Busy Busy Busy

Hi all!

Sorry about the lack of updates! Pingkalai has been keeping me absolutely hopping the last two days. Yesterday I was so busy, I didn't even have time to sit down until about 4 in the afternoon. I got to work only to find that a pipe in the cold room had burst during the night and flooded the entire lab (what a mess!). Everything was sopping wet, and we spent the morning dancing around puddles and trying not to get too soggy. After we had sort of dealt with that problem (the carpets are still wet), I had to transfer two boxes of flies to new tubes, collect the antenna from a bunch of flies, do an RNA extraction, an RT-PCR and I was going to do my behavioral assays as well, but I was so tired by that point that I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So essentially, I came home and crashed after that.

Then today, I had to do a regular PCR, make and run the gel from that, design primers for 6 or 7 sets of genes, and aliquot a gazillion tubes of agarose. I still haven't quite figured out why they bother to do that. It is so much easier to just measure out the agarose as you need it. That way, you can make any percentage gel that you want. Instead, I spent more than two hours measuring out .80 grams of agarose powder and then pouring each bit into a tube. It was crazy. There was actually a really funny moment when William walked into the room, gave me this look of pure pity, said "Oh, I see what you're doing" and then turned around and walked out. It appears he has had to do that before. He knows what a pain it is. At one other point, David walked into the lab looking for paper towels (because we are running short of them after the flood from yesterday morning), looked very perplexed, asked me what I was doing, and then seemed just as baffled by it as I was. ::Shrugs:: Oh well. When in Rome, I guess.....

One problem that I may run into is that Pingkalai has a very specific way that she likes to do things and have them done. I'm used to things in my lab at home where they don't really care how you do it, as long as nothing gets contaminated and everything gets done. The other big problem is that there seems to be a battle of wills going on in the laboratory. Ute also has a very specific way that she likes to do things, and even though she isn't here right now (she's still sick) it is very obvious that Pingkalai's way and Ute's way are often very different. And seeing that I've already been mildly fussed at by both of them for something that I did that they didn't agree with, I have a feeling that I will get caught in the middle of their mild feud (i.e. if Ute sees me doing something Pingkalai's way, and she doesn't like it, then she may try to correct me, and vice versa.) So...it could get interesting. I'm just going to try to hold my ground and not let either one of them push me around too much. Or, failing that, I'll do it Pingkalai's way, since technically I'm working for her.

So...erm...what else....Oh yeah, after all of the other stuff I did today, I still had to go and do my behavioral tests, because honestly, I couldn't let it wait any longer. I was actually the last one to leave the lab today (I left at around 8:15 or 8:30). It has been a really long day because I got to the lab at 9:00 this morning. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier/not so crazy.

In other news, though, I have PLANS for the weekend! I am so excited! A few of the other kids from my program and I are all going to go to Munich this weekend. I think that the plan is to take the 4 or 5 o'clock train Friday night to Munich and then stay until Sunday. I think that we're all chipping in to get a couple of hotel rooms for all of us. I'm hoping that it will be fun, but I guess we'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!

Also, as a side note, while the weather is infinitely nicer here than at home (due to the lack of humidity) it still gets really warm sometimes, and there is no A/C in any of the buildings. This is frustrating, becacuse it means that I have a bug infestation (you know, those big mosquito looking things, and spiders) becauce I leave my window open 24/7 to keep it from getting too hot. It also makes it very difficult to sleep. And I'm afraid of swallowing spiders.

Okay, it is almost 1AM here, and I need to be up at 7:00, so I will talk to all of you later! Love you!