Some progress

Today I poured my first gel ever, and ran a standard. The dye is setting right now and Monday I'll have something pretty to look at. It's so neat to finally put a "face" to the stuff I learned about in bio.

My advisors continue to be really cool. "Hermann the German" is actually Dr. Esselmann, but I think he'll stay HtG in my mind. Like HmcF, my Kenyon advisor, he has a good handle on when to be hands-on and explanatory and when to encourage me to fly solo. I tend to be excited to learn new methods but highly unsure of myself at first, so it helps quite a bit.

In gegenteil, I still don't have my University ID or any means to register for classes, and time is marching on.

***** Begin Stokesesque-rant (adjectival form, now!)*****

Ah, for the days at Kenyon, where the most incomprehensibly bureacratic thing you could possibly face was, let's say, getting an organization funded... but the entire staff of the SAC was always ready to jump in with explanations and a friendly smile, and if by second semester freshman year you hadn't started learning the ropes, you were obviously an unengaged hermit, or possibly a student-shaped rock.

There's this little office called the Registrar, where you can make all your dreams come true in 20 minutes or less. UCCs... even the bad ones teach you something, and anything else you need to know just involves asking someone. Anyone.

Why oh why can't the rest of the world just work the same way?

*****End Stokesesque-rant*****

Maybe it just seems less comprehensible because it's all in another language, but I'm convinced that a large chunk of my difficulty is post-Gambier culture shock. Class of '05, are you with me? Without a doubt. Still, I wouldn't have done anything different.

And maybe the rest of the world does work the same way, but I've been too afraid to ask for help. Kenyon's strength is that it taught me to depend on those around me for support... but always within the context of a small, familiar community, which is a weakness I didn't really see until now. Now that I understand it, though, I have a chance to correct it.