The high was supposed to reach 93 degrees, and it definitely did. I had to walk from my building to Building 10 to pick up my badge (yes, I finally have a badge now...it's all official and fancy) in the afternoon, and I could feel the heat radiating from the ground. In the morning, between the Transhare and the badge, my mentor and I did a lot of lab work, and we were performing a gel electrophoresis with proteins! That was a new process I learned (especially measuring protein concentration), but we also revisited some previous procedures. My mentor left me to create an annealing reaction with some CRISPR primers, and it was a little daunting because he just got out all the supplies, and then left, but I did it right. Or at least I'm 99.9999999% sure I did. And with sig figs, that can round up to 100%. So all good. I still have to figure out how to keep a lab notebook. I've been writing on pieces of paper and my handwriting is atrocious. I can't even read what I write half of the time. It's all scrawls across pages, and writing in gloves doesn't help.
The whole morning, from 10:40ish to 1pm, we were in the lab, and time flew, I didn't realize it was past lunch time until my stomach started growling. Lunch is whenever, so afterwards, we returned to the lab, finished up some reactions, like our PCR work from yesterday with inoculations and then I had to pick up my badge. I'm definitely getting the hang of navigating the NIH campus, especially because I rely less and less on a pdf of the map (saved on my phone) each day.
In the morning, while working in the lab, I got a chance to talk to Jon. I met him the first day, when my mentor introduced me to him and mentioned how as we both play tennis, we could probably play a bit over the summer. I was loading DNA into the wells of the gel and I switched from my left hand to my right hand as I made my way down the row of wells, just for simplicity sake, but also because I was so nervous I was going to mess up, my left hand was shaking really badly and my right hand would provide some rest. My mentor commented on that and during some downtime (in labs, there's a lot of waiting around for reactions to occur or for some heating/cooling/ligation.whatever process to happen) Dan asked what hand I play tennis with, and if I was ambidextrous for tennis. We slipped into conversation about tennis and serving and everything, and I gave him my email so we could set up a time to play (I saw an email from him...I need to respond to that soon). So I guess now, on Day 5, 4 days after technically meeting him, I can say I've made a new friend, and Dan is the first friend who is actually in my lab! He's really nice. But technically he's new too. He's an employee, but he moved here with his wife and kids from Seattle 6 months ago, so I think he and I will get along just fine.
In the afternoon, back from my badge appointment, I just sat in my cubicle and worked. A lady (whom I had never met before) walked in and after she sat down, I asked her what her name was. Christine is a grad student working on her thesis. We talked a little, she told me about the zoo in Washington D.C., and I think she's my 4th friend. So hi Christine, I love how friendly and talkative you are, and you are definitely one of the younger people in the lab, and I hope we will get along this summer.
On my way into the lab from Building 31, I introduced myself to someone who was in the elevator with me. She works in the same lab location as I do, but since it's an open lab, she's not in my lab group. She was really nice and friendly, so I'll definitely say hi if I meet her again. Speaking of meeting again, as I was waiting in Building 10 for my badge, a girl walks by and she was a girl I met on Day 1 of NIH, after I had met Anna! It was so cool to see her, because as she walked by, she gave me a wide smile and I waved back. Even though the chances of me seeing her are really slim, it managed to happen and that smile brightened my day, made me feel a little more like I belong here, even if I really don't.
So cheers to more immersion, both socially and experience-wise. Each day, I slowly feel more at home, though it's still a rough process, kind of like centrifuging a mixture to create a suspension, where everything is combined. Okay okay that was a stretch, I'll stop now because it's getting quite late (3am over here). Tomorrow is my first lab meeting! I need to be at work at the bright and early hour of...9:30am.
Gel electrophoresis with proteins!
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