One Sixth

Greetings Family and Friends!

I think it is high time I drop you all a line and catch you up on things here in NC. First to explain the title. I have now been here for one sixth of a year! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. It does not really seem like October. I think that is partly because the weather here is still really nice - no complaints! It is still pretty sunny and in the 70s. The leaves haven't really started to change or fall and thus it seems like late August maybe September in Portland. Only the pumpkin in our living room and the calendar on my wall remind me of the present month.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a struggle, but I think I am on the up swing now. It was a combination of stress, loneliness, and general frustration getting me down. This week was much better and I have high hopes for the future.

A little about what I have been up to...lots of studying, class, and lab work. Last weekend I had my first take home test. I had heard that these exams take the whole weekend, and I would like to confirm the hearsay. I didn't work on it 24/7, but I didn't do much else besides the exam and felt like I needed a weekend when it was over.

Lab work is going alright. We have run into some snags, but we have options to try, so hopefully we can clean up our DNA samples. By clean up I mean separate the DNA from the proteins and other "junk" mixed in the solution with it. To do this we have been using a small cellulose membrane and a variety of buffers (solutions) to get the DNA to stick to the column while all the other stuff flows through. Then we add water to elute (wash) the DNA off the column and collect it. We have done this numerous times with limited success. Our DNA either sticks too well or not well enough to the column. At most we have recovered 20%, pretty sad...'tis the story often in research. That just makes it all the more exciting when it finally works!

I feel like I am starting to get better at reading scientific journal articles and I am constantly finding connections between lecture material and my research in lab. Both these developments excite me.

Last weekend I went to the humane society across the street from my apartment complex (convenient I know!). I was headed to volunteer orientation. I decided to volunteer at the shelter to get my animal fix and to give me something fun to do. Anyway, I showed up just to find out that I had signed up to volunteer at the other shelter in North Carolina and not the one across the street. Oops! I straightened the whole thing out and signed up for orientation at the right shelter. Training is in about a month. Hopefully I will still have time when November rolls around...

This week I ventured out to the local DMV and got my North Carolina driver's license. Quite the experience. Besides jumping through the usual hoops characteristic of the DMV, I had to chain my bike to a tree because there was no bike rack and unfortunately it was not allowed in the spacious waiting room. :-/

Yesterday I went on a great trail run with some other people from my program. We saw three white-tailed deer who made a loud sneezing noise at us. These deer were much more jumpy than the ones around my apartment complex (shown in the pictures).

Tomorrow I am going to watch the UNC v. Notre Dame football game! I entered the ticket lottery and managed to secure a ticket. I am going to cheer on UNC with my housemate who graduated from Notre Dame. I should be an exciting game because both teams are 4:1.

I will leave you with this lovely photo of an unwanted house guest discovered in our apartment one evening - a cockroach! My housemate put it under a glass and put a large textbook on top. Unfortunately the cooler temperatures have brought these critters into our humble home. We had quite the adrenaline rush later that same week trying to squish one at 12:30am. We resorted to vacuuming it up when it refused to die!

As always, thank you all for the emails! They are much appreciated!

Happy Autumn!!

Sarah