Kayaking, Streaking & Bar Harbor

Well week three is now officially over with! I am 33.33% done with my time here in Maine. The days are long, but the weeks are short. I've already learned so much living here on my own. Like how hard it is to cook for one person (tougher than it seems coming from a family of seven).

Let me get you updated for the past week. Last Saturday, Bigelow took us kayaking around Boothbay Harbor. And when I say Bigelow, I mean David the REU adviser...Bigelow just paid for it. I started the morning with excitement because I've been kayaking before in Poo Lake...opps sorry "Utah Lake." I was put in a tandem kayak with one of my roommates Evie. We started strong and got to see sea lions poke their head out of the water but despite trying to persuade the guide, I was not allowed to "be free" with the sea lions and live among them.
We paddled out to an island about 4 miles away where they brought us lunch and we got to sit on the warm-ish sand. The water however was still well below anything comfortable for this girl. After lunch we got back into the kayaks and paddled another 4 miles back to the harbor. 8 miles of kayaking is actually quiet exhausting if you never done it. I was praying for the light at the end of the tunnel by mile 6. My legs got half sunburned because of the way I was sitting in the kayak, so half of my legs look all nice and tan, while the other half looks like I've been living in Antarctica for the past 5 years. We took an exhausted selfie after and let me tell you.. after hours of being in the sun, paddling our arms to the point of shaking and the constant splashing of sea water hitting our faces, our selfie game is still strong. #imamodel

The week went by at work just fine. I've been working on growing my plasmid up to have enough to do the transfection. I streaked my plates so the colonies would grow individually so you have an exact copy of the plasmid. No I didn't go streaking, I'll save that for when I'm 80 in the Rec Center locker room.
The days are pretty slow here. Eight hours is a lot of time to kill here. Nobody told me how much free time I would have, and how much I do on the computer. I started watching Organic Chemistry videos to keep me from going crazy of boredom. I think it's funny, Jose always comes in and ask me if I'm busy when HE is the one who gives me things to do. I just wish someone would tell me to go clean something instead of giving me absolutely nothing to do. I understand he is busy, but I'm not sometimes I just sit here and look busy. "OOHHH look at Emma look up videos of chemistry." When secretly I'm thinking about why penguins can't fly.

 
 



Thursday was a pretty relaxing day. I was busy at work for once. So the day went by fast and in the evening the house went to the harbor to attend winderjamming or something like that. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but there was fireworks at the end. So it was fun to get out of the house. I'm really starting to like it here. My problems inn Utah seem so small and insignificant here. I just wish the weather was a little bit warmer because so far it really hasn't felt like summer to me. Anyway here are some pictures of downtown harbor.

The weekend came, and we packed up what could fit into three cars and headed to the nation park Acadia. It was a three hour drive at six in the morning. We did a hike up to this lookout point. It is where the sun first hits the north coast in the morning. It was a pretty decent hike, nothing compared to some of the hikes in Utah. After hiking some of us went to the camp site and set up the tents. Evies boyfriend has this tent that is as big as my room. This camp site had a pool, basketball court, and a playground....so it was more of glamorous camping. "glamping". We explored a little around Bar harbor and ended up and this really cool tide pond area where I learned how to hold a crab. He was a little crabby when we picked him up..hahaha..get it ? Crabby? Anywhosers... we drove into the town to pick up the rest of the yah-hoos and went to a restaurant. SWEET BABY I had a burger. This is the first time I feel like i've eaten real meat since i've gotten here. There are no burger joints near me just lobster places. Lobster here, lobster there, lobster in your ears. Satisfied with the dead cow, we headed back to the campsite, lit a fire and ate some s'mores. There was fireflies everywhere. They are quite amazing to catch and hold in your hand. It's like you can see their heartbeat through the little light. If you looked out into the field, it's like someone sprinkled Christmas lights everywhere. Nobody else but the two western where impressed with the display of mating. 

Tired and full, we all climb into the tent. It wasn't all but two hours into sleeping my roommate released what I believed must of been mustard gas by the way the my eyes started water the second I smelled it. Dear mercy I swear you could of used in WW2. I don't know what woke up the tent, the smell or the sound of me laughing to the point where I could no longer breathe. After we aired out the tent and I stopped laughing, I tried falling back to sleep....until the snoring started. It wasn't that bad but being swished by snoring, stinky and the hard ground I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. The rain started at five and started getting into the tent by eight. By the time we packed the car my irritation level was reaching the peak. It wasn't until the hot chocolate, provided by dunk in donuts, burned the roof of my mouth along with my tongue. To quote my grandmother "It was the cherry on top of the s*** pile I call my life." and I still had to go to the laundry mat when we got home. I was in bed by 6 that night, with a bag of Oreos and netflix to keep me company. I was asleep by 7.

"What the heck are you doing exactly?" - an explanation.

"What are you going to Maine for?" "What are you doing in the lab?" "Are you doing any work or just going to the beach?" "Are you going to be in an actual lab?" "Does it count for school credit?" These are just some of the few questions I was asked right before coming to Maine, so I thought I would explain exactly what the heck I'm actually doing here. I will try to explain the best I can without talking all scientific and making me smarter than you or giving away too much of the project (it's not my research, I'm just helping).

My work schedule (the boring part...skip forward if desired): Every morning I wake up about 7:30 am, which the sun has already been shinning in my window for a good two hours before that. I wake up with the rest of the house, fix breakfast and my lunch for the day (there are no fast food near here..except Subway but I don't count that because it's actually a cardboard factory). I leave my house at 8:30, walking about a half mile to get to work. I "start" work at 9 ish (ish is what we call "Bigelow" time). Around 12 I get an hour lunch break and then it is right back to work until 5 ish. I go home, we have dinner as a house and then we just hang out until it's time to go to bed. That is Monday-Friday.

My research (the not so boring part): From the pictures I've posted so far, you are probably thinking that all I do all day is hang out at the beach and go on research boats (picture on the left is actually me on a research boat looking like I know what I'm doing...I'm pretty good at that)...however I am a burrito sometimes when it's cold out. But hey, I didn't choose the burrito lyfe, the burrito lyfe chose me.

But in fact I get to actually wear a sexy white lab coat and goggle that make me look incredibly cute...

In simple terms what I will be genetically modifying  a parasite found in oysters into a vaccination delivery system that can be ingested through the gut. "How on earth are you going to do that Emma?" you might ask... Magic.

The not so smart-ass response? I'm working with a parasite found in oysters along the east coast and parts of Mexico that my mentor has been working with years. Awww look at my little babies growing.. proud mama moment. (picture left of the little buggers growing).
 Last year my mentor shipped these little troopers off to a lab that has humanized rats (that just means they're genetically  modified to have the same immune response to a human) and they fed the mouse P. marinus and checked for any harmful damage. The crazy thing is...nothing happened to the mouse. Their livers didn't shut down, they didn't die, they didn't even get a tummy ache! The only thing that happened is a immune response...you know what that means?.....come on you can do it..... ANTIBODIES, 500 brownie points to whoever got that. So the mouse made antibodies to the parasite but the parasite didn't cause any harmful damage to the mouse because it is an oyster parasite. So this summer I'm taking advantage of their weakness..mwahha so weak, so tiny.
 I'm going to genetically modify them to express a coating protein of a virus. If you don't know how vaccinations are made get a notebook out because here is a brief explanation: They take the coating protein of a virus (but not the harmful DNA of the virus) and insert it into your body (through a shot).
Your body will make antibodies for that coating protein so if the virus was to ever get into your body at a later date, let's say through some sick-o who decided that attending class was better idea than staying home.. Your body will recognize that as a foreign object and attack it before it can cause any harm.
If I can make the parasite express the coating protein of a virus, then it can be taken in a sugar pill and boom you have a vaccination that can be taken orally. This would be amazing because in third world countries it would be a lot easier than having to have needles, and someone there to give the shot. It would just be pill you would take. Very cost effect and these little craps can survive just about anything you throw at them.

I will be starting this project next week when the stuff I need gets in the mail. Right now I'm trying to grow the parasite on plates. They normally grow in a liquid media, so it's my job so see if I can't turn that liquid into a solid by adding the right amount of agar so they grow on a plate.
Which would be very useful for choosing single colonies and drug experiments. However, I have run into the problem that they just grow and grow but not divide. In fact the plated parasites are now 153% bigger than the liquid media...I'VE CREATED A MONSTER!!!

My non-life lab: Just a quick update... I found the perfect time to go jogging is right before sunset. There is a trail that has a lot of really cute houses right on the waterfront, which makes me miss my sister-in-law dearly she loves going on walks to look at houses.

Also, The General Store right on the corner of my street makes pants-dropping-drolling-diabetes-chocolateheaven-mississippi-mudpie-brownie-cake-pudding piece of heaven all for 3.01. I get a sugar high looking at it. My mood is starting to improve, I just figured I need a little me time every now and then and go for a run helps. Also I need to focus more on me, I use to be a lot happier before boys. So this summer I'm living boy free and focusing on me because I'm pretty awesome and study show the more attracted you are to a person, the more they make they make you laugh, which explains why I think I'm so funny ;).

First week down...

Well it's official. I've  made it a full week out in the wild on my own. Congratulation Emma, you made it without killing anyone, some close calls but you've pulled through. This blog is going to be a little long because it's going to a flashback of the week that i've been here, also a lot of pictures because I don't want to be "that person" on facebook that does nothing but post pictures everyday of them seeming like they are having a good time (does a white girl even enjoy the starbucks if she doesn't post about it on instagram?)  But not too long because it seems like my bedroom doesn't have a three prong plug.

 I loving learning new things. I am down to try anything once. However I don't really like learning new things about myself, epically if I am not too found of that new trait I discover. Like the fact that I get sea sick. Awesome. How did I find out about this new trait you might ask? Well let me tell you.... So Bigelow has this research boat that they go out on and collect samples at different depth of the ocean. They have this super heavy machinery that they put out in the ocean. Well the program mentor figured it would be a FAN-TASTIC idea to have all the intern go out and collect samples so they have an idea on what field work is like. I was perfectly fine out in the shallow calm water near the bay, in fact I was enjoying the cool spray of the ocean and collecting samples. In fact I was even fine when the captain sped up and it started getting choppy out in the ocean. It wasn't until we stopped out in the middle of the ocean the sweating started. I was in the cabin trying to be helpful to Daven (pictured above looking like a captain who just lost someone at sea) and Anna (not pictured...maybe lost at sea?) When all of a sudden I was on a terrible rollercoaster that I couldn't get off. While I held onto the counter top I was also trying to hold on to the tuna fish sandwich I had eaten 30 minutes before the boat ride. But that wasn't the worst part. Both Daven and Anna started feeling sick too. Poor Anna was trying to operate this really expensive machinery while getting yelled at by the captain. While Daven was only what I can imagine was praying for dear life as he bowed his head on the counter top. I luckily was able to hold my lunch down but I knew if anyone was to as much make a gagging noise that I would of been forced to share what I had for lunch, breakfast and dinner the night before with everyone on the boat. We got out of there and I was fine as soon as the boat started moving again. I found something new and intresting about myself...I can NEVER work on a boat.

The week went by and I gladly stayed on LAND to do the rest of my research for the week. To keep it brief, this week I was experimenting with different media and agar plating techniques. The parasite I will be using for the rest of the time here is usually grown in a liquid media. It was my job to see if I couldn't make the liquid media into a solid agar plate. Plating cells is much easier to pick a single colony with the same DNA then trying to do that with a liquid media. I got paid to play around in the lab to keep me busy until my other stuff arrives. Also I got to wear those bad ass goggles they gave me. I guess I'm #distractedlysexy in the lab (if you want to know, there was this very sexist noble prize winner who doesn't think it's a good idea for men and women to work together in a lab because women will fall in love and cry when criticized.. you can read more about it here http://mashable.com/2015/06/11/female-scientists-responses-tim-hunt-distractinglysexy/#:eyJzIjoiZiIsImkiOiJfNjV1bG84YXA0d3BnZmhqeSJ9  

THE WEEKEND couldn't come fast enough. Friday was a really casual night expect I got to see three of my lovely roomates full moons as they went streaking in the rain. That was very entertaining, i stayed inside because again about it being cold and the upper half of my body. Saturday came along and we hit the beach. It was a very pretty beach but tons of flies and if you steep in this moss looking stuff you'll smell like dog poo the whole ride home (not that i'm speaking from experience or anything). Also my feet are pretty soft so it was a struggle getting around considering it seems to be the burying ground for every crab shell in the state. But it was fun and the sun was out. (yes I was wearing sunscreen). We got home, showered off that dog poo smell i have seemed to pick up from some unknown reason and decided to go to the local movie theater. HEY REU STUDENT!! BRING CASH WITH YOU EVERYWHERE!!! It seems to be in this small of a town that the only place that accepts credit cards it the local shop and that is about it. No one as credit cards, just a heads up.We went to see Jurasic World. Which I thought was a good movie. Chris Prat can have my babies anytime he wants. Dear Chris Prat if you are reading this... I like your face and we should have babies forever and forever. Love Emma Cold. The Mckee house (other REU house) invited us over after the movie to hang out. It was at this point that my headache was at the high point and was screaming to go home. It also wasn't helping that the Mckee house is very nice in comparison to mine. I started to fall asleep on their couch because it was literally the softest thing that i had sat on all week long. So some advile and some sleep later I felt better.

But the DREAMING is driving me a little nuts. I have a tendency to have really weird dreams when i sleep in different environment or not in my own bed. Many of you may not know this but I dream a lot and remember a lot of my dreams. Don't know why...just always have. I also wake up a lot during the night. Maybe 4-5 times a night just to check on the time or readjust. When I dream and I wake up then fall back asleep I will usually dream about something else. But last night I couldn't shake my dream. When I would fall back asleep I would have the same dream just in a different scene. It was very weird. It was about the boy that i was seeing right before I left. To give you a background on this guy...He basically stopped talking to me a week and a half before I took off. didn't really explain anything to me, just stopped talking to me. But it's okay he did the exact same thing to me 2 years ago when we first dated. Except this time felt different. It is really hard for me to get attached to a boy, you can't get hurt if your not attached right? After the disaster in March of where I got a little attached to this boy i was seeing and he ripped away from me, i really tried hard to not get attached to this one, because i knew i was leaving for Maine. But i still care about him, he is still my friend and I want the best for him. I have given up completely on him responding to anything i have said to him. But last night I had this awful dream about him being on drugs and not going where he wanted to in life. In my dream he was destroying his life and there was nothing i could do about it. I kept waking up and falling asleep and it was the same dream over and over again. I was so much in distressed when i woke up i had to fight back tears as I talked to my mom on the phone about the dream. Right now i'm trying to secretly find out if he is okay because he made it pretty clear he wanted knowing to do with me before i left. He seems to be doing alright, but still the dream got to me. It didn't help today when my parents apparently yelled at a stranger who they thought was my old fling (the march disaster) who they thought looked like him. It's still painful to hear his name because the memories flood back in. The way he looks, the way he smiles, smells, memories, laugh...everything floods in and i'm like the hoover dam trying to hold everything back. It was a rough week but a good weekend with a someone rough ending.

