Wednesday, April 11, 2007

First day in my first job - mice glorious mice

Hello guys, as I promised, I will write a small review of my first day experience in my first job. Honestly, although I was a little nervous, I was quite excited to start my life as an employee - you know, all the early mornings (which I am proud to admit I have not had for a while), getting ready and having proper breakfast instead of having brunch (and the list goes on - however, I know one day it'll get boring, but till then :) :) :) ).

Okay, so I slept at 10 pm last night after having dinner with GB at this Japanese Restaurant. I tried sleeping, but I had too much adrenalin to start the next day. I couldn't sleep at all! I kept on waking up every now and then and finally my alarm got off at 6 am. I jumped out of bed, took a nice warm shower in a chilly autumn morning, had breakfast and got dressed - I still had an unusual 30 minutes before the bus arrival at 7.15 am.

Okay, so I got on the bus, got off at 8 am - where I was suppose to commence my day at 8.30 am. I got a spare 30 minutes, so I walked around and exercised a little bit. By then, I was introduced straight away to the lab technician who was going to train me and get me up to scratch with my duties as a research assistant.

She and my boss went through the list and said that I would be mainly incharge of the mice colonies, mice breeding system, mice culling (a softer word for putting down) and mice blood collecting. (*shriekkk*) My hands were getting cold and I got goosebumps just imagining it. Then, they took me up to the animal house, where they keep the mice in boxes in a plastic tent - seriously, it looked lyk a quarantine place. Just to get in, we had to change our clothes to surgical type clothes and wear hair net and foot covers.

Next, I had to weigh the mice *SHRIEK*, I have never ever ever ever touched a mouse in my life before. We were supposed to hold it by the tail - I couldnt get my hands to touch it, but I did my best. The first time round I felt so scared I screamed when I touched one mouse. Oh, i forgot, these mice are imported from the US - some are genetically modified and they're BLACK some are BROWN and most are surprisingly very cute. I cant imagine putting them down one day - I'll be so sad. So yeah, I finally built up the courage to hold the tail of more than 20 mice today. There will be more mice handling to come. The rest of the day was basically just some paper work and administration.

So this is an interesting start. I better get to sleep, I gotta wake up early tomorrow - lets not dream about black mice *shriek*

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow cool. Ntar klo gw dah ada animal testing gw bisa nanya2 pengalaman sama lu donk ya Ngie...hehehe.

Unknown said...

all I can say is.. "iuuuuuuuhhhhhhh"
i hate mice, but i love hamster though ad still grieving bcoz of his death a year ago. =9

Linz said...

HI Ngie..

hehehe, good luck ya with ur new job :)
Mice aren't that scary, are they? Gua demen bgt sama animals..gua coba imagine kalo mice-nya lepas semua gimana ya? *thinking* lolz..
Have fun ya..........

Felicia said...

Interesting! I bet you can touch as many mice as possible now =)

Unknown said...

eek, rather u than me!

i am sure u will treat you mice co-workers with a lot of care :)

good luck!