We're officially (and finally) done with Semester 1. That's right folks, exams are over! We had our last one yesterday. Save the worst for last? It was alright, but unfortunately we all seemed to go into it feeling like our heads were empty from trying to cram so much into them, and walked out feeling even emptier. Our brains felt so mushy afterward that some of us weren't even up for celebrating in the pubs! Well, not for too long anyway.
Today, Dan and I buckled down to get a whooooole lot of things done towards our dissertation project. Considering our intentions to start running trials at the start of Semester 2, we had been supposed to get our ethics approval submitted around Christmas time. We ran into some snags there though in that as masters students (as opposed to professors or PhD students) we were unable to open our own application online. So we had to get in touch with the appropriate person in the department to do that for us, and then we finally got access to the application a few days ago. In the middle of exam time. So despite our mush brains just wanting to relax, Dan and I went to it, working on the application itself as well as all the supporting documents that we have to provide along with it (Participant Information, Consent Form, Debriefing form, and all questionnaires and scales to be used). It was a lot to get through but we were super productive... eventually.
It's really good we got so much done, because tomorrow I'm off on a mini vacation with Cat! Semester 2 doesn't start til Monday, so we're taking a few days to get out of Bangor. She lives in a village outside of Cambridge (http://www.guildenmorden.gov.uk/ adorable, right?), and she's taking me home with her for a few days to spend some time in Cambridge and London. It should be a really fun few days. I plan on taking lots of pictures, especially given my amazing Christmas present of a DSLR! I'm not too great at using it yet, so we'll see how they turn out, but it's a great opportunity to practice! Be prepared for next week's blog to be pretty long and picture-ful.
I don't have a whole lot to say this week which I'd say is a pretty accurate reflection of the past chunk of my life. I've pretty much been hunkered down studying or procrastinating studying since I got back here. Not a whole lot of activity.
See you next week with reports of the more metropolitan side of the UK!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
We're Baa-aaaack
After an almost 3 week break which absolutely FLEW by, I am back in Bangor and gearing up with exams (unfortunately, these crazy Brits still think it's a good idea to have final exams take place after Christmas break rather than moving them to before it like us brilliant Americans do). Being back here feels almost like normal. Almost. I can't say I'm perfectly happy here, but I'm definitely happy to see my friends again. If I didn't miss Bangor, I most certainly missed them.
Since this is a blog to recount my thoughts and experiences in Wales to everyone at home while I'm away, I took a break for the few weeks I was on break. It didn't seem to make sense to keep it up and write about my time at home when the people reading it would be the people with whom everything occurred. Nothing short of silly. However, due to this little holiday-based hiatus, the few days between last post and arrival home fell through the proverbial cracks of blogging. Not that they were necessarily all that gripping, but there were some fun things for sure
We had a little Christmas/Goodbye party one night after everyone had turned all their work in so we could relax together and see each other off. This was most important with a few beloved Erasmus students who were only here for the one semester. Thursday was my lovely Parisian's departure, so I met her for coffee and a snack in the morning and hung out til a couple of us walked her to the train station to say goodbye. Not cool, but the best excuse I've ever had to get back to Paris! That night I was invited out with the other Erasmus girls to a "Silent Disco" for their last night out, which I couldn't even think about turning down. Here's the concept: you go to the club, pay a cheap deposit and get a headset, said headset has 2 (or more) radio channels on which the DJ plays different music. Inside, the club is silent except for the sounds of people singing along and dancing to different songs. This sounded weird to me at first, but turned out to be one of the most fun nights in Bangor thus far. Not to mention the fact that it had snowed a little while we were inside, so high street was a clean white wonderland when we came out. A day or two later, the girls decided to have an "everything but the kitchen sink" dinner, so we all brought together the last bits and pieces of groceries and had a fun night with very random assortments of food, and sad goodbyes at the end. A bittersweet few days, to say the least. But I promise that's not the last I'll see of them if I can help it. Sunday was my day to head to Manchester where I had a hotel for the evening and a flight to catch the next morning. Lucky for me, a friend and his roommate were heading to Manchester for the day and allowed me to tag along with them to the Trafford Center (a big schwanky mall) and home with him to meet a bunch of family and be fed a delicious home cooked Indian meal (absolutely AMAZING, I might add). And that was it for me in the UK. I caught my flight the next morning out of Manchester despite the weather on both sides of the Atlantic trying its best to make things difficult, and I finally made it home.
Fast-forward a couple of weeks through some very busy, very fun, and very blurred times with family and friends and we arrive back in Wales and heading into exams. To be honest, I didn't really want to come back. There have been some real ups and downs with this whole experience. Most of you have heard at least a little of my gripes. Don't get me wrong, I'm still happy with my decision to come here and I still very much think it is worth it in the end, but there are a lot of things that made me, in a way, dread having to return. Some of that we'll put down to classic lazy student syndrome since coming back meant studying and exams and then papers and whatever else. The rest, well, I've probably vented to everyone enough times to not have to worry about explaining it again here. Doom and gloom aside, now I'm trying to forget about what makes me unhappy and instead focus on what's good and just generally be more positive about everything. It's going to be a long 6 months if I don't!
So now I'm back, I've had one exam already (today: Quantitative & Qualitative analysis- it went alright, about what I expected), I have an assignment due tomorrow which I actually completed ahead of time (shocking!), another exam on Thursday for Marketing Strategy, and then my third and final exam on Monday for Consumer and Applied Psychology. It's going to be a busy few days! By Tuesday I will most likely be some combination of tired, brain-melted, giddy, and relieved. That blog entry should be interesting. Stay tuned!
Since this is a blog to recount my thoughts and experiences in Wales to everyone at home while I'm away, I took a break for the few weeks I was on break. It didn't seem to make sense to keep it up and write about my time at home when the people reading it would be the people with whom everything occurred. Nothing short of silly. However, due to this little holiday-based hiatus, the few days between last post and arrival home fell through the proverbial cracks of blogging. Not that they were necessarily all that gripping, but there were some fun things for sure
We had a little Christmas/Goodbye party one night after everyone had turned all their work in so we could relax together and see each other off. This was most important with a few beloved Erasmus students who were only here for the one semester. Thursday was my lovely Parisian's departure, so I met her for coffee and a snack in the morning and hung out til a couple of us walked her to the train station to say goodbye. Not cool, but the best excuse I've ever had to get back to Paris! That night I was invited out with the other Erasmus girls to a "Silent Disco" for their last night out, which I couldn't even think about turning down. Here's the concept: you go to the club, pay a cheap deposit and get a headset, said headset has 2 (or more) radio channels on which the DJ plays different music. Inside, the club is silent except for the sounds of people singing along and dancing to different songs. This sounded weird to me at first, but turned out to be one of the most fun nights in Bangor thus far. Not to mention the fact that it had snowed a little while we were inside, so high street was a clean white wonderland when we came out. A day or two later, the girls decided to have an "everything but the kitchen sink" dinner, so we all brought together the last bits and pieces of groceries and had a fun night with very random assortments of food, and sad goodbyes at the end. A bittersweet few days, to say the least. But I promise that's not the last I'll see of them if I can help it. Sunday was my day to head to Manchester where I had a hotel for the evening and a flight to catch the next morning. Lucky for me, a friend and his roommate were heading to Manchester for the day and allowed me to tag along with them to the Trafford Center (a big schwanky mall) and home with him to meet a bunch of family and be fed a delicious home cooked Indian meal (absolutely AMAZING, I might add). And that was it for me in the UK. I caught my flight the next morning out of Manchester despite the weather on both sides of the Atlantic trying its best to make things difficult, and I finally made it home.
Photo lovingly stolen from Zoe. I will miss these girls very very much this semester. Bangor will not be the same without them!
