Dorm Life, Huh?

I would say that today was one of my more uneventful days.  I finally found the time to sit down, rest, and spend my day how I wanted.  However, I didn't spend it productively at all, but instead sleeping and talking with my friends online.  I should probably look for some events to attend during my time here.

The day started like yesterday, waking up, meeting up for breakfast, and going to class.  For breakfast, I thought I would be having cereal for the rest of my days as my stomach generally does not bode well with breakfast foods such as scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausages, etc, but to my surprise they were serving French toast today.  I didn't want to miss the opportunity as I did not know how often they would be serving French toast, and I'm glad I did because it opened up my appetite for the rest of the day.

Anyways, today we had a lab instead of a lecture in class.  We met in the downstairs lab where we got our own lab coats and had a lab based on measurements and a protocol based on the bonds of DNA.  We used pipettes and centrifuges for the lab as practice so we knew how to use the tools for the future. Fortunately, I've had practice with the tools we used today in AP Bio last year, so the lab was fairly simple (Thank you Mr. Hudson for the labs, they actually turned out to be helpful). In the protocol, we mixed ethanol and calf thymus DNA in three different situations: a control, rapidly heating and cooling the solution, and adding DNAse.  I don't exactly know what we're supposed to be looking for, but I have an idea and we'll be discussing it in class tomorrow.

After class, I had lunch with Jing, which was mac and cheese today.  It wasn't the greatest, as expected of DC food.  I then went back to my dorm and talked with my friends for a bit and gradually fell asleep.  I woke up with a growling stomach, which made me a bit happy, actually.  This meant that I was starting to regain my appetite, but I have been craving In-N-Out for a few days, and unfortunately there are no In-N-Outs on the East coast. Nonetheless, I called up Arnold and went with a few people from his cluster to eat at the Rattie.

Now I am back in my dorm, having finished my homework for the night and now finishing this blog.  What I am going to do for the rest of the night, I don't know.  I do want to express, however, my extreme distaste for public restrooms and showers.  It makes me somewhat uncomfortable at times, but I guess I can deal with it if it's only for three more weeks.  Today also marks the end of the first week since we have arrived.  I look out my window which I now realize has a view of the city, and it makes me remember when we first first came to Providence.  I was sitting in the shuttle with the cohort, marveling at the city in which I would be staying for a month.  The memory is a week old now, but it seems like it's been forever already.  Looking at Providence from afar, it makes me remember that this isn't my city nor the one that I was born and raised around. San Francisco and the Bay Area is waiting for me to come home a greater person, and I'll make sure I represent the region well during my stay here.  Eighteen more days are left, so let the countdown begin.