Last week (sort of) and I'm incredibly SICK

Wow, Dublin was a blast. Nothing like getting all of us IRES kids together for some good bonding time. After I got my data last week, I sort of had to start a mini project to keep me occupied for my last two weeks. I decided to run through my partition scheme with two of my initial sea cucumber samples. If I have time I will run LC-MS on them to decide if I have any more saponins. While I am waiting for those to dry, running NMRs or trying to get time at the LC-MS, I am coming up with ideas on how to start my experiments back home. I would never guess at the beginning of this summer that one of the most exciting things for me to start when i go back to Emory would be my lab work! It's going to be so incredible, I really can't wait.

Dublin was quite fun. After I arrived I found Alex and our friend Mike who decided to tag along. Later we found Dani and that night Ogy arrived. The first day, after i caught up with Alex and Mike, Alex and I decided to go on a run before going out that night. Although the weather was a bit miserable, Alex and I got to see a lot of the city which was very cool. That night we went on a pubcrawl through Dublin. All of IRES attended and it was a lot of fun. The organizers of the crawl even prepared some beer pong at one of the bars (and of course the Americans dominated).

Then next day, we went on a tour to see some seals and a castle. The seals were AMAZING: We even got to feed them some fish!:

After we went to a castle. Although this castle was filled with plenty of old and interesting artifacts, while walking to the castle we got DOWNPOURED on and everyone was legitimately dripping wet.
Also, the castle was kind of a complete tourist trap. They didn't allow photography and the whole thing was guided by this voice that came from a loud speaker in each room. The gardens that surrounded the castle, however, were quite nice.

After the castle, we went home, dried our clothes and prepared for another pubcrawl. This one met outside of Trinity college and took us to more of Dublin's "greatest" pubs. However after the first two or three pubs, I was kinda getting sick of the whole pub crawl. The drinks were expensive and I really wasn't feeling the crowd. So, Dani and I made the excellent decision to ditch the pub crawl and head out into the streets of Dublin by ourselves, and what a great decision it was! I was so surprised that in Dublin, you are allowed to simply drink anywhere in the street! Dani and I would order our Guinness and drink it wherever! When we were done, we just left our glasses on the side of the road! What an experience!

The next day we got up early and went to the Guinness factory. Although another tourist trap, I thought it was interesting to see how long Guinness has been around for. Not to mention, for some reason I feel like if you go to Dublin, as an American, you have to see the factory as some sort of right of passage. The best part I thought, was when I got to pour my own pint of beer.

Once we had finished our pints, I literally had to RUSH to the airport to catch my plane. I was so nervous, but I made it on time. Landing in Aberdeen was nothing less than terrifying. It took us two attempts to actually touch down and once we did, wind almost pushed our plane onto its side. Won't lie, said a few Our Father's in that cabin...

This week I have been a wreck. After all that rain in Dublin, I think I caught a miserable cold. Luckily we had some sort of Aberdonian holiday on Monday so I stayed in bed all day. The next day I went to work but was told countless times that I should be home so that everyone else would remain healthy. Yesterday I went in all day, but was exhausted by the end of the day. Today I woke up, and I feel horrible, so I think I will try to go in after 1. My family is coming to visit tomorrow so I am really trying to get healthy.

I can't believe my last day of work is next Wednesday. How did the summer go by so fast?

Here are a few pictures from Liverpool with Ogy: