Hola everyone. Week 2 of school has proven to be almost as much fun as a root canal. The material proceeded to morph into a new level of difficulty, and several experiences seriously irked me. (Surprise surprise, more things I find annoying. I guess I do complain a lot. Maybe I should stop. Nah, I can't. I'll still think it, but then just berate myself for thinking it. Might as well save myself the masochism).
OK, so first ... I had a section leader that I didn't follow to well. I'm not about to pretend that I have no options and just duke it out. This is hard material, and harder for me because it still takes me a while to remember basic chemical phenomena that come so easily to students who are fresh in their learning process. So I started attending another class, which moved at a slower pace and was much more beneficial.
The problem: my exams still go to the "assigned" section leader. First I was a bit nervous to approach him and say "I stopped going to your class, please give me my exam." But again, no time for niceties. I approached him today and asked for my exam.
And he was mean to me :(
He asked whose section I was attending. Then he said my exam is probably in his bag, but "whatever." And then he said "Your name doesn't sound familiar, I don't even know if I have your exam."
HOW RUDE. OK buddy, I'm sorry I don't come to your class. But DO NOT say such things and make my heart skip a beat. You have my exam. It's in your damn bag. But then he just walked away. I called after him "Should I e-mail you with my name so you can get my exam?" He just walked away.
Knot in my stomach. I know I'm overreacting, but seriously. It's not a big deal on either end, so why'd he have to make it difficult? Grr.
OK, 'nuff about that. First lab experience yesterday and didn't blow myself up. That's good. You will not believe some of the things I realized we needed to do.
1) Use a lab notebook that has duplicate pages, and use carbon paper to make copies. Carbon paper. Carbon paper?! What? What century is this? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Do people even know what carbon paper is? Basically you write your notes and observations, and then hand in the carbon paper copy to the lab TF.
Um, why not just go make a copy of it and turn it in? Like on a copy machine? Or am I missing something?
The last time I used carbon paper was in kindergarten. I distinctly remember this. There was no copy machine in the elementary school, and the principal's office had a ditto machine. Am I dating myself or does anyone remember the ditto machine? It looks like a pasta press. You stick in your piece of paper into this roller, and then stick in a piece of carbon paper and a blank page. And you crank it through the press, and, voila, a carbon copy. That's what we used when we wanted to make copies of coloring book pages to keep 6 year olds entertained.
There is NO reason carbon paper should be used in 2004. None. Plus, I didn't even press hard enough so my carbon copy was barely legible. So I had to hand in my original for fear that the TF wouldn't be able to read it. Waste, waste ... more waste.
2) I was assigned a lab partner. She just finished her freshman year of college. And boy, was she a little too Martha Stewart turned Orgo Student. She asked me how many significant figures she should write down when we weighed some stuff. And how many significant figures should be in the percentage of something we calculated.
I won't repeat my entire rant from #1 above, but significant figures? What? Huh? So stupid. My rule of thumb: one decimal place is cool, two is plenty. And seriously, what is a sig fig? (I'm down with the lingo after 4 hours in the lab.)
OK, this was a big rant. Sorry to be so negative, this is just all a bit overwhelming and frustrating. I know why I'm here but I feel like I'm underwater. I can see the surface, but it looks blurry. And it's tough to breathe. But this too shall pass.
I hope you all are doing well! I'm going to check flights to NY this weekend. Aggravation has turned into escapism. And no more 5 hours on the bus. Get me out ASAP. But then again, I have an exam on Monday. Hmph.
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