A Long Day

Fridays are always long days. That sounds funny on one hand, because there are plenty of medical schools that have class from 9-5 every day, and we have very little class time. But when you're used to only having class for two hours most days, and then suddenly you have it for four hours, the mental exhaustion is noticeable. Plus, our class sessions are just very intense. You can't sit in there and zone out like you can in a lecture, because our classes are all active participation. Part of it too is that there is so much extra preparation for Fridays. I found myself having to look up things constantly while I was reading the journal articles.

Lab was kind of a let-down today. My experiment from yesterday didn't work, and I'm not sure why. The woman who is teaching me the techniques suggested that maybe my buffers weren't at the right pH, but I wonder if I didn't make a mistake somewhere in terms of what to mix with what and when. There are a lot of steps, and none of it is very difficult, but there are a lot of places where I could have made a mistake. One mental lapse, and two days' work might be lost. Anyway, the net result is that I have to repeat the experiment on Monday. The good thing to come out of this is that I will have an extra chance to repeat the procedure and it will be a lot less confusing now that I have gone through it all once.