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June 13, 2006
Intern Day 1
okay, i'm quite tired actually after working from 9am to 7pm.. plus neck pain from trying to squint too hard on the E6 sections on the cutting tray... ah nevermind.. here's the conversation between my brother, who is happily at home in Malaysia now (some good quality photos of Italy here in his photoblog), and I, who is sulkily grumping about the amount of work to be done. Oh, the conversation is about my bro's trip to Italy, and my first day as an intern in the department of developmental biology in my university.
me: you saw the pope?!? in vatican city?
Big: yeap. got a picture of him. will be posting it soon
me: wow that's cool!
Big: yea... it is... lucky I went on a wednesday... he comes out every wednesday to give his blessing
me: oooo... so blessed ar you. did you tour around vatican city?
Big: he spoke in italian though. yea..did the touristy tour... went into st. peter's basillica and visited sistine chapel
me: ooo....how about the... i forgot the name.. there's a museum there also right
Big: yea... vatican museum too
me: the one featured in angels and demons
Big: that's where the sistine chapel is
me: oic... did you really see the stones with wave patterns? i can't remember much but it's featured in A&D also
Big: hmm... not really as there were people seated at the square... but the design of the st. peter's square is unique in the sense that you get an elevated view of the squere the further away you are from the center
me: oooo... like a... colloseum?
Big: not quite... your eyes won't really notice the elevation.. the coliseum was a bit of a dissapointment... it's not as grand as expected
me: oh... i guess i have to be there to know eh.. really? colloseum is in rome right?
Big: a lot of structures in rome are reduced to ruins now... to imagine the grandeur they had once, you need good imagination
me: oic... but all the structures are still preserved right? like last time when we watched the amazing race i remembered there's still a sort of great stone corridor.. something like a great arc.. did you see that?
Big: yea... you get to see the famous roman columns, cobble stones, arcs... but that's about it... we have arcs in london too so it wasn't that exciting
me: haha
Big: rome is still a must visit though
me: i would like to see arches.. oo.. what attracts you most?
Big: in rome? vatican city definitely and the catacombs
me: whose catacombs? sound sooo interesting
Big: the catacombs are underground burial ground for the christians before christianity was accepted as the main religion.. yea... it is interesting... it's like a maze down there... and they have 4 stories worth of tunnels.. too bad no photography was allowed... even if it was, it would be hard to do the catacombs justice
me: oh why? too dark? so you went underground underground?
Big: it would be really hard to capture the essence of the catacombs on photos... can't really show much through photos... it's one of those places that you have to visit.. yea... underground.. hey... can you borrow books from your local library?
me: yeah.. i just borrowed the whole series og the guide
*hitchhiker;s guide
can borrow dvd also
where else did you visit? france? spain?
Big: went to italy only.. visited touristy places like florence, pisa and venice
me: did you pick up some italian? haha.. amios amigo! mamamia! haha
Big: yea... sort of... parla inglese means do you speak english... non italiano... no italian... adios amigo is spanish.. mi chiamo... my name is...
me: haha.. remember russel peters?
Big: yea.. they really do that
me: really ar!?! lots of sign languages?
Big: nah... that's not true.. not really that true... at least they don't do that while speaking.. they use wtf sign language... that's the only bit that's true]
me: LOL serious!!? haha that's funny! how did you know it's true? you saw one?
Big: yea... saw the gondola man did it... he looked pretty pissed off at the busy canal traffic
me: LOL that must be funny
Big: yea... since I know what it meant
me: did he ask you why are you laughing?!? haha
Big: nah... the gondola man was on another gondola... not the one I was on
me: oh..imagine what he would do if he saw you laughing.. "do you want to eat?"
Big: haha... yea.. when's your internship starting?
me: this morning's the first day..that's why neck pain...work from 9am till 7pm.. siao gila
Big: what does your work involve?
me: so...
i was about to write it down in my blog anyway
so in the morning i filled up nitrogen tanks which keeps some very impt embryos which need to be kept frozen whole day
so i played with liquid mitrogen for a while
Big: er... played?
me: meaning.. i watched the dance on the floor as the tanks got filled to the brim coz you know la, liquid N2 are compressed, highly compressed.. so when i filled them up from a big reservatory tank, white clouds came out and some of the L N2 danced out.. quite cold actually
Big: wah... sounds so cool.. you did that for the whole morning? how many of you?
me: i did that for 20 mins.. 2 in the lab, under the howard hughes internship.. after that i did some dish baking
Big: nothing to do with cakes, right?
me: haha you are right.. i have to 'bake' some beakers, measuring cylinders etc in a high heat oven which is supposed to be the most effective way to kill bacteria, RNase and whatnots.. just some small chores la. then come the interesting part.. pipette pulling.. it's like a process of pulling a fine capillary tubing with outer diameter of 1.7mm and inner diameter of 1.15mm through using a machine to make 0.001mm pipette tips.. the tip is soo fine that i can't see it with my eyes
Big: how then do you pull them using the machine?
me: so the pipette is used for microinjection.. oh the machine has a small metal column.. erm how to describe... it's like a ring, but it's square shaped..can you imagine? that metal column is connected to high heat conductors so when the switch is turned on, lots of heat energy will travel to the column.. so before turning the switch on, i put the fine capillary tube through the metal column and fixed it down on screws at the side. then i turned on the switch, a red light glowed and voila! the tube is separated and both tips become fine and sharp
Big: hmm... ok... can you take photos at work?
me: cannot la.. later kena marah.. but maybe i can do it after working hours
Big: so you weren't supposed to work until 9pm?
me: nope.. should be 9am - 5pm.. around that time la
Big: no cctv?
me: cctv? what's that?
Big: closed circuit camera
me: oh that cctv haha.. i don't think so la.. the lab is not that rich haha
Big: k... gtg.. see ya around!
me: actually i gtg too.. tired and grouchy now
Big: k... see ya!
me: take care and eat lots of malaysian food for me :) byebye!
Big: haha... k! bye
Posted by peixin at June 13, 2006 10:34 AM
Comments
A lot of bio majors that I know are doing research this summer. Hhmm...a very good experience. I have a suggestion: you may want to try consultancy. If research or anything that's strictly bio becomes boring to you one day, an alternative that you may like is consultancy.
Posted by: Khoon Yu at June 13, 2006 01:15 PM
sweet chat!! haha
Posted by: ls at June 14, 2006 01:26 AM