Biotechnology is Great!

Our ethics prof is going to be away on the 27th, so she asked us to keep track of Halloween stories to tell her. My story idea was simple. The classroom would be deathly empty on the 3rd, because we all died on the night of the 29th due to a Rob overload.

On a brighter note, Keith spent the morning talking about how we were having trouble advertising and recruiting people into the program. Apparently our reputation as a program is that it's near impossible to get in and that there is a ridiculous crap-load of work.......well, i wonder why?..............Keith did mention that when we do happen to blog about the program we should refrain from complaining and shine a better light on it, so I shall do my part

*looks down at the list for the next two weeks*

This will be a breeze!~~~~insane amount of work? Unheard of and a totally foreign concept!

*downs a bottle of ethidium bromide*

~

Next two week at a glance:

Monday Oct 26
- Chem Lab
- Chem Lab Report x2

Tuesday Oct 27
- Biochem Midterm
- Ethics Quiz

Wednesday Oct 28
- Biochem Lab w/ Genetics Lab Part 1
- Biochem Formal Lab Report
- English Bible Study

Thursday Oct 29
- Plants Lab w/ Genetics Lab Part 2
- Genetics Lab Part 3

Friday Oct 30
- Pharma Midterm
- Process Lab
- Process Formal Lab Report w/ Process Assignment #3
- TCF Bible Study

Saturday Oct 31
- S-club pumpkin carving w/ Halloween Party and Trick-or-treat

Sunday Nov 1
- Teaching Sunday School
- Evening Service Meeting

Monday Nov 2
- Chem Lab
- Chem Lab Report
- Dentist Appointment

Tuesday Nov 3
- Plants Midterm
- Ethics Group Assignment #2

Wednesday Nov 4
- Biochem Lab
- Award Ceremoney?

Thursday Nov 5
- Plants Lab
- Genetics Lab

Friday Nov 6
- Process Midterm
- Process Lab

I have an eerie feeling I forgot something on that list. I did stop using my agenda, after all........

Asian Parents.....joy....

Well, what do Asian parents care about the most? Money, yes.....school, yes......now mix the two together and it's no surprise that the latest magazine from the Chinese papers is featuring some top four (Chinese, surprise surprise) students entering university this year......among the interviews and information, there lists not only their grades but also the scholarships they managed to get their hands on.

It's pure joy to have Asian parents......you might have thought that I, of all people, would have been immune to all of this.......but sadly that's not the case........

Like honestly, is it not enough that I'm not using a penny of your money for my university tuition? Does it really matter that those kids, with their faces plastered all over the magazine, got $15,000 in scholarship for their first year and I came a horrifically shameful $7,000 short?.....what's even worse is that first year was ages ago.......even if i wanted and even if i tried i can't go back.....

I just can't help but feel a little sorry for those kids.......not only are they now pointed to by all the Asian parents in town, they are now hated by every single Asian kid in town (with the exception of Jenn, as she would like pointed out).........but imagine, to have your worth as a person and as an individual evaluated based on your academic success and the sum of scholarship money you amassed.....and to have your value assessed based on how much advice you can give for parents who want their kids to walk down the same path of academic greatness (although their definition is rather short-sighted and narrow-minded.....whereas i'm thinking academic greatness is making some sort of immense breakthrough in research, the Asian equivalent is entering Harvard with a 102% average)......

I guess i just dread seeing those kind of articles here.......there is just something fundamentally wrong......I mean, the Hong Kong government actually run ads on television for parents (and kids to a lesser extent) with the slogan that learning is not about grades (which of course no one gives a crap about).......pathological? very much so......

FML, or PTL (Praise the Lord), according to Jenn

Amidst flailing arms and protesting pokes from Jenn, I'll brave the challenges and type this up.......

After plants class with the program head this morning, the brief after-class discussion led him to tell us of a new headache he has. Apparently, it came to his attention that our program has more credit hours than allowed by the government for an undergraduate program (even after taking honours into account). We were told that he has to now somehow cut some courses from the program to make it all work. We were very eager to give suggestions, such as scrapping ethics, or the critical writing course for next term. When someone mentioned lab safety (and amidst our laughter), Keith told us that's not even a course that is recognized by UBC, so cutting it won't do anything.............that's when the thought struck me......

So, I'm in a program that not only makes us take more credits than allowed by the government, some of the courses we do take don't even count towards that. FML.