The Racket Called College

OMGosh!!!

I won't complain about tuition because compared to the universities it is nothing but I will complain about everything else.

First there are the books. Hundreds of dollars for new ones, almost hundreds of dollars for used ones that you can, maybe, sell back at the end of the semester. They also have this new thing where even if you do buy used, you have to buy an access code to do certain activities online. These things can be almost $100.00!!! Then there is the "binder ready" option, 500 loose leaf pages that you have to buy a three ring binder to put it in and the school will not buy those back. They are still a good hundred dollars.

Then, there are the lab manuals. The two I had to purchase this year are well less than the one I had to buy for Anatomy and Physiology. However, I used that manual for two semesters. You cannot buy those used.

New for me this semester, lab equipment. Goggles (vented, wrap around, not cheap), a lab coat (thankfully, I can use this huge, white, mens dress shirt I got for five bucks at Target), gloves (no latex for me, thanks. I break out.), lens paper, and microsope slides, masking tape, sharpies and... colored pencils? I do have to make sure my bacterium is acurrately drawn in my lab manual. Seriously.

While I'm on the subject, let me share this little tidbit. When I am trying to remember what a particular microbe or muscle or organ looks like, I associate it with things it resembles (to me). Because of this, I don't eat brisket (latissimus dorsi) or other foods I have unfortunately associated.

Anyway, I was looking at parasites and protazoa last night and realized I make these food issues myself (duh). For example, Bacilli looks like purple vermicelli. Spirilli look like Big League Chew, yogurt cultures look like poorly spun cotton candy and protazoans look like rice, green colored sugar and speckled bubbles.

Oh well. Whatever gets me an A, I guess.