When It Rains...It Pours!!

I am a very literal person. My title is not philosophical or anything, it is quite literal. I have spent the last half hour or so looking out my window watching the thunderstorm that just came by! I took a few pics from my window.





The rain storms here are seriously not a thing like the storms back home in Utah. It never just sprinkles. It is either not raining, or it is POURING. And when I say pouring, I mean, pouring harder than I have ever seen in my entire lifetime! That is really not an exaggeration either. It's crazy! I'm so glad that I brought an umbrella. Luckily, I haven't been caught outside in one (yet).

Another valuable lesson that I learned tonight is that everyone does their laundry at this hour (it's now 9pm on Tuesday, I've been attempting to do laundry since 8). Every washer in the building is occupied. I have to do laundry tonight, or else I won't have any clothes to wear tomorrow. I knew I should have brought more clothes with me... Regardless. Every other time when I've done laundry, which has been on Saturday mornings, most of the washers have been open. You think that it would be the other way around. But it's not. Oh well. Whatever.

I have so much more to write about, but I also have an immunobiology book that I need to read. So, I will write more in this later. I mostly just wanted to share my thunderstorm pics.

Indian Food is Still My Favorite

One month ago today, I caught a flight from Salt Lake City to Baltimore and began my journey here for the summer. It's crazy to think that all this has happened in the last month! It actually feels like it's been A LOT longer than a month in some ways. I feel like I know some members of the ward so well, and that the memories that I share with some of them are already so priceless. The number of times I've been to work feels like a lot more than a months worth, and I feel like I know the people there so well also. My bedroom here has definitely become my own little home. It feels like an eternity since I've seen my dog Buster, or my cute little nephew and cousins. It also feels like an eternity since I've slept in a real bed. Also, I'm pretty sure that this is the longest time that I've gone without seeing anyone in my family. Even though I've technically been moved out for two years, living an hour away from home, you never go a whole month without seeing family. On the other hand though, the time has gone by SO fast!! Come next week, my summer will be half way over. Not my time in Baltimore, but my summer break for school. My time in Baltimore is just over one third of the way done. When I think of it that way, time is for sure going by faster than I would like it to be.

At my apartment towers, there is a front desk past the front doors that guests have to check in at before the second set of doors. There's a guy named Kevin that works there in the afternoon/evenings during the week. He by far one of the coolest and nicest guys that I know. If he's not busy when I get home, I stop by and talk to him for a while. He is actually an R&B artist. He just signed a record contract and released a CD. It's pretty legit. He's had all these CD premier events, and he's shooting his music videos in a couple weeks. He invited me to come down to the shooting of them to watch! I bought a copy of his CD from him the other night, and it's actually really good. He says that he's going to be a really big artist, and I fully believe him. I'm seriously not just saying that because I know him and everything, but I think that he'll make it big really soon. Like, real big. He has the connections to do it, too. His music will be on iTunes soon. Kevin Phillips. Look for it.

Today I didn't have any plans when I woke up. I thought that was lame. There was no way on earth that I was going to allow myself to spend anymore Saturdays in Baltimore doing nothing like I did a couple weeks ago. I mean, that is seriously lame. I knew that I lived around a lot of Indian restaurants, so I went to one that was close that I heard that was the best. I was about a 10 min walk away. I even passed two other Indian restaurants on the same street on the way there! The place I went was called Kumari. They had a lunch buffet. The only Indian food (besides homemade) that I have ever had was at Indian Oven in Logan, and at the Festival of Colors. Indian Oven is my favorite restaurant. Kumari was a million times better, and for those of you who know me well, that's seriously saying something! The food was sooo good!! My former favorite dish, Chicken Tiki Masala, was totally shown up as well, but it was actually one of my least favorites at Kumari. I don't even remember what my favorite dish there was called. I should have paid better attention to the names of the dishes. Looks like I'll just have to go again so that I can see what everything is called :) It was all so good though.

I left Kumari with the plan to walk down to Inner Harbor, but I was too full of delicious food to walk anywhere. It would have taken me about 15 or 20 min. to walk down there, but I just caught the free Circulator bus instead. I got off near Inner Harbor and went to The Gallery. The Gallery is the mall at the Inner Harbor. I bought a shirt to add to my limited summer wardrobe. I think I'll wear it on my birthday next week :) I think it was pretty obvious from my last blog post that I've been pretty homesick this last week. Getting out today though (eating Indian food, and mindlessly window-shopping) I was able to relieve all my stresses somehow. I'm not sure what's different. I feel better though.

Anyway, I then went to a couple other stores along the harbor. I went and explored the Power Plant, and went in the Barnes and Noble in there. It's not like any other Barnes and Noble I have ever been in! Darren would really like it.

I got a call from my friend Heather inviting me to dinner at her place about 45 min before she wanted me to be there. Heather lives in the building next to me. So I decided to head home because it would take me a little while to walk back from the harbor. Heather's Dad made hamburgers for dinner. He was really nice and had a lot of cool stories.

