Thank Goodness for Easter Break

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Finding a balance between work and school is hard. Honestly, Iโ€™m only taking two courses at uni right now, but I think because theyโ€™re two biology courses with two labs, the workload is different than, say, if they were two humanities courses. This week, all of the assignments and tests and quizzes that I had postponedโ€”with professorial approval of courseโ€”all caught up to me.

I had to attend a Biodiversity lab on Tuesday, then a Genetics tutorial and lab on Wednesday, and then on Friday I had a Biodiversity test. For assignments, I had Biodiversity quizzes due on Friday and Saturday, a Genetics problem set due on Thursday, and a Genetics prelab assignment and internship essay due on Friday. Add on top of all of that the 8 am to ~6 pm schedule of volunteering for the organization andโ€ฆIโ€™m lucky I made it out of that hell week.

Iโ€™m also really lucky that I have amazing friends and classmates who helped me catch up with all of the missed course material. I definitely would have been completely lost without them! All in all I survived and managed to get passing grades on my assignments and tests. And I just had to make it past this week because now I have a 3-week break from uni. So now I can focus on CVOC during the daytime and then catch up and maybe get ahead with uni assignments.

For CVOC, weโ€™ve definitely been making moves. We managed to get a lot of office supplies donated to us, some pick-ups of donations arranged with volunteer drivers, and we did regular delivery of care packages. I think things are really starting to settle down as normalized procedures are getting put in place and being followed.

This weekend, I had an actual break from everythingโ€”from school, from volunteeringโ€”and had lunch at the Little High Eatery and went shopping with my flatmate in central Christchurch. I came to New Zealand way unprepared to how cold it could get, so I had to buy something to keep warm. While I managed to buy two nice sweaters from H&M, my roomie Lizzie bought a coat and a jumper. Hopefully that will be enough for the winter that weโ€™re about to enter!

What I learned:

  1. There’s a great support network out there but you have to ask for help to be given to you.
  2. Time moves on; the assignment deadlines may pass and a tragedy may become a memory. Nonetheless you keep on working until you have something to show for it.

What I need to learn:

  1. How to tell temperature in Celsius. Fahrenheit just makes more sense though!
  2. Where do all the cool kids shop in Christchurch? I don’t think buying H&M is very Kiwi of me, haha.
Hopefully my new sweater will serve me well on future travels during NZ winter