So now I'm back, I've had one exam already (today: Quantitative & Qualitative analysis- it went alright, about what I expected), I have an assignment due tomorrow which I actually completed ahead of time (shocking!), another exam on Thursday for Marketing Strategy, and then my third and final exam on Monday for Consumer and Applied Psychology. It's going to be a busy few days! By Tuesday I will most likely be some combination of tired, brain-melted, giddy, and relieved. That blog entry should be interesting. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tis the Season
It is officially the last week of the term! After last week's post, I worked for three days straight on a huge group project which was due Monday, then Dan and I wrote up our entire project/ methods proposal, then I wrote up the last of my pre-break coursework assignments. So now, as of this morning, I am officially finished with all of the term's academic work!!! I do have a meeting tomorrow with Dan and our supervisor, Jane, to do more dissertation project work and hopefully finish building our experiment in the software program we're using. I would love to have that finished before break. It would be a great sense of accomplishment, a weight off while I'm home, and would make the project easy to pick up and run with as soon as we get back!
Naturally, that made all the chaos, crowds, and noise okay. Annoyance is completely canceled out when there are real live reindeer involved.
This morning, following our very last lecture of the semester, Dan managed to arrange a little celebration for all the Consumer Psych masters students. So after all the presentations were finished, we all hung out with mulled wine and mini mince pies chatting and relaxing. It was actually really nice. As much as we comprise a small department and see each other in classes every single day, it seems that people on the course don't know each other as well as we all should. So today we actually all got to know one another a bit more, bonding over our shared joy for the end of assignments, Christmas, and free snacks.
Speaking of Christmas, in case you weren't aware, it is next week. This also means that this time next week, I will be home. In Massachusetts. Wearing sweatpants and not thinking about school. I will also not be thinking about this blog. That's right, folks. The blog will be going on hiatus over the holiday break. Doesn't make much sense to continue a blog about my time in Wales while I'm not in Wales, now does it? Not to worry though, as soon as I'm back here in January the blog will resume.
I will see (some of) you soon, and for those of you whom I will not be seeing while I am home, have a wonderful holiday!
While taking a short break from work this past weekend, AD and I wandered down to High Street for lunch and some errands. When we got there, we found the above scene of chaos which turned out to be a Christmas Market/ Festival of sorts. It looked sort of like a cheap carnival with the sparse and cheesy rides, and scattered pathetic tables of jewelry or other things for sale. However, it had one mighty redeeming characteristic: Reindeer!!!
Naturally, that made all the chaos, crowds, and noise okay. Annoyance is completely canceled out when there are real live reindeer involved.
This morning, following our very last lecture of the semester, Dan managed to arrange a little celebration for all the Consumer Psych masters students. So after all the presentations were finished, we all hung out with mulled wine and mini mince pies chatting and relaxing. It was actually really nice. As much as we comprise a small department and see each other in classes every single day, it seems that people on the course don't know each other as well as we all should. So today we actually all got to know one another a bit more, bonding over our shared joy for the end of assignments, Christmas, and free snacks.
Speaking of Christmas, in case you weren't aware, it is next week. This also means that this time next week, I will be home. In Massachusetts. Wearing sweatpants and not thinking about school. I will also not be thinking about this blog. That's right, folks. The blog will be going on hiatus over the holiday break. Doesn't make much sense to continue a blog about my time in Wales while I'm not in Wales, now does it? Not to worry though, as soon as I'm back here in January the blog will resume.
I will see (some of) you soon, and for those of you whom I will not be seeing while I am home, have a wonderful holiday!
A Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Counting Down
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....
Last week, I wrote about how there had been lovely snow flurries and how everything was feeling quite winter-y. Conveniently enough (or not, since I had already finished that post) we got a good amount of snow that very night/morning around 1am. Now, let me just clarify "a good amount of snow." Here in the UK in general, they don't tend to get huge quantities of snow, and especially not in the first two days of December. Narrow that down to Bangor on the coast of Wales between water and Mountains, and you find even less snow. So a dusting on the ground that actually accumulates is very exciting to people, despite being well under an inch.
