I’ll have to update about my research in the next post (which will be VERY exciting), but here are pictures from my Uncle’s wedding. :
I also cut my hair. Before, and after..
Pictures of the family, in Belmar and the beach:
Finally, pictures of the beach itself:
Today I went to Honfest, an annual festival that celebrates Baltimore culture. Each year, a competition to find the best ‘Hon’ draws women decked out in beehive hairdos and colorful outfits. Mary (a fellow REU student) and I walked to the event, and unfortunately got lost for a couple hours on the way back. Either way though, it was more than worth it!
I am happy to say that I did not go into lab today. Last night I enjoyed hanging out with other members of my lab, and slept in this morning. Around ten, Kat and I headed out to a farmer’s market located by the Museum of Industry. The market was small, but right next to the water and thus quite scenic.
Afterwards, we went to Sam’s Club to pick up a couple food items in bulk. My credit card is maxed out from buying my ticket to Ecuador for the fall so I didn’t really buy anything, but the trip was fun nonetheless.
The majority of my day was spent watching the USA vs England world cup game. I thought it was a great game, definitely exciting to watch, and was happy with the resulting tie. Although I had planned on going to the Honfest today (an annual Baltimore cultural festival), a nap won out. Tomorrow, however, I will have to report on my exposure to the Bawlmerese tradition!
I apologize for the gap in posts.. the weekend got rather busy. So, here is a quick summary of my first weekend in Baltimore!
Friday: After research (which I will explain later in correlation with my research this upcoming week), I came home and made dinner for Kat and I. We’ve decided to switch off nights for cooking, in order to maximize our micro-fridge space and to save time. Bow-ties and homemade tomato sauce comprised the menu. Once the cleaning was done, I sought out some of my fellow students. Our shenanigans included a trip to Cold Stone, walking around the neighborhood, scoping out a local restaurant, and hanging out in the common room. They decided to watch “The Hangover,” but it was getting late and I decided to get to bed. All in all, there’s a lot of intelligent, fun people here. I wish I had more time to get to know them, my time has really been dominated by research here and work on my thesis for Elon.
Saturday: Slept in! It’s been great getting a full night’s sleep consistently. Went in to lab around ten thirty, set up the second dimerization for both trials and then spent the afternoon working on my Elon thesis. I found an AWESOME article that is to be
published this year that has a wonderful review of the literature to date! A lot of the sources are relevant, and I tracked down a good number of them for future reading. For dinner, Uncle Al and Joanna took her sister and I out for crabs. We split a dozen Baltimore crabs and went to town, mallets and all! It was great. Afterwards we headed to Canton, where one of Joanna’s favorite bakeries is located. It was a cute neighborhood, and the deserts were yummy. My favorite was the Italian cheesecake, which differs in composition from American cheesecake.
This weekend Kat’s best friend, Steph, came to visit. Steph actually worked in my same lab last year in the same REU program! Small world, huh? It was really exciting being able to meet her. Since she was in town, the Tovar lab got together at night and hung out. While I really enjoy all the people in the lab setting, getting to see them in an informal setting was really interesting too. I can honestly say that I love my lab in both a professional and social sense. Do I really only get to be here for nine more weeks?
Sunday: Although we were up late last night, surprisingly we didn’t sleep in. Today was my first day not going into lab, and it was kinda weird. Kat and I went to downtown Baltimore in order to check out the Farmer’s market. It was definitely not what I was expecting; rather than mostly an assortment of fresh produce, about half of the stalls sported different cooked foods. Kat ended up buying some rhubarb, but otherwise we determined that it would be worth returning next week with plans to stay longer and have a meal there. There’s also another on Saturdays that we’re going to check out. Afterwards, the three of us went to the local festival. Ironically, there was much less festival sort activities than we had found at the Farmer’s Market. It took us about ten minutes to walk though. To occupy the unplanned free time, we picked up my friend Mary and went to the Towson mall for a couple hours.
Looking back, the highlight of this weekend centers around how great my lab group is, and how coincidental it is that Steph ended up staying with us. Crazy how life works out.
Today was great. Reactions sometimes take a long, long time to run, reminding me the expression “hurry up and wait,” but I’ll get the hang of it soon enough. The group goes out to lunch on Wednesdays, giving me a chance to snag some pictures of the lab! (I brought my lunch.) Make sure to pass the mouse over the pictures and read the captions!!
I had to make all these pictures big, because they’re that exciting!
Tonight I want to get a good start on my literature review for my Elon thesis, so I’m not going to write any more today. Until tomorrow!
Today was a very, very long day. The dreaded safety training did not last all day.. instead only fifteen minutes! Of course we had to do lots of paperwork, get our JHU ID’s made and other orientation type activities. It was really exciting to meet the INBT group. There are sixteen of us (the biggest group yet) that were picked from, as they informed us, over 700 applications. That’s mind-boggling. Anyways, I really enjoyed hanging out with the other students in the program. Even after just a couple hours, it seemed like we’d get to be a pretty close group. We were given the middle part of the day free, and so my roommate, Kat, and two of the boys decided to make a run to the grocery store. Believe it or not, I was lacking a few things after our grocery run via bus yesterday. We made it back in time for the program’s library talk and tour, although I did not find it helpful since I had already explored the library with some friends previously.
Once these introduction activities were over, we were let go. I wasn’t ready to call it a day (it was about three o’clock) and so wandered back to the Chemistry building and the Tovar lab. Stephen was at his desk in lab and luckily wasn’t busy. He gave me the more detailed spiel on what I’ll be doing and the background organic ideas. I really enjoyed the way he explains the material; as he said, he doesn’t just want me throwing things together according to directions, but wants me to understand what I’m doing when I mix different reagents. We spent a couple hours this way, I looked up background information and safety on common reagents/solvents and worked through the mechanisms of synthesizing peptides. What I’ll be doing, in a nutshell, is synthesizing peptides, through activation with PyBOP, coupling and deprotection with a base (and repeating), via solid phase (the molecules are attached to a bead, and later cleaved from it with strong acid). That’s more or less the first step: getting used to this process.
I really enjoyed my brief time in the lab. Stephen took me through the underground tunnels, which connect the buildings, to the stockroom to get my own lab coat and glasses. I love my lab coat! It fits wonderfully. It’s a shame the students don’t wear lab coats very often, due to the fact that the materials we are using are relatively harmless, because I don’t mind wearing mine at all!
The rest of my day pales in comparison – dinner, errands, etc. Not worth listing, so I suppose that is it… Oh, and unfortunately there are no pictures today, I had to let my camera charge back in the room. By the end of the summer I’ll have to sneak some pictures of the lab… 🙂
Tomorrow is my first FULL day in lab!!
Mary Catherine Bedard 