Monday:
Columbus Day. Rested most of the day, but then went to my rotation lab to do some PCRs. There was no T for about 30 minutes, so I gave up and walked to campus. After that, I went to a dinner party one of my classmates had. It was a BLAST. Then walked home from the Fenway at, like, 11pm, whoops.
Tuesday:
Up at 7am for 8am PT. Then I walked a mile and a half to campus for a 10am appointment at health services to get referrals for PT. Then I went to my office across campus, another half mile or so, to meet with one of my undergrad learning assistants so we could go over the lab she was teaching Wednesday. Then I went to class, and then office hours, and then another class. And then I went to the lab to do two more PCRs. Missed the bus home by about 15 seconds, and even ran to try to catch it. Awesome. Studied till I went to bed super late.
Wednesday:
Woke up at 7am and left around 7:50 to get to my teaching lab at 8:30am. Taught lab till noon, and then went to the lab to redo the PCRs I did on Monday (forgot to dilute the dNTPs, GREAT!), and to study for my Thursday exam. Then, when I found out discussion at 4 was canceled, a bunch of us got together and got food before going to exam review. I stayed till about 6:10 and then got home around 7. Studied till late.
Thursday:
Was supposed to wake up at 6:30, but was so exhausted from studying, I woke up at 7. I somehow managed to get out the door by 7:20 and got to lab at 7:55. Taught lab till 11:30, but then stayed late to figure out what to do with a student who missed lab and couldn't do a make-up, but desperately wanted to. Went to class at 12:30, and then went to office hours, where I was so frazzled, I bombed at actually helping the one student who came by. I then studied with A. until 5pm, when we grabbed food before our 6pm exam. Took me about two hours to complete, but then I had to rewrite an entire booklet because MOLECULAR BIOLOGY. So I left around 9 and got home around 9:45. Celebrated by watching Psych.
Friday:
Woke up at 7:30, left at 8, to teach 9am lab (subbing for Ca., who's getting married). Then went to seminar at noon, and then prep from 1-2:30. Then grabbed lunch with K. and As., and hung out with K. until I had to leave for PT. At this point, of course, my calves were swollen solid, and my physical therapists were pretty shocked and concerned. So we mostly elevated, either with ice or heat, with only two activities, one of which was just stretching. I caught the bus home and got back around 7:15.
And now, I am so, so, so exhausted ...
Friday, October 14, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
First rotation, first exam
Things have been quite hectic over the past week or so! I'm finding myself lapsing into particularly bad habits: staying up late, buying lots of junk food, leaving clothes on the floor, and ignoring mail and voicemails. It's not terrible yet, but I need to come out of this weekend on top of things.
I started my first rotation last week, and it's been going somewhat well. I dissected a mouse heart and isolated RNA from it. I then made cDNA from the RNA using an RT-reaction. I'm actually happy to start with something I'm already somewhat used to, not because it's "too" easy, but because it's a great way for me to get oriented in the lab. If I were starting with something I absolutely had no experience with, it would be harder for me to judge what parts of the protocol are "the way it's done," and what parts are "the way this lab does it."
I also had my first exam this week, on Wednesday. The second year grad students sort of scared us shitless about how difficult the exam would be, so I studied my ass off. It's yet another sign that I've been replaced with a pod person: I can't remember the last time I legitimately studied for a science exam. Oh, sure, in college, I'd spend maybe 10 minutes briefly looking over my messy notes, and then another hour flipping through the different chapters of the book, which of course I hadn't read. But I'd never read over my clean, re-written notes, re-read sections of the book which I'd already read, or memorized ... anything.
Sitting down to take the test, I was surprised to see that there wasn't anything on it that I hadn't heard of or thought about. That's different than finding the test easy; it required plenty of thinking, and I was definitely unsure of some of my answers. But there were no questions where I felt panicked or lost. A lot of the questions did involve using memorized material: draw structures of certain carbohydrates, draw these nucleotides/sides, write out this peptide sequence. But a lot of them also required that I just have an understanding of enzyme kinetics or lipid function.
After the test, about seven of us went out to the Sunset Cantina for drinks and bar food. It was an absolute blast (until I got home at about 8:45pm and learned that Steve Jobs had died--damn).
The next day, we still had class, and somehow, our professor had already graded all the exams. He was pleased with how we did, and no one failed. Apparently, a 75% is about an A-, which reflects the fact that 1) his tests are difficult, and 2) biochemistry is pretty damn complicated. I mean, I guess it doesn't matter that much to me in terms of just this test because, uh, I got 100%. I wonder if I can keep this up; I also got 100% and 105% on my first two molecular biology assignments.
Seriously. Pod person. Not shitting you.
This weekend is Yom Kippur and Columbus Day. I'll observe Yom Kippur by fasting, but I'll probably clean my room and work on the intro bio PowerPoint. I know that's not what I'm supposed to do, but honestly, it's an important holiday to me, and I don't really have a problem with repenting by doing work and chores. I will also be studying for our molecular biology exam that's Thursday evening. I feel less cool about this exam. Perhaps it's because I tend to text during class? Shhhh.
I started my first rotation last week, and it's been going somewhat well. I dissected a mouse heart and isolated RNA from it. I then made cDNA from the RNA using an RT-reaction. I'm actually happy to start with something I'm already somewhat used to, not because it's "too" easy, but because it's a great way for me to get oriented in the lab. If I were starting with something I absolutely had no experience with, it would be harder for me to judge what parts of the protocol are "the way it's done," and what parts are "the way this lab does it."
I also had my first exam this week, on Wednesday. The second year grad students sort of scared us shitless about how difficult the exam would be, so I studied my ass off. It's yet another sign that I've been replaced with a pod person: I can't remember the last time I legitimately studied for a science exam. Oh, sure, in college, I'd spend maybe 10 minutes briefly looking over my messy notes, and then another hour flipping through the different chapters of the book, which of course I hadn't read. But I'd never read over my clean, re-written notes, re-read sections of the book which I'd already read, or memorized ... anything.
Sitting down to take the test, I was surprised to see that there wasn't anything on it that I hadn't heard of or thought about. That's different than finding the test easy; it required plenty of thinking, and I was definitely unsure of some of my answers. But there were no questions where I felt panicked or lost. A lot of the questions did involve using memorized material: draw structures of certain carbohydrates, draw these nucleotides/sides, write out this peptide sequence. But a lot of them also required that I just have an understanding of enzyme kinetics or lipid function.
After the test, about seven of us went out to the Sunset Cantina for drinks and bar food. It was an absolute blast (until I got home at about 8:45pm and learned that Steve Jobs had died--damn).
The next day, we still had class, and somehow, our professor had already graded all the exams. He was pleased with how we did, and no one failed. Apparently, a 75% is about an A-, which reflects the fact that 1) his tests are difficult, and 2) biochemistry is pretty damn complicated. I mean, I guess it doesn't matter that much to me in terms of just this test because, uh, I got 100%. I wonder if I can keep this up; I also got 100% and 105% on my first two molecular biology assignments.
Seriously. Pod person. Not shitting you.
This weekend is Yom Kippur and Columbus Day. I'll observe Yom Kippur by fasting, but I'll probably clean my room and work on the intro bio PowerPoint. I know that's not what I'm supposed to do, but honestly, it's an important holiday to me, and I don't really have a problem with repenting by doing work and chores. I will also be studying for our molecular biology exam that's Thursday evening. I feel less cool about this exam. Perhaps it's because I tend to text during class? Shhhh.
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