Intro: To those who have never received my emails for my journals…this is a long journal…my journals are usually long hehe. Enjoy. Hope those who didn’t get my email get to read it through here.
Whew, I can finally sit down and write my journal. It’s been 4.5 months now since my last journal, which incidentally was written on the night before I left for home for summer break. You have no idea how busy I have been for the past 2 months. In a week time, I’ll be here for 2 months already and it does not feel so at all. This year, I have embarked on a new kind of lifestyle. I want to be active, involved in activities and push myself as far as I can. Thus, I go to NSCS’s (honor’s society) meetings, go for soccer practice, work and of course study.
Classes have been crazy this year. I expected it to be tough though, even before class started. Well, I’m not a freshman anymore. Things get tougher when you’re a sophomore. OK, let’s talk about my class. First of all, Organic Chemistry; I need to clarify one thing before I go on… When you judge something before you get to know it, you jump to some horrendous conclusions. I was freaking out when I found out my professor was Indian. Nothing against Indians but he has a slang that makes him hard to understand sometimes. However, I like his class because his grading is lenient and I can understand the things that are going in class after I read through my textbook.
Second class is Genetics. This class starts at
9 am
, right after my
8 am
Organic class…so usually I have to work hard to keep my eyes open in this class. This class will help me for my other class which I’ll explain later. I have a 50-something professor who has long white hair. Hmm, not much to describe about this class…All in all I’m coping well. Once again another professor who is ever willing to help students out, which is sweet!!
Third class and I guess my favorite one, Humanities II. In this class, I study about middle-ages history. I like it because it’s like going to a story-telling class. The professor just tells story about history and notes are in power point presentation which is always helpful! I never fall asleep in this class as the professor has great intonation. Tests are east but there is a lot of reading material. Well, you know…it is history!!
We then move on to my forth and final class, Microbial Molecular Genetics; my most feared class. Before this I stated that Genetics helps me and it does help me in this class. Genetics should be recommended to students or set as a prerequisite for students who are taking Microbial Molecular Genetics because it contains the basics. By the way, Microbial Molecular Genetics is a class on bacterial and virus, or more specifically phages, genetics. I was dumbstruck whenever I got to class until I got my first test paper back last week. I was confused about the terms and things that were going in class. One good thing was that we started with some parts of DNA replication and protein synthesis, as I have learnt some of these before. Just to give you some stats on why I fear this class the most; I am the only sophomore or second-year student in this class. It was the first day of class and my professor who is incidentally my biotechnology advisor wants the whole class to introduce themselves. There were a total of 15 students in the class (which is a lab by the way…we mix our lectures and labs together). There was another sophomore in the class and the other students are seniors (4th yr) or super seniors (> 4 yrs); some of them have even taken this class before. On the second class, 3 students have dropped out. By the end of the second week, we have 9 students left and the other sophomore has dropped the class too. Well, I was (or I thought I was) struggling along until my first test 2 weeks ago. I did ok, and expected to get an A- because I messed up one question. I thought all the other senior students would do well as they left the room 30 minutes earlier than I did. I just tried to keep calm and finished all my questions with the most ideal answers that I could come up with. A week after that I got my paper back and I have a 92, which is also the highest in class. It was then that I regained my confidence. Now, I go to class and the professor expects me to answer all his questions which I’m still incapable of. At least I don’t make stupid mistakes doing experiments now…
Those were about my classes. Now to my job. I decided to change my job last semester. Concession was fine but I wanted a job in which I could do some studying while I’m at work. So, I looked up the job board and found the perfect job that suits all my needs: Desk Assistant at my dorm. Well, it’s like a secretary who works at the office, answering phone calls or help residents with their problems or questions. I get to study a lot when I work there and I get a healthy average of 5 hours work each week, something that I couldn’t get when I was working at the concession as I was always jostling with other people for open positions. Another advantage of this job is that I don’t have to walk far to work. The office is right down my hall, 30 seconds away from my room!! Job satisfaction guaranteed!
NSCS, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, is an honor’s society which only invites 1st and 2nd year students who have GPAs higher than 3.5. I was honored to be invited and was inducted into the NSCS in an official ceremony 2 weeks ago. NSCS provides me scholarship, internship, networking and leadership opportunities and thus I’m trying as hard as I can to join their activities. This is a great way to start of my university extracurricular as I have not been involved in any activities before this. For my first year here, I was trying to find my footing and my aim was to get a perfect GPA so that I could move on the next year. After I have achieved my goal for the 1st year, here I am in my second year trying to push myself hard and to expose potentials that have been hidden before me. Oh yeah, and there’s soccer practice. I was thinking seriously about joining the club officially and go on trips to matches. However, training and matches usually coincides with my tests and work. As a result, I only go for training once a week and I have decided to not go to the matches as my schedule does not allow me to do so. I do still keep my strict habit of going to gym every Monday to Thursday. This year I have decided to run a mile everyday. Got to work on fitness as a whole and not just muscle-wise.
Well, that has been my school life for the past 1.5 months. Besides school, I have been able to go shopping and travel with my friends. My first trip ever to Factory outlet stores (2 hours away) was awesome. Brand name clothes at cheap price are always attracting. Last weekend, I went to
Chicago
with some friends. It was a total new experience. I have seen the huge cities of
New York
or
Los Angeles
on TV but to actually see it with my own eyes was refreshing. It is a civilization that makes
Cedar Falls
, my place here, look prehistoric. High rise buildings, posh cars, lush boutiques, and lots of expensive restaurants…I hope I would be able to live this lifestyle one day. Everywhere you turn, you could see S500s, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Jaguars, BMWs…You name it they’ve got it. Boutiques like
LV
, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Banana Republic, Gap, Nike, Guess….were packed with people; people who are able to shop. However, you could see muse or people dancing or playing music on the streets for money, beggars begging. The gap between the rich and poor is so huge… capitalism in big cities. Although we do not have posh boutiques or cars in
Cedar Falls
, we do not have beggars either. Anyway, I had lunch with my Arabic friends at a Lebanese restaurant, after that we were butlers for a rich girl who had to go shop at H&M. After shopping, we tried to look for a jazz club and ended up at a comedy club. We had the opportunity to watch improvisation comedy on headlines of newspaper. Papers are provided and audiences cut out headlines that they want the comedians to improvise on and pasted on the board at the front. Comedians then appeared and improvised. It was quite funny. After that, we tried to get to look for Indian food. But by the time we found one, the restaurant was closed already. There is a thing about
Chicago
…most of the shops close at
9 pm
. So, we ended up at an Italian restaurant. The food that I had that day ranks as the best that I have ever had in the
US
. It was expensive though. I spent $40 on food alone. Well, it’s a big city…
Ok that’s it. Got to go do some pushups and shower. It’s been raining since
noon
today so I decided to not go to the gym. Take care everyone and hopefully I will find time soon enough to write my next journal.
Lipin Loo
9.15pm
5th October 2005
P/s: would like to wish some people Happy Birthday:
Kaylan, my roommate, (7th October)
Rania and Hang Chuan (9th October)
Camin (11th October)
