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.
Mary Catherine Bedard 