I suppose the summary of this is that I'm glad I made an adventure out of today. Indian food is amazing. I should have been born Indian. People in Baltimore are crazy. It's fun to people watch. People on buses are weird. You never know who will sit next to you. Days with beautiful sunshine are the best! And, friends are fabulous :)

"A Thousand Hugs From Ten Thousand Lightning Bugs"

I keep forgetting to write about one of the most epic things EVER: there are LIGHTNING BUGS here!! I saw my first one last Monday night with people from the ward as we were leaving from FHE. I was sooo excited!! People didn't believe me when I said that I had never seen one before. I really hadn't, and I was jumping for joy at the sight of a glowing bug! I just think that they're so pretty! I notice them all the time now, and I still get just as excited. I never get to see lightning bugs in downtown, but when I'm at the church at night, or outside someone else's house, I sometimes get to see them.

I also forgot to add in a very...cultural experience about the trip to the beach. On our drive home, right after we arrived back in Baltimore city, we were driving up Charles Street toward Homewood to take Sam and Tori home, and guess what we ran into...a gay rights rally. The whole street was blocked off (Charles street is a major street in Baltimore, too)! All sorts of people were roaming the street, doing all sorts of things. It's a gay rights rally. In Baltimore. It's gonna be just a little weird. I can't even put into words the crazy things that I saw. People didn't have signs, and they weren't chanting or anything, it seemed more like a festival kind of, just without all the booths and such. If I would have gotten out of the car, I would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Now that I've caught up on what I forgot to write about... :)

Sundays here are really boring. Okay, they're not terrible, just...boring. Relatively speaking that is. When I was in Utah, in Logan, I would always have somewhere to be on Sundays: someones apt., or something at church. At home, there was always family to be with. Here in Baltimore, Sunday schedule is like this: church is from 10 to 1. Choir practice is after church and usually goes until 1:45 or 2. I usually get home around 2:15 or 2:30. At that point I literally have nothing to do. I mean, I have random things to do. Hence, the reason there are usually blog posts on Sundays. And long naps on Sundays. I think my point is that if anyone wants to call me on Sunday, I won't ever complain :) jk.

I really don't want this to be a sad blog post, but I just have to post about what's been happening. So I'll just be honest. I've missed home a lot the last few days, and for a couple days, I really wanted to go home. Days at work seemed awful, and I was just too tired of everything. By everything I mean the unfamiliarities, the loneliness, and the commotion of living in a city that I could never escape if I wanted. All my life, I have been able to escape to my own "place". A place where no one else was. Somewhere where no one else could be. A place where the rest of the world was silent to you for just an instant. Growing up, I was literally surrounded by those places. My whole yard and neighborhood would be a place like that. In Logan, it was easily found at place on campus, a bike ride down the hill, or it was just a two minute drive up the canyon. In Baltimore, those places don't exist. Literally. I think that's why a part of me is starting to not feel at home. It is a very rare moment for me to ever have silence here. Even in my bedroom, when I listen, I hear the commotion of the street below. I constantly hear sirens going by. Sometimes every 10 min or so. I notice them less frequently now. The only thing that keeps me going is when I tell myself that it's only for a summer, and that it's like a summer adventure of sorts. Then I grin to myself, and remember how much fun I'm really having, and then it doesn't seem too bad. It is really hard to live this far from home though. I miss everyone a lot. I had a dream the other night that Darren came to live with me in Baltimore for a month. He was too disappointed with the bus system here to be completely happy with his stay, but he found a good noodle restaurant that made him satisfied. Haha!

Last night the Relief Society had an activity. We had a swimming party, and learned how to cook vegetables on the grill. It was at a girl named Emily's house, who lives outside of Baltimore, about 45 min. away from where I live. There were about 10 or 12 people who showed up, so there was a relatively good turn out. Only three of us got in the pool to swim though, and you better bet that I was one of them! The veggies we grilled were super delicious too. Surprisingly, my favorite thing we grilled were some onions and tomatoes that we placed in foil with nothing but basil and salt and pepper on them. While we were swimming, I got to see some more lighting bugs! They explained the difference between lightning bugs and fireflies. Fireflies stay lit longer. So what I watched were for sure lightning bugs.

Tomorrow Dr. Torrey is doing the Schizophrenia lecture for the Stanley group. It should be really good. I'm excited!

A Trip to the Beach!

For as long as I can remember, I have been able to say that I have been to the ocean. I have been to the Pacific Ocean numerous times, in every Western state. Now, I am LIVING on the east coast, and until yesterday, I hadn't ever touched the Atlantic Ocean.

Sam, the guy from my lab in Utah, and I decided earlier this week at work that we would go to the beach on Saturday since we had no other plans. Tori (Sam's wife), Sam, and I all really wanted to go. We figured that we could take a bus there somehow, and Sam said that I should invite one of my friends and we would go. Well...I asked Jessie if she wanted to come with us, and she has a car. Therefore, the bus idea was scratched, and Jessie drove us there instead.

We went to Delaware to a beach that was really close to Rehoboth Beach. It was about a two and a half hour drive from Baltimore. On the way there, we took a route that had a lot of tolls, which cost us $13 total. We avoided that way home. We left super early in the morning (Jessie picked me up at 6:30...) to avoid traffic. We got to the beach around 9:30. All I wanted to do was to be able to say that I touched the ocean, and then I was good doing whatever for the rest of the day :) I ran and touched it, and then set down my things.

Everyone lathered on the sunscreen. It was forecast to be a bright, sunny day. I put sunscreen everywhere. Except my legs. I thought they could use the sun. Please no one ask my logic in that. I've got nothing.

