Microbiology

I decided to take microbiology for the first block of summer semester, what a joy. The class consists of a 2 1/2 hour lecture and then a 2 1/2 hour lab. The lecture isn't so bad, my professor is impossible to listen to so I usually end up just reading through the chapters and taking notes from the book while he goes on about topics that will never be touched on the exam.

HOWEVER, lab is a whole different game. My lab professor is possibly the most wordy person I have ever come in contact with. He takes close to two hours to explain something that could be said like this "Take a swab, swab the culture plate, put it in the incubator, come back tomorrow add the reagent, if it turns red it is positive." So we sit there for two hours while he draws pictures on the whiteboard of things that are sitting right in front of us, such as, swabs, tubes with bacteria in them, petri dishes, bunsen burners, gloves, etc. He has to color each diagram completely. Each time he starts his drawing on the board it is like he has never seen one before and just has to use it. After sitting in lecture for all that time and then sitting through this man I am almost driven insane.
Today I just about snapped. After sitting there for an hour listening to him go on and on and on about anaerobic bacteria I was losing patience. And then all of a sudden this man was able to draw me back in. He started talking about germ warfare. Wow. This had loads to do with lab. What really caught my attention was, "One of the most exquisite forms of germ warfare was in the 17th or 18th century, the Chinese dumped bags of lice infected with the Plague on their enemies." EXQUISITE? How is dumping bags of Plague infected lice exquisite? Someone enlighten me.

Then he went on to open a tube of Clostridium, the bacteria that causes gangrene. He walked around the room wafting the smell this way and that so we could all have the "privilege" of smelling it. I just about died. Does he realize no one wants to have to smell something that stinks that bad? What on earth. After that little escapade he went on to tell us that the jars we were using to seal our bacteria in cost anywhere from $100-$400, "All it is is a little plastic container! And it costs that much, class can you believe that a little plastic container costs anywhere from $100-$400?" I nearly screamed at the top of my lungs "DOES IT MATTER?" Every lab he has to stress how much each container costs, "This little thing cost $45, $45." "Now these gloves are expensive, they run around $5 per box class, please only use one pair." "This particular tube costs about $200." Give me a break.