FHE

This Monday, I gave the Noche de Hogar (FHE) lesson...in Spanish. It was my first time speaking in front of people. And although it was a close group of young single adults and friends, I was really nervous. I spent a couple days working on my lesson: reading, writing, then translating into Spanish. Fortunately, with the assistance of an online translator and the help of a good friend, I was able to finish just in time. I spent Monday afternoon practicing my pronunciation and trying to get the words to flow instead of the Spanish spaghetti topped with marble meatballs that it felt like in my mouth.

After done, I was pleased with the discussion, general impression, and mostly--the relief of finishing. The evening concluded with some homemade sugar cookies, sudoku puzzles and chatting. It was a good night.

"Mayonase"

At school my typical jar of mayonnaise lasts through fall and winter semester, then I would grab it from the back of the fridge and throw it away before I left my apartment for summer. However, Chileans eat mayo on EVERYTHING. Hotdogs. Rice. Avocados. Potatoes. Chicken. Steak. It is only sold in giant bags and consumed as quickly as milk.

At first I was hesitant. When pressured, I would politely put a scoop on my plate and only barely dab my food in it when someone was watching. However, I am starting to enjoy it on...well, just about everything. I think it adds a creamy and pleasant zing! and I find myself reaching for the bowl of mayo just about every meal.

And before all of you comment "Gag. That is so gross!!!" or "Eww." or "I just vomited a little in my mouth", just try it.

ANOTHER week of frog hunting?

(I know--it sounds repetitive to me as well.) But it is true. I rode down to Castro, Chiloe with Sebastian and Felipe. It is a six hour drive to Castro, then we drove a couple more hours of driving each day, to find good hunting roads along the island. Basically, a week of a lot of time in the car.

Unfortunately, Felipe had a limited number of CDs. I thought I was never going to recover after listening to Felipe's favorite, Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon for 5 hours. straight. Felipe then put in an "American favorite": Bee Gees. I can handle the Bee Gees, I thought. Disco Fever. However, after the fourth straight listen, I was barely staying alive. But then Felipe decided to put in Los Trios, a Chilean group, and the guys sung along to these songs for a couple of hours. As I was dying a slow and painful death, all I could think was "put the Bee Gees back in...please". That is when Felipe really surprised me. "What is this we have here? Romantic Songs CD? Who put that there?" He put it in and we were then serenaded by these 90's stake dance cheesey love songs for a couple more hours. gag. haha. another gag.

Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got back to Valdivia, was plug in my computer and head straight to itunes. Happiness is listening to whatever music you want...[content sigh].

Gel Time

Here are my results from last week for those interested:Yay me.

Lab Week!

This week I began the first of a four-step process in my lab work: isolation of the frog liver DNA, gel electrophoresis to confirm presence of DNA, PCR to amplify DNA, then DNA sequencing for comparison. On Monday, I was introduced to the machinery in the lab by Dr. Nunez as mentioned before. I started the process with just two frog samples each test run, then quickly became comfortable enough with the protocol to work more.

Limited equipment, only 12 samples at a time, and up to two hours of waiting between certain steps of the protocol, the procedure to isolate the DNA for all 75 samples can take quite a long time. I would use these periods to write, read literature, and simply daydream...but eventually bored of these activities. Sometimes 10-hours a day in the lab and no internet access--what was I to do? Photo Booth and iMovie were my answers.

Tristram, this video is for you because you said I could post as many pictures of myself as I wanted to.
Mom, I am sure you noticed that my outfit didn't change during the movie. Don't worry. It represents one day and I did change my shirt the next day...maybe.
Dad, note that I am doing work and not just spending three months in Chile playing.
Dormans, there is one pose in there specifically for you.

It's my blog, so get use to it.

Update: After a week in the lab (and 361 photos later), I have completed about 60 of the 75 DNA isolations and confirmed 28 of those with a gel. YES!

Nicole Koontz Workspace

On Monday I started my first day of lab work with my frogs. Dr. Nunez helped me review the protocols and introduced me to what he called my "workspace". I resisted giggling just a little as my mind automatically thought of The Office. Thank you Dwight Schrute.

I also included a photo of the school's autoclave (yes, it is a communal autoclave and all the labs have to share.) It is just about a million years old and it is questionable whether it actually cleans the tools and other equipment that we put in it. hmmm.

Souvenirs for one and all.

Last weekend, we went to Niebla beach with our friends Jorge and Anibal. It was warm and sunny in Valdivia, not extremely hot, but tolerable. Tiffany and I decided to skip the jackets. It's the beach, right? Sun. Frolicking. Sand castles. These are the only things allowed. The particular beach that we visited is called Niebla--which means "fog" in Spanish--and true to its name, we experienced some less than ideal weather. I think we were right in the middle of a cloud. It was brisk and quite chilly. Instead of playing in the water, we decided to climb some rocks, wrap our towels around ourselves for warmth, and walk the beach. Personally, I decided to slip a couple times, cut my legs up, and fill my backpack with a collection of good skipping rocks which I intended to throw somewhere. Unfortunately, I forgot about the rocks until we were on our way home, but I thought of something else to do with them...
Of course! Souvenirs! To remember the event, we made some personalized souvenirs for Jorge and gave them to him the next time we saw him at FHE. I think he liked them.

To all those back home: Don't get too jealous. I will definitely make you some souvenirs too. And I think you will like them!