Studywithnele - Nele's Study Space

Some motivation from the doctor.

Chemistry notes

Ten assignments yesterday, eleven today. I can’t wait for the long weekend.

Don’t let that math equation intimidate you. Intimidate that math equation instead. Show who’s boss

at some point when i’m less out of it i’m gonna make a longer post about how eastern european farm workers are mysteriously omitted from talks about essential workers during the pandemic despite propping up western europe’s food industry literally at the cost of their lives. like i wanna be super crystal clear here: if you’ve eaten fresh produce or meat products in, or imported from, germany, uk, the netherlands, italy or spain this year (maybe thinking you’re doing your part in supporting the economy by buying locally even) - eastern europeans have gotten sick and died so you could do that. yet somehow, for some reason, they are not essential workers.

‘but this kind of thing doesn’t make it to the news! how could i have known about it?’ fine. ok. here’s what 15 minutes of googling will get you:

‘forced to sign contracts in german, dutch, or other languages they don’t read, [workers] often find out upon arrival that their working hours are longer, their salaries much smaller than promised and their living conditions abysmal, with housing and living with little protection against covid-19’

romanian farm worker nicolae bahan got infected with covid-19 while working on an asparagus farm in germany. according to several fellow workers the farm owners refused to provide healthcare and a space to safely quarantine and instead locked him inside a container out in the field where he died shortly. 

another romanian worker on the same farm talks about how until the end of march they were not provided soap in the bathrooms and risked having their hours cut if they stopped to have a drink of water while out in the field.

germany flies in thousands of romanian workers at the height of the pandemic. farm owners claim they can’t hire domestically because ‘most germans are not used to working stooped in the fields for hours on end. they complain about backache. romanians and poles are stronger and they work weekends and public holidays.’

despite a severe workforce shortage many brits refuse to take on farm work, citing contract length, location and family duties. meanwhile romanians (who are regularly underpaid and abused by employees) are now lauded as ‘key skilled workers’ during the shortage (but no mention is made of adjusting their salaries to reflect either their skill or the fact that they are in high demand)

over 1500 east european workers at german meat processing plant tönnies tested positive for covid-19. 

former romanian employee at tönnies talks about poor working conditions and workplace abuse. employees were forced to work overtime without pay and told not to take sick leave. 

romanian and bulgarian workers infected with covid-19 while working in other german meat processing plants. employers pay by the hour and don’t check working conditions.

bulgarian workers in italy have rocks thrown at them by angry crowd while protesting the lockdown that will likely cost them their jobs.

if you didn’t know before, you know now. and if you can be outraged at injustices and abuse happening on another continent you can be outraged at injustices and abuse happening the next town over that make it possible for you to get your reasonably priced five-a-day. not just this year, in the middle of a pandemic, but for well over a decade.

Math/Science Nerd Culture™

being really fast at math when you write it out, but taking 62.476 seconds to do 3 x 8 when someone asks you

you either hate odd numbers or you love them and this is causes great division of math nerds

teachers start teaching on the first day and assign homework

working with chemicals is only fun if it a) explodes, b) requires a bunsen burner, or c) turns a pretty color (like pink)

catching yourself using math in the real world and thinking “oh my god *insert 2nd grade teacher’s name here* was right”

dad jokes

not knowing you have a favorite animal until the existence of the water bear is made known in biology

getting excited when you can use a calculator

realizing that using a calculator means the test questions will be harder

one of your parents is good at math/science and the other is not

“i’m cold” “go stand in the corner, it’s about 90 degrees”

the textbooks are larger than any other subject

there’s always one historic figure in the subject that feels like a favorite uncle/aunt even though they’ve been dead for 105 years

the teachers don’t go in order of the chapters so you never know what to expect when you walk into class

there’s so many quizzes that you could fail three of them and get a solid A+ anyway

feel free to add more lol

8.7.19

morning planning plain and simple 🌿

cats are incredibly helpful study partners

Das mikroskop. Theorie, gebrauch, geschichte und gegenwärtiger zustand desselben  (1859)

10 Things I Wish I Knew Before University

You are going to feel like dropping out. I would say to stick it out for the first year and sit for finals. If you get a good grade for your finals, that could really give your confidence a boost and motivate you to keep going. And then, if you still feel like dropping out or changing majors, you should do as much research as possible.

Feeling pressured to do more things. During my first year, I said yes to everything–even things that I didn’t feel like doing. I felt like if I didn’t, I’d be missing out on something really important or fun. FOMO, basically. However, more often than not, I wasn’t missing much and these opportunities will arise again very soon.

Buying too many unnecessary things. I bought so many stationery and notebooks before I started uni in hopes that they would motivate me to study. I ended up not using even half of them my first year. At least, I’d be set for supplies until I graduate.

Revising in uni is not the same as revising in high school. I used to think I could study last minute for a test, like I did in high school. I learned the hard way that that wasn’t the case at all. Now, I review the topics after every lecture. The key is to keep up because all those lectures are going to pile up really fast.

Past papers are your new best friend. I find that professors have their favourite questions that they like to give out. During finals, they might even use the same exact questions as they did in tests!

Failing/Getting a low grade in a test isn’t going to ruin your life. I once got so caught up on that one test. But luckily during finals, I snapped out of it and just tried my best. My final grade wasn’t too bad. You live and you learn.

Wear whatever you want (as long as it doesn’t get you in trouble). When I wear a hoodie and sweatpants, I get comments that I look like I just rolled out of bed (which I did, duh). And when I have really nice makeup on and do my hair, I’m trying to impress someone. I think people just like to run their mouth and it’s nothing personal, so you shouldn’t care what they say anyway. 

Keep in touch with friends outside your university. It can really come in handy during times when you really have to vent about someone in your classes. They can also help you keep grounded and have a different perspective.

You don’t have to love the library. I’m the kind of girl who studies lying on her stomach on the bed with papers and books surrounding me and my cat stepping on them occasionally. I think the library is too quiet and public for me. And if you’re the same way and prefer the cafe or elsewhere, then that’s okay too. The goal here is that you get your studying done.

Stay healthy. Whenever it’s near finals, I would abandon every other responsibility except studying. I would stop eating healthy and quit exercising, all in the name of making time to study. But they should go hand-in-hand with studying and not one or the other. I find that the better I take care of myself, the better my grades are. You should also get enough sleep–this, I never fail to do.