I am a hands-on person. I like laboratory practical sessions because I can relax my brains a little and get down to use my hands to conjure up an experiment. At the end, the results revealing part will be the most exciting and most unpredictable.
To truly enjoy a laboratory practical session, your laboratory partner is very important. Take Kah Wai and I for example. He's the best laboratory partner I've ever had. The synergy, the understanding, the chemistry and the support. I am not sure if I am the best laboratory partner he's had, but I sure enjoy working together with him. Without any communication, our telepathy allows us to know what each of us are supposed to do for the experiment. We know what we should do and how to complement it to the other partner. Synergy level is always 100%. It is a great pleasure to work with him in a laboratory.
Now, my laboratory partner, a Singaporean girl, has proven to me the importance of a good laboratory mate. Not that she is equally good like Kah Wai. She is the opposite. A nightmare for anyone working in a laboratory. Once, I saw her pipetting up and down a fixed volume of water. Out of concern, I asked her if she was OK. She mumbled to herself ,"What is wrong with me today? How come I cannot pipette 12 uL of water?" She then turned to me with the pipette and asked me to show her how to do it. I turned the pipette to 12 uL, pipette up the water and showed it to her. Her reaction ,"How do you know it is 12 uL?"
For those non-scientists, a pipette is an instrument to draw the preset amount of liquid. If you set it to 10 uL, the volume it draws up will be 10 uL. Simple.
So I was totally puzzled by her question. She then took the pipette back and continued with her stuff. Stunned. Shocked. Puzzled. How can a scientist (especially one in her final year in Bachelor of Science) asked such a question. I was dumbfounded. Speechless. Never thought I would be asked this question.
After this episode, she sent me this email:
As advised by my daily horoscope: "Censoring your feelings, though, is not an option, for the more you hold back, the stronger the life quake will be felt. Expressing yourself as if you are free can be the most exhilarating thing in the world."
Haha maybe it's just me being inefficient or something, but I do appreciate the little gestures like helping me to collect my samples when you collect yours! It's.. not too hard right? We are lab partners and we are supposed to work with each other, just like the other lab partners in the lab! Right?
Haha my bf says I should not be emailing this but I think it's worse if I dont say it out? Feel free to share ur thoughts too :) I know I have room to improve too. See u next week!
xxx
p/s: #ABC btw. can pop by to say hi if u want.
p/p/s: yes i searched for your email address.
p/p/p/s: add me on if u haven't wanted to kill me after reading to the end of this email
So now it is my fault? Let me explain myself. The reason for not taking her samples out from the incubator was because my samples went in earlier than hers. If I had taken hers out, her incubation timing would be screwed. Doesn't she know that? Gosh... And instead of thanking me for showing her how to use a pipette, I am being accused here for not helping her to collect her samples? Clever...
I totally dreaded going to this practical session now. The thought of having to work with her is putting me off. Even when I have had only 2 hours of sleep within a day, I can understand and think better during a practical session than her. She questions almost my every action and I'm pissed by that. Whenever she has a question for me, I provided her with whatever I know. Not satisfied, she still has to go consult the demonstrator. So why ask me in the first place?!
Can't wait for this semester to end so I don't have to see her anymore. She's weird beyond words.
