Author | Vicky C.R.
Editor | Rex S.
I didn’t got to breakfast in part because the god’s of SSP allowed group A to sleep in until 10 am since our bacteria pellets have been comfortably freezing at 80 C for a day now, and in part because I didn’t want to walk all the way to Forest Eatery. I’m telling you this because today was the first chill day at SSP. If you’ve been reading the blog, you know how intense our week has been. However, as time passed I thought I had the schedule and timings figured out. So today I decided to skip breakfast for the first time.
It was 6:30 in the morning, and my roomie SPPer Jiya woke up (sorry not sorry, group A was there too), so I used my super power to go back to sleep and woke up again at 8:45. I showered, talked to my boyfriend on the phone (because at SSP we stay in touch with our loved ones) and got ready to get to Lindley Hall at exactly 10 am for the only lecture of today. It was 9:57. I was running. I heard someone screaming my name. It was SSPer Evie. She was screaming something about…a chemistry building?!!?! So I stopped and she told me the lecture for today was in the chemistry building. Of course I clearly did not know that and we were on our way. Thanks to SSPer Evie for her valuable help. Just as we got to the che building we realized it was closed!!! Some more people got there at the same time, and I realized that no matter how much I think I have figured things out, SSP changes classrooms and schedules. SSP really does keep us on our feet (and not just in the labs).
Doctor L gave us a valuable lecture on protein purification, which is what we’re doing next week. We learned about different ways to achieve the results we want, and our class kept asking good questions. Go team! We got this. After the lecture, I learned that we had the rest of the evening free, so we headed to Forest after heading to the IMU and realizing everything was closed. At some point someone saw a deer, so here’s a picture of a deer for you. The food at Forest has been pretty much covered, but SSPers’ creativity and ambition is out of this world. So, SSper Evie made herself an icecream sandwich, and for some reason I believe that I can do a perfect soft-serve ice-cream swirl even though I have never shown the least bit of aptitude for such skill.
After coming back with a lovely group of SSPers, we tried to watch a movie whilst being stood up by the TA’s (yes, they wouldn’t even answer our texts). But SSPer Eileen was indeed not able to solve our tech issues, so I fell asleep on some stools. I was tired.
Then, around 2, our prayers were answered, and the SSP gods decided it was time for the long awaited, always exciting, Target run. (*DRUM ROLLS PLEASE*) So we walked for about half an hour in the scorching sun to buy stuff. It was very fun, though. Several SPPers bought enough food for a world catastrophe (I roughly estimate about 36 kilos of just food, but send me yours), others got hair dye (shout out to SPPer Emilka), and others got hair clips to replace those lost in battle with hair flatness (this SPPers will, of course, remain anonymous). I personally bought a beach towel and markers :). We decided to return by bus, but the bus did not decide to come for us until about thirty minutes later. That said, it is always a good time, and I got to ask a lot of people what they had got, and I got a lot of answers along the lines of, “It’s Zach’s.”
So, upon our return, I fell asleep because…I was tired. And my amazing roomie Jiya woke me up in time to run a marathon on our way to dinner. Of course, as per dress code, I had to change into more formal clothes. For dinner I had pesto pizza, alfredo pasta and fries, right after my Lactaid. In honor of Rex: I’m Vicky; I’m from Mexico, and a fun fact about me is that I discovered I’m lactose intolerant at SSP jajajjaa. Today was a special day, since we got to meet Doctor H’s daughter! Also, I’m really happy because my table at dinner is more united every day. Love you table 2!
After dinner, we had to change once more for the game with Genomics. We all changed into sports clothes, and went down. When we went down, someone somewhere decided we should all wear hats. So we all did. And I think that’s beautiful. One of the best things about this SSP biochem group is that we will all just go with ideas like this one. All united, all laughing, everybody having fun. We will indeed all thoroughly collaborate to get everyone a hat. And it never really is just about hats. I’m sure this is one of the greatest groups I will ever be a part of. Lots of love and thanks to everyone. Just keep lighting this world with your existence.
The Genomics kids took some time to get to the courts because they had a pset to hand in, so we played some volleyball. Of course, SSPers are not sports-inclined, but our community is supportive and we have fun together. We did some rounds of passing the volleyball around, and then the Genomics kids arrived. After our initial attempt at soccer failed, we played a game of handball, which was very fun (my team won, yay!). Of course, half the team was confused, but we were confused together, so it was alright. However, in the end, we did end up playing soccer. The game was so intense, we had to start penalty kicks. To be honest, it was a very good game. It’s always a pleasure slipping in the grass with you guys.
And so, my day ends writing this blog. It was a good day. Thank you all.
