Two parts to this. Work, then nonwork.
So I get to work and my mentor brought croissants from Dolcezza's, which is a really really expensive coffee shop. Lab meeting starts at 9:30, and I get there at 9:20, got to cool down (because it hit 93 degrees today by noon, and was already warming up pretty fast in the morning), and then Catherine led me to the meeting room, and the day's food bounty was laid on the table. Leslie brought Dunkin Donuts because her birthday will be on June 14, so there was double the food! As we all wound down a little, I met Jeni, who is a grad student. I also found out that Richard, our PI (personal investigator), was vegetarian. Lots of random info, not sure if they're important, but if anything, it helps me get to know these people beyond what they do in the lab, which makes them more approachable to me.
Within 10 minutes though, we got down to business. Danielle was presenting her work and right before she launched in, she apologizes "sorry, there's no background info. But your mentor will bring you up to date on all of this." She talks really really fast. Not only was it really hard for me to try to even comprehend what they were saying, everything was also flying by me so fast. I caught a few things, but it was really really hard.
After the meeting, we resumed "life," and so I spent the whole morning in the lab, stopping at 12pm so I could eat, because I signed up for a workshop that was from 1-4pm. The workshop was about Leadership Skills in Science and it focused a lot on Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Sure it was interesting, but I harbored the hope of meeting more people if I went, and that did not fail me. I've started realizing that the more I get out of the lab and go to other buildings or put myself out there more to try to meet people, hey, I actually make friends! How crazy is that? It's intuitive, but I think I got pretty paralyzed by being alone and awkward, thus making me even more awkward and uncomfortable, causing me to not talk to people...so a vicious cycle, that prevents me from making friends and feeling more like I belong here.
It helped that the workshop forced us to talk to people around us because I landed in a group with people much older than me (Hanna, Michaela, Caro, and Jovana) and they are all college students, except for Jovana, who just graduated from college, so not a grad student just yet. We stayed after the workshop to exchange facebook information, and I think Hanna suggested going out to lunch sometime. If anything, I'm just glad I know more people here, and how cool would it be if we all met up for lunch one day? When Michaela (or maybe it was Hanna...I can't remember) added me, she just said "It says that it's your birthday" and I respond lamely "yeah, it is" and she and all 4 of them exclaim "Oh, happy birthday!" Growing up and acting my age does mean that birthdays are less of a deal and I force myself, despite how uncomfortable I am with accepting compliments or attention, to try to be gracious and at least communicate like a normal person with other people. So I just lightly laugh and say "Oh, thank you" and we resume solving the issue of why we can't add some people and figuring out how that all works out.
Going back to the lab, I did a little lab work, but also cubicle time. I got to leave at 5:40 (because I had got there pretty early due to the lab meeting). Before leaving, everyone was winding down, so I got to meet Shireen, who works at our lab, so that brings the total count to knowing 8 people in my lab. I have yet to meet Alicia, who I know her name only because Richard was talking to her at one point during the lab meeting, and also someone else...or maybe I'm missing a few people. But for my almost-complete first week in the lab, things aren't bad at all! Lots of progress, I'm slowly learning how to handle a lab notebook (I have to figure out how to organize it, I have to type up my sloppy notes...there's a lot of work I should do this weekend to sort it all out...) and I'm still forgetting steps in preparing DNA or mixing up procedures, but it's a process, right?
After work, my mentor took me out to dinner at an Afghanistan restaurant called Lapis. The food was really spice-ful, but it was delicious. I had this chicken kebob with spiced rice, my first taste of chutney, it was great. Desert was firnee, which is this rice pudding with cardamom (I didn't know what cardamom was, so the waitress was nice enough to bring us a jar of that spice and let us smell it. Definitely sharp and strong, but not unpleasant).
So lots happened today. Made friends (4 of them!), met more people in my lab, and tried new cuisine. It's felt like a long week (yesterday, I thought that today was Friday...so tomorrow will feel like an extra day of the week) but slowly by slowly, I'm settling into life as I'll be living it for the next 8 weeks.
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