Disaster at a temporary pause

Right. I was postponing writing about the end of the semester until I received all of my grades, but that hasn't happened yet and I've already started a new semester. So here it goes.

Fall semester.

This was the single worst semester of school I have ever experienced - and that is saying a lot. I got kicked out of school three times my senior year in high school, so there was some pretty tough competition on that front. Seriously, I've tried to convey the horror here but I am incapable of finding the right words.

See, my education means a lot to me. I feel a little silly sometimes when I take bad teaching so personally, but then really everyone should. I'm only going to go through grad school once, so in my opinion it better fucking count. But the majority of professors in this school are horrible and are making class pointless.

Let's say someone gives you a lecture on how to make a batch of cookies. You follow along, understanding why things are added when. It all makes sense. Cooking is, in fact, just chemistry. But then you are tested on this lecture. It's a multiple choice exam, and the questions are asking how many millimeters across the dough mound should be and about the type of heat that is delivered by your oven. Are both of these points important? Sure they are. But do they truly further your understanding about how cookies are made? No.

This is what I am talking about. I am being taught stuff, but not learning anything. It's horrible.

Anyway, the first semester is over. Thank fuck for that. No more complaining about that shit. This semester, instead of taking seventeen credits, I will only be taking fourteen. Or twelve. I haven't really fully decided on this one class, so I'm going to wait and see how that goes. It sounds interesting, but it's on Wednesday evening and gets out after 5pm. This means less time out of the lab. Tricky.

Maybe it's that I'm fresh out of a break, but things are good right now. I'm writing my paper, finally - but that is another story.