We went out to the water. Out in the distance, we could see dolphins jumping! It was so much fun!! The water seemed cold at first, but really it was so much warmer than west coast oceans. We all got used to it quickly. The waves all also much different than on the West Coast. They break right on the shore (as you can see in one of my photos below). You literally get smacked right in the face with them. It's fun, but it sometimes knocks you out. The girls would usually go past the break point where the waves were more gentle, while Sam would play in the break point. Once there was an exceedingly large wave that broke early that got all the girls, and washed us all to shore. We were washed under with the wave for at least five seconds. I'm not going to lie, it really freaked me out. But it was fun! Sam thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Later, we sat out in the sun, and enjoyed the great weather. It was a very beautiful day. You know those relaxation techniques where they tell you to imagine your happy place? And to try to imagine your surroundings? The smells, the sounds, the temperatures, etc.? Well, as I was laying there, I felt like I was in my relaxed happy place. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

We stayed at the beach until around 3 I think. We then all went to get ice cream at a place called Friendly's that Jessie recommended. It was so delicious!

While we were eating ice cream, is when we all realized how sun burned we all were. My trusty SPF 50 worked very well. Especially on my face, where it was applied four times. But my legs were lobster red. They were emitting heat like nothing else. Everyone else put on sunscreen too, but they were all slightly burned as well. Especially poor Sam. And he put on lots of sunscreen. I guess we stayed at the beach too long, and it was too great of a day!

Driving home, the sunburn got worse. More hot, more red, and more painful. It was my own fault. I bought some aloe vera when I got home. It's a good thing the grocery store isn't closed yet. The bottle is now 1/3 gone. Currently the sunburn is actually almost better. I heal pretty fast. The rest of me is okay, it was just my legs.

Despite the nasty burn...the beach was AWESOME. SUCH a great day! I'm so glad that I have such great friends here that are willing to go spend a Saturday with me going to the beach. I'm happy that I can cross something else off my bucket list now, too!

Happy Hour

Today, I experienced my first Happy Hour. And I'm not talking Sonic Drive-In half-price slushies Happy Hour here. Okay...no need to be alarmed. Today at work, the Psychiatry division had Happy Hour, and drinks were provided, yes, along with lots of food. A lot of people were drinking. Some people were getting totally drunk, some were doing it just for the image (the social drinking I suppose. I don't quite understand that), some wouldn't drink because they had more work to get back to, and a select few (myself included) didn't because they choose to not drink. Everyone brought really good food for this Happy Hour as well. There are a lot of Asians that work in my division, so there was a lot of funky Asian food that I got to try. There was this black stuff that I thought looked like shriveled up olives, but they told me it was mushrooms and that it was really good for me and that it would clear up all my excess lipids. Well. I didn't have the heart to tell them that the mushroom wouldn't have the ability to even clear up the amount of oils (lipids) it was drenched in. I love the Asians. Anyway. I ate cool foods while everyone else got wasted. It was great. Well, John and Jun sat by me and they didn't drink today either, so we were able to carry on good conversation without having me feel too out of place.

The store right downstairs of my apartment building is CLOSING! Gah! What am I to do!? Here is what I have heard: the store is going to close the end of next week. Although that actual store did well, the overall chain fell out of business. A couple weeks after they close, it will reopen, and I've HEARD that it's going to be some sort of organic food store or something. Which I don't know yet if that will be good or not. It could be totally awesome and healthy and stuff, or it could be completely lame, hippie, and expensive. Or any combination of the previous descriptions. I guess we'll just have to find out. Right now they're starting to have sales on some of their items, so for the next week, I might have to stock up on some cheap discounted groceries!

If I could choose only one type of weather to live in for the rest of my life, it would be the weather that we have had here for the last week. When I first got here, I thought that the weather was awful. I think though, that it was because I came right when the weather was suddenly like 100 degrees and the humidity combined with it made it feel like it was 120 out. Well, now I think the weather is wonderful. Everyday as I leave work and head to the shuttle, I tell John how great I think the weather is (true story). I've probably just acclimated to it compared to when I first got here. It will still got hotter in the end of July/August, so hopefully that won't be miserable.

I learned why everyone in Baltimore has cats. When I was looking for apartments before I moved here, I noticed that a lot of apartment ads stated that they had cats living there. I'm allergic to cats, so this posed a problem for me. I thought that everyone out here would just be cat freaks or something. I brought this up at work the other day, and John and Geetha informed me that the reason that everyone has cats is to keep the rats away. The famous line in the song "Good Morning Baltimore" that says "the rats on the street..." well, it's TRUE. Not in the Mount Vernon area where I live, but in most areas of Baltimore, esp. where all the undergrads live in Charles Village, it is totally true. John told me that the rats are bigger than the cats. Geetha said that if people don't have cats, then they are asked to put out food for the wild cats in the area. I'm so glad that I don't have to worry about all of that. And the whole trash issue too. All of my trash I put down a garbage chute. I kind of want to see a Baltimore street rat someday just to say that I saw one...but really...I never want to see one.

People (mainly at church) frequently like to test me to see if I have a Utah accent. They ask me to say the words "mountain" and "Kaysville" a lot. Uncle Jim would be disappointed to know that I always fail at the "mountain" part (I KNOW how I'm supposed to say it, but I'm not going to change how I say it for them just that once), but I never say "Kaysville" weird. But I've never heard it said weird. It's like..."kays-vull" or something is what they're seeing if I say. Overall they say I talk normal. But who's to say what's "normal"?

Earlier this week at work I learned how to work a fax machine! I think my boss was shocked when I told him that I didn't know how to do it, but seriously, I don't think that 80% of the people my age know how to work fax machines. Just saying. Anyway, so my boss, went through a detailed explanation to me of how to use the machine. Including detailed sound effects. All with his Russian accent. It was highly amusing. Following this brief training, I successfully faxed my first document.

As part of the Stanley Summer Scholars program, I have the opportunity every week to do Schizophrenia rounds. Every Thursday, my group of summer interns, med school/grad students, and some doctors come listen to this doctor interview a patient that has Schizophrenia. These patients are usually severe cases who have come to JHH as a last resort, and are in need of desperate help. The nurse goes over with the doctor the patients entire medical history, which usually takes about 20 min to discuss and is pretty intense. The patient comes in, and the doctor will ask them questions. It really is interesting to see how people with Schizophrenia interact with the doctor, and how they answer the questions. Each case is so different, too. As students, we can also ask the patient questions if we'd like at the very end. After the patient leaves, the doctor discusses with the other doctors/students the different treatment options.

The Stanley Scholars group is focused on Schizophrenia research. When you're sitting in a lab all day, it's easy to forget what you're actually doing the research FOR. I'm glad that we're given the opportunity to see Schizophrenia patients, at their worst even, so that we know what we're trying to accomplish in the long run. Granted, the solution is a long ways away, but it keeps the big picture in mind. Not a lot of people even know what Schizophrenia is. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the people reading this post only have a very vague idea of what it is. "A Beautiful Mind" IS a good source, sure, but there is SOO much more than just that! Study up on it. Everyone can learn more. I have a book on Schizophrenia by Dr. Fuller Torrey. It's like 500 pages. I have to have it read by next week. So while I read that, you can read a wikipedia article or something. Anyway. Back to my point. My point being that I love going to see the patients! I just want to go up to each one of them after and hug them and let them know that everything will be okay! Even if it's not while they're on Earth. They'd definitely freak out at me if I were to do this, but my heart just gets so softened by each and every one of them. It for sure motivates to work hard when I get back to the lab bench and hope that maybe the next little mouse I work with will help get me one step closer to making the lives better for those with Schizophrenia.

FHE!

Today was my first FHE (family home evening) out in Baltimore. Unlike wards in Logan, in Baltimore we don't do FHE every Monday. It's like twice a month I hear. Tonight was the night. I was originally going to go with Jessie, but then she texted me earlier in the day and let me know that she had to stay later at her lab and wouldn't be able to take me. I considered not going for a bit, but then I thought "no. I'm going to go tonight! I'll find someone to ask. I won't be ashamed to ask someone for a ride." Oh, and FHE was at a bishopric member's home, so I couldn't just take a bus. Well, yesterday, I met my one of my visiting teachers. Her name is Sam. Let me tell you, the visiting teaching program is truly inspired. She was definitely meant to be my visiting teacher. I asked her for a ride, and not only did she offer to give me one, but I got to spend the whole evening with her as well.

I got off work early (since I worked so many hours last week, I got to leave an hour early today. Which was much appreciated). Sam came and picked me up. She works not too far from my place, and she got me right after work, so around 5 and took me over to her house. Her roommate has a dog! It's the second cutest little dog EVER! The first cutest of course being my dog Buster at home. This dog definitely made me miss Buster A LOT, and it was really fun to play with him, hold him, and just be around him. Sam and I decided to get pizza for dinner. We ordered Domino's. We went to pick up the pizza (they we close to where she lived, yet the refused to deliver to her house for some reason). The place had multiple doors, and bullet proof glass, and then locks on their register. Not your Utah Domino's. The pizza was delicious though.

We took it back the pizza her place and watched some old classic episodes of Third Rock From the Sun. With the dog in between us. It felt like home almost :) Following the show, we got to take the dog on a walk. Going on a walk in Baltimore was like this: first a lady stopped us a gave us a discount prescription card. Then we found a Batman figure laying on the ground. Then some little girls came up to talk to us. Their accents were so heavy I could hardly understand them, but I complimented the new braids one of the girls had, and then she got really happy. We then went back home and left for FHE.

FHE with the ward had like...8 people there. It was a pretty nice house nestled back in some trees in a town outside out Baltimore. We had a nice lesson and socialized and had treats after. After FHE, Sam and Emily even got to argue over who would take me home. I love when that happens :) The best part is that I'm totally out of the way of both of them, and downtown traffic isn't very friendly. But they're willing to do it. Like I said, this ward is seriously amazing. Emily ended up driving me home, and it was a lot of fun to talk with her.

I love Baltimore, and I love my ward! The people here are seriously so great. I still miss everyone from home A LOT though, and I think about them all the time. The summer is starting to roll by fast though, so I just need to embrace it while it lasts!

I'm Still the New Fish

Today I was thinking about how I felt as if things were beginning to become somewhat boring and I had a slight fear that I would run out of (interesting) things to blog about. Then I thought harder. Then I realized something. All that has happened is that I have become used to living here, and it's like nothing is weird to me anymore. It's just like a fish that is placed a new tank. At first, it might think the water is a bit cold (or in my case, hot), and the surroundings, and the other fish are a bit different. But once that fish swims around a bit, it eventually forgets what was so different about everything in the first place. That's exactly how I feel right now. Granted, I'm still the new fishy, and will be all summer, but that's okay. I just need to keep the blog interesting and I want to keep an out-of-tank perspective for the blog. Anyway, I'll be done with this fish analogy. It's tacky.

