Lago di Garda

Apparently, I was really naive to believe that Milan is less humid than Atlanta....

In other news, last weekend I went to Lago di Garda near Verona, Italy.  The lake is absolutely gorgeous with beautiful, blue water.  It is the largest lake in Italy and a popular German vacation spot.  Four of us took the early/cheap train to Peschieria del Garda -- about 2 hours east of Milan.  A few of our friends intended to meet us in the afternoon.... too bad they took the wrong train, fell asleep, and woke up 2 hours in the opposite direction of the lake.  Instead of packing a lunch, Eurico and I got a pizza from the town and ate it on the beach.  I finally broke down and let him order pizza with a fried egg and prosciutto on top.  This type of pizza is really common in Milan and was surprisingly delicious.  On the walk back to the train, we smelled this amazing crepe place and decided to grab one to eat on the trip back which caused us to be so late that we literally sprinted across the whole town and barely caught the last train back to Milan. 

During the week, I got Aperitivo at a really cool place in city center.  The restaurant was built in the garden of a historic old building and the weather was perfect for spending the evening outside. Although aperitivo is technically appetizers, the spread is always large enough to feed an army and meals last for hours.  Italian time is definitely slower than the rest of the world's.

Tomorrow, five of us are going to Riomaggiore, one of the towns in Cinque Terre.  Although we planned to go today, the weather was bad so we didn't go.  Cinque Terre is a line of 5 towns built into the cliffs along the Mediterranean's Gulf of Genoa.  About 100 years ago, a 12k walking trail was built connecting the cities so hopefully we will be able to hike the whole thing.  

I've only been here for a few weeks, but the people I've met have really made a huge impact on my perspective.  Most of the "Erasmus" students leave this week so Milan will be very different when they're gone.

Work at UniMi has been pretty standard.  We finished the TIF extractions then I quantified the protein and did western blots for NR1 and NR2B-p.  Next week, I will finish WBs for NR2B, NR1-p, and PSD95.  Basically, this will show us if NMDA receptor density has changed postsynaptically in diabetic rats treated with progesterone, testosterone, and 3alphadiol in comparison with control rats (which are diabetic only).  Donato and I also weighted and prepared spinal cord tissue for chromatography which will determine the concentration of neuroactive steroids present in the samples.  Samples varied between 43 and 58 mg which is going to be a problem because we need about 10 mg for other tests and 40mg for chromatography.  I will update you next week with how this turns out.  Although I was expecting to have a lot more responsibility here, I arrived at a bad time for this lab.  UniMi decided to merge some of its smaller departments to improve efficiency and decrease costs.  However, during the transition, labs are not allowed to purchase ANY materials.  Although this period was only expected to last for a month, the Uni has had a hold on funding for almost 3 months now which is really frustrating for researchers.  Actually my boss phrased it very well by saying, "Italians are really good at two things: eating and overusing bureaucracy."

PS--Sorry my posts don't look as nice as everyone else's!  The internet in my dorm is REALLY censored, doesn't work 90% of the time, and has a bandwidth maximum that pretty much prevents me from doing anything.