A big update

Me and Sophia

Ok I feel terrible for neglecting my blog so much. But everything is just going on and I don't seem to have time much time to go online anyore except for study...

Well an update on the past 3 weeks. In the third week after midsemester break I had the most dramatic week ever! I seriously thought I was going to die from neuroblastoma and retinoblastoma..... ok its a long story, but to make it short, I have been spending this entire semester doing my individual study course on genetics learning about medical genetics and disorders...so far I've covered about 6 different disorders in real real deapth (if anyone ie Anita, is interested, they were neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, fragile X syndrome (currently), Angelman syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome and chronic myeloid leukemia. Anyway they are all incredibly interesting but incredibly horrible at the same time.

So that week on Tuesday I started getting headaches and my eyes were sore and I just felt so tired. I thought it would go away but then the next day it just got worse. I spent half of Wednesday sleeping in the library at uni and then stayed at home all day Thursday sleeping and feeling terrible. Now, all this would be ok, if only it wasn't for the fact that I've recently studied neuroblastoma (a form of neural tumor) and retinoblastoma (cancer of the eye). And the scariest part was that all that I had (ie terrible headache, terribly sore eyes, severe tiredness) were all symptoms of neuroblastoma and retinoblastoma..!!! On Thursday I felt so terrible, like I've never felt before, that by Thursday night I was convinced that I was diseased!!! I was sooo scared!!!! On Friday I had an optometrist appointment, and I had to go in to uni to hand in an assignment....I was soo terrified by Friday because I seriously thought the optometrist was going to diagnose me wih something terrible!!!! I have never been so scared in my life!!! ....somehow I managed to finish my evolution assignment and handed it in and then spent half the day sleeping in the library on some chairs. I was pretty sure that within a few hours my life would be over!!!!
...but it wasn't!!! It turns out that I am fine and was just really really tired!!!!!!!! I had never felt so happy in my life!!!!!!!
...So yeah, you could say that Friday was the scariest day of my life!!
...Learning about all these genetic diseases really puts life into perspective.
That Friday was also the day when I didn't have genetics because Geoff was away. Typical; the day my genetics supervisor is away is the day I loose my mind about genetics!

Appart from that drama my life has been pretty normal. Last week on Friday I had my usual genetics class, and I got to teach Geoff about fragile X syndrome that I've been researching for 3 weeks. We switched roles and I got to teach him! It was really amuzing!

Since last Friday I've been working on analysing and picking appart an article about shugoshin, a cohesin molecule that holds chromosomes together at various stages of cell division. At first it drove me crazy because it was so complicated to understand! My brain was fuming!! But when I finally understood the article it felt so great!!!

I have recently pursued a new interest, in relationship to my genetics course; I have discovered how to find video clips on youtube. Ok so you would say that most people go on youtube... but most people go on there to download pop videos and music videos and movies etc. Well, I go on there for educational purposes; to search for syndromes and disorders that I study in my genetics course. It started off that I was feeling a bit depressed about how I'm studying all these genertic disorders but that I've never actually seen any of them in real life. I mean, it's one thing to be studying something by reading texts, articles etc. It's a whole different story when you actually see it yourself. So then I tried looking up videos on the internet and all searches brought me to youtube. Since then I have been finding so many videos about the disorders that I've been studying, that it has become my secret past time interest; sitting in the library watching genetics videos. There is this favourite one of mine about fragile X syndrome... But the videos are so addictive, that's the only problem...!! :)

Also I forgot to mention that 3 weeks ago I had to do an oral presentation for my media paper. It was an absolute nightmare!! We had to do a 10-12 minute presentation on a given article. So then a couple of days before my presentation I was running around searching for rooms to practice in, and I practiced and all was ok; within 15 minutes range. But then when I actually ended up doing my presentation in front of a tutorial group... it was fine... except... it turned out to be about 50 minutes long!!!! When the tutorial began I did my presentation. When I finished everyone just stood up and left! I was so confused! Then I looked at my watched and realized it was already time for next class! 50 minutes had already been!! I was so embarrased!!! I was convinced that I was doomed. But it was actually ok!! So was my Charles Darwin essay...I had never thought it was possible to get 100% for anything...

The exam timetable has come out and thankfully enough my evolution exam is on the 5th of November; almost the final day of exam period!! I was so happy because it means that I will have plenty of time to study!

On Thursday I went to a post graduate meeting for students wanting to do postgraduate study in molecular biosciences. The meeting was horrible! There were different lecturers who gave talks about their 400 level courses and they were all soooo incredibly boring!!!! And there was NOTHING about genetics!!! I was soooo disapointed. I wished Geoff took post grad. But he doesn't. Soooo sad. But I have some ideas about a research project and a supervisor... Oh and I decided I want to do Masters instead of Honours; it will be more enjoyable. More update on that later.

In relationship to the photo at the start of this entry, that was me and Sophia on Friday studying for her 200 level genetics test (memories!), with Cathy also who is not in the photo. All the memories of 2nd year genetics came flooding back to me... but I must say that 300 level genetics is a gazzilion times better than second year genetics! On Friday I had my usual genetics class which was wonderful as usual :) :):):):)
Well, that's all from me for now. Currently working on an evolution assignment...