On Friday at the lab, John and I ended up staying WAY late. We were working on some experiments, and we were just so wrapped up in what we were doing that we stayed there until after 6. It felt so good to go home that day. I guess it wasn't terribly late, but it was a Friday, and we had lost track of time (it happens with research...). On Fridays in our lab, each person has a one-on-on meeting with our PI (principal investigator, aka the head of the lab, my boss, etc.). John and I had this meeting together. I really, really like my PI. He is very personal with everyone in the lab, and he cares about each person and the research they are doing. He is really nice too. I didn't know that I would be working under him until I came out here and met him on my first day. Anyway, this meeting that John and I had with him went well. He was pleased with what we did our first full week.

Yesterday (Saturday), there was a baptism in my ward. I went to it with a couple other girls that live downtown near me. An hour or so after the baptism there was a ward activity. There were 8 people at this ward activity. Like I said, it's a small ward. We played some minute to win it games. It was a total blast! My partner was a girl named Kaitlyn. She's from Baltimore and is home for the summer. She went to school at BYU. The ward members here are a lot of fun. I'm also pretty sure that I won't have to ride the bus at all anymore to get to anything church related. Which is super fabulous. I half expected that to happen, but I wasn't sure if anyone would actually live near me.

Jessie, the girl that drives me to church, also is a frequent shopper at Wal-Mart. She took me last night to Wal-Mart with her. I seriously don't think she understands how much I appreciate her being willing to take me! My only access to groceries is the store by my apartment, and it tends to be slightly more expensive. It works, but it's expensive. I ended up purchasing a mattress pad last night also. You see, I sleep on an air mattress, and it sucks when it gets hot at night and there is no ventilation between you and the mattress. Just thought I'd add that in. But hopefully things will be good now. And I bought groceries. It wasn't cheap. I eat nothing but cereal every morning, and a box of it costs me like $6. Baltimore sucks for that one reason. Anyway...I got my groceries. And Jessie had a car for me to take them home in. Oh. And...Jessie has a copy of the books that I really want to read this summer. Coincidence that I met her (for all of these reasons)? Definitely not.

The weather has been better. It's not so killer hot anymore. As in, it's no longer a heat index of 120. I'm not sure what the weather is...but it's not awful. It is a lot more humid now though than it was when I got here (which is saying something). I just looked it up and I guess the current weather says "feels like 89". So there you go mom. You can totally come out here.

If anyone has any slight interest, the ward blog is at http://baltouniversityward.blogspot.com/ there are some pictures there. I'm in like...3. haha. so not many. But maybe you can see a bit what the ward is like I suppose.

I Finally Added Photos!

Hey Everyone! I FINALLY added photos of everything now that I've had time since having my laptop back. There's not a ton, but it sure feels like it because they took forever to upload on blogger. If you have facebook, there's nothing different I just added them to the blog so that those without facebook (aka almost my whole family) can see them too :)

This "Little World" I Live In

Megan thinks I should be a writer. I don't agree one bit. I actually have recieved multiple compliments on my writing style in my blog, but honestly I really feel like it's only said to make me feel good. So, thanks everyone, you flatter me. I simply write how I talk in my head. I don't know how else to write, so therefore, I will continue to write how I have been doing so. I've been quoted five times now, and I've only been blogging for like two weeks. I suppose that's a good thing?

I haven't posted in a few days because what I have been dying to blog about, I can't. Let me explain. Generally, I tend to be a very (very) talkative, blunt, say-everything-that's-on-my-mind sort of person. I mean, I always keep it within reason. At work, I mentioned that I was keeping a blog. My supervisor overheard this, and she let me know that it would not be a wise idea to blog about what goes on in the lab. Ask me (in person, or on the phone) and I can tell you details why. Honestly, I'll share anything, with anyone that I know, I just can't post it :) What I do post though, will be general information. I'll still add in everything I do, I just can't add in details that might put our protocol in danger. Like I said though, let me know if you want details on anything, and I'll gladly share them with you in person!

So far, work this week has been a blast. I love it! I love everyone that I work with. I couldn't have asked for a better lab to work in. John and I got to perfuse mice on our own on Monday. We were successful! All three mice were successfully perfused, and we pretty much did them all by ourselves! It was hard for me because it was my first time learning how to handle the mice, and I'm still not very good at it, but Bagrat (one of the post-docs in the lab) helped us and showed us some techniques that helped a lot. We got three good looking brains at the end of the day, and by the end of this week, they will be ready for cutting.

When I first started working in the lab, no one knew who I was, but I quickly got to know them. Working in a lab environment can sometimes be a bit lonely (it's like, you're always in your own bubble concentrating on your own research project in your own corner of the lab), and people in labs tend to be a little awkward (as stereotypical as it may be, it's generally true. I guess I'm one of them though...). Given those circumstances, one of my favorite things to do is to make everyone happy! I don't know why, but it's not a common thing in Baltimore to give compliments, so everyday I try to compliment everyone in the lab. It's like my little secret. And it works. Everyone loves me! And I'm not saying that in a selfish way either. I think it's a joy to create a happy work environment. I know this all sounds tacky, but I seriously just love each day going to the lab and seeing everyone smile!