This amount of snow, particularly on a college campus, means one thing: PLAY OUTSIDE! I, however, was unfortunately chained to my desk that night. Inside. Longingly staring out the window at the snow. And the people having fun- while I was writing a paper. Very disappointing to a girl from New England. I did take time out though to snap a couple pictures of the frolicking
We're now in the second to last week of the term here, which is hard to believe until I think about the fact that I'm extra busy (relative to the rest of the term). Then it feels like the end of a semester as I know it. Last week I had a paper due, and lots of reading to do for a discussion. Monday night I had a powerpoint due which was to be used for the presentation I gave today on said paper from last week. Friday I am due to give an outline of my Lit Review section of my dissertation to my supervisor, and next week I have a group project due Monday and reviews of others' papers due Wednesday. Oh and one last discussion section the last day of term just for good measure. BUT all that means I'll be home in 13 days. That's all! And Christmas is in 18 days. That's motivation enough for me :)
Ordinarily, I think I would end this post right about here. Today, however, I have to mention something which has been mumbled about and demanded behind the scenes for a while now. This, Catrin, is for you:
Bacon. Is there any finer a food in the world? Cat has been after me for weeks to write about it. While I may be sarcastic about it being the 'finest food in the world', I will admit that bacon is pretty awesome. And they eat a lot of it here. And that is awesome. I do have a problem though. Bacon here is not bacon as we know and love it. They have "bacon" which is pink and tastes mostly like what I think it should taste like, but the flavor's not quite right. Then they have Streaky Bacon. This is what they refer to as American Bacon. Getting warmer, but still not right. Catrin is (slightly?) obsessed with bacon, and is what I would call a bit of a connoisseur, and she knows that maple-cured "streaky" type bacon the way we find it in the states is the best of the best. And thus we have a blog post about Bacon.
Oh, and Cat? Bacon.
See you all in 13 days! Meanwhile, treasure your bacon.
(snow on the mountains I see out my window)
Last week, I wrote about how there had been lovely snow flurries and how everything was feeling quite winter-y. Conveniently enough (or not, since I had already finished that post) we got a good amount of snow that very night/morning around 1am. Now, let me just clarify "a good amount of snow." Here in the UK in general, they don't tend to get huge quantities of snow, and especially not in the first two days of December. Narrow that down to Bangor on the coast of Wales between water and Mountains, and you find even less snow. So a dusting on the ground that actually accumulates is very exciting to people, despite being well under an inch.
This amount of snow, particularly on a college campus, means one thing: PLAY OUTSIDE! I, however, was unfortunately chained to my desk that night. Inside. Longingly staring out the window at the snow. And the people having fun- while I was writing a paper. Very disappointing to a girl from New England. I did take time out though to snap a couple pictures of the frolicking
We're now in the second to last week of the term here, which is hard to believe until I think about the fact that I'm extra busy (relative to the rest of the term). Then it feels like the end of a semester as I know it. Last week I had a paper due, and lots of reading to do for a discussion. Monday night I had a powerpoint due which was to be used for the presentation I gave today on said paper from last week. Friday I am due to give an outline of my Lit Review section of my dissertation to my supervisor, and next week I have a group project due Monday and reviews of others' papers due Wednesday. Oh and one last discussion section the last day of term just for good measure. BUT all that means I'll be home in 13 days. That's all! And Christmas is in 18 days. That's motivation enough for me :)
Ordinarily, I think I would end this post right about here. Today, however, I have to mention something which has been mumbled about and demanded behind the scenes for a while now. This, Catrin, is for you:
Bacon. Is there any finer a food in the world? Cat has been after me for weeks to write about it. While I may be sarcastic about it being the 'finest food in the world', I will admit that bacon is pretty awesome. And they eat a lot of it here. And that is awesome. I do have a problem though. Bacon here is not bacon as we know and love it. They have "bacon" which is pink and tastes mostly like what I think it should taste like, but the flavor's not quite right. Then they have Streaky Bacon. This is what they refer to as American Bacon. Getting warmer, but still not right. Catrin is (slightly?) obsessed with bacon, and is what I would call a bit of a connoisseur, and she knows that maple-cured "streaky" type bacon the way we find it in the states is the best of the best. And thus we have a blog post about Bacon.
Oh, and Cat? Bacon.
See you all in 13 days! Meanwhile, treasure your bacon.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Novcember
Welcome to Novcember: a cross-breed lovechild mashup where November meets December midweek. Typically at this juncture I would say something like "Wow, bye-bye [month]!" or, "Welcome to [month]!" As it happens, that's just not so cut-and-dry this week. Blog day falls just on the cusp of the -ember's; a hybrid of two months. Like a liger.
This monthful blend does, however, create a neat little structure for this post. As you may recall, if your food coma didn't obliterate your memory from last Tuesday to this, I was pretty bummed about the idea of missing Thanksgiving. To make myself a little less sad about not being home for the epic food-centered smorgasbord that holiday is, I decided to host a little Thanksgiving of my own. As you might also recall, I promised a full report for this week (that's this right here, if you haven't caught on).
Because this was to be my replacement Thanksgiving as well as a first experience with Thanksgiving for my multi-national friends, I was determined to have all the fixings. But here's the problem: I live in a dorm, with a crappy kitchen, a teeny tiny oven, and little to no cooking implements. Not to worry. Being a college student and all, I am very resourceful and, erm, creative when it comes to dealing with inconvenient situations of things like space (or lack thereof). So I begged and borrowed and wound up with a marginally better collection of pots and dishes, though decidedly not the best possible set-up. Case in point: cooking potatoes for 15 people, spread across 3 medium sized saucepans all simultaneously boiling over. I like to call this 'the misadventures of postgrads in a kitchen.'
All in all it went pretty well, thanks to some much appreciated assistance from Ad (excellent potato peeler/chopper), Raphie (esteemed pot boil-over-watcher), Diego (chief turkey maker) and from everyone who carried. When I say carried, I am referring to the fact that we had to transport all of the food and anything else we needed for dinner across a parking lot, down around a path, and over to the common room. Why? Well because we were having dinner for 15 people and our kitchens comfortably suit maybe 6. Once we got everything there and everyone arrived, we had a lovely dinner of turkey (breasts not full bird, due to the aforementioned teeny tiny oven), stuffing, mashed potatoes, string beans, glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Props to Dan, too, for making a nice pot of mulled wine.
Now, I was going to continue the Novcember motif here by moving on to talk of Decembery things, but this post is already super long. With that in mind, I'll try to keep this brief. Lately (since the end of last week) we've been seeing some snow flurries here and there. For me, this is great. I'm not afraid of a little chilly weather. Actually, I really like it. And a few snowflakes are icing on the cake (ooh such metaphoric imagery!). However, just as I found in Delaware, people here in Wales are not so good with it. In fact, they tend to panic. A few of us tried to go out Friday night, but the night overall was a bit of a bust because very few people were out and about. Pubs were empty... in a college town... in Wales. I didn't think that could happen. My friend Cat is a perfect example of the snow-panic. Friday, there were some good flurries going, and a dusting of white was sticking to the ground. Talking online, suddenly Cat says "Oh! Be right back. I'm going down to the car to get my wellies in case it gets really bad." ......... It's November. The ground isn't even frozen. Also, it's Wales. It's not going to be a blizzard. The first mention of snow and the Brits think the world is shutting down. Cat's reasoning is that she "doesn't trust the weather" and so when the BBC weatherman says there might be snow, she goes, and I quote, "HOLY SHIT IM GOING TO DIE". And that is winter in Wales.
An early welcome to December to you all, and watch out for those killer flurries.
This monthful blend does, however, create a neat little structure for this post. As you may recall, if your food coma didn't obliterate your memory from last Tuesday to this, I was pretty bummed about the idea of missing Thanksgiving. To make myself a little less sad about not being home for the epic food-centered smorgasbord that holiday is, I decided to host a little Thanksgiving of my own. As you might also recall, I promised a full report for this week (that's this right here, if you haven't caught on).
