intense piano notes

Hey dudes,

So, I suck. I never update my blog. I never call or skype anyone. I never send letters or emails. Well, sorry. I promise, you aren't really missing out. I don't do anything that is interesting to people other than me (Jonj can attest to that--he has to listen to me ramble about chemistry ALL THE TIME).

This semester I'm taking this amazing/horrible class called Modern Techniques of Organic Chemistry. Well, we call it MODTECH because then it goes from pretentious and long to concise and INTENSE. Overall, I would rate it as more of a LONG AND INTENSE class than a concise and intense class. I have lab from approximately 12-6pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So you can understand why my brain is generally mush. Add in all the time I spend working on prelabs, procedures and lab reports outside of class and well...maybe you can understand the 15-20 hours I spent one weekend working on it... At the same time, it's been one of the most rewarding classes I've taken.

We really are learning modern techniques and trying to apply them independently. I've used a HUGE EXPENSIVE magnet machine that spits out these crazy looking graphs to identify my samples. (It's related to MRI technology. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMR_spectroscopy for a scary picture of an NMR machine. our's isn't that large, but it's still intimidating.) And guess what--I can't actually identify what the messed up graphs mean! It is seriously the most exciting thing ever. I spent most of September and October freaking out about only partially understanding them. And then suddenly everything clicked. I am by no means an NMR expert, but I am so much better than I was. And to me, that is amazing. This class is amazing.

Sometimes, I don't do chemistry. During those times I am studying, or flute-ing or sleeping. Seriously--I've barely left campus this semester. Jonathan and I tried to go to the Opera the other weekend, but they ran out of rush tickets a few people before us in the queue. It was tragic. And I went to Hahhhhhhvahhhhhhddd last weekend. However, that is a story for a skype date.

Hmm, now I have to go to chemistry. I bet you saw that one coming. Maybe I will update my blog before Christmas break, but don't count on it.

love love love,

sarajean

plain jane glory

I was thinking the other day about how I have become immensely inarticulate. Or perhaps I never was. (I like to think that in high school I could express myself with a little more finesse.) Somewhere, I have lost that skill. I think it had something to do with losing my self-confidence at college, and now that I'm finally recovering from that fall I am ready to tackle eloquence. My theory is that by writing more I will regain my way with words. So maybe I am saying that I plan to update this blog more. Or maybe I won't.

We're in the final stretch. 5 weeks from today I will be in Beloit, or possibly Stoughton, trying to forget those essays I scrambled to finish or the resonance structure I definitely drew wrong. Five weeks seems quite short. Really, this entire year seems far too short in retrospect. I am sad because several of the things that I really like about this year will come to an end: Friends will graduate and I will have to pack up this beautiful room and say goodbye to my skyline. I've learned loads of things this year. Predictably, not just about chemistry, but also about life. I think I'm finally understanding how other people think in a way that isn't constantly plagued with self-doubt. I feel like I'm finding my place. I feel at home arguing about chemistry. It's something I understand. Mechanisms are logical in a way that political theory never was to me. I am glad that this reduces my likelihood of failing out of college. But I am also concerned that my lack of interest in the humanities says something terrible about my brain. I often find I have nothing to say to anyone that isn't somehow related to school. I won't try to argue that I used to be more charismatic. I don't think that is an adjective anyone will ever use to describe my shy personality. (Today someone called me bold. Predictably, it was in chemistry. It was nice.)

I don't have much else to say. I suppose this post has been a rather pretentious exercise. Alas, you must start somewhere.

love love love,

sara

take your time

It's Friday! The countdown to classes begins. My bed looks a lot more cozy now, as I have three pillows instead of 1. Yesterday I put up my purple lights and they rule. I wish I brought my posters because the walls are gross. Whoever lived here before me was lame. There are tape stains all over hte wall from using improper tape and nails and stuff. :( I printed out some quotes and a picture I like to put up, but it's not doing the trick. How sad.

Hmm, so this week I decided I would like to never move things again. I have made so many trips between the closet and various dorms this week. Too much sweating. Lame. But getting things put back into place is excellent, and my friends rule, so I suffer. haha.

On Tuesday night I had a cupcake making party with Bree, Sam and Jonathan. I would post another picture from it to prove that I have friends, but I promised not to put ridiculous faces on the internet. How sad.

BUT, the cupcakes were delicious. Everyone else had already eaten dinner, so I made a hummus and sprouts sammich and carved it into the shape of an elephant. I was going to do a dinosaur, but I thought an elephant would be easier. It has a dried cranberry for an eye. Clearly this is a maniacal elephant.


Wednesday was the underground tour for band, so I got really sweaty and had a great time talking to freshpeople. You should ask me about Wednesday night the next time we speak--it's a great story. :)

Yesterday I woke up at noon (hey now, I went to bed at 3am after running all over Columbia). Awesome. Bree and I took the water taxi to the Brooklyn IKEA. We had to take the 1 to the bottom of Manhattan and then took the taxi over to the IKEA. I don't think water taxi is a very good name for this mode of transportation. I think water rollercoaster is a little more accurate. It ruled.

I got a lot of neat things from IKEA, like a rug and a really nice pillow and kitchen things. Bree and I bought a lot of the same things (because we have good taste/are cheap).
When we got back we did some errands and made shells pasta with peas. It was delicious. Then we took the last of the cupcakes over to Katharine and Hilary's suite to watch Project Runway. We were pretty pleased with the person they kicked off. It was fun.

Today I got my package from mum, so it is a good day. I have awesome plans for tonight, so you should ask me about those later. :)

Love love love!

i put one foot forward

Last Thursday got into NYC and took a cab over to Amy's apartment in Brooklyn. I was rather concerned in the cab because the driver was like "is this is Manhattan?" When I said it was in Brooklyn he looked concerned and went and spoke to the dispatcher for several minutes. Somehow we managed to arrive safely.

Amy's apartment is ridiculously nice. We hit up Crumbs and Red Bamboo in Greenwich Thursday night, which was delicious as always. We sat next to this major dbag in Red Bamboo who was complaining about studying for the GRE. He couldn't understand why the English section was so hard and had so many useless words. He was like 'you can learn math--it's a process. but English? Whaaaaat?' except with more ignorance. It was quite comical.

On Saturday we went over to Prospect Park to go to Spike Jone's Michael Jackson birthday celebration. We had to walk quite a way through Prospect Park to get to the location. As we walked through the constant drizzle and thick trees, the bass from the party got louder and louder. It was rather ominous. We saw a lot of great dancing at the party, but left after like 40 minutes because we were quite wet.

A bar that Elliott Smith, one of our favorite musicians, used to frequent was nearby, so we walked over there and took tourist pictures. There were tons of bars in that area, so we can totally see why he lived there. When I am 21 we are totally going back.

While we were at the bar we realized that an ice cream shop we wanted to try was pretty close. We called Rubot and made her look up the address and walked over toward it. We got a delicious brunch (my third of the week, haha) at this place called Atlantic something. After that we went to the Salvation Army and I got 8 Crate and Barrel plates for $7. I also picked up a muffin pan, a twister (the game) mug and a variety of silverware. Amy got a really cute ceramic plate set for super cheap also. It was pretty heavy to carry home, but totally worth it. The ice cream place we went to (Marbles) was pretty good, but way overpriced. The server was a total failure though. I ordered a large iced coffee au lait and I got an iced cappuccino instead. It was definitely the second strongest coffee I have ever had. I decided to save it for the next day, when we had to get up at the crack of dawn to take the subway over to Barnard.

Moving to school was an interesting experience. I would not recommend lugging three suitcases across 12 blocks, 2 subways and far too many stairs. But, we made relatively good time and my room is really cute. Ok, not really. I haven't found my posters yet. But it is on its way. I also have an excellent view.






On Sunday night I went to a Kid Nation marathon. The show is horrifying and hilarious. I figured it would be good because it would involve bratty kids crying, but little did I know what would unfold. I don't feel like explaining the series, but I highly recommend it. :) I left after 9 hours of the marathon due to excessive sleepyness. We resumed Monday night and saw the epic ending. haha.

While I miss Madison already, it has been absolutely lovely to see some of my college friends again. I have eight million things to do to get ready for classes on September 8th, but I am well on my way.

<3

hello!

hi grandpa and grandma!

everydaaaaayyyyy

Today (hold up, you have to say it in your head like "todaaaaaye" because that is how I have apparently gotten in the habit of pronouncing it. lol.) was a pretty good day in the lab. I was really tired, so the first hour or so of reading this research paper about two kinds of stem cells' locations in bone marrow was pretty unproductive. But Hui let me help her isolate plasmids from an E. coli sample. It was pretty cool but I messed up a little bit and felt really bad. I think she understood, but still. I'm trying to prove that I can handle my own project and I go around spilling E. coli twice while pouring. -___- It took like two hours because we had to do a bunch of steps of centrifuging and adding different solutions. One of the solutions we added to the sample lysed the cell membranes so there was this freaky white gunk in the liquid. When we centrifuged it it didn't pellet out on the bottom like usual. It was stuck all over one side. Gross. But normal, apparently. Hui is really nice.

After that I ate lunch and made some awkward small talk in the grad/undergrad student office-y room. Then Michele and I changed the media on the cell cultures. The other undergrads were watching me do it when Colin walked by and thought we were having some great party or something with so many people standing around. It was cute.

Then I read some more (Michele gave me like 6 20+ page articles to read for my project) and did some more awkward small talk. Hui was passaging cells later, which is when you move a colony to a new flask and freeze some, so I watched that. It was pretty cool. All of these activities involved lab coats, which is AWESOME. I need my own to just wear all of the time even though it makes me feel kind of like a tool. haha.

After work Rubecca and Amy met me at the Union and we got Babcock Hall ice cream. Delicious. Then we came home and I made pasta for dinner and managed to burn some of the linguine to the bottom of the pan. ugh. But the not burn part tasted awesome!

Yesterday was pretty good too. I got my own lab notebook. It is hard cover and green and says "laboratory notebook" or something in impressive gold letters across the front. There is a page of intense, ridiculous instructions that detail how to keep records if you plan to try to claim a patent on the stuff you record in it. Lots of stuff about making carbon copies of each page and signatures and such. Maybe I will scan it.

I feel so busy though. I only have like four hours of being awake when I get home from work. :( Being an adult is therefore kind of lame.

Sincerely,

Sara

it's like I'm an adult!

Today was my first day in the lab. 9-5:30 today. Dude, I am an adult. What! It was one part dull, one part exciting and many parts awesome. The lab uses mice to study a lot of cool biology things that I don't feel like explaining that relate to diabetes. Essentially, there is a mutation that causes the mice to not become obese on a high fat diet and the lab is looking into why some adipose tissue grows a lot (causing obesity) and some doesn't when the tissue is structurally identical.

I started the day by getting lost and ending up on the wrong side of the building. There is a dude on that side with almost the same name as the professor I am working for, so those people were pretty confused. But I made it over successfully with the help of a nice lady. The professor I'm working for is really sweet. He spoke to me for about 90 minutes about what the lab does and then gave me a book to read. I read most of the day and met some other people who work in the lab. They were all pretty nice and predictably asked me how NYC is. I did some more internet research, which mostly consisted of me looking up terminology on wikipedia.

At the end of the day I went up to the mice room. That was pretty much the highlight of the day. I got to wear a lab coat. Fancy stuff.

First we stopped off at the autoclave room, where everything looked to be 50 or 60 years old. The autoclave machine has been used so many times that you can't turn the knob to the mark for the function you want. You have to turn it past it. They mostly judge where to turn to based off of the sound the machine makes. ... yeah.

The mouse room is really dirty from mites and diseases, so the security level is F, which is really bad. We had to put on booties, disposable lab coats, gloves and sleeves. The undergrads I was observing had to feed and weigh the mice. They told me about the projects going on and I looked at a bunch of adorable mice. Sadly, one of the pregnant mothers in the vitamin A deficiency experiment had a miscarriage and we had to euthanize her. It was morbidly cool because we saw the fetus in her bedding. There was only one so the woman I was observing hypothesized that she had eaten the other ones.

I am looking forward to tomorrow because it will supposedly involve cell cultures.

Best,

Sara