Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Eyes of Texas

The Eyes of Texas:


The eyes of Texas are upon you,
All the live long day.
The eyes of Texas are upon you,
You cannot get away.
Do not think you can escape them,
At night, or early in the morn'.
The eyes of Texas are upon you,
Till Gabriel blows his horn!
(Sung to the tune of "I've been workin' on the Railroad")

What everyone sings around here.... basically everyone knows the song. I'm apparently supposed to learn it since it is my school, so I'm working on it.

Let me know if you understand what it means (I think they just made it up one day because everyone else had a song!).

Monday, September 7, 2009

1st Week of School

So I've officially completed my first week of school, I attended a total of 7 classes...... pretty light week!

Classes:
Biochemistry
Cell Biology
Academic Success Skills and Ethics
Principles of Laboratory Biosafety
Frontiers of Science (Seminars)

Highlights:

I went to my first seminar ( I have to go to 12 by the end of the semester), which I thought was a seminar, but was actually a "Work In Progress" talk by a 4th year grad student. Something about an immunodeficient mouse model to study VEE infection impact in mice. I don't know what she was talking about but it was in the Galveston National Lab with all of the crazy diseases. They do a lot of stuff there including a lot of mosquito work. What was the first thing I saw after I sat down? A mosquito!!! So, when I come down with malaria next week.... you will all know where it came from!

We started our Lab Biosafety class which is 3 hours long...... weekly. This week's lecture consisted of a 3 hour discussion on PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). She spent 10 whole minutes discussing factors you need to consider before choosing latex or nitrile gloves! Then we had to practice "donning and doffing" our gloves... omg terrible! This classes is going to be brutal!

I started coaching gymnastics this week at Acrofit Gymnastics. The owner used to coach with Bela Karolyi at Karolyi's, bought the gym from Bela and moved it to Kemah, TX which is a little more than 30 minutes from my apartment. I'm working Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 4-8. I'll be working with thier (huge) afterschool program for the first hour and then team levels 4-8. Its a very different environment than Apex Gymnastics, more competitive.... smaller team.


NC State played the first game of the season on Thursday against South Carolina. A few of us went out to watch the game and cheer on the PACK! My friend Roberto is from Peru and we had to explain EVERY rule of football to him. NC State lost, but at least not 34-0 like last time!


This weekend (Labor Day) I went to San Antonio with Meaghan Owney (from Raleigh) to go tubing on the Guadalupe River. I'll put pictures up of it when I get the disposable camera developed!


I guess that's it! On to week number 2!