The Best Thing

This semester has been great in that all of my science classes have been overlapping in really nice ways. Our second unit in Comparative Animal was on muscles, at the same time I was learning about muscle tissues in Human A &P, and just the other day we learned about the detailed bio-chemical aspects of muscles in Biochem. Even in strange things such as learning about crocodile's blood shunting abilities in CAP and then learning about BPG binding (or lack thereof) and hemoglobin affinity for bicarb in crocodile's in Biochem the very next class  (both of which are important factors in croc's ability to drown their prey). It's nice because I get completely different things and details in each course, and then some overlap which certainly helps with the studying.

And then there is my Native American Studies class. I love learning about the indigenous cultures here in America. More than that, I am intrinsically drawn towards learning about the social justice issues, racism and oppression going on in the Native communities. It inspired me to sign up to lead a week-long immersion trip to the Great Smoky Mountains in the Spring where we will be doing service projects and engaging in conversation with the Snowbird Cherokee. This is a new trip this year (also called alternative break trips), and I am trying to act as a bridge between the Native professor on campus and the Center for Public Service. In the past, the trips have been viewed as a bit of exploitation and "let's go see the Indians." I'm trying to re-vamp that and make it into a respectful and mutual atmosphere where students are made truly aware of the issues facing the native people in the Americas. I'm really excited about it (in case you can't tell), but it has also been taking up a lot of time.

A lot of exams and papers and readings lately (have 5 weeks straight of exams, then a week off and start over)... my grades have not been as good as they should be, but I only have so many hours in a day to study for exams on top of everything else. I've even been neglecting writing on here because it takes time!  Speaking of which... I need to go work on my bio paper and my NAS paper and my readings and that video I'm supposed to watch and studying for my exam on Tuesday and working on my biochem HW problems and oh yeah the three or four chapters in textbooks I'm supposed to have read by Monday...

At least its good practice for vet school. Which I may one day get into, and then put myself in debt for the rest of my life.

Happy Tails and Trails,

~Melissa