The Grand Finale

The final act tomorrow: Poster Presentation!!

A full day session of scientific poster presentation for all Final Year Project students in the School lobby. 152 posters on display, showcasing a multitude of life science research in the past 6 months!

It's as exciting as it sounds. This evening we were all at the lobby pinning up our own posters, which didn't take too long (like what, 1 min?), so we trawled the whole lobby, peering at each other's posters, taking photos with our own posters, catching up with each other (it's been ages since I last saw some coursemates!), etc. An amazing display of variety. I'm sure tomorrow will be a blast.

The examining session will take place in the morning tomorrow, as poster examiners view poster by poster, and we have to give a little speech on our work to them. I think it'd be quite nerve wrecking, but I think I might enjoy it as well. When my friend was viewing my poster just now, I was all excited explaining my work to her, although it's not like I had some really impressive conclusions to present.

The open session will be open to public, from 1330-1730. All are welcomed to the lobby of School of Biological Sciences for the Final Act! Come down for a stimulating discussion of life sciences research!

Don't forget moi poster #13 ah.

～みはる～

100th post: Thesis submitted!

On my 100th post, I'm here to declare that I'm one step nearer to graduation.

I've submitted my honors thesis today.

You would think, 'ahh, that must have felt great, to finally submit your thesis'.... Har har. Not exactly.

Ok, so it was partly my fault. I had planned to go to the office early and check my thesis again before printing, but I had stayed up till 4am last night to finish the drafts for my posters, so I could hardly lift my head to the alarm clock some 4 hours of sleep later. In the end, I reached the office about 15 mins before ten. But I thought I still have 2 hours before submission deadline, so I should be okay.

Went to library with my FYP mate and printed one copy, of which then I spent 1 hr checking my thesis word for word. I mean, once you submit, and that is it... so it's better to really check thoroughly rite? However, I spent such a long time checking that before I realized, it was 15 mins before submission deadline and I have yet to print the remaining 4 copies of the thesis. So I started sending print jobs and rushing to the printing room to retrieve my thesis. Darn the color pages, I had to spend some $50 for printing to ensure all the graphs are aesthetically pleasing for examiners. Confident the thesis is in perfect order and alignment, I didn't turn the pages to scrutinize and directly filed them for submission. All 3 hard copies for submission.

By the time I was running to the general office to submit the thesis, I was already 10 mins late and still have not prepared the soft copy for submission. So I submitted the hard copy first before running up to office to burn the soft copy. While waiting for the CD to write, I flipped through the copy of thesis I printed for my supervisor. To my utmost horror, several pages of legends were detached from their figures and the alignment of the first 20 pages went horribly wrong. My heart nearly stop beating as I turned pages over pages of misaligned headlines and legends. The thought of having to reprint almost 150 pages of thesis which will cost me another $50 nearly killed me. But the worst was that all 3 copies of my thesis sitting in the office now are as good as defective items. The examiner would be appalled by the horrible (mis)organizations!

The cause?

ONE spacing (which was NOT present when I print preview my job request) in the Abstract page created a domino effect: pushing all my thesis contents down by one line, ruining all the precarious alignments.


Knowing I cannot let the examiner see all these misalignments, I ran down to the general office to withdraw all the 3 copies and reprinted the misaligned pages. After spending another $10 in the printing room, I checked EVERY single page of the thesis for other errors before submitting the thesis AGAIN, for real. The office lady seemed really pissed at my submitting-withdrawing-submitting again antics, but yea, don't care.

Believe me, there's a conspiracy involving the printing service providers to swindle our money by inserting such spacing in our document that ruins the alignments.

What a dramatic end to my 4-month thesis.

～みはる～

Plate of Happiness

My plate of happiness:



Yes... this is the plate of my happiness. I have a library!!!! *tears of joy*

I have been working almost 20 days in a row, in frustration I might add, just to get this baby. I have come to the conclusion that constructing a bacterial library is anything but simple. The procedure is deceptively straightforward, but I had my downs (and ups!!) in constructing this library since January. Considering the deadline to my thesis is one month's time and my project was not going anywhere without one bloody library up, I was already at my wits end doing tons of complicated optimization experiments. But one look at this plate... I'm drown in delirium!

For the past 2 weeks I was either scowling at the computer, scribbling calculations on recycled paper, or doing transformation. Every night my colleagues would see me at my bench pipetting like a mad girl and transforming bacteria, that I have come to proclaim myself the E.coli 'transformer' of the lab.

After 2 whole weeks mind-boggling optimization, I finally constructed the library for the 8th time with all the optimal conditions. When I checked the plates in the incubator the next day, my eyes could not believe what I was looking at. I bounded out of the incubator room to my colleagues in the lab and screamed, "I have my library!!!"

I must have looked really silly dancing around in the lab in delirium, while my colleagues laughed and congratulated me for obtaining the pretty pretty precious colonies. The joy of a successful experiment!! I have never felt so happy in my FYP-life.

However, I kept my feet to the ground, and thought that it would be best to check the reproducibility of my concept. Feeling incredibly motivated, I constructed another library using the same concept and cells. And guess what I saw the next day??

EVEN MORE COLONIES!!

I have a feeling I would be delirious for the entire weekend.

To give you an idea why I should be delirious, compare the before (library done two weeks ago) and after (library done two weeks later):



Before



After

I'm in cloud nine. 幸せだ～～！

～みはる～

Balance of 3

What if you can't graduate even after you have finished all your modules?

Does that sound stupid? Apparently, my university's system is showing me such case IS possible.
Only recently, I decided to try to apply for a Ph.D programme, and the application required me to send a copy of my transcript containing all my exam results. Now, I have completed all my modules last semester, and all was to be done is my thesis project this semester. So logically, I had fulfilled all the required academic units for graduation. I was so confident about the matter, I mean I never fail any module so by right I have no outstanding units to clear, I took it for granted and never double checked my accumulated academic units. When I did check it last week, I almost had a cardiac arrest: there's a balance of 3 academic units.

Naturally, I flipped out.
WHERE DID THE 3 UNITS COME FROM??

Clearly, the 3 units account for one module. I started panicking; it is impossible to register any subject now and I'm already in my FINAL semester. If the balance stays, I cannot graduate!!

When I did calm down, I began tabulating all my points. The math was correct, but the balance should not be there! I tried to check with my cohort, but most were not immediately available. When I finally did get hold of a friend, I realized that the system had failed to display one subject which I passed last semester, which was worth 3 academic units.

I flipped out again.
WHY IS IT NOT THERE?

When I called the university to check, they couldn't give me an immediate answer. After troubleshooting, they told me the result for the subject is pending.

Now, how can the result for the subject I passed last semester be pending NOW? Furthermore, I did not submit any appeal to review my grade. I was extremely pissed off by the fact that they withdraw my results from the system and did not bother to inform me, the examinee, about whatever they wanted to do with it!! What right is there of them to take the liberty of removing the grades and report it as 'pending' without even giving notice to the owner of the grade? My blood boil at the curt reply given, and immediately sent an email back at them demanding for an explaination.

Doesn't that tell you that there is a possibility graduation is not possible despite completing all modules? It must have been on fine prints in the admission letter.

～みはる～

Colony, where art thou?

Creating a molecular library is no easy feat. I almost landed myself in a phenomenal agar plating exercise.

Finally after a month of preparatory work, I was ready for my first trial run of molecular library construction. I was pretty optimistic, because I had everything carefully planned, right down to the number of eppendorf tubes that I had to use. I even took the pain to read several different protocols and scrutinize my experiment planning from all (perceived) possible angles. The only thing I did not do was read the directions of how to use the commercial competent cells properly. When I actually did, I came out with this mind-blowing numbers:

To make 1 library, I need:

• 400 eppendorf tubes for cell transformation
• 2000 agar plates for spreading of library culture

Because I have 7 library combinations, I need:

• 2800 eppendorf tubes for cell transformation
• 14000 agar plates for spreading of library culture

Essentially, I have to transform 2800 tubes of cells and spread 14000 agar plates in one go.
Say I take 1 minute to spread one agar plate, it would take me 233 hours, which is approximately 24/7 for 10 days, to finish spreading all the plates.

-_-'''

That is if I sit at the biosafety cabinet (BSC) for 10 days straight without leaving the BSC even for a split second.

My eyes nearly popped out when I saw the ridiculous figures. Forget the BSC-thing, even if I put all the incubators in the lab together, there isn't sufficient place to incubate 14000 plates!!

Now don't even entertain the thought of me spreading 14000 plates. Anybody knows that is quite impossible to be done. However, my supervisor, mentor, colleagues and myself had a good laugh at the scale of the experiment. We then worked out an alternative strategy to do the experiment, MINUS 14000 plates. *phew...*

So, after tweaking the protocol a little, I run the trial experiment at a manageable scale. I followed the recommended protocol strictly with hopes to generate as many colonies as promised by the company protocol. When I put in the plates in for overnight incubation, I was quite optimistic and very hopeful to see a lawn of colonies when I return the next day. I mean, afterall, they did say I'm supposed to obtain millions of colonies!

I waited and waited and waited till the hour came, ran to the incubator excitedly to take out my plates. どきどき。My heartbeat increased as I anticipated the lawn of E.coli on my plates. Chuckling gleefully, I reached for the plates and turned them over for a good look....... NO COLONY! I reached for another stack of plates..... ALSO NO COLONY! My heart sank as I reached for the final 3 stacks.... SPARSE COLONIES!

"Oh nooooo, what had happened to my cells?? I have no library??!! Even with using the most competent cells?? Dieeee......," - was all that was running in my head.

I supposed research isn't without experimental failures. Now I'm tweaking my strategies again and hopefully my next round of trial will bear fruit... or rather, fat juicy colonies.

Don't tell me I really have to spread 14000 plates?....

～みはる～

バカなことばかり

You know, I think I may have fried my brain cells or something. Lately, I've been doing many stupid things.

It must have been my incompetence, as I seem to be multitasking most of the time. Take last Friday for example, I went to lab very early to do vector control and to run (the umpteenth) genomic DNA extraction at the same time. Kind of stupid, really, to run two experiments together, but I was greedy and didn't want to waste a second of the waiting time. To add stress to it, I had to finish transforming ligated DNA and extracting gDNA both by lunchtime as I had a career workshop after lunch. Now, anyone experienced will laugh and tell you it is impossible to complete so much work in half the day. But I was greedy, laid out the materials on two opposing benches and spent the entire time going back and forth from one bench to another. On one bench the centrifuge is done spinning and keeps beeping, on the another bench the digested mixtures are completed awaiting for gel electrophoresis. Gyaa.... what a dizzying exercise.

In the end, I couldn't finish the experiments in time and was late for my workshop. My mentor had kindly run my DNA extraction gel electrophoresis for me, as I skipped lunch to rush to the workshop. After the workshop, my mentor told me my DNAs were weird. The extraction yield was very good, but there were EXTRA bands. I was like, "nooo.... my whole afternoon is wasted again!!" I quickly went back to lab to troubleshoot and re-run the gel using one of the 16 samples, and found no extra bands O.O The DNA must be playing hide-and-seek with me.

However, I still could not leave as my transformation part of the experiment was not completed and I had to wait like an hour for the bacteria to grow before I can spread them on antibiotics plates for overnight incubation. When I went to the cold room to get plates, I realized there were NO MORE PLATES!!!! The antibiotic plates I wanted were not in stock!! Talk about bad luck! T_T What were left were a stack of plates labeled "Not-so-well-made-Amp-plates".

-_-''' I do not know what the person who made the plates meant.

I had no choice but to use them anyway, and because these plates were 'defective', I had to plate on another type of plate which were good quality, but had slightly different nutrient composition. Meaning, I had to spread TWO sets of plates. Now, you might think, another extra set only mah, what's the big deal. It means I had to spread 13 samples on 52 plates. And that time was already 930pm.

By the time the bacteria had happily grown to the state I wanted them to, I was the only person left in the level again. T_T I don't really enjoy OT, because the quiet lab can be quite creepy! I think it must have really just been me, but I keep hearing sounds. However, thanks to that, I have learnt some plating-acrobatics, as I could now spread plates without even looking at the plates (half the time my eyes were averted nervously to see if any vampire, uh I meant person, sneaked up behind me).

Then yesterday, I went back to lab to take out the incubated plates and do genomic DNA extraction A.G.A.I.N. (when can I get enough DNA??) Fortunately, my vector control went well; meaning I can proceed to actually start making the molecular library. After finishing my DNA extraction, I run all my 32 samples on gel to check the DNA concentration. I had purposely made brand new gel from clean TBE liquid and ultra-grade agarose, so I was confident my gel quality was good. Furthermore, I had performed the extraction using the conditions I optimized last week, so I was quite sure my yield would be pretty good.

