Re: whats lab?
my labs involve anything from plating out cultures and staining bacteria (pretty fun) , to hours looking at things under the microscope (not so fun...) to practicing surgical techniques and extracting teeth (loads of fun!)
Not all labs are the same, in vet we have 3-4 different labs, used for very different things, Microbiology, Anatomy, Post Mortems, Surgery, Parasitology, and of course Biology and Chemistry, the bane of all science students in first year (actually, Biology is not that bad, you get to count the number of bugs in dirt, and cut up rats...)
So labs can be fantastic, or can be horribly dull and long, it just depends what you like. And usually there is pre and post lab work you have to do, like readings and calculations and stuff, so you cant just go in unprepared.