Thursday, December 11, 2008

Actively Bored

I am soooo running out of time here. As I've mentioned, I came here to San Diego because of a lab group here. I had a whole list of things I wanted to learn from that lab group and I have been constantly reviewing that list in my mind to make sure I'm getting stuff done. I've been scratching out items from the list one by one and - well - the thing is that I did everything already. Oh, okay, one thing completely failed and we should try that again, but I saw technically how it's done. But now I still have time left over and I feel I should put it to good use in the lab.

So, I still feel I should go to the lab and do THINGS but basically I don't have much to do there. I could practice STUFF or something. I'm sure I'll think of something to do. Well, I should make sure I'm able to make a perfect leaf epidermis sample for the microscope. I need a table and the microscope for that. Plus a bunch of tools and a plant. Most of these things are easy to find, but the microscope has been busy for a few days already. I've been going to the lab, yet there isn't much to do except laugh at how horrible the Internet is and chat with people. But although that might sounds like a perfect workday to some people it has actually started to get me down. Even thinking about going to the lab where I can't even work on my computer properly gives me goosebumps.

LAB SWIIIRRRL!

Today I went to the lab with a clear plan to do SOMETHING useful. I checked the microscope and ...well... of course it was busy. Christmas break is coming up and some people want to finish up their experiments before that. And since I'm mostly just playing around, I don't want to do it at the expense of their experiments. But I had a moment of energy so I decided to practice something else in stead - I took a pot full of plants, took some solution and forceps - and I started to butcher plants.

SKY SWIIIRRRL!

Sounds like I've finally lost my mind entirely, right? Well, I actually had a goal there - I was trying to peel off the epidermis (skin of the leaf) using a more difficult but arguably a better method. I knew it was going to be hard but practice makes perfect (theory is all good). I took hold of the leaf and pulled away a piece trying to have some epidermis dangling in the end. I did that for half an hour, used up the entire pot full of plants and ended up with a whole pile of pieces of failed attempts. After that I also played around with the microscope a little. All that goofing around made me feel a little better about my activity in the lab.

It's pretty here even after dark

Unfortunately that's about the only thing on my mind right now. I'm hoping tomorrow will give me something else to think about - I'm getting together with the Germans for lunch and in the evening we're also going out pubbing. That will be fun.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Krista! Sunday-Wednesday it is then! I'll book my tickets asap and let you know when I get in! :-)