Mummy... it's over!

Yesterday was the last day of my two-month long internship at IBN. In a way, I was really happy that I wouldn't have to go to work anymore, but another part of me knew I would miss the place terribly.. and the fun I had during my internship.. both at IBN and at NUS..

I'm going to miss sleeping after midnight, most often at 1-2 and then snoozing the alarm a hundred times in the morning! Taking the NUS shuttle bus and then waiting for the Biopolis one next to NUH.. Waking up late on weekends and having lots of fun! Coming back from work and going swimming, playing cards, going out for dinner or for a movie, or simply watching movies on the comp.. [I've lost count of how many I've watched this summer!]

I'll miss the fun times at IBN.. the friends I made there over the course of two months.. a couple of whom I got really close to.. I wonder if I'll ever see them again, coz one of them lives in the US. It's a strange feeling, when you see someone everyday for 2 months, discuss your everyday events with them.. only to realize that you might never see that person again.. :( The messages that I would get the moment the clock struck 12.. saying "Lunch!! I'm hungry!".. getting my non-Indian friends to eat at Annalakshmi with me.. explaining to them what each dish was.. deciding how much to pay! Frequent visits to the IBN pantry to make milo or just to have cold water and read the newspapers.. waiting for the blessed 6 o clock.. having one hour breaks while doing an experiment [You get loads of these in research :P].. wearing my lab-coat and gloves and getting the feeling of being a dentist or something.. getting irritated when I had to do certain irritating and repetitive procedures.. getting instructions from my mentor.. talking about general stuff with her [She's only 5 years older], cracking jokes with people around..

It was a truly memorable experience.. I learnt a lot, and had fun all the same. At IBN, they don't call it 'internship'.. they call it 'attachment'.. Need I say more?

The worth of weekends!

Ever since I've started interning, I've really looked forward to the weekend. I'm not implying that I get bored at work or I'm not liking it, it's just that after a 9-6 week, you look forward to: the Friday evening when you can go out, have fun and get back however late you want.. the Saturday and Sunday mornings when you can get up at noon if you wish.. the movies you can watch at the theater and not just on the comp.. the book you were half way through, you can now complete.. meet all your friends who are working too and whom you don't get to meet during the week..

I had this feeling after the very first week of work! And I know many of my friends felt the same way too.. Even during the week, I used to have fun after work - we would go swimming, have dinner and then play cards or watch a movie. It had become a sort of a routine. But still, weekends have their own charm.. During the semester whenever my dad used to ask me "So, what plans for the weekend? Or simply "What plans for Sunday?", I would go like "Nothing much, just usual, might go out for lunch or dinner".. and most often, since it would be mid-term time or exam time.. "What else but study?". I never realized the worth of weekends then. But now, after working 5 days I week, I really look forward to Friday evenings.. sometimes, I start longing for it from Wednesday itself, especially if plans had been made for the weekend in advance.

Somehow, even when I was in school, I never felt weekends were so very special. May be because school just wasn't as taxing in the lower classes, nor as long as an entire day or work at office.. And after Std.10, the weekend just meant more time to study! I can't believe it now! So I would actually look forward to the weekends in this case, but for a different reason! After having experienced a tiny bit of how work life is going to be, now I realize why my dad loves to laze around on Sundays at home. He really relaxes, in the true sense of the word. He doesn't mind if we don't go out or do anything special on Sundays, but the very fact that he gets and entire day to relax is enough. Sometimes, my mom tells me, we should go on a holiday soon, your dad hasn't had one in a while. I never realized how much my dad needed it, or the value of it, until I started working myself. The value of getting a day/week off. Of getting time alone, of getting time to relax, to spend with your family.

A short internship has taught me so much! And it's just an internship. What it is going to be like when I start working? I will just have to wait and watch! :)

Why?

I realised only a few days ago that a chinese cluster mate of mine, living two rooms away from mine, is also interning where I am (IBN). I happened to see her in the Biopolis shuttle bus a few times and also in the lift at IBN. I'm pretty sure that by now, even she has realised the same thing. [Unless of course, she is totally oblivious to her surroundings! She actually helped me with a little problem I had with my lens one day just before I was leaving for work, so she's definitely seen me around!But at that time I didn't know she was interning at IBN too.]

We live in the same cluster, go to work at the same place and travel by the same bus everyday. And yet, we haven't said a 'hi' to each other or even smiled at each other! At one of our safety briefings, she was sitting in front of me, and when she turned around a couple of times and saw me, I thought I'd tell her that she was my cluster mate, but her face was totally expressionless and her body language seemed to indicate that she was not interested. So I decided against it. It's been a while now, and we still haven't spoken to each other.. I wonder why..

Is it because we are clannish and don't really like to mingle with other kinds of people?
Or is it because we have too many friends anyway and so we don't need another one?
Or we have our iPod's to keep us company on the way to work..who wants a person to talk to?
Or we just don't care about our neighbours, sometimes we don't even know who they are!
Or may be, we're just not the friendly-and-mingling-type anymore?

Milo protocol!

Warning:This post will seem hilarious only if you have experienced lab work, and have undergone the various safety briefings!!

I'm currently interning at A-Star IBN (Insitute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology) at Biopolis. Today, a couple of my friends at IBN and me went to the pantry on our floor to make milo. Each floor has a pantry and each pantry has a bottle of coffee powder, milo, tea bags, creamer and sugar, and a small box of biscuits/cookies. We wanted to make the milo and freeze it, and have it later when it became a little solidified. I had tried it before and it tasted really good, so I decided to make it again, for all of us. But there was a small problem. The first time I had tried it was in my first week of internship. Today, after 4 weeks at IBN, this is what was in my mind when I made the milo..

1. Wear your lab coat and gloves. Spray your gloves with 70% ethanol to keep it germ-free.
2. Spray the table with ethanol and wipe it with tissue.
3. Take 4 fresh autoclaved cups from the stack of cups covered by plastic, don't take it from anywhere else! And don't forget to label your cups.
4. Add 25g of milo reagent to each cup.
5. Add 10g of creamer to each cup, but make sure you don't touch the spoon to the milo reagent that's already inside the cup. If you do, use a new spoon.
6. Add 10g of sucrose reagent to each cup if you want to drink hot milo. If not, add 14g, because in conditions below zero degrees, the sucrose is less effective. Make sure you don't touch the spoon around, if not use new ones.
7. From the water boiler, add MilliQ water to each cup.
8. Since u have added the same reagent to each cup, u can use the same spatula for all the cups. Vortex. Clean the spatula with the delicate 'KimWipes' and place it back.
9. Clean your work area with ethanol.
10. Spray your gloves with ethanol and also the door handle of the freezer.
11. Put the milo cups inside. Make sure that the pantry door is closed when you open the freezer door.
12. After you finish drinking the milo, please dispose off the cups in the 'general waste' bin and the gloves in the 'biohazard' bin.

One month of work and this is how I think about non-lab activities!!
And I still have 5 weeks to go..

Early morning blues!

*Beep beep* *Beep beep*

Aah, there goes the alarm.. It's morning already?

But I'm sooo sleepy.. I wish I could sleep a little more..

Snooze..

10 mins later.. *Beep beep* *Beep beep*

10 mins up already? :O I don't believe it..I just snoozed it..
Just 10 mins more.. I don't need to wash my hair today so I can sleep a little more..
[This happens only on alternate days, since Confused soul washes her hair every second day these days, thanks to the weather.]

Snooze again..

10 mins later.. *Beep beep* *Beep beep*

Okay if I don't get up now, I won't have enough time for breakfast and I'll miss the shuttle bus, and I don't wanna be late for my internship..

The alarm is finally switched off completely and Confused Soul sits up on her bed for a while..and then gets out of bed to get ready..