Okay, so maybe Scotland IS beautiful...

ZOMG! WOWZ!

Okay people, went to my first scottish castle today and FREAKING FELL IN LOVE WITH SCOTLAND! I finally got out of the "silver city" aka gray granite filled Aberdeen and saw a freaking castle. IT WAS SO EPIC. It was so epic, I can't even describe. It was almost like I was having one of those life-defining moments in this SWEET castle. I was alone, in a foreign country, had no money (will get to THAT later), no food or water (no money to buy it), I was with new friends that I met a WEEK ago and it was just incredible. I thought to myself, wow, maybe I really can randomly enter into a foreign city, find a place to live, make friends AND enjoy the culture all by myself! I was so proud! (Hence my smiling in the pics).





I now know everyone's name in lab. In the picture in front of the "War memorial" you have (from left to right) Klaus, Patrick, Sven, Yvan and Karsten. They are the best! After we went to the castle we had lunch at this place that claimed to be home of the deep fried mars bar! I didn't eat it of course because now that I have a place to live, I have returned to veganism.



ALSO, DISASTER HAS STRUCK AUSTIN! I needed to pay my landlord. I went to the cash machine and withdrew 300 pounds (that is the max you can withdraw in one day). The next day I went back to get more money and the ATM wouldn't let me withdraw. I tried at another bank and THE FREAKING ATM RETAINED MY CARD! GASP! I went into the bank and the teller told me it was their policy to SHRED ALL RETAINED CARDS! HOLY MOLEY! I was in deep trouble. I had no money for two days. I was LITERALLY STARVING! As a last resort I had to drink water out of my hands from a random bathroom sink... I WAS SO DESPERATE! Worst feeling ever. So I tried calling my bank to figure out this mess and then... MY PHONE RAN OUT OF MONEY! I had no way of putting more money onto it either! EFF! I was so scared. I was like, I am going to STARVE! Then I remembered I have another credit card I can use. But I had to activate it and it I had no money. Anyways, I eventually activated my card by putting money on my phone over the internet. BUT I FORGOT MY PIN NUMBER AT HOME! AHHHH!!!! What the eff! It was so bad. Anyways, I finally got food and water today (see pics, i am so happy) after I facebooked my sister to tell my Mom to skype me my PIN. It was ridiculous.

Also you can see my room. When I moved in there were cigarette butts and tobacco everywhere. You get what you pay for I suppose. But I cleaned it, so it's livable now. I would say about 6 people live in this TINY house, and no one is from the UK. A lithuanian lives next to me, and then some arabs live below me. It's crowded, it's cheap, and it's close to my work.





So, I am surviving. BARELY, but I am surviving. OH ALSO, legally bought my first beer from the grocery store yesterday. Props to me!

Okay, here comes another week! I am SO EXCITED!

¡Buenos Días from Buenos Aires!

I've been in Buenos Aires for almost a week now, and I can officially say that I am in love with the city. I have an adorable studio apartment on the top floor of a building in a trendy residential and shopping neighborhood. Here are a few pictures of the area surrounding my building:

As a whole, the city reminds me a lot of a larger, cleaner, more vibrant, friendlier, and more laid back version of Manhattan. I've had the chance to do quite a bit of exploring by foot around the neighborhoods in which I work and live, and I'm hoping to venture into new neighborhoods in the coming weeks. There's a subway line that runs almost directly from my apartment to my lab, so I generally get off a few stops early or a few stops late in either direction in order to give myself extra time to explore.

The weather has been surprisingly pleasant here: mid 60's during the day and around 50 degrees Fahrenheit at night. It has been raining off and on the last few days though, and I had quite an experience trying to find an umbrella in the city. I still don't quite have the hang of shopping in Buenos Aires. Instead of having large stores that sell practically everything, like we're used to in the United States, Buenos Aires tends to have tons of miniscule stores that specialize in just one or two specific products. This layout comes in handy when you finally find a store that sells the product you want, but it can be a little frustrating when you're wandering around for hours looking for a relatively simple item. Another thing that I've noticed while wandering the streets and gazing into stores is the rather disturbing nature of the mannequins in Argentina. This one is like a cross between Pink and Chucky:

I think the goal is to frighten customers into making a purchase. Apparently this scare tactic is effective, judging by the number of horrific mannequins that I've seen.

