So second week was almost awful.
Having spent part of my Saturday last weekend in lab, I felt like I didn't get the "full weekend" experience, and consequently that made me cranky. There was an unfortunate amount of reading this week and a presentation, and since the amount of time I spent per paper is directly proportional to how much of the detail I can retain (and there was a lot of details -- the papers are meant to familiarize us with different fields, so most of the papers are on things we've never heard of before and we need to figure out how all of them work before each class), the fact that I tend to get to class / lab at around 8:30 each morning and not return home until after 6 each night was not particularly helpful.
Yet somehow I've managed to get by this week without ever having to stay up later than 10pm for my homework. I did have to stay up until some unholy hour Tuesday, but that was because one of my neighbors was having a party. Since my apartment complex is full of med people, I'm a little confused as to what they can possibly celebrate on a Tuesday night, of all things (med students being somewhat more high strung than grad students in my admittedly limited experience). Glen, from the lab (and he was very sympathetic about my plight this week and offered to take out my bacteria clones for me today so I don't have to go in the lab), suggested that maybe it's a post-exam celebration. However, it's only two weeks into the quarter (and I have just figured out where the snap-top tubes are kept in lab) and I don't think midterms start until next week. Whatever, I'm just glad it's over.
Which, come to think of it, sums up my feeling of this week nicely.
My immediate future is, I'm happy to say, considerably brighter. Lucy's coming today (in about an hour, I would estimate) and I will NOT be in lab either today or tomorrow (cheers). I have enough time left over on Monday to finish the two papers due for Tuesday. The papers for Thursday haven't been posted yet and so I have nothing to worry about. In any case it's only four papers that I'm going to get quizzed on, compared to the ten of this week. My next presentation is in two and a half weeks and I have heard back from a PI who -- maybe-- was okay with me finishing my rotations in his lab. I have a sequence for my construct. It appears to match what it's supposed to be. I have a new cell line waiting in the -80C freezer. I will not have to introduce the speaker for next week's pharmacology seminar, my partner will (the students who presented the presenter's papers are supposed to introduce him/her right before his/her talk begins), and it's a relief for all parties involved.
Despite of possible forecasts of temperature change, right now the weather is beautiful and there's a giant kite-in-a-tube in my bedroom, waiting to be assembled.
(Yes Anna, we'll take photos.)
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