Because this was to be my replacement Thanksgiving as well as a first experience with Thanksgiving for my multi-national friends, I was determined to have all the fixings. But here's the problem: I live in a dorm, with a crappy kitchen, a teeny tiny oven, and little to no cooking implements. Not to worry. Being a college student and all, I am very resourceful and, erm, creative when it comes to dealing with inconvenient situations of things like space (or lack thereof). So I begged and borrowed and wound up with a marginally better collection of pots and dishes, though decidedly not the best possible set-up. Case in point: cooking potatoes for 15 people, spread across 3 medium sized saucepans all simultaneously boiling over. I like to call this 'the misadventures of postgrads in a kitchen.'
All in all it went pretty well, thanks to some much appreciated assistance from Ad (excellent potato peeler/chopper), Raphie (esteemed pot boil-over-watcher), Diego (chief turkey maker) and from everyone who carried. When I say carried, I am referring to the fact that we had to transport all of the food and anything else we needed for dinner across a parking lot, down around a path, and over to the common room. Why? Well because we were having dinner for 15 people and our kitchens comfortably suit maybe 6. Once we got everything there and everyone arrived, we had a lovely dinner of turkey (breasts not full bird, due to the aforementioned teeny tiny oven), stuffing, mashed potatoes, string beans, glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Props to Dan, too, for making a nice pot of mulled wine.
Now, I was going to continue the Novcember motif here by moving on to talk of Decembery things, but this post is already super long. With that in mind, I'll try to keep this brief. Lately (since the end of last week) we've been seeing some snow flurries here and there. For me, this is great. I'm not afraid of a little chilly weather. Actually, I really like it. And a few snowflakes are icing on the cake (ooh such metaphoric imagery!). However, just as I found in Delaware, people here in Wales are not so good with it. In fact, they tend to panic. A few of us tried to go out Friday night, but the night overall was a bit of a bust because very few people were out and about. Pubs were empty... in a college town... in Wales. I didn't think that could happen. My friend Cat is a perfect example of the snow-panic. Friday, there were some good flurries going, and a dusting of white was sticking to the ground. Talking online, suddenly Cat says "Oh! Be right back. I'm going down to the car to get my wellies in case it gets really bad." ......... It's November. The ground isn't even frozen. Also, it's Wales. It's not going to be a blizzard. The first mention of snow and the Brits think the world is shutting down. Cat's reasoning is that she "doesn't trust the weather" and so when the BBC weatherman says there might be snow, she goes, and I quote, "HOLY SHIT IM GOING TO DIE". And that is winter in Wales.
An early welcome to December to you all, and watch out for those killer flurries.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Turkey Week
Let me start by saying that this week is the beginning of some of the best and worst times of any year. We begin with Thanksgiving, one of the best holidays ever invented. From there we quickly move on to December, a month consistently packed with academic stress of a thousand papers and projects all due before winter break. However, December is also Christmastime. Christmastime means vacation. And then New Year's: still vacation. Then it's time to go back to reality, or school, as the case may be.
So here we are with Thanksgiving. A holiday earmarked for food and food alone. Okay, and maybe some football. What's not to love? Because this holiday is amazing and I am very fond of it, I decided to have my very own here in Wales. Diego is also a big fan, so the two of us are whipping up a Thanksgiving feast for all of our friends. This should be interesting given the, shall we say, limited capability of the dorm kitchens. Expect a full report next week.
Since this holiday does not exist here in the UK, we have the additional issue of Christmas encroachment. Aside from the feast of delicious-osity, Thanksgiving also marks the time when it becomes acceptable to start listening to Christmas music and do Christmasy things. This does not occur where Thanksgiving doesn't exist, and therefore carols have been playing in stores for weeks now. Because of this and the contagious nature of all things Christmas-y, I went out to Conwy to do a little shopping. It was a nice little afternoon with lots of shops full of ornaments, decorations and other festive paraphernalia. A little premature for my taste, but hey, who am I to talk if I was out Christmas shopping?
On the bus ride out to Conwy, something was particularly striking: there seems to be a sudden burst of vibrant burnt orange and red hues everywhere. The hills and mountains are just blanketed in an orange similar to that of fallen pine needles, but brighter. And there are berry-bearing bushes all over with their fruit ranging in color from a light, delicate orange to a fiery red. It's absolutely breathtaking. I snapped a couple of pictures while I took a walk around the outer walls of the castle, but they do no justice to the whole scene.