One of the girls that I used to work with back in Logan, Anna, really likes to analyze personalities. She has told me multiple times before that I have the type of personality that people are easily attracted to, and become close to quickly, and also, really like to tease. Well, I have found that the teasing part is true. Everyone in the lab likes to tease me. It's not like a mean tease. And it doesn't help that I'm an innocent, young girl from Utah either. But I guess that makes it all the better. My desk space is back by this Japanese guy's desk, Jun, and he and I like to talk. He plays cool music all the time. He jokes with me a lot.

To the title of this post: this "little world" that I live in. Megan and I were talking about this briefly today. Before I started work, it felt like I was on vacation. Almost everything I was doing felt like a vacation: going site seeing all day, new bed, still buying random things from the store, etc. I didn't know what I was doing. I knew that this was "home", but it wasn't really real-life yet. Then I started work. I've never worked full time before. Even last summer, I would work at the lab for about 6 hours every morning, and then K-mart 6 hours in the evening. That equates to full-time (or more) I suppose, but I still feel like this is different. Let me explain why. Every morning, I wake up, get ready in the place I happen to call home. And then I walk out into this world. It's a crazy world. A downtown city. Everyone is wrapped up in their own world. All I can focus on is getting around traffic and other people. I can't look at anything else around me, or take my time. There is no time in a city.

I get to the shuttle stop. At Hopkins shuttle stops, everyone just stands there, in silence, looking at whatever is right in front of them. Whatever screen it is that is so interesting to look at straight ahead, I sure want one to look at. Yesterday, and the day before, I actually talked to this guy that just graduated from Hopkins in Biomedical Engineering (which is almost identical to my major-Biological Engineering). The guy reminded me exactly of Cole, who trained me in the lab I work at in Logan. The shuttles in the morning are crazy busy. Sometimes you can get on one right as you get to the stop, like I did this morning, but some mornings, you have to wait a good 20 min. in the blazing Baltimore sunshine for a shuttle to come. Correction, a shuttle with enough space for you to get on to come. The stop I get on at is the last stop before the hospital, so most of the shuttles are JAM packed (they're highly uncomfortable to be in). Every 20 min though, a shuttle will come by that is totally empty for just the stop I'm at.

After a 10 ish min ride to the hospital, I get off the shuttle and off to my crazy little world. The JHU hospital is nothing like hospitals in Utah. I can't really explain what's different. It's just so...old and dirty. The hospital is sanitary, but the outside is disgusting, and all of the commotion is just a totally different world that I can't even put into words. It's nothing like I have ever seen before. As I go to the lab, it's even like a different world than the rest of the hospital. Even though I work in the hospital building, it's a laboratory environment that I work in, just like the lab I work at in Logan. I work in the laboratory world all day.

I come home from this world, much like how I got to work. Except when I come home, it's much warmer. In fact, today was really hot. The high today was 99 degrees. According to the weather, it "felt like" 115 degrees. The high tomorrow is 102 and it's supposed to feel like about 120. Super fabulous. I'm stoked. Anyway. I come home. I usually do something (I go swimming, take a nap, work out...etc.), then I eat dinner, and then I usually spend the rest of my evening with some form of communication. That includes talking on the phone, blogging, facebooking, etc. This is all of course if I don't have any other plans (aka institute. I've never had any other evening plans after work). Then I go to bed. In my little apartment that I call home.

I continue this cycle everyday. It's so weird to me because Baltimore is such a peculiar place. This is perhaps what Megan and I were trying to describe to one another. It's this "little world" that we live in, and we just do it. I never felt this way anywhere but here. Baltimore is strange. I love it.

I Hope I Have Unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes...

I suppose this weekend has been a good one. I went into it not knowing what I was going to do at all, so it didn't turn into much. On Saturday, I had what I consider an eventful experience. I figured out how to do laundry here. You think that would easy, right? Oh... well... It wasn't as easy as it sounds. The laundry facilities are downstairs, and you have to have $5 exact cash in order to get a laundry card to load money onto. Once you have that card, you have to have either $10 or $20 exact cash to load onto the card in order to pay for use of the machines. I started out the venture with some $1's, a $10, and $20. I decided to not use my brain (it was Saturday morning, give me a break). Long story short, I ended up having to go get change from the store on the corner twice after using the elevator and going down to the laundry room and back up to my place in between every trip. It was definitely a hassle. But I figured it out. Good news though is that the machines are large enough that I can literally fit all the clothes that I brought to Baltimore into one load, so laundry can never cost me much. I will have to do it every week though.

Megan and I decided that we wanted to go find somewhere green. There's not much green in the city. We went to a park that was near the Baltimore zoo. It was really pretty there. It was nice to get some fresh air! While we were walking around, we came upon a botanical garden. It was super neat because they had all different kinds of plants from all over the world. It smelled really good in there. We looked on Megan's GPS and saw that the nearest Metro station was actually a different one than the one we had gotten off at, so we started walking to it. Well. We had to walk through a blue light district to get there. A blue light district, in Baltimore, means it's an ultra high crime rate area. I was freaked out the whole time. No worries though. It was day time, and we didn't have to walk far. But it was still scary.















