Cause of Death: Labs (Part One)

Sooooo...labs. Oh the great joy of being in a science program. Seriously guys, I don't know why I am in science since I absolutely am terrified of labs. Weeee! ^w^'' haha?

Anyway, two weeks ago, I had my first chemistry lab of my university career. The thing about being in the first group is that you can't ask your fellow classmates how it went before you bravely stride into the lab yourself. And being my procrastination-to-the-max self, I left the reading and preparation of the lab until the last day. Yeah, not a good idea.


When I began to read the manual...

Really? Really science faculty?! You are trying to make yourself sound more artsy? Can I
get a Jesus face palm?

Thank you.


So la di la la, I quickly tried to scan through the manual. So picture me, a clumsy, stupid, easily frazzled, and probably-has-ADHD kid reading this god damn lab manual at 11:24pm on a Monday night. Wait, here is a short detour. Monday schedule: biology, calculus and anatomy lectures, plus two hours of public transit and a 6am wake up call. Yeah, I was hella tired. Okay back to picturing me scanning through the manual.


"Okay nothing that bad. Balance, zinc, ideal gas law, moles blah blah blah. Okay, HCl, metals, gas..................."


"WAIT!!! Did that fricking lab manual said 12M HCl? And WHAAATT? Did that manual just said I have to 'Place your forefinger on the top of the filled tube and quickly invert the tube'!!!"


And the horror doesn't end there! *insert dramatic horror music*
The fume produced my the HCl can....WHAT?!!! cause you to faint?! (I think I am going to faint now.)


Okay breath Ashley, breath.


So being my whiny self, I shouted to my mom (who was still up watching some Chinese spy drama) telling her that this lab is stupid and I don't want any of it!

And my mom, being her usual self replied with "Oh yeah, that's great, you can do it." <<<Paraphrasing was used here. The lack of space in my brain is causing me to forget what she exactly said but you get the point.

So I basically died a little that night (or morning since it was passed midnight). But the dying was just beginning.

Just so you know, my university want us to do an online safety test before we head into the lab (really great idea). So I read the powerpoint with some info on what staircase we should use to get to the lab, lab schedule blah blah...all good and safe. But then when I clicked on the video...O_____________________O. *dies*

As the video started it showed all the bad things that can happen in the lab.

"Watch this dummy going to grab the *insert name of  fancy scientific chemical*....KAABOOOOOMM" 

Fire, smoke, and poor dummy flesh filled my laptop screen. And just as I thought I couldn't be more tramatized, the video continued on with more accidents. And at the end the video said that the university lab has all the chemicals mentioned in the lab.

This was what I felt through the screen. Yes it was that intense.

Oh no big deal, Ashley is just lying in a pool of her drool and vomit just because she likes it that way. Yeah I had a convulsion.

Oh can I say that I do love my university's chemistry department? They had a video of an expert doing the lab online so you can see what it is like performing the lab. Woot! Visual aid! While the video helped me understood the lab better but it didn't calm me down. 

Did I mention that I got a 2/5 in the prelab quiz? Yeah...wanna know how I did on lab day? Hopefully I will write Part Two quick...