Winter Term 2012-2013, Week 8: Girl Power

I was reading an article in the Augustana Observer (our school newspaper) earlier this weekend, and it mentioned how girls are having their time in the sun here at Augie lately. We had a female speaker for Symposium Day, over 60% of the students here are female, and I guess our women's sports teams are doing pretty well. Fortunately, I got to witness a little bit of this girl power last night. My good friend Hannah sang in a choir concert that I attended where most of the singers were female. Afterwards, she, her parents, and I sat in on the last half of my friend Devon's varsity women's basketball game against Carthage. We ended up losing, but Devon made a final-seconds two-point basket! It was awesome! I'm glad that I got to support two of my friends on the same night.

After the game, Hannah's parents were kind enough to invite me along to dinner. We found this cute Thai restaurant in downtown Moline called LemonGrass Cafe. And let me tell you, it was fantastic! We started off with some delicious appetizers, including some fresh spring rolls with peanut dip, shu mai dumplings with chicken and shrimp and a nice soy sauce, and something called the Crying Tiger--strips of steak on a bed of cucumbers, carrots, and lettuce and served with a pungent, spicy garlic sauce. Everything tasted so fresh, and I just love Asian spices. For the main course, I had Pad Keemao, which is basically wide rice noodles with lots of veggies and chicken. I topped it with a medium-heat sauce for an extra kick. It was quite the dinner! I would love to go back for lunch because they have bento boxes and a banh mi sandwich, which I have wanted to try for some time now (it's pretty much a staple of Vietnamese cooking). So, not all the food there is Thai. There are Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese influences, too, but as far as I'm concerned, it's all Asian and all delicious.

I'm sorta glad this week is over because I got two group presentations out of the way. Our courtroom-drama-esque presentation in Microbiology went over well, I think. I enjoyed watching everyone else's because some of them were hilarious, like an SNL Weekend Update spoof on the topic of Lyme disease. On the other hand, our Journal Club presentation in Physiology about sodium transport in saltwater and freshwater pupfish did not go so well. The article was really complex, so our presentation ran a bit long, and people in the audience got really bored. I also didn't do as well as I wanted to on the last test in that class, so I will really have to buckle down when we write our follow-up for the article and when I am studying for the final.

Meanwhile, I am pleased that I will actually be able to complete the requirements for Mortar Board. This basically means that I get a special medallion to wear at graduation in May! I was worried because we have not been doing much with Mortar Board, but it appears as though I will be just fine!

Microbiology is winding down with a really cool identification lab. We are running all these media tests to tell which organisms we have been given, and it is just really neat to look at all of the results and be able to tell which bacterium it is based on them. I suppose that's an important piece of a career in health, taking the results of many different tests and coming to a conclusion with the information they provide. I have already identified one of my two organisms based on its growth pattern (or lack thereof) at two different temperatures. The other is more difficult because I had to inoculate about eight different types of media to be able to distinguish it from other related organisms.

On a broader note, I am sitting here contemplating how I have just two weeks left here. It's so crazy to think that my college career is almost over. There is so much I did not do during these three-and-a-half years. I sort of have some regrets, but I'm mostly happy about the things I was able to do while I was here. I don't regret not going Greek. That whole lifestyle is just not for me. I don't regret joining anything that I did. I do regret not being a part of things like the UNYK dance group because they look like they have so much fun. I do regret never getting to Niabi Zoo, the color-changing bridge in Davenport, and not meeting many people until quite late in my college career. But those are just a few, and I want to keep this mainly positive. I'll probably wax more poetic next week or the week after that when everything really is ending, but it's just amazing how fast time flies. I'm sure you understand this better than I do, as it's part of growing up and becoming a real adult. Your life just starts to be crazy. One minute you're entering a dorm as an awkward freshman far from home, and the next you're moseying around campus like you own the place. Because you do. It's become a home away from home, a true alma mater for my growth as a biologist and future health professional. It makes me wonder how I ever worried about anything related to college. Before I began, I was nervous that I wouldn't do well, that my professors wouldn't be approachable, that I wouldn't make friends, that I'd get homesick, that I would never have time for fun, you name it. Now I look back on that version of myself and laugh.

But looking forward to this coming week, it should be quite the ride. I'm flying home Wednesday for my third and final vet school interview at the University of Minnesota on Thursday. As much as I hate airplanes for a multitude of reasons which I will not delineate here for the sake of keeping your attention, they do get me home a heck of a lot faster than cars. I'll have more time to relax and mentally prepare myself for Thursday, and I'll get some downtime after the interview to chill at home before I have to head back to the airport. For the most part, I'm not missing too much that's important as far as classes go. I've got it mostly worked out with my professors. Then, I can focus on studying for my finals when I get back so that I can end my college career on a high note academically. It seems appropriate and almost funny that I go my whole time here without missing a class until the very last week of my very last term at Augustana. But it's for probably the best reason I can think of, so I really don't mind too much. Honestly, I'm feeling really laid back about it, not in an I-don't-care way but in an I'm-not-going-to-worry-about-this-because-it's-not-going-to-do-me-any-good way. I have a friend at the U of M vet school right now, and she's told me that the interviewers are really cool, plus I've done this behavioral interview thing before, so I know what to expect. I do think I need to get away from campus for a little bit before finals because I've just been under so much pressure. A tiny stint at home could be just the thing I need to power me through Finals Week.

And now I leave you with some pictures I took this week.

These are the multicolored handouts given to me by  my Microbiology professor. She really, really wants to make sure we don't lose them. Obviously.

The view of the woods around the Slough from the fourth floor of the library. I was just "stopping by snowy woods" on my way back from working on a project one day, and I thought I should snap this while I could.