Another step forward

For the uninitiated, I am doing my Ph.D in Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (for all future references known as UTHSCSA - pronounced Uteska). As soon as I started my first day here in August 2007, I was told I will be facing a comprehensive exam at the end of the year, an exam that will decide the fate of my future. My TAs filled me with horror stories of the exam being like death bingo with the faculty being potrayed as blood-thirsty wolves.
Here I was, almost 9 months since Aug. '07, the first student of my batch to walk into the 'death bingo room'. Soon I was called in and the faculty seemed most genial and helpful, making me feel comfortable with the easiest of questions. Nervous as I was, I made the tiniest of mistakes and they latched on to it like a pack of hungry wolves who haven't eaten in a year! Only then did I realize that I would have to literally measure every word I utter as each technical term I speak fuels a question in the minds of the faculty members sitting in front of me.
By the time I finished, I had been through 10 questions, 8 of which I managed to answer perfectly well, 1 that I really should have known and 1 that I really struggled through (and later found that no-one in the faculty knew the answer to that question either!).
Later in the evening, all my fears were put to rest and the results indicated that I had indeed made it through the first hurdle towards my Ph.D.
P.S: I have started working towards my Ph.D. thesis under my mentor, Dr. Yanfen Hu, who is a lovely polite lady. Hats off to her for being a wonderful teacher