So, I loaded my samples, covered the tanks, and plug in the cables. As I was connecting the cables, I noticed the tank orientation was upside-down. "But it's okay, as long as I plug the electric poles right," I thought. After running the gel for 45mins, I took them out of the tank for EB staining. As I did, I thought something was weird. Usually, the blue dye from the samples can be seen at the end of the gel after electrophoresis, but I didn't see them on my gel. "Maybe my gel's a bit too short, but it's okay, since the bands are not very low," I had thought. So, without further thoughts, I put both pieces of gel in for staining... and waited 25mins for viewing.

After staining was done, I took the gels to view under UV. What I saw on the computer nearly made my heart stopped beating.

NO BANDS.

When I viewed one gel which had two rows of wells, I noticed something odd: the bands from the lower row appeared on the upper row gel. At first I thought I placed the gel upside-down on the platform. But it was quite impossible. because the ladder was on the correct side!

Then, it dawn upon me.

I had ran the gel BACKWARDS.

The electrical poles were right, but the gel was oriented upside-down. Thus, all the DNA from the upper row were run into the tank liquid. How stupid can it get?? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw the gel photo. I mean, WHO RUNS GEL BACKWARDS??

I gave up for that day. Maybe it's because my concentration level had hit low and I'm beginning to do very unsensible things.

Lesson is.... always keep the tank on the right orientation.

～みはる～

Mad rush

The last three days had been, like, experiment-mad-rush for me. I've been clocking in very early and staying in the lab till very late designing and executing experiments to troubleshoot my thus far negative results.

On Thursday, I stayed late to extract the bloody genomic DNA which turned up with terribly poor yield. The entire day of lysis - centrifuge - lysis - centrifuge - wash - centrifuge - wash - centrifuge - elute - centrifuge - elute AGAIN had gone to waste as proven by the blank gel photo. I darn hate it when I get blank gel photos. It didn't help that my gel broke into half and I wasted the time to piece it together, when all I actually had was no DNA.

Yesterday, I left the lab only when midnight struck. Seriously, I might consider sleeping in the lab soon. The whole day and night was devoted to making.... you've guessed it, competent cells. Chemically competent E.coli in the day, electro-competent E.coli in the night. By nine, most of my colleagues and FYP-mates had left the lab, and then I realized I was the only living being (apart from all the bacteria in the freezer) in the entire level. Heck, it was possible I was the only being left in the building. The thought creeped me out, especially when I had to work at the biosafety cabinet (BSC). While aliquoting the stupid (hopefully) competent cells into small vials in the BSC, my back was facing the lab entrance, and not being able to see anyone who might come thru the lab entrance made me very nervous. All the while aliquoting, I thought I heard the hinge of the lab door creak. Obviously there was no one around, but I kept turning around in paranoia and the pipette in my hand started to tremble so much I couldn't aliquot properly. After several minutes, I was no longer creep out but very annoyed because the volume of cells made didn't seem to reduce no matter how much I transfer into the smaller vials!!!! I was already very very tired and wanted to go back to my bed, but the bottle of cells remained still as much!! When I finally did finish with the cells and cleaning up, it was already close to 11pm. But then, I did something very stupid.

After I left the school building, I realized I forgot to transfer the expensive rotor back into my lab from the common room. My lethargy was getting into my head, and I thought, "I'm too tired to walk back to lab. I'll come back earlier tomorrow to keep it." However, after walking some 800m away later, a wave of worry washed over me as I begun to imagine unauthorized users spoiling/stealing the rotor. There is absolutely no way I could pay for that bloody expensive rotor. Besides, if the rotor is spoilt, I can kiss my FYP goodbye. It was a storm in my head as the Angel and Devil debated whether I should continue walking back to my room or to return to the lab. Finally, Angel won and I trudged back to lab. Stupid rotor! By the time I really did reached my room, it was already 12midnight! If I had turned back the first time, I needn't wasted my already-draining energy and precious time!

I thought I could then just sleep after such a long and tiring day. But no no. I had another experiment to design for the next day and had much thinking to do. I didn't really have the mental energy to think, but I kept tossing and turning in bed, until I gave up sleeping and got up to design the experiment at 3am.

I didn't had it easy today either. Had to wake up early to go to lab again to troubleshoot the genomic DNA extraction and transform the (hopefully) competent E.coli cells. I had thought I could finish before dinner time, but like always, E.coli dictates my schedule, not vice versa. In the end, I get to leave the lab only at 9pm... and I didn't even get to run gel to check the gDNA!!

Tomorrow's another half day (I hope) in lab again... and this time, I'm praying all my results are positive. If they aren't, I declare war against E.coli.

