Happy
holidays everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and also a
wonderful start to Hanukkah if you’re currently celebrating that.
So I somehow managed to survive the
past couple of weeks... and now I have to do it all over again. This is going
to be a short post, because I need to go back to coding. (Ah, life as a college
student... so wonderful :P ). Anyways, here’s a rundown of thing I did since I
last posted an update, and then I’ll give you a preview of things that are
happening before next Monday.
Things that have
happened
Pretty much
everyone was gone over Thanksgiving break, so the past few days were actually
quite quiet. On Wednesday night I went to bed at 9:30 pm and didn’t get out of
bed until noon the next day. Since I’d gotten six hours of sleep collectively
over the past two days, this was a very good thing. Sleep is actually very
awesome, which is surprisingly easy to forget when you have a lot of things to
do. :P
On
Thanksgiving, I decided I wasn’t going to do anything academic. So instead, I
watched a lot of bad TV, Skyped with my family, wrote the last two blog posts,
and ate a lot of cranberry sauce. It was actually one of the best Thanksgivings
I’ve had in college, just because it was so restful. I also worked desk in the
evening, and I managed to get a good chunk of my Christmas shopping done, which
was exciting.
On Friday,
I woke up early to work desk again. When I finished, I intended to get some
work done, but I got sidetracked into cleaning part of my room. While cleaning
my room, I got further sidetracked into thinking about the fact that I needed
super glue to fix a mug that I had broken. As a result, at about noon on Friday
I decided to brave the cold and any crazy people who might be shopping in
Central Square (not exactly the premier shopping destination... it’s mostly
restaurants) and head out to the art supply store to buy some glue. While
there, I had my first kind-of-real Black Friday experience. They were having a
doorbuster where you spun a wheel to determine what prize you got, and I won a
drawing pad and some colored pencils. Not exactly the most glamorous prize, but
it was fun nonetheless.
On Saturday
I pretended to do work some more. I did actually start my work though, which
was good. Unfortunately, I didn’t start enough of it, because there’s still a
significant amount left to do. Sunday was basically more of the same- I did
work, but there’s so much work to do that I can’t say I did enough work. In my
experience, that’s usually how breaks go though. You start them with such good
intentions of getting absolutely everything
done, while you don’t have classes. But then by the time you actually get done
with break, you’ve only done maybe one or two things, because you want to
actually take a break from work at some point. (Shocking, I know. Taking a
break over break.) It’s hard, because on the one hand you feel like break is
the perfect time to do ALL the things. But on the other hand, it’s usually
necessary to not do anything for a while in order to recharge your brain. And
once you get into the recharging your brain mode, it’s so restful that it’s
hard to stop. :P
Things that are going
to happen
The following are the reasons that I really should have
done more work over break... these are the things that I’m going to either do
or have due before next Monday.
I had my Spanish test last Thursday, but the oral portion of the exam didn’t happen then. So I scheduled that for today, and now I need to remember how to speak Spanish between now and 2:30 pm. It shouldn’t be too bad, since oral exams are fairly informal in this class (basically we go to my professors office and have a conversation about the movies we’ve watched for the class... very low key), but it does require me to remember how to speak Spanish, which I haven’t done for about a week. So that should be fun.
2. 7.03 (Genetics) Problem Set
One of the things I was supposed to be getting done over break so that I didn’t have to worry about it was this problem set. I’ve actually finished most of it, but I still need to check my answers with my TA in recitation today to ensure that they’re at least mostly correct.
3. Spanish final project, part 1
My Spanish class is having a final project instead of a final exam. Which is good in the sense that it means I have one less final exam to study for. What is less good is that I now have another project to get through before I get a chance to start studying for final exams. The project we’re doing is writing a script for a few scenes in the silent movie we watched, and then performing the scenes in front of the class. This doesn’t sound like that much work, and it’s really not that big of a project. But it is a group project, which means we have to somehow coordinate three very different schedules, at the end of the semester, when everyone would almost certainly be thinking about other things. (This is only part 1 because we have to turn in the script on Thursday so that we can get graded on grammar... the actual presentation is only happening next Tuesday).
4. 20.109 (Intro to Biological Engineering Lab Techniques) Module 3 Mini-report
Remember the class that I turned in a 12 page paper (not including figures) for last week? Yeah, there’s another paper for that class due this week. At other schools this might be a common occurrence, and it’s even common in our HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) classes. But it’s not something we usually experience in our technical classes. And since this class is also expecting us to prepare a novel research idea and give a presentation on it next Tuesday, I’m not super excited about writing this paper for them this week. Luckily, the written portion of the paper is only supposed to be three pages long, and it’s written with our lab partners. We also have to make figures though, which is going to be the part that takes the longest. Basically, I’m not looking forward to writing this one very much.
5. 20.320 (Computational Analysis of Molecular and Systems Biology... or something like that. I actually have very little idea what the official title of this class is) Final Project
This is the project that I was so excited about at the beginning of the semester- computationally modeling a whole cell. And it’s still ridiculously cool that we can do that. But it’s a lot of work for a final project, particularly in a class that also has a final exam. At this point I just sound like a whiny student complaining about how many things I have to do... but this is actually kind of a huge undertaking, and the addition of all the other things I have to do means that I should possibly think about stocking up on my supply of caffeinated teas. Or possibly (*gasp*) buying coffee... basically it’s going to be another long week.
6. 7.03 (Genetics) exam
Just in case you thought I was done with the week, I also have to find some point at which I can study for my third exam in this class. Which is going to be a total blast, since there’s a lot of math involved in the material for this one. And I’m not entirely sure how most of it works. So I’ll be learning that this week, at some point. Probably when I’m tired of working on everything else and need to take a ‘break’
7. Second Choir concert
At the end of this week (on Saturday) is our second Choir concert. I love the music we’re doing, and I love singing. But the fact that the concert is this week means that dress rehearsals are also this week. Which means that scheduling is going to be a total blast, since dress rehearsals are at awkward times, and there’s a bunch of group-project-y things that I’m currently trying to get done.
Basically,
it’s the end of the semester, and EVERYTHING IS DUE. Which is both good and
bad. I’m excited to go home (only 16 days now!), but there’s so much work
between now and then that I can’t even really think it. And at
some point I do actually need to study for my final exams... which is going to
be a blast. I’m really looking forward to that one. :P
Anyway,
that’s probably enough of listening to me whine for one morning... so I’ll leave you with something happy. One
other thing I did over break was set up the tiny Christmas tree that my mom
sent me freshman year. It’s a good reminder that work isn’t all that’s going
on, and that it’ll be over soon, for better or worse. So here, as a parting
gift, is a picture of my tree:
