Can we handle a pandemic? Sure, as long as we can keep Waffle-Wednesdays.

That is what we working in biORACLE would say if someone asked us if we were ready for this hot mess. But we couldn’t. We couldn’t keep Waffle-Wednesdays. The last year has been strange times for waffle-loving students. The pandemic has made us lose touch with who we are as a society. Norwegian culture doesn’t allow us to talk together unless we can break the ice with “holy smokes, these waffles taste good” or “oh, you prefer strawberry jam? I’m a fan of raspberry myself but we can still be friends I guess”. The sad part is, that instead of finding new things to talk about, it seems like we stopped talking altogether. That statement is purely based on a excel sheet biORACLE are using to track attendance and submission by the way, so there is no need to call any publishers.During the pandemic, both attendance and the amount of people submitting their reports for reviews has declined. During the spring semester we would normally receive over 120 texts. This semester however, we received just over 90. Note that this would be even lower if it weren’t for our hard work on integrating MOL-related courses to biORACLE. There are several factors that have contributed to the decrease: more difficult to promote biORACLE, some courses have changed to a more relaxing grading system, and it is fair to say that we are all sick and tired and just want less ours on the computer. It can all be traced back to the party-pooper covid-19.

Attendance-wise we have had many empty digital oracle-sessions. If there is one thing students do not want more of, it is awkward silences on ZOOM. The average pre-pandemic oracle-meeting had well over 20 students dropping by for waffles, a chat, and the social learning platforms. The average during covid however, was around 4 students. 1-2 of these 4 students were usually someone working for biORACLE, which makes it even sadder.

In conclusion. The pandemic sucks and has taken its toll. BiORACLE slowly changed from being the fun waffle-club where you could get help with studies, into a depressed meme-page on facebook that begged for you attention. Now its comeback time baby. We will bring back Waffle-Wednesday and we will bring it hard. There will not be a soul at BIO that does not smell, hear, see, or dream about waffles. This time both biology- and molecular biology-students will show up between 14-17 at K1/K2 every Wednesday. They will get to know each other better, chat about that difficult assignment, and most importantly discussing the importance of jam-diversity in a waffle buffet. This all may seem like a joke to the average reader of bioCEED news, but this is dead serious. BiORACLE has an important function at BIO and we will make sure to prove it.

Meanwhile, enjoy our waffles memes: