Day Ten.

Hello marvelous readers and I apologize for the lack of blogging these past few days. Not only have I been extremely busy, my computer crashed and I'm in the process of fixing it. I only have a few precious moments to fill you in on all the amazing things that has happened.

The last time I blogged was about the DC trip on Saturday. Sunday, although we weren't suppose to have anything planned, was also a very busy day. Sunday was the only day of the week that we were allowed to sleep in. I took advantage of that. My roommate and I woke up and we ran around doing errands until me and Courtney had to go to Les Miserables. I thought that we were suppose to meet for the play at 7 but it was really 5. Imagine how suprised I was when I found out. I had to rush to my room and change really quickly and rush out to the front. The walk to the subway was a long walk. I remember wanting to fly there. We finally arrived at the theater and we took our seats. The play itself was amazing, the actors were really good and they had amazing voices. The plot was amazing and the way they did their scenes was impressive. Courtney and I didn't have dinner beforehand so we had a quick Wawa run after the play, which was barely satisfactory. BUT the play was worth it.

These past couple of "school days" have been really hectic but easy at the same time. Though that may seem hypocritical, it's true. We've been getting out of classes early because every lab group has to go to the library to learn how to use the resources on a different day. Our lab group went yesterday, so now we've been getting out of classes early. Their library is really nice and they have a lot of resources which we can use for the major paper thats due at the end of the class.

The classes have been really challenging, still. Yesterday, we had a guest lecturer that talked about forensic pathology. They told us about what people in that field do. They basically investigate the causes of unnatural deaths. They showed us these grotesque pictures of dead people. I can still imagine them if I tried, they were really gross. I've decided that I can't become a forensic pathologist when I grow up. Today, we learned about molecular biology and nervous tissue. The molecular biology lecture was about E coli and bacteria. We talked about the way E coli chromosomes and the way it mutates. We talked about how they multiply and how plasmids work. It was interesting when she was explaining it but I may have butchered the explanation. The lecture about nervous tissue was harder for me to understand. We talked about how neurons worked and the different parts. We talked about how they transmitted signals and whatnot. It was hard to understand because I thought it was a simple thing but it's so much more difficult then I thought it was.

After class, we always go to lab. These past couple of labs have been really tedious. We've been stuck with these procedures that take forever to do. It's been really rewarding to see the result, but the process is hard! I really like our lab teacher and assistant, they're really cool. They care a lot about the experiment and they aren't really easy all the time, but they teach us a lot. The goal of this week's module was to subclone an Aurora Kinase (Aurora C) into pEGFP-N1, which is a green florescent tag. I like how they incorporated things that we learned how to do last week into this lab but they also taught us new things. The concept is completely new to me, but I'm starting to make sense of it. I feel like the lectures don't really correlate to the labs, but at the same time, I'm learning things from both. I like the labs beceause they're really interactive and I learn best by doing things. I'm also really glad I was put into this lab group because I've met some really nice people.

Yesterday, we went to go tie-dying. It was really fun, I tie-dyed a tanktop I got. I went with my roommate and we met up with Courtney. We met new people and it was really fun getting to tie-dye with them. We commented on each other's methods and exchanged thoughts. It was a good time. After tie-dying, I went to get ice cream with Susan, Courtney and Ms. Crespo. We talked for a little while and then we returned to the campus.

Today, after lab, me and my roommate went grocery shopping! (But only for the complete necessities that the dining halls don't offer like.. good fruit and vegetables.) Afterwards, we came back and indulged in a good meal while watching Justice League on Youtube.

Again, I apologize for the lack of blogging. My computer has been acting up (which is really bad for me! I need it for work!) but I'll getting it fixed shortly. Until next time!
-Cynthia