Back on the Horse
Basically finals week here at Kenyon is a hit or miss. This year for me it was more of a miss than a hit. I unfortunately had three tests in the beginning of the week and then two papers due at the back end. This is not the worst but certainly not the best. If you like papers, finals week could be your friend. Often times professors will have assigned final papers or projects before finals week giving the student the opportunity to space out their work. Tests sometimes are not that bad either. If you only have one or two tests for whatever reason during finals week, then you are in the money. After 4 years of finals, I have concluded, the best possible scenario is only having two tests. One on Monday, and one on Tuesday. Well obviously having no tests at all would be ideal, but that conclusion is usually coupled with two hellish weeks leading up to finals. It all came to me in a dream.... well not in a dream but just over experience and it is my belief that having two exams gives you the satisfaction of studying for them without the prolonged stress of multiple days of work. My final paper was due Friday at 4:30 pm, one of the last times slots for finals available. That is prolonged stress people. Prolonged stress is no one's friend. I actually feel bad for prolonged stress because it is so lonely. Two exams, which have to be under 3 hours long, in two consecutive days is stressful, but it is a bang bang type stress. Bang Bang stress hangs out with many more people on the weekends and definitely has friends. Please note the terminology for stress I am using here is highly technical and should only be used by experts. So anyway, as you can see my finals week was hard to deal with and I just wanted to get home to see my puppy. (Below is another shameless promotion of my dog for a "Cutest Dog in the World" award)
When I got home I had a few things planned. Number one was to sleep, as most of my fellow students will agree sleep is one of the best things to do while at home. Then it was to see old friends pictured below. New Years and Christmas are always good times to catch up.
I tried many different types of sushi with my girlfriend (eel and anything tempura being my favorite for all the sushi junkies out there). My mother got me a GRE book which is troubling on many levels and I got delayed at an airport. Actually I got canceled. The highlight of my winter break was going to be a trip down to Austin, Texas to present my summer science/undergraduate research findings at SICB (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology). Sunday, would have been my day! Katie Goulder was set to be my partner in crime for the historic event. I was picturing it as a David versus Goliath battle where these young bright undergraduates valiantly defended their work against an onslaught of prodding inquiries proposed by much superior academics. Sadly mother nature and the airlines did not want to cooperate. Marvin the Manduca and his friend would have to wait another day for their fifteen minutes of fame. Sorry Marvin, maybe next year.
It is kind of hard to read this monitor but instead of nicely telling me that my flight (originally delayed) was canceled, it just gave the delayed time as the initial time of departure. Which doesn't make sense, but then again what does while working with airlines? After reading that sentence back over, I think I am now more confused than I originally was, so again, thanks Southwest. For two days I shuffled through lines at Bradley International Airport trying to find a way to sunny Austin. Luck was not on my side however. I am sad I missed the conference because it seemed many students who went had a wonderful time. Also THERE WENT A BLOG TOPIC! I was going to tell you all about Austin and all the amazing things to do down there and how cool it is to spend time with professors outside of the classroom and how good the barbecue is and how much good music there is and all the sights to see AND THEN IT SNOWED. Oh well. (I realize that sentence was a run-on, but its a blog and I was trying to be dramatic)
Anyway! I am back now on campus. Things are looking up for my last semester here. I have some difficult classes on the docket, particularly Biochemistry so if you are reading this Dr. Hofferberth go easy on me! As I promised I would provide you with some activities or things that I want to do here in my last semester and my list consists of this:
Win an Intramural basketball championship.
And that is it. I will keep everyone posted on how we are making out. Hopefully some good news to come.