Hello from Portland, Maine! We took a trip to my friend’s house for a bit of rest, relaxation… and mostly the chance to pet cats. It’s nice sometimes during your college years to just be in a home, even if its only for 48 hours, to have a reunion with fancy cheese and fireplaces. Especially since this week at Wellesley has been…well, a lot.
A quiet place to unwind, and a scene from our morning walk to the beach
I had my first thesis committee meeting Tuesday evening. It’s not the official defense or anything, but it’s a chance to introduce the professors on my panel to my topic and what I hope to accomplish for the rest of the year. It’s supposed to be informal and relaxed, but as it involved me public speaking about the renin angiotensin aldosterone system for an hour in front of six people with PhD’s/MDs, I was pretty nervous about the whole ordeal and spent a lot of time and effort preparing. I was pretty freaked out trying to talk myself through the presentation the hour before. Luckily, it all payed off…the meeting went very well. I felt in control and it was actually really exciting and rewarding to be able to talk to my professors as an equal about research. I even managed to answer a few questions! The meeting was even productive as hopefully I’ll be able to use a machine at Wellesley to make my procedure even faster. I came out of it giddy with relief, and did laundry and Netflix the rest of the night as a reward.
Wednesday I ran gels in the lab and came back to campus at 7pm. Thursday was a quick trip for primary antibody and then a hasty scramble to go to chemistry office hours. I haven’t been able to make office hours as much as I’d like this year due to spending such a large amount of time in the lab, but my chemistry professor is SUPER nice and willing to go out of her way to make sure you understand so I’m definitely going every chance I can. I’m quite frankly not doing as well in chemistry as I would like, but luckily now that my committee meeting is over I can focus on preparing for the next exam. After office hours, I did a full chem problem set, read a paper on exocysts in Physcomitrella patens, and finally ate birthday cake and lay on the floor with my friends. All and all, a good day.
I woke up Friday morning feeling like it already as the weekend, but put in a full day in class and the lab before we left for the drive up to Maine. And now I’m here, and it’s been wonderful. We walked down to the beach, had a delicious dinner in downtown Portland, and are now sitting on the couch watching the children’s classic “Flushed Away” and eating artisan popcorn. How lucky am I to share such wonderful fall days with friends.
Portland is super pretty!
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor