, We've got squirrels in our quad! - St Peter's College

workload, learn to love differential equations and realise that physics is the best thing in the entireworld! Simon Clark.Languages (spec. Spanish and Portuguese.)Doing languages at Peter’s is great. Not only, can they certainly be considered one of the college’sstrengths, with excellent resources, but also the linguists are a really good bunch of people.In terms of Spanish, before coming up I had not read anything at all (so really don’t worry ifyou are in the same position) but in retrospect I would recommend reading a little as it is hardto do so in the term! Thankfully, doing two languages you should never have two essays in thesame week. Of course this can sometimes not be true, but the tutors do try and accommodateyour other language as much as possible.Portuguese was more of a challenge for me, starting it completely from scratch. I did not knowanything about the language before the pre-sessional course (once again I would recommendhaving a little look at the basics since this will definitely help you in the first term). However, thetutors on the course were lovely and you will definitely see yourself improve throughout theyear. Portuguese, being so small, definitely has its benefits. It is a brilliant way of integratingwith people at other colleges and in other years, since the department love putting on Portugueseevents. I hope this does not seem to be too daunting because I have had such a brillianttime doing languages and nothing was as scary as I had imagined it to be before. So enjoy thesummer and I look forward to meeting you all in Freshers’ week! Hannah Bowers.Medicine.Firstly, congratulations on getting into medicine and doubley congratulations for getting intoSPC, where all the best medics end up.I dont think you need to be told that you will work hard next year (and every year after that)and you are doing something wrong if you get a 4pm lie in like the historians, but you will havean absolute riot too. One of the best things about medicine is that we get to make loads offriends at other colleges while we are trying to stay awake looking at rat kidney down a microscopein histology classes or battling the urge to vom during a post-night-out anatomy sesh.Most of your time will be spent up at the MSTC (Medical Sciences Teaching Centre) but you'llalso have 1-3 tutorials in college per week. You'll start slowish with only one or tutorials a weekbut you will get busier as the year goes on. You will be able to manage though, and you'll haveplenty of time to relax, row, run, or whatever you want to do. Your timetable will vary a lot on aday-to-day basis but generally you have around 10-15 lectures a week, one or two practicals, aseminar every now and again, and then either a histology (microscope) class or a dissectionroom (DR) class to top off your week. DR is sort of a "here's-one-I-prepared earlier" set-upwhere you talk through prosections, but if you really want, you can set up a class where you candissect a body yourself. You'll also find yourself shipped out to visit a GP clinic in Witney andyou'll probably have some tutes at the hospital, so you definitely won't get cabin fever from beingstuck in the one lecture hall all day.Some important advice I can give is definitely DO NOT buy any textbooks, as the SPC library isreally good and whatever you can't find here will definitely be available in the science library.The only book you might wish to buy is the "Oxford Handbook of Medical Sciences", whichpretty much everyone finds to be their glorious light blue and pink bible.You probably won't be set work before you come, but during Freshers’ week you will have a