My Spanish has improved a lot in the short time that I've been here, although I'm still struggling quite a bit with the accent. Porteños (people from Buenos Aires - literally, people of the port town) have a very distinctive accent, as well as their own unique set of slang terms. The most difficult part about the language is the "yeísmo," the pattern of pronouncing the letters "y" and "ll," both of which are typically pronounced with a "y" sound, using a soft "j" sound that is similar to "sh" or "zh." For example, when saying "Yo me llamo Rachel," (meaning "My name is Rachel," which sounds like "Yo may yamo Rachel" in most Spanish dialects), a Porteño's pronunciation would sound like "Sho me shamo Rachel." This aspect of the language, although very beautiful, can be quite confusing, and when combined with the fast pace of speech and rising-and-falling, song-like tone, it causes the language to sound more like a combination of French and Italian instead of the Mexican Spanish that I'm used to. Luckily for me, all of the students in the lab are fluent in English, since most of their science textbooks and all of their publications are written in English. We've worked out a system in which all of the science talk is done in English, and the rest of the communication is in Spanish so that I have a chance to practice. It seems to be working great so far!

The lab work is going very well. I'm learning a completely new skill set here - specifically, my project involves doing electrophysiology recordings using Xenopus oocytes. It's a great technique to know, and I think it will complement my knowledge of molecular biology techniques very nicely. I actually already have some preliminary data after my first week - although I attribute this entirely to beginner's luck and an excellent teacher, and not at all to any personal skill. One aspect of electrophysiology that I'm really enjoying is the ability to get my results almost immediately. It's very satisfying when performing an experiment to know within a matter of seconds whether a certain drug treatment or condition is effective. Each time that I marvel at the instantaneity of this type of work, the lab members tease me for being a Western blotter at heart. Although experimental results are obtained much quicker, other aspects of my new lab work are more tedious. For example, the process of microinjecting every individual oocyte with cRNA, although kind of fun in its own way, does make me miss chemical-based transfections.

One part of the lab work that I'm especially enjoying is the lack of regulation surrounding food and drinks. We generally eat Argentinean cookies and drink coffee/tea while doing our experiments, which makes the already fascinating science that much better! I've been eating very well (and very cheaply) here. The cuisine is drawn mostly from Italy and Spain, with an original Argentinean flair added. Based on the restaurants that I see on every block, the most common foods seem to be pizza, pasta, gelato, various pastries, and empanadas. Surprisingly, I haven't encountered much beef so far, but that may be due to the fact that I've been eating in relatively casual and inexpensive (though delicious) cafes and restaurants. A couple of my favorite traditional Argentinean dishes so far are the drink yerba mate (similar to a very strong and bitter tea, shared in a social setting) and the cookies alfajores (two or more cookies sandwiched around dulce de leche and covered in chocolate and/or powdered sugar).

I'm especially looking forward to the next several days, as May 25th marks the 200th birthday of Argentina, and I hear that quite a celebration is in store for the city of Buenos Aires. There's no work on Monday or Tuesday due to the holiday, and a few lab members are planning to take me downtown to enjoy the festivities. I'm sure I'll have lots of interesting news to report!

Starting to get my feet wet...!

Hello Friends!

The past week has been very up and down for me, but I would say I am on an "up" right now! After last Friday the weekend sort of remained to be kind of boring/anti-social. On Saturday I walked around the city with my camera for the first time and that was very nice/relaxing. I even went to the beach! The beach was very nice. I walked up and down and was amazed by how much of the Scottish coast I could see! I really enjoyed that, but it made me think of how horrible the oil spill in NOLA is! I want to help and I see all the reports coming in from the US but I can't do anything about it!

Anyways, on Sunday I slept for a VERY long time. I was so tired from all of the traveling I had done so i decided it would be okay to sleep in. OK ALSO! My sleep schedule here is totally different that it would be in the US. I went to bed at 9PM last night! When did I age 50 years? I don't even know. But I'm outta the hostel and OoOOoOoOOooO it feel soo good! (That's the hostel to the right)



On Sunday I went to a concert with a Spanish Marine Biologist and Brian the guy from Glasgow. It was heavy metal music, not exactly my thing, but it was culture and social interaction which I appreciated. Monday I was back to work!

I freeze dried my cucumbers and began the isolations. I have done most of my work with Morag's help. She is working on her Master's thesis. I talked to Dr. Ebel about what type of work I am interested in back at Emory and told him about my fungal experiments. He was very interested! I explained my plans to isolate 'cultivar's' anti-fungal natural product and he said that my experiment sounded very "publishable." Then he set me up with a fungal natural products chemist who works in the lab named Mustafa! He and I are going to grow some marine fungus in a liquid media and then use Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy to isolate some bioactive agents! The work is so incredibly similar to what I will be doing back home! I am so excited!

