Book 1: Settling into Life Day 9 (June 15, 2015)

Thanks to the rain last night, today was a little cooler than yesterday (a high of 90 instead of 93!) and it was cloudier, which helped a ton.

Arriving at the workplace, greet Danielle and am a little surprised to see that Catherine is missing, but not entirely, since she has a thesis to write. Danielle tells me that there are a few new interns today, so I rush over to meet Jon's. Her name is Kristen. Then Jeni has one, who's name is Deborah, but she told me to call her KiniKini. She's Hawaiian, and knows quite a few languages (Some hawaiian language, Korean, English, and one other, I think) and she's pretty cool. Closer to my age than most, since she's a sophomore in college, and she said that she did this NIH program as a senior.

But beyond that, my feet hurt so much because I was standing up so much. Lots and lots of lab work, but it's a HUGE learning curve. My mind is so overloaded with information, I mix up my procedures and my "lab notebook" is currently a mess of looseleaf paper with scribbles on it, that I have yet to organize and decipher. Life's a process, and I'm trying to sort it out, page by page.

I learned how to use a repeater today, but I had a hard time disconnecting the tip, and I ended up squirting myself and my mentor with P1 buffer...and then he and I were laughing so hard because we were both confused and flustered. He couldn't see how I failed to do a simple task and I was laughing at the whole absurdity of the situation.

Today was so humid, but at least it rained, which cooled things down a bit. I stayed inside the whole day, and it got to a point where I forgot what fresh air felt like, what natural light looked like, and what the outdoors smells like. I also got very itchy to just run around so I don't go crazy being locked up in the building the whole day. Technically I could take a lunch break, but it takes a little time to enter and exit the building, and it was so hot outside, it's not really worth it.

And now for some pictures:

Rain makes the windows all hazy.

The sky before leaving work.

Leaving the building.

Because it's an architectural beauty.

I've never seen magnolia trees before I came to DC.