～みはる～

Demoralized

I'm feeling so so demoralized.

Already I had no competent cells after one week of making it, and today's genomic DNA extraction failed miserably. What is very demoralizing was I spent the whole day painstakingly extract the stupid bacterial DNA and after running the samples on electrophoresis, the bands were BARELY visible against the freakingly bright DNA ladder. ONE WHOLE DAY spent and NO BANDS! All my 16 DNA preps were gone to waste.

This is, like, a week of experimental misfortune.
Nothing is going right.
No positive results.
How demoralizing.

～みはる～

E.coli-tachi, たのむよ！

I've made more than 200 tubes of E.coli cells, and yet, NONE of them are competent!!! T_T

You see, I'm creating a bacterial genomic library for my FYP and as with all standard protocols, I need competent hosts that can efficiently carry the genome. So, I had to make a fresh batch of competent E.coli cells for my purpose. After spending a week making 2 batches of cells amounting to more than 200 vials, NONE of them passed the efficiency test. And now my whole molecular library construction is brought to a halt because I couldn't generate the right host!! To make the matter worst, I don't know why! And to top it off, the procedure is taking too freaking long!!! The incubation period is like 16 hours, and I have twice come out with barely a handful of E.coli colonies on the plates. T_T

To the E.coli on the 24 plates sitting in the 37 degrees incubator right now, please...G.R.O.W.
たのむよ！

～みはる～

Closure

Guardian Angel-san, otsukaresama deshita!!!

I believe my Guardian Angel has been working very hard at protecting me. This is because something miraculous always happen whenever I felt all hopes are lost.

You see, results for last semester's finals are out today. I dreaded checking my results because I know I sucked last semester. It wouldn't be a surprise if I flunked a paper or two. (Remember, I fluked 20 points on the last paper??!!) I was afraid that I might see an "F" there on the screen, and would have to take another paper in the coming semester. God forbid, if I flunked 2 papers, I would have to remain a semester! I mean, I DID register 8 graded subjects, of which 7 were examinable. (Only crazy people do that!) I must have been out of my mind to put myself through the stress and depression - talk about self mutilation.

Anyway, reality is reality, like it or not, the grades are final. If it's bad, it remains bad. So, when I clicked the link to view my results, I prepared myself for the worst. When I say worst, it feels worst than preparing for death.

So when the page came, I scanned for grades "C" and below. And found none.

I almost cried tears of relief, thinking, "THANK YOU, Guardian Angel!!"

Then when I really looked at the grades to my subjects, I see the pattern repeating itself.
The papers I thought I wrote better earned me lower grades than those I thought I would flunk. And the paper I thought I did very badly had an above average grade -_-''' It happens almost every semester! It's so unfulfilling when you did your best for a pet paper and earn a low grade for it.

And the papers I did best were NOT science papers. I spent less than 24 hours studying for HRM and got an A for it. The examiner must have been drunk when marking my answer book.

Nevertheless, it seems I can have a calm closure to this saga of finals, which by the way, I DO NOT want to relive. I may not have performed excellently, but I feel the grades were reasonable, given the effort I put in in the midst of all the stress and depression of having too many exams in such a short time.

Lesson learnt : (those taking Bio. Sci.,)
DON'T BE STUPID AND REGISTER 8 SUBJECTS IN ONE SEMESTER.
(unless you want to kill yourself)

～みはる～

Recuperation underway

I just finished my last paper, Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 3 (JLPT3). Finally, all done.

*Pause*

No, I don't feel any different.
No cause for celebration. Not even an itsy bitsy feeling of relief, but resigned, yes. Oh, well.

Anyway, the JLPT3 was held all the way at the other end of the country, and it took me around 2 hours to reach the venue, which is The Japanese School （日本人学校）. There was so many people of varying age group (yes, aunties and uncles were examinees too!) flocking the school to take JLPT3 and JLPT2. Almost every room in the school were converted into an exam room. My seating was located in a 研究室 (science laboratory). The lab benches there were very low (and cute!) and the whole place is sooooo clean for a science lab. No shoes were allowed inside, so you can imagine how sparkling clean the floor is.