On Wednesday, on a whim, I decided to go out alone. Although I was nervous at first (even though the city is incredibly safe) I ended up going into a bar and making legit friends! Afterwards we went to several other bars and were out till 3AM! The next day of work was a bit rough, but I had some friends! After work they asked me to go get some drinks at a bar called Revolution.



Yes! They had VODKA AND FOOD! But I was really "tired" from the night before so after some social time I went home and got into bed.

This morning I moved into my new apartment! I found a room on Gumtree.com. It's really cheap and small but it's just what I need. Only 5 mins from campus! I'll take some pics of it and post them later!

Anyways, this weekend on Saturday I am going to some party with a British celebrity? My new friends are taking me. It should be quite a good time. On Sunday I am going to Stonehaven to see the castle! I will definitely post pics.

Anyways, the "store" is open and I have to get some funnels to finish my extractions!

Stay tuned for more posts!

Depart tomorrow!

I can't believe I will be departing for Montreal tomorrow! I'm finding myself glancing at the clock repeatedly, but I have so much stuff to do in 24 hours before I leave (and that includes a little sleep). Admittedly, I am doing the last minute packing thing; and well, I'm going a little crazy. I also have to tie up a bunch of loose ends here for the nonprofit organization that I oversee so that it can function while I am away. And I also have to withdraw some money from the bank, and...the list goes on. But aside from the never ending to do list, I'm super excited to be in Canada; and I'll post an update soon!

What a Interesting First Few Daze!

