The Year That Was…2009

I know it is up a bit late but found it difficult to upload over the past few weeks as I kept closing the window and stopping the upload >_< Yes you will see a lot of photos of me in America but that is where I took most photos this year but it is still enjoyable to watch with some photos not being in any other photo montage done this year…Enjoy ^_^

It Has Been Great…

The last 3 Years of College life has involved the UCC SVdP Society and am glad that a friend back in First Year got me involved. The society has really grown from strength to strength in this time and has seen many achievements including Best Charity Society 08/09. I really hope in the coming years as I know bow out of the society that it will continue to grow and not struggle. So here is a montage of photos over the last year… Enjoy!!!

VdP Day/ Sleep Out

One of the many occasions I got up to over the last Month includes the VdP Day & Sleep Out.

UCC SVdP day took place on UCC campus on March 11^th 2009. The day long activities were organised as a warm-up for our 12 hour sleepout which took place that night. During the day on UCC campus, a group of SVdP volunteers and friends donned yellow t-shirts which were designed especially for the occasion. A stand displaying our newly acquired SVdP banner as well as a plethora of posters was set up on campus. Leaflets and flyers containing information about our sleepout as well as a range of interesting homelessness facts were distributed to the student community at UCC. A range of sweets and lolly-pops were also given out. A bouncy castle was set up on campus which provided hours of fun entertainment! At 6 p.m. the comedy society so kindly performed a sketch on homelessness which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Following a fun-filled and active day on campus, a group of approximately thirty enthusiastic young people including our committee, volunteers and other UCC students gathered on Daunt Square (Grand Parade) for the sleepout. A group of five active Dublin SVdP students also joined us. Each individual arrived fully equipped with a sleeping bag and any necessary food supplies! The sleepout continued from 8p.m. until 6a.m. or there abouts. Our sleeping area was decorated by a range of imaginatively designed posters made from cardboard displaying slogans relating to homelessness. Such posters proved to be extremely effective in helping to increase public awareness of homelessness.

The primary aim of our homelessness campaign was to increase awareness of this escalating problem as opposed to fundraising. While so, a great number of people passing through the square donated generously to the cause. As a result of the generous donations, we decided to divide up into groups of three and to take food orders from any homeless individuals in the vicinity. We felt that as part of our campaign a direct contribution to the Cork homeless community would be most appropriate.

Phew!!! Nearly There…

Had a busy 2 weeks so far. With the UCC SVdP Society doing the Giving Tree again this year in UCC meant times I had to look after it, pick up any presents brought back to the tree at 6pm meant many late evenings on campus. Collecting all the presents left on the Friday was scary with my car weighed down and barely being able to see out rear and side windows was scary. The presents were dropped to SVdP Cork on the Friday evening and had another car load on the Tuesday then also from the previous days. I am also hearing that more presents are being dropped in by people from the College who were unable to get them back by Friday. With over 200 names given out  I am not surprised. 

Following that week I had my poster presentation for my Biochemistry Project. I was nervous and bricking it but with great surprise I came 2nd place out of the CPCIV where one prize goes to one of 8 Chemistry projects and one prize goes to one out of pharmacology and biochemistry where there is four in each. There were other project presentations given for wet and dry Chemistry Projects.  The night that followed was in the Imperial Hotel for 4th years, post grads and lectures in Chemistry Dept. which was a great night (then again I did co-organise the night). 

With all this going on and I am meant to be doing less stuff this year because its my final year, I think I am busy as previous years. Tomorrow is my final day and get my xmas holidays which will involve 3 weeks of writing up my project for the 19th Jan. deadline but seems to be plenty of time….but time will tell. I am sorry there has been no picture video things but see below to see my battered camera after the intervarsity weekend last month and you will see why no new pics but may make up a video of old pictures I have.

 

With xmas only 2 weeks away Today, I need to get cracking on buying xmas presents. But santa will be bringing me the item below for xmas which I will enjoy as I have to struggle listing to the radio in the car and the awful sounds of cars as I walk  to and from college 😀

I will surely get a post up in the next two weeks and if I don’t, comment me.

Long Time Coming

I am still alive and sorry for those who have been waiting on a post about Intervarsity Weekend. It was a great weekend with about 60 members coming from UCC, UCD, DCU, TCD, Queens and Maynooth IT. The weekend took place in Kerdiffstown House. It included chats, discussions, debates, Quizzes, a Ceili and a few drinks which was enjoyed by all.

The main puropose of the weekend is to come together to discuss new ideas and activities and how we can get SVdP to be more genrational relevent to young people today and not break windows ( we broke two 🙂 ). Main highlight was the discussion about the requirement of a National Youth Officer which was heated at times.

But at the end of the weekend,  we said goodbye and only getting 4 hours sleep, drove the 3 hour journey home nearly falling asleep only once 😀 The weekend is always greqat due to free food being given to us every 2 hours so you never went hungry 😀 Below is a video photo thing for you to see what went on, Enjoy!

Will Be Brief…

With a few minutes out of my busy schedule do I have time to post this. Over the past few weeks I have been in the lab for nearly 20hours a week though only meant to be doing 16hours in total. The project is not going smoothly as first taught but that means I get to discuss more. Lectures are only few with the class only doing 3 out of 8 before xmas. Started on reports for the project and a short seminar on a drug for pharmacology. I have organised the 4th Year chemistry Xmas party in the Imperial and have gone to Kildare for a weekend wIth SVdP where the LCD screen for my camera was damaged 😦 I seem to be doing a lot but would like to be further along in them. I have a lot on my mind of what I want to do with the rest of my life and where I want to go, with many class mates dawning the door of the Careers office.

I will post a video of the antics happened at the weekend soon but below is a taster of what fun we had:

 

Another Day

Reached 500 views today which ain’t so bad for little old me. I know many would be cringing at only 500 views of a blog with so many other reaching thousand views possibly each day!!! Ah well!

Really tired tonight after my first long day at college with 4 hours of lectures and driving to Fermoy for our Youth Meeting which was a good time. Really amazed how short the trip was due to the fact that we took the Toll Road which was nice and was making sure we would not arrive at nearly 8:30pm and have to drive back late like we normally do. Also sent off forms today for the SVdP College weekend away in November which should be good craic. So will post on that when it rolls around.

Moving On

Paid a visit yesterday to the Recruitment Fair that was being held in UCC to see what careers/anyone willing to hire me when I graduate. I was amazed by the amount of students who were milling around the Hall. It was scary to realize that a lot of other students are fighting for any job also.

With all that said it was good to get some info in how to go about getting a Graduate job. Its hard to think that after 4 years of College you are just dropped into the big world and fend for yourself but that is the adventure in life. 

Only settling into college now and feels like a false sense of what its all gonna be like this week due to only a few hours lectures before the projects begin. On a side note, though I am Treasurer of UCC SVdP Society this yea, the society managed to grow by another four committee members in the last week meaning less work and will try to give up webmaster by next week to vice-PR officer as he has done some web work before which is great. 

Things are going well but time will tell…

What Happened to me then???

Sorry about the delay in getting to make a new post but have been busy. Still doing college but only for one day left of lectures with an odd day to come into college left for labs an the like. With another study period dawing on the horizen it would not be the same without me heading away for a week 😀 Denise and I are taking the Encounter youth group away for a few days to Wales to Hope 08 which should be fun. Though I will be studying durinh the trip as I am a swot I will enjoy it.

So with nearly 6 weeks off I hope that it will be sunny like last year and get some tanning done too 😀 Also I was unable to get away from UCC SVdP Society and will be the Treasurer next year though I wont be involved as much next year due to being in Final Year. Now you would never think of the day that I would be a College Graduate which sounds very daunting. So wont dwell on that for much longer except the fact that we got a list of projects for next year to choose from already so pressure is mounting.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so I had a great week last week with class party, Clubs and Socs Ball and St Patricks dy allowing me to really embrace the last few days of college. All I need now is to learn how to study properly and pass my exams.

Not much besides all that I think…. So I will leave you with this… Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

What shall I say then???

It has been 11 days since my last post and to make sure that people know that I am still alive, here I am. As mentioned before, my adapter is still beeping but does not work anymore to keep my Laptop going so I had to purchase a new one which is still en-route to me, so time will tell if ebay lives up to its promise once more.

In the last 11 days has been an up and down time as we struggle between college life and your own life. With receiving results that are not to be sniffed at and getting through those Continuities Assesments of college makes my feel good that I am getting things done. But once again free time is been taken up by society work and the UCC SU meetings need to be attended. This leaves little time for me to do my own study that I would love to get done. I know I said to cut back on society work but with myself in a committee where we are feeling the stress of keeping it together which was reported by the UCC Express this week on how committed members are only barely hanging in there and some may sacrifice the degree to keep a society going. So come March we will hopefully have an AGM and begin to train in people with the hope of leaving behind my post as PR Officer for the last 2 years which I have enjoyed and regonised by the Societies Guild.

Once again I had to draft my post as college work needed to be done so an extra two days have gone by and pressure has not left off yet. I presented my o-Anisidine Toxicity Profile, the society submitted our award forms and the auditor put me forward as an Individual candidate (isn’t that nice :D), have had my class freak out at me about science ball tickets as they got worried which made me worry. I have received my adapter which is keeping me running now for another while.

So far me now and my walk around my brain is very confused and dazed at most times as college creeps ever closer to an end, life gets more complex and truth is somewhere out there 😀

Are you coming…???