Week one over ... er, sort of

Week one of graduate school is finished.  Well, sort of finished.

After an early physical therapy session this morning, I went up to campus for a mandatory biology seminar (we have a seminar series for all biology students every Friday).  The talk was actually quite excellent.  I'll have to keep track of the skills of all of the presenters, but that's one of the reasons I was attracted to this program in the first place.  At recruitment weekend, there was a poster session, and while all of the graduate students were happy to talk about graduate student life, everyone was able to present their posters very clearly.  I never once felt stupid, either because I didn't understand something I thought I should, or because I felt as if the presenter was condescending to me.

So today's talk continued in that vein.  Granted, it was a cell/molec talk, which meant that I understood it more easily than I'd understand a talk in another biological field, like ecology or neuroscience.  But the speaker maintained my attention at all times, and very clearly outlined the rationale for all of the experiments undertaken.

After that, some of us headed up to intro lab prep.  We went over a lot of course expectations and other "how to" information before heading outside for the field lab portion.  The field lab looks to be pretty basic, and with an undergraduate assistant, I should be able to keep all of the students on task while we're out in the Fens.

When lab was over, my friend K. and I grabbed the PowerPoint slides off of the main lab computer and headed to a conference room to put the files on our computers, and to make lots of important phone calls (like figuring out if books are in stock, finding out why we can't access our lab rosters, and what on earth is going on with medical insurance).  Finally, we headed downstairs for the welcome party for all biology graduate students.  I didn't stay very long; although it was fun to hang out and eat pizza and drink, I was flat out exhausted.  I had been up until two or three in the morning working, and I had to get up at seven for physical therapy.

I got home and called my mom for a bit, but when I sat down to do work, the work just wouldn't happen.  I've been "on break" for a few hours, although I also spent about 45 minutes working on the PowerPoint for the first lab.  I'm going to need to condense it even more, though, in order to get everything in within the lab period.  Maybe it's my former job at Kaplan Test Prep that's making me so obsessive over time management, but that's not a bad thing.  After all, students have other classes they need to go to, and so I need to make sure they get all of the information from the lab within the three hours I have (well, two hours and 50 minutes).  If they have to leave early because I managed my time poorly and they have to get to another class, that's on me.

So yes, I need to work on my PowerPoint a lot.  A lot.

And that's why I say that week one is only sort of over.  I have another chapter of biochem to read, about 20 more pages of molec, and a molec problem set.  I need to work on prep for lab next week, and I need to write an outline for my first class for my pedagogy seminar (and get my materials ready to go for said seminar on Monday).  I also have to start preparing my biochemistry presentation, which will involve reading that biochem chapter, but also reading a paper my professor provided me.

I'll have time on Sunday, as well as some time on Saturday, but I'd like to get the bulk of it done tonight so I can rest and enjoy my weekend.  But that means pushing through some exhaustion, as well as ignoring the incessant noise from the apartment above me.  Tonight?  It's loud shoes on hardwood floors and stairs.  And the encore.  AWESOME, thanks.

See, if they were quiet most of the time and never slammed the doors (which, besides being extremely loud, rattles the mirror on my wall) and never had loud/drunk conversations on the front steps right next to my window, I could be forgiving of noise on Friday nights.  But the fact is, they are loud on such a constant basis that there has never been a time where I've been working where there's been no noise.  It's becoming less and less acceptable, but I'm not sure there's anything that can be done about it.  K. and I are already talking about moving in together next fall, somewhere with a responsible management company, so that we can effectively complain about crap like this.  Oh, and so we can both live in an apartment that doesn't suck.  That would be pretty cool.