So things are looking quite fall-y around here, perfect just in time for Thanksgiving. The epitome of fall. And you can't beat the colors: all the burnt oranges of New England, but greener. I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving taking advantage of the food and family. I'll report back on mine next week, provided I don't burn the place down :)
So here we are with Thanksgiving. A holiday earmarked for food and food alone. Okay, and maybe some football. What's not to love? Because this holiday is amazing and I am very fond of it, I decided to have my very own here in Wales. Diego is also a big fan, so the two of us are whipping up a Thanksgiving feast for all of our friends. This should be interesting given the, shall we say, limited capability of the dorm kitchens. Expect a full report next week.
Since this holiday does not exist here in the UK, we have the additional issue of Christmas encroachment. Aside from the feast of delicious-osity, Thanksgiving also marks the time when it becomes acceptable to start listening to Christmas music and do Christmasy things. This does not occur where Thanksgiving doesn't exist, and therefore carols have been playing in stores for weeks now. Because of this and the contagious nature of all things Christmas-y, I went out to Conwy to do a little shopping. It was a nice little afternoon with lots of shops full of ornaments, decorations and other festive paraphernalia. A little premature for my taste, but hey, who am I to talk if I was out Christmas shopping?
On the bus ride out to Conwy, something was particularly striking: there seems to be a sudden burst of vibrant burnt orange and red hues everywhere. The hills and mountains are just blanketed in an orange similar to that of fallen pine needles, but brighter. And there are berry-bearing bushes all over with their fruit ranging in color from a light, delicate orange to a fiery red. It's absolutely breathtaking. I snapped a couple of pictures while I took a walk around the outer walls of the castle, but they do no justice to the whole scene.
So things are looking quite fall-y around here, perfect just in time for Thanksgiving. The epitome of fall. And you can't beat the colors: all the burnt oranges of New England, but greener. I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving taking advantage of the food and family. I'll report back on mine next week, provided I don't burn the place down :)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Busy Bee Keeping it Simple
This week, in particular tonight, I am very very busy with papers to write, research to do, and lots of reading to see to. So unfortunately, I do not have the time (or, coincidentally, the material) to write a lengthy post about every moment of the past week. It is Tuesday though, and I didn't want to leave you all high and dry, so instead I am going to show you some of what I do here- the fun stuff, anyway.
Given that this is Consumer Psychology and we spend much of our time discussing marketing and advertising, we also spend time looking at specific ads and considering who is it for? what was the goal? is it successful in achieving it's objectives? Here are some of my favorites that I have stumbled upon on my own time in doing research. Heads up: they might not be entirely appropriate ;)
This one has been out for quite a while, and I think most people have seen it, but it's just so perfect in so many ways in terms of psych-y advertising:
Now this one I found and thought was pretty funny, and definitely catches your attention as a viewer. I'm not sure where this was located (clearly not the states), but I think it's pretty effective for a familiar brand
This last ad I personally find hilarious. It's mildly inappropriate and again, not aired in the US, but even beyond the entertainment factor, it's actually a really good ad from technical perspectives.
That's it for me this week. Schoolwork calls, unfortunately. Hopefully I'll have time and plenty to say next week!
Given that this is Consumer Psychology and we spend much of our time discussing marketing and advertising, we also spend time looking at specific ads and considering who is it for? what was the goal? is it successful in achieving it's objectives? Here are some of my favorites that I have stumbled upon on my own time in doing research. Heads up: they might not be entirely appropriate ;)
This one has been out for quite a while, and I think most people have seen it, but it's just so perfect in so many ways in terms of psych-y advertising:
Now this one I found and thought was pretty funny, and definitely catches your attention as a viewer. I'm not sure where this was located (clearly not the states), but I think it's pretty effective for a familiar brand
This last ad I personally find hilarious. It's mildly inappropriate and again, not aired in the US, but even beyond the entertainment factor, it's actually a really good ad from technical perspectives.
That's it for me this week. Schoolwork calls, unfortunately. Hopefully I'll have time and plenty to say next week!
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