N Wednesday, December 2, 2009
i caved.
holidays have yet to arrive. ee is the most dreaded thing in my mind, yet the one i'm constantly thinking about, the one i'm feeling excited about.
i guess that excitement kind of wore off when i realised my results collected during nov-dec arent going to be used for my actual thing because i'm still in the process of refining my methodology. it's easy to underestimate the effort required for ee, even when you enter ib with the impression that ee is one of the most daunting tasks.
it looks good on paper, but somehow, the results often don't turn out the way you expect them. which is extremely frustrating. you spend days preparing the extract, the agar plates, the nutrient broth, the EVERYTHING. and finally, the day of the actual experiment, you get crappy results. demoralising - but that's why i think ee is important.
over the past few days - past few weeks actually, i keep thinking that whoever thought of ee as part of the ib programme is a real genius. before you shoot me for saying that - it's true. going through ee and completing it is an arduous task - something to be proud of when you finally complete it - but only if you do a good job of it.
i've been making several changes, introducing new ideas and refining my methodology to improve my ee - and can i say something? it's darn frustrating. every time you decide to change part of your extraction process, that means your final extract will be different, meaning you have to prepare the extract all over again and you can't use your previous results.
sadly, i lack that luxury of time. so it's going to be a mad rush into the start of year 6. i can't believe i'm losing my entire nov-dec holiday to ee and the bio lab, only to arrive at dec to find my results to be put into the ee will have to be collected next year.
grrrrr is probably the best word to sum it up.
i hate the feeling of wasted time.
to top it off, ee full draft and ssef report are due on friday of the first week of jan. wish me luck as i attempt to collect my results in the 3 to 4 days when school reopens - i need it. if only the lab were open on the SQA holiday ):
i know i'm not the only who has ee woes. but it's okay. hopefully it'll all work out well in the end. things might be shaky at the start but you never know how they'll turn out.
ANYWAY.
eu, jess and i wanted to go to broadway for lunch for a change, instead of patronising the just for mee stall again. but the weather disapproved our decision and it conveniently rained just before lunch. so it was just for mee again.
it seems there are two types of people in school during the holidays. the chem people and the bio people. so the bio people will come down for lunch together and surprise! they'll happen to meet the chem people in the sac. and both the chem people and the bio people will patronise the just for mee stall because it's the only food stall open.
enough about school.
shanghai was wonderfully cold. i love the feeling of being warm in layers of clothes, but still being able to enjoy the chill a little. my ears got wind burnt on the very first night, and they were so red and hot.
i have been attracted to the wonders of chinese tea.
there was one food store that was particularly good and cheap. extremely cheap. for a family of five, paying $18 in total for a meal that was filling and extremely DELICIOUS was awesome. the beef noodles were so good (: and so were the xiao long baos (: ($2 for 9)
speaking of food, hopefully i'll have time to bake tomorrow. i think for the first time in my ee life, i might leave before lunch.
oh yes, ssef abstract. the shock and adrenaline rush at 10.20 p.m. on 1 December 2009 ('entire abstract is incoherent.... need to red0' 'almost made me fall off my chair'). after that scare and the successful completion and submission of a 'much much better' abstract 20 minutes before the deadline, i was too awake to sleep.
which explains why this morning i was pretty tired. and the long day didnt help at all.
i'm setting a record for my longest post in my life? nah doubt this is my longest post.
` love, 10:33 PM