Hello World!
I am currently sitting in the Youth Hostel, looking out onto Queen’s Road in Aberdeen! This road is kind of boring and is basically full of businesses and banks. Nothing really fun. The two main streets in the town are King’s Street and Union Street. People go here mainly to shop it seems. It’s kinda like a tourist trap. I haven’t been to the water yet, but I have seen the harbor from afar. There are HUGE ships in it, so I’ll probably check it out. It’s been sunny the last few days, but don’t let that fool you, it’s always cold. I am never warm, even when I go to sleep. It is a nice city, although it is entirely made of granite. I have yet to see any building that isn’t made of granite. Although uniformity is nice and all, everything looks kind of gray and post-industrial. Oh, and everything they say about British food is true: generally sub-par. The first day, I tried to upkeep my veganism. I had a Cliff Bar I brought from home and a bag of chips. There was nothing else available in the super market, not to mention this was after an entire day of travel without food. So, I have to admit, today I had a macaroni salad that had mayonnaise in it ☹. Oh also, EVERYONE here uses a car, not just an American thing. I try to walk as much as I can, but occasionally I pay the 2 pounds (ouch) and ride the bus.
The Lab is incredibly interesting and different from our US labs. First of all, my project has nothing to do with what I did my presentation on. Essentially, I will be isolating Natural Products from newly freeze-dried Scottish Sea Cucumbers, YAY! But in all seriousness, it’s going to be really hard. After I isolate the natural products, (I don’t know how, I just know this German woman is going to freeze-dry my sea cucumbers on Monday), I am going to run my saponins (the natural products I am interested in) through a two dimensional NMR. What’s a two dimensional NMR you may be asking. Well, it’s this huge scary machine and spits out a ridiculous amount of data that the chemist must then analyze. In organic chemistry at Emory, I dealt with common 1 dimensional NMR. 2 dimensional NMR is a totally different beast. There are 3 maybe 5 different measurements you can take with the NMR depending on a nucleus’s spin and its proton shielding. Think of it this way, the NMR spits out a giant puzzle of a graph that If read correctly, represents a chemical structure. Hannah, who works next to me, said she had no idea how to read 2D NMR’s when she arrived just a couple of weeks ago, but now she seems like an expert, I HAVE HOPE.
They take safety incredibly seriously. I was at work from 10-5 today and all I did was go over safety things, and I haven’t even watched “the movie” yet. There is so much to remember, and I will probably forget so oh well. I work mostly with a 4th year German student named Hannah. In fact, I might as well be in Germany because everyone in my lab, except Dr. Jaspars, is German. While I am here I will specifically be working under associate professor Ranier Ebel. He is a great guy who really wants to teach me how to read the 2D NMRs, and that’s very exciting.
I’m kind of nervous about this weekend because I have zero friends and no prospects (besides Hannah). I was going to ask Hannah if she wanted to go get beers or something today after lab but she was working with Dr. Ebel and I totally forgot. Plus, she has a boyfriend and probably already thinks I am coming on to her because of my social desperation, Yikes. Oh well, I have only been here 2 days. Not to mention I have yet to meet “the boys,” these other German undergrads who work in the same room as me. Hopefully they will be a riot, but for now, lonely weekend.
On the first day of living at the hostel I met this aussie named Reese. He is nice, we say hi. Tonight I noticed some Americans coming into the hostel so I quickly and awkwardly asked how they would be spending their Friday night. One girl responded, equally as awkward, and said they would be making dinner but I could “hang out”. Thanks for the invite I suppose…. Hahaha. Anyways, they are all outside right now, being cooler and more social than I am, and I am going to go on a run because, oh yeah someone forgot to tell me but, IT NEVER GETS DARK HERE! HOLY EFF!
Oh, and I might have found a “flat” stay tuned for deets.
UPDATE!
It’s now 1:50 PM on the day after the above was written. And I have had such social success! Last night, after I finished my run, this guy from Glasgow named Brian who is living in my room said he needed to get a few drinks because he had had a hard day. Of course I obliged. We started off the night at some bar across the street. It was really ritzy and full of old women… so after about one beer we left. But then the night got exponentially better. We walked to the city center, and I swear… at night this place goes NUTS. Totally different city! All of the churches that people tour right in the downtown area are transformed into… hold onto your seats… nightclubs! Girls and guys are wearing their best club attire (the girls here, despite the cold, wear much less clothing than Americans) and the city streets are literally bustling with young college kids from the two universities here. Anyways, first we hit up this really chill fun bar where I got my lecture on the difference between Scottish Whiskey and American Whiskey. After some taste tests we went upstairs to the first night club. It was very cool but kind of empty, so we left. Next we went to this punk club. We walk in, there are green laser lights and foot high mohawks everywhere. After a few more drinks I decided it was time to start dancing. At this point we had met Reese the Australian and three of his friends. Next thing you know, the whole pack of us are head banging alongside the crazy goth punk kids and screaming odd things like “Angels deserve to DIE.” Good night. After we left and went to this CHURCH! Inside was a huge dance floor! The DJ played his set where the priest would give his sermon, high above the crowd, and colored lights that blinked to the sound of the bass illuminated the stained-glass windows. IT WAS AWESOME! After (at about 3:30AM) Brian and I lost the Australian and his friends, they were all wasted, at one point in the night I had to help one of them stand up. The Australian is still nowhere to be found and Brian is still asleep. All in all, I call that a good first night in Aberdeen. I think later today (it’s not freezing outside today) I am going to grab dinner at a supermarket and head towards the harbor to eat it on the shore. BYBEYBEYEBYEBYE

Oh and sorry I don't have any more photos to share. I haven't really had a chance to go shoot yet. The castle is campus.

Leaving TOMORROW!!!

I'll be on my way to Buenos Aires in a matter of hours, and I couldn't possibly be more excited! This last week between the end of finals and my departure for Argentina has been a bit hectic with last-minute travel purchases, packing, and saying both "hello" and "goodbye" to friends and family. I've been preparing for this trip for months, and at this point I'm as ready as I'll ever be, so it's time to finally stop planning and start doing! I've been in touch with several members of my international lab lately, and everybody seems incredibly kind, helpful, and excited to have me. The project I'll be working on sounds fascinating, and I'm anxious to learn a range of new techniques that will be helpful throughout the rest of my scientific career. I can't believe that after all of this anticipation, the time has finally come! I'll be in touch from the Southern Hemisphere!

I leave tomorrow!

Wow, I can't believe I leave for Scotland tomorrow! I have had a few bumps along the road in the past 24 hours. In fact, my flight was canceled! Luckily I scheduled a new one ASAP and that one is just a few hours later. I have all my stuff packed into a hiker's backpack and a student backpack, and I find that incredibly amazing.

In two days, I have a 5 hour layover in London which is kinda a drag. Since I will be of age, I think I'll just pass the time with a beer at some bar. Make myself feel older, blend in with the locals, the usual. Oh! I'm going to be doing the tourist thing the entire time, so watch out for corny pics! More updates to come as the travels begin! Get excited!