Anyway I'm trying hard not to make this my personal journal, i'll try to keep it more general and not so heart felt. well because i let it slipped i was writing this to my roomates and now they seem to have taken a personal intrest to see if i mention them or  not....hector.....
GOODNIGHT to the pond... and to the mosquito who tried to eat me tonight, go to hell.

Let me introduce you...

Hello and welcome to my blog, if you are reading this you are probably a relative of mine or some facebook friend who was bored and decided to keep up with my somewhat exciting life (jokes on you). I decided to make this blog about my summer internship for four reasons:

Reason one: My grandmother. Hi grandma :)
Reason two: in hopes to avoid the question, "so....what exactly are you doing?" and so I can stop annoying everyone on facebook/instagram with constant pictures bragging about how my life is more interesting then yours.
Reason three: to keep me busy and hopefully not so homesick, which has been happening the moment I had to sleep on the hard-rock mattress.
 Reason four: maybe some poor future REU intern reads this to see what the program is like.


Let me introduce you to the program I am attending. The program is funded by NSF (nation science foundation). I received a 5,000 dollar stipend plus my housing taken care of, and apparently a lobster dinner coming up soon here. Don't worry you old folks at the movie theater, I will have to pay taxes on it, so the money comes full circle.
Next I am living in East Boothbay, Maine. Which is 2540.3 miles away from my hometown Orem, Utah. Or to give you a even better idea... two uncomfortable plane rides and an awkward 1.5 hours drive with Stan the taxi man who asked if I was drunk. "NO STAN i'm not drunk...just exhausted...ooohhh snowcones".

I live right next to the Ocean, here is the picture of the pier that is about 3 minutes walking distance. The water is well below my comfort of sticking the top half of my body in there, so I will wait for sunnier days.
For 10 weeks I am working for a Marine Biology Lab called Bigelow! Here is a link to their website and the wonderful man Dr. Jose who took a chance on a landlocked girl on his marine biotechnology  project. HAHA foolish man indeed. You can read a little bit about what I will be researching, but hopefully I can make sense of it on this blog thingy. https://www.bigelow.org/research/srs/jose-fernandez-robledo/

 This is a picture of me freezing my little Utah buttocks off in the fog of Maine. Holy cow of baby jeez it was cold when I got here. The first couple days were really tough for me. I have never lived on my own before. Did you guys know that butter doesn't just show up in your fridge? I found that out painfully quick. Also the bed they have me sleep in (as mentioned before) doesn't have quite the same comfort as my body-shaped-indented queen size mattress like back home.

It isn't that I don't love it out here. It's just that I miss my friends back home and my family and my dog. Lately I have had the feeling of being stuck. Have you ever tried to take off a shirt that was just a little too tight and you can't get it over your head and your hands are stuck and you just start to panic? It is that feeling. It doesn't help that I can't stop thinking about being back home. Social media consumed my life for the first couple of days. It really didn't help that I left Utah in a hurry to restore my mental healthiness and now I find myself checking to see if the world burned without me on facebook. The past 6 months hasn't really been the best for this little tough brain of mine. Too many emotion towards boys, too tough of coursework, too much working, and not enough sleep and chocolate ice cream. Don't worry I'm okay. I will always be okay. Boys are temporary..but ice cream is forever.

The first couple of days here was a world wind between having nothing to do, and everything to do all at once. Like trying to run a race but not knowing where the track starts. It is getting much better though. I have read the papers I was suppose to (kind of) and I even started my first project. Everyone in the house has had really good attitudes and we get along really well. They don't really understand that I'm also sarcastic 90% of the time. Also 65.25% of my stats are made up.

Sorry that was a long introduction and you probably are sitting there still not understanding why you are here reading this. "THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DOLPHINS?!" I know, I know..i'm just as disappointed as you are. Hopefully throughout these 10 weeks I can explain to my grandmother the research I am doing (because I know she is the only one reading this) , and hey stick around there might be some cool pictures of lobsters (boston accent is required when saying lobster here...you get a ticket by the Maine police if you don't).