for 2 years without funding from the union itself, another being that at least 40 HKU students must be members. So in an attempt to make quidditch “a thing” in HK, the team have partnered with the university’s Equal Opportunity Unit (EOU) and gotten a some of scholership money to create the “Fly for Equality” project.
We’ve gotten a bit of media coverage in our first year, and are hoping to recruit lots of new people through the EOU Ocamp or the exibition match that will happen at the start of the semester. Exciting stuff though!
(unrelated side note: possible future post idea – explaining HKU/canto slang terms like “ocamp”, “chur” “dem beet” etc?)
Winter (冬 dōng) – Rest & reflection. Storing what was gained before and contemplating what is to come.
HKU -> Leeds exchange plans & updates
Finally we come to the bit that I’m assuming 80% of the readers skimed to. To be frank though, not much has happened since I last posted.
I’ve contacted the International Affairs Office (the people incharge of outgoing exchanges) and they gave me the advice to register for semester 2 classes in case the thing falls though, and that more information will be provided later.
Bit nervous though, since I have to do everything from register for classes to get student visas all within the span of a few months during the school year. I’ve asked my other friends about it and they said the IAO focuses of sem 1 and full year people first, so I shouldn’t really panic until October.
But yeah, I’ve been doing some research about Leeds and the surounding area, specifically on museums, historical sites and botanical gardens (yup, I’m both a history nerd + ecology geek, and dang proud of it!)
So if you know of places I should visit, again feel free to comment below!
So yeah, hope this entry was somewhat interesting…
Missed my self-imposed deadline by a few minutes due to an internet issue and not saving often enough, but hey close enough!
Until next time!
-Rebecca
