Transitioning from Work to School

Now that I am comfortably ensconced on campus (well, as comfortable as student life gets), without the burden of work or lectures for the rest of the week, I have the time to procrastinate shamelessly blog once again.

The last day of work was very strange; I was acutely aware that in all likelihood, I will never see again the lab in which I have worked for the past few months. And it was, all in all, a very nice lab. Everybody else knew about my impending departure, too - coworkers often took the time to cover all the pleasantries that people should say on a student's last day (e.g. "all the best" and "we'll miss you"). Being the ingrate I am, I still wonder whether they actually meant what they said. Especially since I believe that one of my coworkers was/is mad at me.

Another awkwardness occured when my supervisor took me out for lunch (as is traditional, I was told). Perhaps it is just me, but I find it nervewracking to eat in front of a superior, what with my lack of gregariousness and properly snooty etiquette. The lunch took nearly two hours, too! Oh, the number of samples I could have analysed in those two hours. I missed them, those analyses, even if they were rather repetitive.

Some amusing events did occur, however.

As a gesture of thanks and affection, I bought chocolates for my coworkers. Of course, there was a problem: No Food is Permitted In the Lab. I figured that people would take the chocolates to a (nearby, and relatively empty) cafeteria. Well, no, they didn't. The irony did not fail me when I said "No food in the lab!" to two of my coworkers later on in the day, when they were consuming the said chocolates. Did I mention that both of them were officially above me in the company hierarchy? Heh.

I also handed out thank-you cards to three people, with the stipulation that they should not open them until I disappeared from their lives. The first was not at work that day, so I did not get a measure of that person's reaction. The second accepted it normally enough. The third person's response was, on the other hand, different: "Why did you give me that? What if it is a bomb? Is that why you want to be away when I open it?". In the light that this third person happens to be my trainer and mentor, well...I claimed, rather impudently, that I was tempted.

In retrospect, I honestly do not know whether I'll take similar jobs again - the life of a technician is often repetitive and dull. It was a positive experience overall, however, and I did learn alot, especially in the first few weeks. Beats debugging CS code any day, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, there are resumes to update, new jobs to look for, notes to review, rusty skills to re-sharpen (or "reduce to metallic state"?), professors to chase, rehearsals to go to, books to buy, and where'd my summer go? Ahhh, I need to re-adjust myself to student life.

(Did I mention that I have a digital piano now? Gorgeous but souless - the touch is still not right - it needs a name. Ideas?)