I rode the bus to church again today, but luckily I don't think I'll have to do that anymore. I met a girl at church today that lives near me that said that she can give me a ride from now on! I'm so happy!!

After a nice long Sunday afternoon nap, I got to talk on the phone for a while with some friends and some family tonight. I ended up talking for a total of about two and a half hours...hence my title to this post. It was soo great to talk to people that I know and love. I miss them all so much! I love it here, but it's hard to know I'm so far away from my family. I know that I am where I'm supposed to be though :)

Mouse Perfusions

WARNING: This post may contain content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Do not read if you tend to have a sensitive stomach, become faint at the thought of blood, or have a love for mice.

Today work was definitely interesting. The goal of the day was to perfuse mice for later experiments. Basically what it means to perfuse a mouse is to knock it out with ether (not kill it, the heart has to still be pumping) pin it down, cut it open, and insert a tube into it's heart. All of the blood will then be pumped out, and then replaced with various clearing solutions. Once all the blood is removed from the mouse, it will eventually die, and we are able to use its organs (namely the brain, liver, spleen, intestine, and heart) without all of its blood.

So, with this in mind as the goal for the day...we got there this morning and prepared by making some different solutions and labeling and organizing tubes for the procedure.

After lunch, we finally got to do the actual perfusion. John and I didn't get to actually DO any of it today, we just had to take lots of detailed notes on the procedure so that we could do it next week on all of the extra mice. We had to wear face masks while we were doing the lab work so that we wouldn't contaminate the organs we were trying to preserve, which turned out to be a good thing in my case otherwise everyone else in the lab would have been laughing the entire time at my facial expressions.

The procedures are absolutely cruel. We literally suffocate the mice! They are sitting there, as innocent as they are, trying to play in the beaker until they pretty much fall over because they can't comprehend life anymore. Then, they're gasping for air the whole time (you can see it in their little bellies while you pin their hands down to the board). Layer by layer, their skin is cut off, until the organs are exposed, and then the protrude because the poor little mouse is trying so hard to get oxygen and be set free. Then we grab his heart, stick a needle in it, snip off another end, and watch the blood slowly run out, and slowly see the liver change to a ligher color.

After about 5 minutes of pumping the blood out, the mouse is totally dead. I still can't decide if I think this method of death is ethical or not. Everyone in the lab says "it's science" or "it's a lab mouse" or "he was bred for this". But I don't care. It's still hard to take. But I just get over it anyway. There's not much else I can do. I don't say much to anyone, it's mostly just all in my head anyway.

After the mouse is dead, we snip out all of the organs that we need. To get the brain, we cut off the head, remove the fur/skin, cut between the eyes, cut the skull from the sides, peel back the skull and remove the brain with tweezers. If it's completely white, then that means that the perfusing was done completely well. If there's still any pinkish color in the brain, then that indicates that there is still blood in the system (which isn't a huge deal, it's just a way to measure our success).

Anyway, sorry if that was too graphic for anyone.

John and I then got to practice brain cutting on our own. By brain cutting, I mean brains from mice, and they're being cut into slices (think meat in a deli). We have to use lots of dry ice, and different freezing/adhearing substances to get the brain to stick to the cutting block, and then we slice the brain in extremely thin slices (we're talkin in terms of nm here, so a brain about the size of a large lima bean we can get approx. 70 slices). John and I aren't very good at it yet. We didn't have too many good cuts. But, that's why we practice. We have about 20 brains to practice on, and if we need more, then we'll have to perfuse some more mice next week.

Baltimore YSA Institute

Last night, I decided that I would go out and go to the church for the institute lesson that the ward had planned. Every Thursday night the ward has institute. Following my last blog post, I literally ran down the street to the bus stop. I saw someone there who looked familiar. I hesitated, but then I asked if he was in the ward too, and he was! His name was Joseph, and he was going to institute too! He said that he normally doesn't come to this stop and that he was following a different schedule, so I won't normally see him, but it was good to know that I was in the right place and going the right way. It was also good to have someone to talk too. The bus came 10 min late, and it took like 35 or 40 min to get to the church building. We got there about 5 min late, but they hadn't started yet, so we were fine. It was a really good lesson, and it was a lot of fun to talk after.

I got my computer back!! Page fixed my laptop. It had a NASTY virus apparently. He worked on it for hours and hour and hours, but he finally got it fixed. I owe him biiiiig time. Page is a guy that I met in my ward. So, now I'm using my lap top to write this post (finally!) instead of the computers downstairs. Later tonight I'll probably get more organized and do some photos.

I'm so glad that I have such a great ward out here! It's so different to live outside of the "Utah bubble", and things like institute that are so easy to take for granted at home, I now realize are truly a blessing to have.

First Days at the New Job

Yesterday I started my new job at the lab I will be working in for the summer. The last couple of days have been super overwhelming, and I still can't get my mind to relax. If this post doesn't make any sense, it's because I'm completely brain dead.

I work at Johns Hopkins Hospital, which is separate from the main campus of JHU. I can walk down my street a few blocks and catch a shuttle to work in the morning that will take me to the hospital for free. On my first day, I went up an office in the division where I will be working where they told me to go to get started. Ann, the lady I met there, gave me a bunch of neat things (lab notebook, some folders, office supplies, etc.), and a ton of paperwork to fill out. I was then also introduced to the other student that would also be working with me this summer, John. John is way cool. He is so nice, and I really couldn't have asked for a better person to get to work with. And, he's familiar with the lab, and the area (he's a Hopkins student), so he's been able to answer a lot of my questions.