So the exam took slightly more than 3 hours. First, we started off with the Vocabulary paper. It was not that easy, but not exactly tough either. In fact, some of the questions were pretty easy and.... funny. There was one question asking the appropriate usage of the word "ねっしん" (enthusiastic). We were supposed to choose one sentence that demonstrates the appropriate usage of the word. One of the sentences read something like this: "雨がねっしんでふりそうだ” (the rain is falling enthusiastically). I almost laughed out loud. XD Having said that, not all the questions are easy either, I basically hentam on several which I didn't have a good idea what the answer was.

After a short break, the second paper was Listening. I thought I had slightly more confidence in this paper because Sensei had practise the 2005 Listening Test with us. However, I was thrown off composure when I lost track on a few conversations. And I have to say that is wasn't that easy afterall, because some of the questions require you to make a summary of the conversation before you can answer the questions. The answers may not be directly picked up from the conversation itself.

The last paper was Grammar and Comprehension. I thought this one is a goner, because my Japanese grammar sucks. To further prove my point, the first question left me stunned. It was simple, but I didn't know which particle to insert. So I skipped and skipped all the questions I wasn't very sure of and surprisingly, manage to finish ahead of time and even checked once more thoroughly before submitting the answer sheet. Fushigi da na.....

Overall, I find JLPT3 not very difficult, but given time, I think I could have done better. Couldn't really helped it since my school exams ended late and I had only a day to catch up with the remaining syllabi before taking the exam. Hopefully I will be able to pass the JLPT3. Well, regardless I pass or not, I still intend to continue studying Japanese to the advance level （１級）. Funny thing is, I felt happy taking this kind of examinations. Taking up the challenge to improve on my language proficiency has always been an intriguing thing for me.

With all the stress I have been under for the past few weeks, I'll be heading home to recuperate before starting on my final year project (FYP). So my one-week recuperation plan includes:

• sleeping like no tomorrow
  
• reading manga like no tomorrow
• watching J-dorama (Nodame Cantabile!) & anime like no tomorrow
• eating Hokkien Mee at Burmah Road
• updating my other two *stale* blogs
• .....did I mention sleeping??

～みはる～

最後の最後

After a horrible 2.5 hours, my semester examinations finally ended without much pomp. I didn't have enough time to finish the paper, so I totally flunked 20 points. Yatta ne.

Nov-16 : LJ82 - Japanese Language Level3
Nov-22 : BS405 - Current Topics in Neurobiology
Nov-23 : CV4202 - Human Resource Management
Nov-24 : BS406 - Current Topics in Cell Biology
Nov-28 : BS407 - Current Topics in Genetics & Genomics
Nov-29 : BS408 - Current Topics in Immunology
Dec-01 : BS411 - Current Topics in Virology/Microbiology
Dec-03 : JLPT Level3

And now, for the grand finale, another 24 hours of 日本語の勉強 and I swear I will not say the word 'exam' for the next 180 days.

本当に最後の最後です。

～みはる～

あと二つがあります

Nov-16 : LJ82 - Japanese Language Level3
Nov-22 : BS405 - Current Topics in Neurobiology
Nov-23 : CV4202 - Human Resource Management
Nov-24 : BS406 - Current Topics in Cell Biology
Nov-28 : BS407 - Current Topics in Genetics & Genomics
Nov-29 : BS408 - Current Topics in Immunology
Dec-01 : BS411 - Current Topics in Virology/Microbiology
Dec-03 : JLPT Level3

最後まで、まだ二つがあります。
あたしは一生懸命頑張る。
みんなの優しさをありがとう。
心配させました　ごめんなさい。

じゃ、また。

～みはる～

白い恋人

I'm so mentally tired. Just got back from a 5-hour JLPT3 listening practice class held specially by Sensei... and now trying to memorize Genetics slides.

The practice class just now was like... shinkansen (bullet train) mode. We did the 2005 JLPT listening test and then Sensei went through every single question, explaining all the grammar and vocabulary that we have yet to learn. Can you imagine cramming 150 hours worth of Japanese course in 4 hours? Now I know what Japanese cram school is like :P

However, no matter how taihen it sounds, Sensei was truly wonderful to specially conduct the class. She told us she stayed up till 3a.m. to prepare the scripts!! *awww...*
本当に感動しました！

To keep us in a gambarimasu-mood, Sensei treated us to cookies she received as souvenirs from Japan. I got a piece of Hokkaido's 白い恋人！！！うわい～～！！I love Shiroi Koibito patissiere!! When I was in Sapporo, we bought a box of Shiroi Koibito mix chocolate cookies and they tasted 1st class!!! And it was very expensive... although indescribably exquisite.



