The viva examination is a grueling exam PhD students have to go through to get their doctorate. Two examiners (one internal, one external) and the student go into a meeting room, and the examiners fires questions at the student for hours to see how much they know about and around their field of research. In the science field, the viva can last up to 7 hours straight. It's one of the most stressful experience a student can go through, and I have been dreading my viva for years.
Hearing horror stories of how people in my department had a 7 hour viva and still not passed, I panicked on the day of my viva. But thankfully mine wasn't an unpleasant experience. It lasted only 2 hours (to me it felt like so much more) and I passed, yay!
Anyway, onto my gift. My husband got me a beautiful Tiffany pen. He wanted to get me something I could keep for a long time, and something related to acedemics (hence the pen).
I love it!! I reminds me of the Tiffany pen my dad got me when I was a teen. Sadly, I lost it! (Yes, am very dissapointed for losing it). Don't worry, I've learnt from my mistakes and won't be losing this one. On an unrelatied note, it's freezing cold here in Manchester. The big canal outside out apartment has frozen over. It's not normally this cold in the UK.. my husband and I really need to find out how to turn on the heating in here, before we freeze!
