Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Elections, AKA Popularity Contests

Today was the first day of elections for leadership positions in various organizations on campus. These are the trends that I have observed observed so far:
  1. The VP positions seem to be more popular than the president-elect position, which in both of the elections that I have attended today, have been run, unopposed.
  2. Many other positions also have single candidates so no voting was necessary for those seats. There are WAY TOO MANY organizations in this school and not enough people willing to sacrifice the time for leadership positions, which is understandable because of the additional IPPE requirements this year.
  3. Voting is supposed to be a democratic process where the most qualified candidates are chosen for each leadership position. However, the most popular individuals among the people present for the elections usually win. Decisions are usually not based on how qualified the candidates are but on emotions and personal affiliations; sad but true.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Sleep

After weeks of exhaustion, I was finally able to sleep for 10 hours straight through the night for the first time! It felt sooooo GOOD! There always seems to be so many things to do and so little time. I never expected the pharmacy program to be so demanding on my time. This is one of those times when I wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day.

I can't really write now because I have a kinetics final next week, a pharmacy calculations quiz the week after that, and a presentation plus other fraternity pledging events to prepare for. Last Friday was our last p-chem lecture and I will never have to think about it again after next Thursday. Studying for it is going to be a real torture though. I don't think I will spend more than 8 hours on it, even though I have not done anything for that class aside from attending lectures and taking notes. I was going to burn the book, which has been untouched since last quarter, during the bond fire next week, but our pledge class has decided to attend the Chinese New Year parade instead of a bond fire. Oh well, I can always burn it in March when I go camping with my classmate, Becky. We will both get a kick out of it. Oh, that reminds me I have to book a camp site now.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Persistence & Cole Hall Emotions

It's only my second quarter at UCSF, and I have already developed a love-hate relationship with Cole Hall, the place associated with extremely fun times (like Skit Night and Mr. Pharmacy) as well as two pretty excruciating experiences so far with the fire alarm. When the fire alarm blasted off this morning during the middle of our CP112 midterm exam, I immediately remembered how the same thing happened during our White Coat Ceremony, when I was already grouchy for some reason.

My first reaction was of course to cover my ears in order to remove the source of annoyance. However, I had an exam to finish, and seeing that no one else had moved out of their seats, except for those who had already finished the test, I decided to free my hands so I could finish the rest of the test. By that time, the professor in charge had already said: "There is no danger in this building. Someone at Long/Moffitt Hospital (right next door to us), must have pulled the alarm. Obviously, I can't stop the exam right now, but I will give you extra time to finish." I was wondering if it was a patient who had done it, but was too annoyed by the forceful and constant vibrations in my ears as well as being too occupied with trying to finish the test to pursue the thought any further.

After about five minutes of trying to desensitize my ears to the vibrations, I finally found a solution to my distress: covering my head with the long coat I had beside me. That did the trick and the alarm stopped just as I was finishing up with the rechecking of my answers.

Ten years from now, I will probably look back and remember how annoyed I was in having to endure about 15 minutes of the eardrum-blasting beeps during a midterm that I was not totally prepared for due to the long two-week of midterm marathon. However, what I will remember most is the power of perseverance my classmates have shown over and over again. They have amazing ability to not only withstand adverse situations, but to do well on exams despite adversities. We had a code blue team in the classroom during our biostatistic exam last quarter when a classmate passed out. Nonetheless, most of my classmates were able to focus and did well; the mean was a high B. My classmates' intelligence, hard work, persistence, and qualifications continue to amaze me.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Access Denied!

I have been running into many embarrassing moments lately with my communication: stuttering while making an announcement in class, not being able to pronounce words while presenting my chapter summary to the group discussion, blanking out when I am expected to speak in a group discussion, etc. I never realized that my communication skills were so poor! My brain is not allowing access to words when I need them most and I am left utterly and horrifically speechless!