We've got 3 weeks left (not counting the week off before Finals) in PASUM. I'm looking forward to the end of PASUM, really. There's a lot to be missed but the future just looks SO exciting! I can't wait!
Today we had our final session in the Chemistry lab.
Just sticking to (an unspoken) tradition, we students had fun (or not?) breaking beakers, test tubes and thermometers at every opportune moment. The lab assistants looked like they were going to burst into flames and incinerate us all.
But why should that be?
Well, a lab assistant might come up to you and say:
"Heck, YOU try having a hundred kids spilling their guts out on the floor, every single day of the week- breaking expensive government-funded apparatus like they don't cost a cent and they can't friggin' use a dropper correctly to save their lives! And we get paid less than 2k (I wouldn't know, really.) to handle a bunch of teenagers inhaling butyl ethanoate for fun! You think your experiment is hard? Well you try cleaning up that mercury spill and try not to get infertile! NOW THAT'S HARD!"
Allright, maybe it was a lil' teensy bit of Sue Sylvester- but oh well, you get the point.
And it's not just the lab assistants, it's every other underpaid government worker in this country we call Malaysia. Trust me, you do not want to cross a PMS-ing government nurse. She might just shove a 12-inch epidural syringe up the place where the sun don't shine. That won't look pretty. Uh-huh.
Anyhow, I happened to be one the lab assistants decided to lash out on today. Maybe they figured: Heck, we're never gonna see this kids in like, aeons. Lets make them feel so miserable, they'll never forget us. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
My first incident was an innocent mistake, really. It was like-
KRRRRAAAANG! (However smashing glass sounds like.)
"Oops, there goes my filter funnel!" The lab dudes made me wear gloves to pick up the shards by hand. Then I used the broom (not to whack anyone; though I wished to.) to sweep up the rest of the debris.
My second incident was with a thermometer. I was stirring... And stirring... And observing the temperature drop. The solution was supposed to be kept between 0 and 5 degrees; but mine wasn't. It stayed at a constant 10 degrees and inside my beaker...
...SILVER PRECIPITATE was forming. Eh...?
"Guys, I got silver precipitate. Is that supposed to happen?"
My friends looked at the beaker, amazed. Tiny globules of silver bobbed around in the solution. That's when it hit me. Silver. Globules. Thermometer.
Heavy-heartedly I lifted my thermometer. Sure enough, the bottom was missing a tiny bit of glass. That wasn't SILVER PRECIPITATE. It was MERCURY from the thermometer.
OHGODOHGODOHGOD.
Panicked, I head to the nearest demonstrator who then pointed me in the direction of a lab assistant. He wasn't excited to see me. Heck, I wasn't excited to see you too, hunny- but the thought of killing some innocent rat sipping mercury down the lab drain didn't seem right.
He gave me a short lecture on the effects of mercury poisoning, how I could turn infertile and all- I haven't even touched any of that stuff. I ain't that stupid.
And, FYI : In June, the World Health Organization said the level of mercury consumption considered safe was 1.5 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. (A microgram is 0.000000035 of an ounce, and a kilogram is 2.2 pounds.)
So shut up and don't go 'round telling me I'm gonna have to adopt kids. I'm not Angelina Jolie.
My third incident (God, how many wrongs can you commit in 3 hours? A lot, I tell ya.) was with a dropper and a weighing balance. The dropper was given to me by a friend of mine to make it easier to drop the liquid into the weighing bottle.
I shall not tell you who. :P
And the dropper, incidentally, was taken from the fume chamber- a major no-no. How was I to know? Got another free lecture, courtesy of our friendly neighborhood lab assistants. THANKS A MILLION. I was glad that I did not shift gears to "DEBATE" mode or "CRASH AND BURN" mode or that lab assistant might have not lived to see the sunset outside, let alone the light of day. I nodded and replied whenever required, and went back to my experiment cursing with every drop of a solution.
I'm not the confronting type. That much you should know.
But if I was, this is probably what you'd hear me yell in his face:
"YO! Why are ya mad at ME for? I don't know any better. How am I supposed to know that this thing shouldn't be taken out of the fume chamber? You should put up a BIG. FAT. SIGN. in bright neon letters saying so because I had no idea such a thing wasn't allowed. Secondly, you're the one with the degree in Chemistry- YOU should know better. YOU should know that it's YOU- yeah, you- that has that degree in Chemistry! Not US! Some of us can't even get pass a C- in an objective paper, so what exactly do you expect from us?"
I get emotional real fast. I know. Haha...
"So here's what we expect from YOU."
Cheh, got sambungan my imaginary confrontation ni. xD
"We expect you to use your God-given brain, and that God-given heart and soul to THINK. Think: Of what it's like to be in our shoes. Everybody starts out stupid. But we've gotta learn somehow. And that stuck-up-I'm-an-underpaid-chemistry-graduate attitude will get our race NOWHERE."
"You really wanna take the fall for making the future generation stupid? Well, go ahead. Be my guest. Don't complain when we fall victim to other smarter countries who probably had better staff producing better students when they probably get less than you do. By then, maybe you'll remember why you took up this job in the first place. WAKE UP. It's not about MONEY. It's not about US - it's about the future and how you choose to shape it. And I'm not following your mould."
"I'm not an established scientist. Not yet. Let me learn. Let my friends learn. Teach us. So, stop whining about your tough job and your small paycheck and get to work. Like you signed up for."
Then I'll probably make a dramatic exit with tears rolling down my face, signing the exit form on my way out.
Hahahahahaha... Now aren't you grateful I'm keepin' it all real, all inside me. :D
Okay, I'm on the verge of talking nonsense. Thank God lab sessions are over. At least I know in Geology, we won't be in the lab much and rocks don't break as easy as test tubes.
Oh, yeah- come quick faculty years! (;
Off to do my OP outline. Farewell!
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