New Mexico mornings are quite nice. The air is fresh and chilly; the courtyard is quiet and empty. I’m not usually a “morning person,” but with curfews at 10 PM for the Genomics program, mornings are the best time to get some work done.
Today, I was woken up at 5 by my roommate checking AP scores. I decided to make the most out of this wonderful Monday morning by simultaneously doom scrolling through reels while working on my summer homework. Afterwards, I took a walk to the second floor Game Room in Piñon Hall (I don’t know why it’s called a “hall” when it looks more like a penitentiary). The Game Room is really nice in the morning. It’s the only time of the day where I can practice the piano without being burned alive.
At 7:30, I headed out to breakfast with my friends. As a Bay Area boba addict, I always start out my mornings by making milk tea in the dining hall (2 bags of English black tea, hot water, milk, honey, ice). I also made toast with strawberry jam and butter. I don’t usually like eating breakfast, but I do enjoy talking to my friends in the morning.
When we got to the lab, it was a disaster. Our group’s antibiotic wasn’t working, and we were struggling to find a solution. Many groups ran out of media over the weekend. One group had a large leak flowing from their chemostat. Hugo even burned himself at the start of the lab (he was fine, just needed a new lab coat). When Dr. Duffy saw this, he called it “biology.”
During morning lab, we worked on preparing a sample for our natural transformation experiment. Afterwards, we tried to fix our chemostat experiment. You must understand that my lab group, Sierra, Hiram, and I, have been through a lot. We exhausted our collective brain cells trying to figure out what went wrong; an ineffective gentamicin was the last problem we’d expect. To prove our point, Sierra pipetted 10 microliters of bacteria into a tube with 10 milliliters of the maximum concentration of gentamicin that we could get our hands on. And guess what…the bacteria grew. That’s like throwing a lamb to a pack of wolves, only to see the lamb return as the alpha pack leader. Our professors and TAs were very diligent in helping us fix the problem. After multiple tests that proved the ineffectiveness of our drug, our only option was to restart with the new stock of gentamicin arriving on Thursday (or Friday). I guess that’s biology.
Our lunch conversations are always funny. We placed bets on the Euro games tomorrow and argued over who the best brawler is (El Primo, of course). We headed back to Foster for more labs and lectures and labs. Dr. Catalan taught us about biosafety and biostorage. Dr. Messner taught us how to write research papers before diving into microbial heterogeneity and the “Black Queen hypothesis.” Before leaving for dinner, my group successfully finished the transformation lab and is now waiting for the results.
I really liked the food at dinner. They had chipotle chicken, mac and cheese, and many more dinner options than usual. I sat with my new dinner table—Maahi, Jude, and Mr. Steinman, our site director. At first, our conversations were a bit awkward. But we soon talked about our hobbies and our favorite movies. Everything was going great until someone in my group (who I won’t name) said that Cars is a “F-tier movie.” I felt personally attacked.
In the evening, we had a lot of assignments due. Everyone was locked in to their PSet—except for Lucas, who was watching Queen of Tears in the back. Emily, Hugo, and Michael’s group (Team Meh) was preparing the introductions for the guest speaker tomorrow. We walked back to Piñon when we were done.
Walking back to the dorms at night is always my favorite time of the day. It’s that feeling of finally being done. Even just for a day. I walked back with Hugo and Michael, laughing about how cooked we all were for tomorrow. In the parking lot, we ran into a family of squirrels. The squirrels here in New Mexico look very different—black and white with a long tail that sticks up (I really want to pet one). When we returned back, it was almost 10—our curfew time.
Now, I’m back in my bed, typing out this blog post on my phone. My roommate Ryan is busy calling his friends. Michael is grinding out wins on Brawl Stars. Hiram is doom scrolling with airpods in. I don’t know what to write at this point, but I think I really enjoyed today. There won’t be many more Mondays left like these.
I know my parents read these blogs. So mom and dad, don’t worry. I’m still alive and doing well.