If you have not heard before, 白い恋人 (Shiroi Koibito), which literally means white beloved ones, is a luxurious chocolate cookie range produced only in Hokkaido, Japan. The cookies comes in singular packets. The delicate chocolate piece is sandwiched between a pair of squarish, fine, crumble-like biscuits... and when you take a bite, you'll fall in love. 恋になれる. まじです。チョコレトーは本々は白いので、「白い恋人」ってすると思います。ははは、多分ですね。

Shiroi Koibito is definitely a must try should you go to Hokkaido. You wouldn't have been to Sapporo, Hokkaido if you have not tasted Shiroi Koibito ;)



Now, if I can get another box of 白い恋人...

～みはる～

I'm crazy

Shot 2 more down within less 12 hours. Another 4(!) more T_T

Nov-16 : LJ82 - Japanese Language Level3
Nov-22 : BS405 - Current Topics in Neurobiology
Nov-23 : CV4202 - Human Resource Management
Nov-24 : BS406 - Current Topics in Cell Biology
Nov-28 : BS407 - Current Topics in Genetics & Genomics
Nov-29 : BS408 - Current Topics in Immunology
Dec-01 : BS411 - Current Topics in Virology/Microbiology
Dec-03 : JLPT Level3

I'm feeling pretty much drained, yet, I'm consciously aware that I cannot be drained until 3rd of Dec. I have no time to be wallowing in depression, no matter how depress I feel after a paper because the next one is just around the bend. I cannot even take a break to stop feeling panicked and worried, because all the modules are bloody difficult. I can only live with this stress and panic for almost another 220 hours.


I think I'm crazy to take 8 exams in 2 weeks.
What was I thinking?

～みはる～

6 more papers

Another one down, 6(!) more to go.

Nov-16 : LJ82 - Japanese Language Level3
Nov-22 : BS405 - Current Topics in Neurobiology
Nov-23 : CV4202 - Human Resource Management
Nov-24 : BS406 - Current Topics in Cell Biology
Nov-28 : BS407 - Current Topics in Genetics & Genomics
Nov-29 : BS408 - Current Topics in Immunology
Dec-01 : BS411 - Current Topics in Virology/Microbiology
Dec-03 : JLPT Level3

Haven't. study. HRM. Stress. mode.

～みはる～

The FINAL of the finals is here

My FINAL undergraduate examinations has begun.
Already one down, 7(!) more to go.

Nov-16 : LJ82 - Japanese Language Level3
Nov-22 : BS405 - Current Topics in Neurobiology
Nov-23 : CV4202 - Human Resource Management
Nov-24 : BS406 - Current Topics in Cell Biology
Nov-28 : BS407 - Current Topics in Genetics & Genomics
Nov-29 : BS408 - Current Topics in Immunology
Dec-01 : BS411 - Current Topics in Virology/Microbiology
Dec-03 : JLPT Level3


Japanese Level3 was not as easy as I thought it would be. The comprehension took me more than an hour. I had only less than an hour for my essay. And it was definitely no easy topic: １０年前と今、１０年後の私. Most people think "Ahh...writing about yourself what... easy stuff, blow your own trumpet lorr".

ばかのこと言うな。

I do not know which grammatical tense to use for the １０年後の私. Heck, I do not even know which sentence structure to use.　
何々～たい　とか。。。　
何々～ます　とか。。。　
何々～と思います　とか。。。。。　ぜんぜんしらなかった！！

In the end, I didn't finish my composition as time was up... and I didn't even have to check the previous sections. The filling-in-the-verbs section was pretty tricky too.

まぁ、日本語の試験もう終わったので、何でも考えても無用です。
後できるだけ次の試験に一生懸命頑張ります。
それじゃ。。。勉強をつづけなければきゃ。。。

～みはる～

Lucky

I have never ever won anything from a lucky draw before. Seriously, in my entire life, I was never lucky with lucky draws. Be it just a measly pen or the grand prize of a trip for two to Hong Kong, I was never the one to win in the lucky raffle. Until today.

Yesterday, AL and I went to the e-resources fair organized by our university library, and we combed every booth for information, and... ahem, free goodies :P The booths proved their competition by organizing small lucky draws for gifts such as Samsung MP3 players. So, I thought I could try my luck.... although I never had much of that, but since I was there anyway. AL even chucked me several copies of the coupon to put our names down, "Increase the probability of your chances to win" that's what she told me. I was like thinking, "Hahah. Won't make any difference, I'm not lucky anyway". After leaving the fair, I even forgot that I had placed my name for the lucky draw.