John and I will be working with Geetha. John took me down to the lab after I was done meeting with Ann, where I then got to meet Geetha, and have a look around the lab. It didn't last long, because we then had to go to a meeting with the whole Stanly group (where I have my internship from) where we had a lovely introductory meeting. Sam was there, as well as all of the folks that I got to meet back in February in SLC from JHU, so it was nice to see some familiar faces.

Following this meeting, John and I went to have lunch. We went down to the cafeteria. It was crazy there!! It was really small for the amount of people they had there, and it was just so crowded, and everyone was just so busy! It definitely gave me the incentive to pack my lunch today. It was a good time though.

We then got to go to a meeting with the psychiatry lab division. The meeting was kind of boring, but really just because I didn't know what was going on. Hopefully by the end of the summer, all of these meetings will get better as I know what's going on more and more. However, maybe I won't catch on to most of this medical jargon in a summer's time, and these meetings will just forever go over my head. We'll find out.

Following all these meeting, I got to do some training. No, not cool lab training. Lame, computer, university work policy training. It was sooooo boring. I almost died. Okay. Not really. But really, it was so boring. I'm just glad that's done now.

Work today was much better. When I got there, the first thing that I got to do was...(can you guess?) more training! But this time, it was cool. I got to do some animal training! I got to go to the building where they keep all of the mice and rats at the hopspital for research. It's in a basement of a really nice builidng, and it's about the size of a football field. It smells awful, and you have to wear shoe covers and medical gown lookin' things. The tour though, was way long, but cool. Any animal lover would have ABSOLUTELY HATED it. They keep they mice in small tupper-ware looking containers on racks with minimal food and water, and they just breed them and feed them, and record what needs to be done when and they do it. When a mouse needs to be killed, they euthanize it (yes, they showed us how to do it. It's simple), and they have a ton of refridgerators full of dead mice. It's cool. I like it. If you have any love for mice, don't ever go there. Ever.

Later in the day, we got to make lots of different solutions for some experiments that we are going to run tomorrow, and then we learned how to slice some mice brains. We just watched Geetha do everything today (which, I will admit, was totally lame), but tomorrow we will get to do some of it ourselves. I'm really excited for that!

I really like what I get to do so far. A LOT of it is still really really over whelming, but I hope that it will get better with time. I'm so grateful for the people that I work with, namely John and Geetha, they are the best people I could have asked for! I really like everything so far. We'll see what tomorrow brings... :)

Aquarium!

Tuesday: my last day of freedom. Sort of. Annnd...I finally got to spend a day with Sam and Tori!! They're some of the best people I know.

Tuesday was really hot. Literally. I was burning. If my mom were to come out to Baltimore she would die. And for those of you that read my blog that see my mom, tell her to read my blog too. Apparently she doesn't have time. Sheesh. She's one of the main people I write this thing for. I don't write it so random strangers off the internet can read what I do. Anyway...

I met Sam and Tori at the aquarium that morning. It cost $30/person to get in, so it was slightly expensive, but I had heard from multiple people that it was well worth it. Right as we walked in, there was a huge waterfall inside the doors. Tori said that's what her house was going to be like one day. We began our journey through the aquarium. It was basically a series of fish tanks I guess in various levels, with descriptions above the tank telling what fish are in that tank, and what part of the world the fish are from. My friend, Jeff, would be living a dream if he were there. I thought it was cool, but not totally thrilling. We ended up going through all of that stuff really fast. We then went and saw a couple of different exhibits, like an Australian exhibit, a Jellyfish Invasion exhibit, and a tropical rainforest area (it was warm, and humid, and there were birds flying around our heads and everything!).

Then it was time for what ended up being the best part of the day...the dolphin training! This actually didn't come as part of the admission, and we paid extra for it. They weren't having a dolphin show the day that we went, but they were doing traing, so we got to watch them train the dolphins! It was all kind of like behind the scenes, and it was super cool. There were even two new baby dolphins in the tank, both had been born within the last couple of months.

After the dolphin show, we got to watch a 4-D movie. Again, we paid a bit extra to see this. It was pretty fun. The audience was distracting though. There were lots of school kids there, so they were yelling a lot. All the tricks still got me though. I always love 4-D movies, they're fun :)

By this time we had seen everything we had wanted to, so we left the aquarium. I told Sam and Tori about a mall that was just a couple blocks down. We went shopping there for a bit. Not any real shopping, just window shopping. Sam was so good to put up with us girls while we did our thing, too.

After shopping, we went to Noodles and Co. and got some lunch (or dinner? idk. it was late lunch.) Tori got me hooked on the Wisconsin Mac and Cheese. It's ultra delish!!

Later that evening, I tried out my apartment's swimming pool. It's kind of lame. But it's a pool atleast. It's on top of the grocery store next to my building. What's really cool about it is that you're swimming, on a roof, in downtown Baltimore. THAT is freakin' cool. What's lame about it is that the deepest it gets is like 6 ft (which is really like 5.5), and it's not very long. I can do 8 total backstrokes going at a leisurely pace. It's all in the shade in the evening, but it's still really nice to cool off and relax in! I'll probably end up going there a lot.