For the first time in my Berkeley Career, I'm taking classes that are dominated by Toxicology majors. One of them, NST 171, Toxicology Lab, is restricted to senior moltox majors. In the class of 30, we have 10 people in each team. I'm in Team C. And, we were encouraged to come up with a team name beginning with C....so after Jason's suggestion, we became the CareBears! Hahaha.

We've begun cell culturing, a painstaking process of keeping sterile. Adam and Marisela are pros in this as they're involved in research that has required them to work with these. Next week, we'll begin on real stuff and work on stuff relating to the endocrine system.

What is also kinda nifty is that Michael, Gary, Marisela, and Karen are also in my NST 110 or PH 162 courses. I shared a class with Lena in the past...but we're not sure which one it was. ^^

Since we're the carebears, we just HAD to take the CareBear test to see which carebears we are. Interestingly, Lena, Alan, and Karen are all Tenderheart Carebears.

The best thing about molecular toxicology is that everyone in the major has a different background and how they came to the major is different. The 10 of us came with different backgrounds, different reasonings, and went through different choices to land together in this class. Some of us went through three different majors before landing here. Others are transfer students. Some began with Toxicology from the start, and others added on Toxicology when they learned how cool it was. ^^ What's also awesome is that my group is exactly 1/2 male and 1/2 female. Most of the classes I've been in have been highly skewed one way or the other. So its nice to have an even distribution.

So.

To: Jane, Lena, Marisela, Karen, Gary, Jason, Alan, Adam, and Michael,

Let's make it a good year Carebears!

Best Wishes,
Kristin

Posted by K. Lee at 10:39 AM | Permalink

I figured for my first entry I should introduce myself...

Hi! My name is Maria, but I am also known as Lou. I don't really care which name you use because they both refer to me. I'm a junior transfer fresh in from Ohlone College in Fremont. If you don't know where that is, it's north of San Jose and south of Oakland, and consequently Berkeley. In essence, still in the Bay Area. The first 9 years of my life was spent in Union City which is a neighbor to Fremont. For the most part, much like everyone else's I imagine, my childhood was pretty carefree. I went to school, played with friends, discovered new things in my surroundings...

Continue reading "An Introduction" »

Posted by Maria at 5:18 PM | Permalink

Ever since I have arrived here my eating habits have become out of whack and plain unhealthy. I love living in Unit 3 because it is so close and very social, however, our residential dinning does not offer breakfast. So what do most of us college kids do? Simple, just skip breakfast. I know this is bad but the excitement and nervousness of college kind of overrides your hunger. For lunch, today, I had a strawberry shortcake ice-cream and a V8 juice (100% juice). I love how the Bear Market is really convenient, but seriously …. the prices make you want to cry. I remember that I bought cereal, soy milk, energy bar, chips and a fruit/cheese plate and the grand total came to little less than $20. Good thing they use meal points and not real cash or I would have gone crazy. And on top of that they didn’t even bag it, they just gave me the bag and told me bag it myself. This awkward eating cycle has caused me to lose quite a bit of weight so whenever I walk I have to pull up my pants or they will fall, but who knows the freshman 15 could pounce at anytime.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 2:07 AM | Permalink

If you have attended the first class meeting, you will have the book list. Otherwise, you can actually acquire the booklist for most of your classes from www.calstudentstore.com by clicking on "Find your textbook and course materials". This is the website for the student store on campus. You may also want to check out http://www.nedsbooks.com/ucb/ (a bookstore right across from campus) since the books there are often cheaper. In most cases, both bookstores have new and used textbooks and it’s truly up to you.

If you want great deals, here are several alternatives:

1. Comegetused.com: You arrange to buy books from other students who have taken the same courses. The buyer and seller arrange meeting time and place to complete the transaction.

2. Facebook Marketplace: Very similar to comegetused.com. The buyer and seller arrange meeting time and place to complete the transaction.

3. Amazon.com: you get a discount for most of the books and if you shop over $25, shipping will be free. You may also check out the copies listed by Amazon Marketplace sellers. Some of them can be very cheap.

4. Half.com: You may find international editions from sellers. In general, international editions are exactly the same as U.S. editions content-wise, but with different ISBNs and covers.

Let’s try to spend less and good luck!

Posted by Yang Cao at 10:33 PM | Permalink

Have you ever checked out http://www.toxicology.org? If not, you should. Head to the site and see what your Molecular Toxicology major can give you. It explains more about our awesome major (so that you can clearly explain to other people what you learn).

In general, there are six types of toxicologists: clinical, environmental, forensic, industrial, mechanistic, and regulatory. The CNR Mol Tox people are generally more environmental and clinical.

Continue reading "Mol Tox - Society of Toxicology" »

Posted by K. Lee at 9:56 PM | Permalink

Another semester of Cal has started. When I looked at my schedule yesterday, I got pretty depressed. Biology 1B lecture from 8-9 am, Biology Discussion from 9-10, then Bio lab from 10-1 pm. Then, I read the syllabus and noted that Bio discussions and labs didn't start until after September 8th! I was so happy! So I only had one hour of class today. Now, instead of having class, I have all this free time that I don't know what to do with.

It's so interesting. When I'm back home in SoCal, I don't really miss Cal at all. When I'm back, however, I remember all things I miss: the Campanile bells, CNR, and just the whole atmosphere of the Berkeley campus. For some odd reason, just being on the campus makes me feel more studious. Sitting in Bio lecture this morning, I felt like I was ready for another semester of school.

Continue reading "First Day of Class" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 9:33 AM | Permalink

Anyways, these couple of days back at Berkeley have felt like I never left it. I moved back in with my old roommates, I hung out with my old friends... same old same old stuff. Yet, I'm dreading the weeks to come as I find out about more and more things that my roommates/friends experienced while I wasn't there. As a non-huge e-mailer, I rely more on AIM/GTalk for contacting people. the difference in timezone meant that when I was available to talk to people, the people here were either sleeping or in class.

In conclusion... I'm excited to be back, but dreading feeling left out of their lives. I did skip out on them for a year though.

Wish me the best!

Posted by K. Lee at 7:50 AM | Permalink