rapper's delight

For the past month I have been taking a Chemistry course to fill one of my science divisionals to graduate. As I do not plan on spending the next decade of my life pursuing a medical degree, I decided to take the no-frills non-science major course: Chem 108 Everyday Chemistry. It's been a fun, entertaining class. I've learned lots about the chemistry behind air pollution, global warming, nutrition, and crack cocaine. During the drug chapter, I felt a little self-conscious when I corrected the professor when she said morphine only comes in intravenuous form.

"Actually, it comes in a delayed-release pill form as well." I blurted out.

There were possible three reactions people had to my in-depth knowledge of the best opiate on the market:
1) What a know-it-all
2)Wow, I didn't take her to be a prescription drug abuser or
3)(Zzzzz...)

I also have become the poster child for a disease we've discussed regularly in the nutrition, drug, and biotechnology chapters. Take a wild guess. If you guessed albinism, you would be wrong. But if you guessed diabetes, YOU WIN!!!! When anything ever has to do with diabetes in class my professor says, "And Virginia, you should know this..."

7 times out of 10 the answer is "Diabetes"
3 times out of 10 the answer is "Insulin"

Darn right I know that crap. I think next week if she says "Virginia you should know this" I will answer "INFECTIOUS COLITIS!" or "Auto immune pancreatitis!" or "DRUG INDUCED LUPUS!" But I can't tell my whole life story, then I'd be so much less mysterious...

So, Chem 108 is fun. Lots of football and soccer players who make life interesting. Especially earlier this week when we were given a nefarious extra credit option (more like requirement). We were given 15 minutes to write a RAP about CHEMISTRY with the person sitting next to us. We had to PERFORM it in order to receive credit.

I was paired with a large football player who seems tough, with his arms covered in tattoos, but in reality, he seems to be quite gentle and shy. I think he was weary of playing into the "rap" stereotype. Or maybe he's just shy. He wouldn't call it a rap; he insisted we write a "poem". I got a laugh out of him when I insisted, "But hip-hop IS poetry!" He smiled at me, a short white girl wearing pink pants and a green polo. I felt shamed as I stood in front of the class as I spoke in rhyme about amino acids and saturated fat. My cohort refused to alternate lines with me, he merely stood there. He was proud of our work, but he remained a gentle giant.

The pair of boys that won rapped about the chemistry of viagara with a sung chorus of "We usin' Viagara-one pill a a time" Key words in their rap included "longer" and "stronger". My professor was in disbelief. They insisted they based their performance on statistics.