SSP Blog
Today was brutal, I won’t sugarcoat it. But if I’ve learned one thing here, it’s that trauma bonding is the best kind of bonding. The second is hydrogen bonding
It started off as any usual day with breakfast at the dining hall– though there’s only about five of us who still regularly go (and Vinson, no I did not fall off). They had chocolate chip banana bread! and after swallowing my pride, I managed to sneak six pieces out (shhh). The pieces were quickly gobbled up as our morning started with a THREE hour grueling writing session.
It’s hard to believe that SSP is coming to an end, and with that, comes a whole lot of work. All of us have been trying to grind out our manuscript (which we’re supposed to finish by Sunday) and a poster we’re sharing this coming Monday. Having spent the entire morning snacking on Motts gummies while reading paper after paper about antibiotic resistance genes, I had definitely earned lunch.
Today the farmer’s market was in town, and I have been craving their lemonade for the last WEEK. It’s the perfect sweet refreshing drink in this Indiana heat. Noa and Mandy both bought two really cute pieces of jewelry– a little sprout necklace and a leaf ring. We sat on the benches enjoying our food while lounging in the shade underneath the trees. It’s the little moments like these that I’ve learned to treasure most here. I may have been just a tiny bit sentimental since I was reading Fault in Our Stars.
Caption: (A) Jaya and I’s lemonade, I got peach. (B) The sprout necklace (C) Mandy being a hand model (D) My chicken barbeque sandwich (E) Our lunch spot 🙂
Unfortunately, lunch ended too soon, and we quickly rushed back to the lab. We were immediately bombarded with a PCR experiment. The primers that we had designed arrived last night. My group was half way done with the PCR experiment (which is all pipetting) when we suddenly realized that we had mixed up our samples. After a lot of panicking and some scrambling, we ended up restarting our setup and finishing 15 minutes late. Let me tell you, that was not fun.
However, what was fun was our guest speaker today– Dr. Grace Deitzler. She came in wearing a hot pink blazer, and I immediately knew this was going to be a great talk. I can confidently say I understood just about everything she said (which is rare, the last one went over my head). The reception had samosas, mint chutney, rice crackers, and chocolate espresso rolled wafers (best reception food yet).
Sadly, I have to report that dinner today was not very good. I ate a plate of cilantro with a side of beef and a bowl of mangoes. The dining hall made really good desserts– peanut cookies with chocolate chips, moose track ice cream, AND cherry cobbler. I rushed to get my laundry done, did a little bit of reading (I finished rereading Fault in Our Stars for, like, the fifth time, and almost started crying), and then came down for office hours.
Caption: (A) Jaya, Disthi, and I post dinner (B) Noa, Dishti, and I pre-dinner
Tonight we got a mini extended boundaries! We ran over to Red Mango to get our strawberry mango smoothie (custom order ofc) before ending the night by milling around Target!
Bye,Anne <3
