The Rest of My Week

Hello again! As promised, here's another post to keep you up to date about the rest of my week. When I left off yesterday, I had just finished up my week through Tuesday, talking about my newly fixed car. So, now we'll go back to Wednesday.

Wednesday was probably my hardest day of college so far, and will be the hardest for some time to come. I had two huge exams, one in Chemistry and one in Biology Lab, and my first quiz in Spanish. Needless to say, I was very nervous that day. Not that I didn't know a majority of the material, just that these were the first assessments in these classes. Chemistry was a review of almost every High School topic that I know, so that was really no problem for me. The only problems arose when I had to name chemical compounds. Some of the compounds had components that I had never seen before! But besides that, I think I did pretty well. We'll just have to wait until Monday to find out.

Next that day was the Spanish quiz, which actually I didn't worry about at all. I have yet to learn anything in that class, just refresh my memory on stuff I learned last year and forgot. So, that quiz was not a really big deal for me, and I expect that I did pretty well. Again, I'll just have to wait for Monday.

Finally, on my last class of the day, I had my first Biology Lab exam. This was the one that I worried the most about, since there was a lot of material to cover. Not to mention the fact that my teacher isn't very helpful when students ask questions. A lot of my class asked him questions about the material on the tests, and all he had to say was, "Look over the lab manual." Sure, the manual would have the information, but there is so much in there it would be hard to find one specific detail. And, when asked what would be on the exam, he had this to say, "Everything." So, I have one "very helpful" teacher in here, so I guess I'll have to work a little harder in that class. For the most part though, I knew what I was doing, so I was fairly confident. The test itself had both written questions and objective principles, using microscopes and other lab equipment. There were a couple areas that were a little fuzzy for me, but those parts were far less numerous than those that I knew. We'll have to see if he has it graded on Monday, as he takes a little longer to grade some things. That was pretty much the end of my Wednesday, so we'll move on from there.

Thursdays are usually very easy days for me, since I only have Biology in the morning and Chemistry Lab in the afternoon. I was actually very excited about Chemistry Lab, since this was going to be the first time we got to use the Bunsen burner. (I really like using the burner! It's fun to burn substances and see what happens!) But, my nemesis was also in the experiment this week: the crucible and its cover. I have had some very bad experiences with crucibles in High School; I think I broke about three covers and had tipped over the crucible several times. The thing that makes it very difficult is that you can't touch the crucible after it's been heated. The oil on your hands messes up the weight, and therefore messes up the experiment. So, you have to use crucible tongs, which are very awkward to use, and can easily be loosened. But, my teacher told us we could use a different method, by carrying the crucible on a wire screen and moving it with the tongs. This proved to be very helpful, and no dropping it this time! But, apparently my experiment was not done correctly somehow. We had to heat an unknown substance and calculate how much water was burned off, and apparently my total wasn't correct. Several students that used a certain analytical balance were having the same troubles, so we suggested that that balance was the cause of our troubles. But, my teacher wouldn't have that until she reviewed everyone's results, which made several people very angry. I just went with it, and I am hoping for the best. Hopefully that will be the problem, since if it was my own error, my grade could be affected significantly.

Thursday night was one night that I would never forget! It was going fine, and I was working on a paper and other homework, when around 9:45 PM, my floor was evacuated and sent outside. I had no idea what was going on, but several people were having breathing problems and eye irritation. I figured that since my door was closed (which it always is when I'm doing work), that I wasn't affected by whatever it was. After we got outside, the Hall Director spoke to us and said that someone had sprayed mace (pepper spray) into our hall. That resulted in people having eye and breathing troubles, since that's what it's supposed to do. We had to stay out until the police could determine what was going on and remedy the situation. This lasted an hour and a half, and I was very frustrated, since I had stuff to work on. As soon as I got back in, I got back to work, and we were advised to open our windows and air the building out. Thankfully I got everything finished and got to bed at a somewhat reasonable time.

Well, that pretty much summarizes my very difficult week. Friday was less than exciting, so I won't mention anything that happened on that day; you'd be too bored! So, I'll just put up another post if my experiences warrant that. Until then, have a great weekend, and GO VOLS!!