A Very Stressful Week - The Dairy Game

I’ve always said the only time to enjoy the university is when school just resumes. The first 2 weeks up to the first month when lectures are not very serious, no quizzes, no assignments, no presentations and no added pressure. That’s the time you have the chance to socialize and visit some friends, sleep well and probably even eat well. After this first month, school can be like hell.😩

When school resumed this semester, I decided not to go early but to stay at home and at least perform my eid prayers first. Why did I do this? Eid was just 2 weeks after the our re-opening date and since the first 2 weeks of school isn’t very serious, I said to myself, why not?

I didn’t miss out on a lot but that just added to the pressure. It was straight to lectures and assignments when I resumed.

Last week was very stressful for me in terms of my academics because I had so much to do. That is from 8th to 14th of August. From having practical sessions, preparing for presentations, writing lab reports and assignments, it was a whole lot.

Monday the 8th of August, I attended lectures and had a lab session at around 5pm to around 8pm. Those that follow me probably know I offer biochemistry in the university.

We had a lab session on preservation of foods with preservatives. We used salt solution, sugar solution, like juice, sodium sulphate and citric acid solutions to attempt preserving some fruits and vegetables.

In the lab with course mates.

My group was tasked with using these preservatives to attempt preserving an apple fruit. The method of this experiment was quite an easy one. The preservatives were prepared and each measured and put into 5 different beakers. The apple fruit was then cut into 7 equal parts and a piece put into any of the labelled preservatives.

One of the other 2 parts was labelled control and the other was wrapped with aluminum foil. We made observations after 10 minutes, 30 minutes and 24 hours.

After the whole experiment, we concluded salt and sugar solutions are very good preservatives for preserving apple fruits especially for 10 - 30 minutes.

The fruits after the 24 hour observation. We refrigerated to see what would happen.

After this we were required to write lab reports. Aside the lab report for this experiment, I had finished writing one and submitted it that same Monday but the books were returned so we write this too.

The previous week Friday, I had a chemistry practical were we tested for proteins in food. This was particular a very interesting lab work for me. I always find practical sessions involving color changes to be very interesting.😅 I think I shared an image of that practical session in my last diary.

Testing for proteins. A yellow color change after the addition of concentrated nitric acid and heating giving a possible inference of the presence of tryptophan or tyrosine.

With that practical and the preservation of food with preservatives, I had 2 lab reports to write and submit on Friday. We’ve all been students before and we know we don’t usually start our assignments till deadline is drawing close.😁

But this time that wasn’t my only excuse. I had to prepare for a presentation on Tuesday the 9th of August. So during the weekend and on Monday 8th, that was all I did and with watching football matches of course.😌

Presentation day came and thankfully, my group members and I were able to do what we believe was a good job. It remains to be seen if my lecturer thinks the same. 🤞

Presentation day. A friend presenting for her group.

Decided to finally start my lab report Tuesday evening. Did my research and was able to finish the chemistry practical on Wednesday evening. Like I said, I was very interested in this one due to how interesting I found it.

I started the lab report for the biochemistry practical which was the food preservation. I wasn’t as invested in this like I was in the test for proteins but I still tried to give it my all.

I did my research and was able to finish before the morning of Friday. Submitted both before the deadline and felt a big lift off my shoulders. 😌

When I was done submitting this it was around 10am. By then my first lecture for the day had ended and my second was at 13:30.

I returned to the hostel, had my breakfast and prepared for Friday congregational prayers. Ended up going to the mosque quite late and missed out on large portions of the sermon.

My class began soon after we ended the prayers. I must admit it’s very difficult for me to attend lectures at that time. It just doesn’t feel right to attend lecturers after prayers on Friday for me. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had to go for class during that time in Fridays since my Senior high school days.

On Saturday like the usual, I attended Madrasa in the morning and came back to watch football games the whole day totally neglecting my assignment.

In Madrasa class learning about assumptions in Islam.

Enjoying man United lose another game.

I would have repeated the same routine on Sunday except this time it rained in the morning and I couldn’t go for Madrasa. I used that time however to make my entry post for the steemit crypto academy’s engagement challenge.

At around 1pm the time the first game started between Villa and Everton, the rain had stopped and so I was able to go watch the game. We had TEIN elections in my school during that time so I left before the end of the match to go cast my vote.

At the voting grounds. This image wasn’t captured by me but sent to one of our WhatsApp platforms.

I was able to finish early and returned for the Chelsea Vs Spurs game. A very exiting game I was glad I caught. I might be making a review of that soon. Keep an eye out for that.🤝

Enjoying the game.

I returned to my hostel at the end of the game to eat and start my assignment. I didn’t realize it demanded a lot. I wasn’t able to finish on Sunday but luckily, I concluded before deadline on Monday.

Whew 😰, we’re finally at the end of my stressful week.

Thank you for following me all the way to the end. Please get interactive in the comments.