MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE

Yesterday in the middle of our third physiology lecture of the day, a man in an orange safety vest came in, spoke to the professor briefly and left. The professor confusedly announced to the class something to the effect of, "I have no idea what that was about, but apparently we don't have to leave." Everyone was like whatttttt is she talking about?

Now fast forward about five minutes, and the fire alarm starts going off. Because we're all such smart med students, we figured out what happened - the man was warning her that a fire alarm was about to go off, but that we did not have to respond to it.

I'm sure you all remember Austin Powers, and this scene in particular (and if you don't, I'm sorry, why are we friends?)



Because that is what lecture felt like for about 15 minutes.

This is what our fire alarms sound like:
WeeeeeeOOOOWeeeeeeOOO MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, THERE IS A FIRE IN THE BUILDING, PLEASE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY WeeeeeOOOOOWeeeeeOOO :::pause::: WeeeeeOOOOWeeeeeOOOO MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, THERE IS A FIRE IN THE BUILDING, etc, etc.



So at every pause, the professor would start lecturing again, and about five words in, the alarm would go off again:

"So if you follow the pathway-" MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE

"If you follow the pathway to the-" WeeeeeeOOOOOWeeeeeOOOOO

"Follow the pathway to the hypothal-" MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE



Finally she gave up on trying to fit the lecture into the pauses, and just decided to continue with it OVER the fire alarm.

• It's hard to pay attention to even a single lecture about steroid hormone synthesis
• It's even harder to pay attention to the third lecture in a row about hormones
• It's that much harder to pay attention when the lecture is given in a tough accent to understand (although this was not even close to the toughest accent we've had - more on that another time)
• And then you add in a background fire alarm....

Well, all I can say is I did my best.