The First Week

The first week at the University of Sussex has been filled with the back to school culture that one quickly forgets as a teacher. Moving into new digs, getting a phone, and in this case for me a bike, finding the local shops and pubs and then going through the process of registration have all taken on a new vision as a student. I have to say however that the whole process went quite well, there was lot of advance work done by both myself and the university reducing the aggravation substantially.

The scenery in this part of England is spectacular, on my way to the University I cycle through Stamnar Woods and out into Stamnar Village, in a few moments one is out of the city into the country, unfortunately Stamnar Village does not have a pub.



Then there is the age thing, you seem very conscious of the fact that most of the students on campus could be your children, however they seem not to notice you or has happened several times mistook me for a teacher and requested guidance. One fellow even stopped me this week and asked if knew where the barber was on campus; as if I would have a need for such.

I have seen an amazing amount of the countryside in a very short time mainly due to Geoffrey, a musician who lives in the flat above. He is an avid cyclist and a great local resource and has spent quite a bit of time showing me around. I have purchased a new mountain bike (should have brought mine with me from Canada) and last Sunday did close to thirty miles through the villages of Stanmner, Lewes, Newhaven and back under the white cliffs to Brighton. It was an exhausting experience especially with headwinds and torrential downpours and there was grave doubt whether I would be able to walk in the morning; I did, but took the train to the University instead.

Postgrad students are really treated quite differently by the staff here at Sussex than undegraduates, since I am the only one in the MSc (Plant Conservation-Seed Banking) I have one on one lectures or discussions in the professor’s office and work alongside him in lab. This has allowed me to structure the program to my own interests which is quite exciting. I have contact with a few students from last year who are now doing there PhD in some aspect of plant science and this has been extremely beneficial.

The topics are going to be very challenging, next week it is tissue culture, followed by poikilohydry in plants and then onwards covering Ethnobotany, CITES and such. My lab work is quite complicated and essentially we are isolating the DNA of plants so that we can compare and contrast the different populations. I have also been invited to attend other lectures as they run and am in the middle of a series on carnivorous plants; fascinating.