Bad Hair and My First Week

Hello Everyone,

So, it is Friday night and I have just completed my first week of classes here.

It sucks! I have forgotten more about Biology than I thought possible and I found out this week that in one class, "Senior Seminar", they give everyone a COMPREHENSIVE ORAL EXAM at the end of the semester. COMPREHENSIVE, as in, everything you should have learned in all the Biology classes you have ever taken. EVERYTHING is fair game to them. Human Anatomy, Comparative Anatomy, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Botany, Genetics, Developmental Biology, General Biology 101, Microbiology, Invertebrate Biology, and Vertebrate Biology. I've probably forgotten some others. See...my memory is severely affected. This is tough for students that went through the Biology program in the usual 4 years. Did they not get the memo that I took the vast majority of these classes more than 11 years ago? Some of them in my first year at college back in 1993. I'm sure I sent that memo out to the entire Science Department. I am taking Genetics and Developmental Biology this semester. The other classes...well...I'm going to have to study/remember/panic all by myself. The teacher says that you have to pass the oral exam to graduate. She also said that students have failed the oral. Great. So, my plans to party it up down here while I was away from the kids has changed. I am now considering myself a hermit (hermitess??? Is that a word? It should be.) I don't think I will leave my room for any other reason than to go to class, hit the gym, eat and poop. Five months should fly by. I'm being sarcastic. Wait...I hope they don't fly by. I have to learn 4 years of Biology in those 5 months. I've changed my mind. I hope they go very, very, very slowly.

Anyways, here are some pictures of my room when I first arrived.


It ain't the Hyatt. Not even Best Western, maybe the youth hostel in inner city Detroit. Yah, they haven't updated the rooms in "Pickens Hall" since I was last here. I call it "Slim Pickens", cause you don't have an option in Glenville.


Here is the other side of the room. I have a desk, mini fridge, microwave, a few chairs, a couple drawers, and a closet. Slim Pickens for real! I kinda felt like I was sent to prison when I saw my room.

Something that I highly recommend if you are ever forced to live away from the ones that you love...Skype. I turn on my little camera built into my computer, and Frank does the same back in Canada and we just leave it on during the evenings. I get to hear the kids fighting, and watch them eat and we get to talk about our days. Tuck, my dog, gets kinda freaked when he hears my voice and sees me on the screen but I'm not really there. He can't quite figure it out. He just barks and barks until he gets sent to his corner. I almost feel like I am at home, just in the next room maybe.

The fitness center is only a 3 min walk from my room, so I have been going there everyday. My body has been telling me that I shouldn't have stopped working out during the Christmas break. I hope to be a lean, mean, sexy machine when I get back. My only worry is the all you can eat cafeteria. West Virginians don't seem to eat that healthy. And college attending West Virginians are worse, I think. My only saving grace is the salad bar. The population down here does like to fry everything, or put some sort of "biscuit gravy" on it. And they bake 4 or 5 desserts and have a fully stocked ice cream sundae section. I have resisted as best I could, but it is hard when you are 4000 miles away from home and the establishment wants to ask you to... please explain "The Krebs cycle and it importance to the life cycle of Drosophilia melangastor". I will just have to run a couple extra miles each day I guess. By the way, I don't remember The Krebs cycle and I don't know if it has any importance to the life cycle of Drosophilia melangastor. In fact I think I spelt that organism wrong. Waaaaaaa! I'm gonna fail!!!

My teachers seem pretty nice, for the most part. I try not to hold the oral exam part against them. I am going to be spending a lot of time working with them.

Oh...the Bad Hair part of the title?

Well, just before I left Canada to come to school, I decided to get a haircut. I went to a place in the Mall (my first mistake) and ended up with this old woman (second mistake) cutting my hair. This was the look I was going for...


Sexy, right? I thought so.

This is what she gave me...


Not sexy. Not at all. You can't really tell in this picture but I had essentially two haircuts. I had really, really short layers on top, and basically a mullet in the back. Here's a side view.

Can you see it? The mullet? It was horrible. I told Ting, my sister that it was the worst haircut that I had ever received. And the worst part...I paid for it....AND...gave her a tip. I know....I know. Just laugh. I was watching "The Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers" that night and I told Ting that I looked like Frodo. She said that he was kinda cute. Yah...for a Hobbit.
Anyways, after a pep talk from Frank, I decided to head back to the salon in the morning and demand a correction. Frank was nice enough to go with me...I'm such a baby. Well, I walked into the salon and said that I had my hair cut there yesterday and that I hated it. The girl asked me if it was Louise, the older French lady that cut it? Yes!!!! How did she know? She said she has had to do several corrections for her and she saw me yesterday when I was getting it cut and she was biting her lip. I asked her why she didn't step in. She asked me why I didn't stop her. Touche. By the way, West Virginians probably wouldn't know the meaning of that last word. But, us Canadians do, don't we? Yah Grade 12 French and Immersion!!! I know I forgot the accent but I don't know how to get it on this program.

So, she couldn't do much, because it was so short. She tried her best and I think it was slightly improved. Ting said, at least you are going to a place where noone knows you and you will never see them again in your entire life once you leave. True. But who wants to look like a Hobbit, even in front of strangers? So, here is what it looks like right now. Please say you see a difference.


And the side view...


Still not as sexy as Mandy Moore, but at least the mullet is gone. I hate mullets. I'm going to grow it out and try the "Mandy Moore" with a better hair stylist next time. I still think I can pull that look off.

So, other than trying to avoid looking like a halfling from Middle Earth, my week has been busy, and stressful, and kinda lonely. I miss everyone. I miss my old life. I miss sleeping in my own bed, beside my husband and cuddling with my kids.

5 months. Please go fast...or slow...but just go.

Talk to everyone soon.

Love Tanya