back to school update.

here's my basic rundown...
-i have my thesis and proseminar, which both consist of doing work in my lab, writing my thesis, giving presentations, and letting the freshmen shadow us in the lab. i had these last semester as well... the only hard part is finding the time to spend in lab when i have homework and exams for my other classes.
-my first class on tuesday morning was evolutionary biology. this is a required course for biology majors and they like to talk about how hard it is. i don't really get that though... i guess it's going to be a lot of work [we have to post three discussions a week, and we have a quiz almost every lecture] but as far as i can tell this will be my easiest class. plus, it's pretty interesting stuff. [did you know that the giraffe's neck isn't really long because they need to reach the high leaves? it's more of a mating preference... the ladies apparently find longer necks more attractive, so that trait was selected for over time. i was talking with liz, who is in the class too, and we decided that we concur with the lady giraffes. you know those football players who are so muscular that they don't have a neck? it's just no bueno. ok. i didn't actually learn about the giraffe neck in class, but a discussion after class sparked a little wikipedia search. ha.]
-next was organic spectroscopy. yikes. it's clearly been too long since i've taken organic chem. i don't remember anything. we had homework that was due today, and let me just say... i was using that index in my old organic text like never before. plus i was nearly crying yesterday in the library when i was trying to work on it. :/ [a near mental breakdown on the second day of school, eh?] so it's going to be a lot of work [relearning], but the professor is really cool. he makes class super easy to sit through and interactive so we stay awake. but interactive also = challenging. so the relearning needs to happen asap so i'm not totally embarrassed when i can't draw a structure properly. oh! & & my whole lab is taking the class... even rubi and andrew, our grad students. so that's pretty cool.
-wednesday, i had macromolecular biophysics. and the good news [not] is that i have to take this course as an honors course because i am three credits short for my honors credit requirement. that means i have to do "something extra' beyond what the other undergrads have to do. well for this course, i have to the extra work that grad students do. [is that little star by my name denoting the honors distinction in the graduation program really worth this? i'm not so sure.] it gets better too. previously, the professor [dr. welch. look him up on the unr website if you're bored.] had a weekly journal club for the grad students. so each week they would have certain papers pertaining to the class to discuss and they would have to take turns presenting the papers. i thought i could handle that. but. dr. welch decided to "change things up this year". so instead, we "get" to learn a computer protein modeling program so that we can discuss in more detail the proteins in the course and other "fun stuff". [it was shortly after this news that i went to the library to do the organic spec homework... so this was a likely contributor to the near mental breakdown.] also. class participation is part of the grade. so in the middle of lecture, dr. welch will call on "dr. tanoue" or "dr. kim" or "dr. smith" to answer a question. yes. he randomly chooses someone from the class list. i happen to think that's just plain mean, even if he does offer the flattery of calling us a doctor.

so yeah. as predicted, stress is already high. plus i have two tests the week of valentines day, so i can't go to cha. i was really hoping to be able to make it down at least for sunday, but i just know i shouldn't do it. it's my last semester, and i want to have a strong finish... so i have to put school first. :|

by the way, that's the new student union in the photo. it just opened towards the end of last semester.

for a little excitement, i booked a flight to vegas for the weekend before my birthday today. :] james and i are going along with my parents. my dad is super excited to go to the bellagio superbowl party even though none of his teams are in it this year. he says the food will be amazing... and i'm all for that. ha.



last night, angela and i held another fiskars training session. it was a small group again, but it was a lot of fun and everything went smoothly. angela hasn't learned how to use one of the tools yet, the ultra shapexpress... so i'm always a little nervous when we get to that part because the pressure is all on me. plus, everyone thinks this is an impossible tool for some reason, so they really put the pressure on by paying extra close attention. i kind of feel like they are just waiting for something to go wrong. haha. i'm glad i've practiced with that little guy a lot. :] i really like doing the trainings for that reason. it's fun to show people that a seemingly impossible tool is actually really fun to use.


tonight, james and i went ice skating with carol and her sister, soo. it was supposed to be an alpha zeta event, but everyone chickened out because it was snowing and below freezing. we had so much fun though. i was the only one who had ice skated before. but james didn't have any problems... he's already better than i am. go figure. soo caught on really fast too, and she was doing so well by the end. carol was a little more afraid. she had never been roller blading or roller skating like the rest of us, so it was kind of hard to explain to her how to do it. james grabbed onto her and pulled her into the middle and said we should leave her there to learn. typical guy, right? [if you look in the photo of the two of us, you can see that his foot was moving as it was taken. hmm. that couldn't be because he was kicking my foot to make me loose my balance could it? ha. i guess i can't blame him... he had to have a little fun since he was surrounded by girls.] but i managed to get her comfortably away from the wall before we left. :] and no one fell, so that was a good thing.

ok. this post is *way* longer than i planned to make it. i can't believe tomorrow is friday! i am so excited for the weekend. i want to catch up on my birthday countdown album. plus i'm excited to scrap some of the ice skating photos. i hope you all have a fabulous friday. :]