YL5 Week 5 part 1: Day by Day of SLICE week

 YL5 Week 5 part 1: Day by Day of SLICE week

Going to try a new format of shorter, daily, updates through the 5th week at ASMPH, 4th week of cell module. It wasn't as hectic a week as last week so I can go into more depth about ASMPH as I did in week 1. This is part 1 which documents in continuity of last Saturday's topics on cell to the first exam and SLICE activity this Wednesday (for me, others have other days spread through the week). The spiritual reflection will likely come this weekend as it's a superstar pack of feast days– St. Lorenzo Ruiz, Archangels, St. Jerome, St. Therese of Lisieux, and Guardian Angels (Tuesday, to Saturday, respectively).

Monday: ZooMonday

This was a very long day and could be the very definition of zoom fatigue. I woke up at 7:30 am to get ready for virtual consultation (fancy term for office hour) for our TeamBasedLearning (TBL) class at 8:30. This was followed shortly by the TBL itself at 10:00-11:00. Our topic was on DNA replication and DNA damage and repairs. The TBL is structured in this way: a google forms individual multiple choice exam of around 12-15 questions more or less which is timed for 15 minutes. Then we submit the form. Shortly thereafter we go into our TBL groups (breakout rooms on zoom) where we will discuss the same form for the individual assessment but come to a collective answer sheet to submit through one appointed member. This is also another 15 minutes. After this, we go back into the main room and discuss the answers. We then end with one final assessments and go back into our TBL groups. We are sent a form on application which involves a mix of the kind of questions you see in the individual assessment and application questions based on a case. In this case we were talking about Betel nut chewing, reactive oxidation species and what kind of DNA damage occurs as well as what mechanism radiotherapy and this drug whose name escapes me acts (with balancing side effects). We send in our answers and then shortly discuss before ending. 

11:00-1:00 it is time to study for the next virtual consultation at 4:00 pm on RNA replication and transcription. I vaguely recall my SMC class where I acknowledge this to be my weakest link because it involves higher order kind of thinking that I'm used to (I had largely preferred biochemistry and reactions). Notwithstanding I do like MUCH higher order thinking in biology such as evolution. Nevertheless, I worked on studying this while regretting not sleeping much. I say this because it was cut short by this thing called post-reflection ICT (Infectious Control Training) activity.

1:00-2:30 After realizing we had to attend this, I hopped on zoom to the start of a year-wide event. It started with a prayer, opening remarks and then some presentation by some of our faculty. We were given reflective notes on what we did good in our last face to face activity and what we did poorly. The poorly part was mainly social distancing because of a desire to want to take pictures. The second being that people linger in the waiting room to get fetched or go on their shuttles instead of staying in their designated rooms up until they need to leave. They told us we have only 5 minutes next time before we have to go back to our designated rooms. All this was going and I really wanted to nap. But we had Small Group Discussions (SGD) which reminded me a lot about an exercise in active listening skills. Nonetheless, many of us complained that the ICT training in terms of donning and doffing the PPE level 2 gear could have been done online rather than having to go on campus. I had thought to myself that this basic activity was kind of a litmus test for how to handle more stringent on campus activities like in cadaver or microscopy labs. 

2:30. The post-ICT reflection is over and I got to take a nap. I set my alarm for 3:00. 

3:30 I woke up completely disoriented and unaware of what I had to do. It took a few minutes before I realized I overslept my alarm because it was on vibrate. I had 30 minutes left to prepare for the RNA consultation hour. I decided to watch as many videos as I could on the subject that was posted.

4:00 Kahoots is the name of the game. The winner of the kahoots would get 1,000 Php (around $20) in GCash (like Venmo). The overall lecture was very important and actually reminded me of my genetics with Dr. Talo at SMC in sophomore year. Although halfway through, while I was sorely in 49th place or somewhere there, I had decided to "multitask" by also watching this episode of a show that we were going to discuss for the MBA class at 5:30. The show was the pilot of the series "Outsourced". 

5:00 We adjourned our zoom but not before taking a class picture. I then had 30 minutes prepare for this. I got my tablet and read the book chapter on this. Interesting on change management. The Force Field analysis theory was the one that was most "science"-like among the others. Business classes seem like refining everyday words to mean very specific processes or concepts (unlike science, which likes to take obscure greek words and turn them into very specific processes or concepts). I had a cookie.