Then just now after class, I was feeling pretty tired and headed straight out to the shuttle bus stop for a ride home. Two stops before my alighting stop, I received a call from AT. "Eh, you've won something from the e-resources lucky draw!" I was like... "huh? What lucky draw?"

It took a few seconds before the historical event dawn upon me... OMG! I got picked in a lucky draw for the first time!!! And guess what I won?!


.... a 128MB thumbdrive.

-_-'''



I've 2 thumbdrives with larger memory capacity to boot........, but still, it's nice to win in a lucky draw >_<

Guess I'm pretty lucky after all.

～みはる～

Hideous exam timetable

A prelude to my nightmare 7 weeks from now:

Nov-16 : LJ82 - Japanese Language Level3
Nov-22 : BS405 - Current Topics in Neurobiology
Nov-23 : CV4202 - Human Resource Management
Nov-24 : BS406 - Current Topics in Cell Biology
Nov-28 : BS407 - Current Topics in Genetics & Genomics
Nov-29 : BS408 - Current Topics in Immunology
Dec-01 : BS411 - Current Topics in Virology/Microbiology
Dec-03 : JLPT Level3

The severity of my examination timetable just hit me. The image of living hell has finally sunk in. It's gonna be a 2-week load of back-to-back stress.

Don't you just lurrrve exams?

～みはる～

幸せ。。。

本日はあたしの誕生日です。
そして、あたしの優しくていいお友達たちは私の為にケーキをかって、一緒にあたしの誕生日を祝いました。
それから、夜には家の近くのホーカーセンターで別の友達と一緒に晩ご飯をたべました。赤いたまごもたべました。
一日中沢山たべました。友達のことがいいですね。。。
今とても幸せだとおもいます。。

Yes I know, the whole lot of Japanese scribbles may meant nothing to most of my readers here....I just want to flaunt my Japanese writing competency. :P


Anyway, what I really want to convey is that I'm one happy H.sapiens today!!
In the morning, I received a surprise phone call from Mum, who took a few mins off her office work just to wish me a Happy Birthday. I had just finished rehearsing my Genetics presentation for the last time and was rushing to leave for campus, when my handphone buzzed. I was very touched that Mum took the time out to call me... and it gave me a good start for the day!

So, my presentation went on pretty smoothly, although I was pretty nervous up on the stage. I had only 4 hours of sleep last night and was not in a very alert state of mind, so when Prof. T asked me a slightly tricky question for the Q&A session, I was thrown off the balance and started crapping whatever I deemed logic at that moment of time and just stunned when he further questioned me. Nevertheless, it is all over and after the class, my school friends bought me and AL (whose B'day was a few days ago) a cake and celebrated together at the school cafe. We even got b'day greetings from the cleaning aunties at the cafe!! >_<

After school I went back to my room with the intention to take a nap. However, I ended up reading papers for this Friday's assignment deadline, downloading Bleach 96 and finally was surfing the Internet for postgraduate Monbukagakushou information. So ineffective.
Then in the evening, my housemates returned and along with a few close friends, we went down to the seafood hawker coffee shop for a hearty dinner. Although small in number, but it was nice to have a scrumptious dinner with my friends.

In the night, Dad then called to wish me Happy Birthday. Then I chatted with my parents for a good 30 mins about my happy day.
To this moment, I have received many calls, MSN messages, SMS-es, e-cards, and even Friendster messages of people wishing me a Happy Birthday. Some may not be very close friends, but the fact that they take the time to say 'Happy Birthday' touched me deeply. What more, I'm especially happy to receive greetings from my old schoolmates... it serves as a reminder that no matter how long or how far we've been apart, they still remember me as a friend.

So, the events on this day when I graduate from 22 years of my life in this tiny planet Earth showed me that there are many people in the world that still care about your existence. Not to sound bitter, but in the 22 years I have seen and experienced many moments that left me wondering if I have a sliver of faith left in the people around me. I find that I had a tendency to distance myself from people to avoid drowning in the emotional whirlpool that comes with complex human relations. But sometimes, these people then remind me that there are good people on Earth and no matter what happens, having faith in friends can make your world a little happier and cheerful.

So, this is to all of you who made my day today.... Cheers to friendship!!!

～みはる～