5:30-7:45 We discussed the episode. I talked a little bit about my work as a medical scribe in Alameda hospital. We talked about basically cultural concepts of change regarding outsourcing. Culture competency and translation are the names of the game. We then had a lecture that went more in depth. The midterm was voted on (majority on the later date, unsurprisingly). It is finally time for zoom to be over.

7:45-8:30 I relaxed a bit. I ate. I caught up with my best friends and told them I'd sleep very soon. I got ready for bed, prayed compline, and then sang Salve Regina to sleep.

Tuesday: Quality Control

I woke up right at 6 am refreshed. 9 hours of sleep is very different from 3 and a half hours of sleep. It's the feast of St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint and martyr. I missed praying the liturgy of the hours yesterday (aside from compline) and decided to start again today but weirdly enough iBreviary doesn't have any of the psalmody uploaded. Strange. So I decided to look online and found a sing the office youtube channel, lovely chanting. Is it time for me to actually buy the 4 volume set? 

I spent most of the morning videochatting with a close friend of mine who lives in D.C., we took a screenshot photo of us both holding Fr. Jim Martin's Jesuit Guide to Everything Book. I got ready and eventually started work on today's topic and consultation hour: Post Translational Modification. Methylation, Sulfation, Acetylation, etc. the mechanisms were interesting. I started typing out a transcript to our professor's posted asynchronous lecture. I got halfway through transcribing when the virtual consultation began. I then typed out that zoom meeting, which lasted around 30 minutes; I took note of what he had emphasized. Today is the first day of SLICE activities that was postponed due to the government lockdown 2 weeks ago. I am scheduled for tomorrow so I have the opportunity to study for the test of the past 3 days' topics. I feel like I got bumped into a crash course on genetics and asked to take a final of a semester's worth of topics. Nevertheless, it is interesting.

I was about to get started with work but turns out that it's my group's turn to be the "checking group". In ASMPH, we have a "transing" system wherein the upper years who made transes systematically give their transes (short for transcriptions, but not the same as my verbatim transcriptions I type up) to the lower years (us in this case) if we also create transes for the lower year group. The "checking group" checks the work of the "transing" group. The transing system here is so systematic that we have a "trans manual" to look for in terms of formatting, transing, and what to do if there are different lecturers this time around, etc. What's relevant to me for the checking group are "error codes". I frequently put "typo" which is the trans code for commenting that there's a typo or grammatical error, or "IncA" which stands for Incomplete A. I had put a comment that said that the trans saying "thymine has no amine" as incomplete (IncA), reasoning that neither is its RNA counterpart uracil (which has an amine group) has an amine. Amine ≠ amine group. It's nitpicky but it was pointed out to me when I read it. I spent about an hour for this then had lunch, watched a bit of Hospital Playlist and started studying for the exam tomorrow. 

Speaking of which, I will share with you the prayer I use before studying, penned by the great St. Thomas Aquinas.

Wednesday: SLICE of life

I woke up early and studied for the exam. I felt a bit antsy about being late to school so I finished the exam in 10 mins then went to school, PPE and all for our second (and first academic/lab) SLICE (Sequential Limited In-person Class Exposure). On the way there, I listened in on the exam feedback. Always a learning opportunity. I ended up getting to the face to face class very early so I stayed in the parking lot for a bit then headed up. I got to see a couple of my friends and took a picture with one of them before leaving. We were doing microscope techniques and were given a slide box each to investigate the different kinds of cell. There was one point about finding the nucleus using oil immersion technique. I had thought to myself, isn't the ovary the easiest since it's the largest cell? Nevertheless I went with the flow and did bone marrow that everyone was given a slide of. Getting evaluated took long, too many students, too little proctors, but a lot of time. I spent the time waiting studying, chatting with friends and even watching the next lecture with one of my friends. 

Beat, I went home in the Filipino traffic that I forgot up until this time. Rush hour. When I got back, I did the sanitation protocols outlined by the protocols. How strict these are is one of the reasons why only UP and ASMPH are allowed F2F classes amidst the rampant climbs in COVID infection rates. Last reporting was 90% in fully vaccinated individuals against COVID with the remaining 10% just waiting for their second dose. Herd immunity within the community was emphasized, and the responsibility not to expose oneself to risk because it exposes the whole community. 

I spent the evening studying the book for the topic on molecular genetics. Genetics is my worst subject because it feels so technical and abstract compared to the natural techniques. But I sucked it up and spent time on it. Evening came and I went to bed early, not without praying Compline of course.