Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Rant
Lately I've had the misfortune to have to work with this Italian PhD (BITCH!!), whom I used to think was quite nice when I first met her in German class last semester.
Her (what I initially thought to be) boisterous (now to me, just seem obnoxious) laughter and chattering made her out to be a typical (or so I thought) friendly, fun and warm Italian. But some people you only get to see their true colours when you have to work with them. She's highly strung, easily stressed, with Italian curses at the tip of her tongue which come loose at even the littlest things that don't go her way (like a used pipette tip not going into the bin properly like it should).
There's another Italian PhD student with whom I started working with in the beginning and although I'd found her very distant and always rather serious (don't joke much), now I'm starting to appreciate her calmness and cool headedness.
The past 2 weeks in the lab, the BITCH has been making me do her shit work (boring time-consuming immunocytochemistry, immunofluorescence etc.) while she works on her poster for the upcoming meetings. And because there were different antibodies and fluorescent colours for the different transfections, and there were small variances in the protocols, the whole process was quite confusing. Added to that was an evil headache that plagued me the past 3 days (thankfully today I'm better today) and I made a mistake. So, you can imagine her fury when I told her! Out came her magnificent strings of swear words which I don't understand (I should learn the vulgarities of all the European languages!) and of cos' she also scolded me in her (limited) English.
She thinks her time is all precious ('I don't have time, you know!') and everyone's else are just nothing. Just now, she asked me to prepare everything to passage the cells and left me waiting in the cell culture room even after I rang her to say that it's all ready. So I went down to her office to tell her that I have my own work to do afterwards and that I can't just wait for her forever. She said she'll come once she's done and, not wanting to sit around like an idiot, I went to my table in the other lab to use the computer. She rang me from the cell culture room afterwards and said she's upstairs. I went up immediately and she started her 'You called me to come up and I did and where were you??? I'm very busy, you know!!!') Ya, and I am doing you a fu*king favour and I still have my own work to do... Such an ARSE isn't she?
Anyhow I won't let her spoil my 'wonderful' weekend... Have to come back to work. Bleagh. But at least that's my own work.
All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl! Thankfully I have other activities planned; dinner with some Chinese friends tomorrow night (more jiao zi! happy! :D), some boat repairing on Sun afternoon (hope weather will be ok) and I shall attempt to cook a pork rib dish for dinner either on Sat or Sun and if I can squeeze in some time for a dessert, I shall make something. ^_^
Her (what I initially thought to be) boisterous (now to me, just seem obnoxious) laughter and chattering made her out to be a typical (or so I thought) friendly, fun and warm Italian. But some people you only get to see their true colours when you have to work with them. She's highly strung, easily stressed, with Italian curses at the tip of her tongue which come loose at even the littlest things that don't go her way (like a used pipette tip not going into the bin properly like it should).
There's another Italian PhD student with whom I started working with in the beginning and although I'd found her very distant and always rather serious (don't joke much), now I'm starting to appreciate her calmness and cool headedness.
The past 2 weeks in the lab, the BITCH has been making me do her shit work (boring time-consuming immunocytochemistry, immunofluorescence etc.) while she works on her poster for the upcoming meetings. And because there were different antibodies and fluorescent colours for the different transfections, and there were small variances in the protocols, the whole process was quite confusing. Added to that was an evil headache that plagued me the past 3 days (thankfully today I'm better today) and I made a mistake. So, you can imagine her fury when I told her! Out came her magnificent strings of swear words which I don't understand (I should learn the vulgarities of all the European languages!) and of cos' she also scolded me in her (limited) English.
She thinks her time is all precious ('I don't have time, you know!') and everyone's else are just nothing. Just now, she asked me to prepare everything to passage the cells and left me waiting in the cell culture room even after I rang her to say that it's all ready. So I went down to her office to tell her that I have my own work to do afterwards and that I can't just wait for her forever. She said she'll come once she's done and, not wanting to sit around like an idiot, I went to my table in the other lab to use the computer. She rang me from the cell culture room afterwards and said she's upstairs. I went up immediately and she started her 'You called me to come up and I did and where were you??? I'm very busy, you know!!!') Ya, and I am doing you a fu*king favour and I still have my own work to do... Such an ARSE isn't she?
Anyhow I won't let her spoil my 'wonderful' weekend... Have to come back to work. Bleagh. But at least that's my own work.
All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl! Thankfully I have other activities planned; dinner with some Chinese friends tomorrow night (more jiao zi! happy! :D), some boat repairing on Sun afternoon (hope weather will be ok) and I shall attempt to cook a pork rib dish for dinner either on Sat or Sun and if I can squeeze in some time for a dessert, I shall make something. ^_^
Posted by :
Ping
My first
visit to the gynaechologist this Mon, in 27 years (5 months & 17 days). It was somewhat embarrassing, even if you know he's doing the doctor stuff.
I'd decided to go for a checkup because after speaking to my German girlfriends, I realised it's common here to do a routine checkup (a Pap smear, ultrasound, a quick breast check) yearly starting in their twenties and that it's included in the compulsory health insurance I have to pay for here anyway. The doc was nice, (spoke English, quite important) and kept reassuring me (I'd told him I've never done a checkup like this).
I asked the doc at what age do they recommend girls to start having a Pap smear done and he said about 20 years old. Correct me if I'm wrong, but back home, I think our 'shy' Asian culture and the cost of having these checkups done routinely are reasons why I've never done it. To me, I used to think one doesn't go to the gynae unless one is pregnant.
Anyway, the whole process took less than 30 minutes. I thought the ultrasound was cool. :) And I'm all normal. Yay. So if they don't call me after they get my Pap smear results after 2 weeks then everything's a-ok. :D
Then next week, I go see a dermatologist for my dry skin. (You see, here, under the health insurance, when you first go to a doctor in whichever quarter of the year, you pay 10 euros and after that, you don't have to pay anything, other than for medications, to other doctors you see in the same quarter, so I have to make use of this in the last week of this quarter since I already paid.) Also planning to get my teeth checked by a dentist before the end of March. hee.
I'd decided to go for a checkup because after speaking to my German girlfriends, I realised it's common here to do a routine checkup (a Pap smear, ultrasound, a quick breast check) yearly starting in their twenties and that it's included in the compulsory health insurance I have to pay for here anyway. The doc was nice, (spoke English, quite important) and kept reassuring me (I'd told him I've never done a checkup like this).
I asked the doc at what age do they recommend girls to start having a Pap smear done and he said about 20 years old. Correct me if I'm wrong, but back home, I think our 'shy' Asian culture and the cost of having these checkups done routinely are reasons why I've never done it. To me, I used to think one doesn't go to the gynae unless one is pregnant.
Anyway, the whole process took less than 30 minutes. I thought the ultrasound was cool. :) And I'm all normal. Yay. So if they don't call me after they get my Pap smear results after 2 weeks then everything's a-ok. :D
Then next week, I go see a dermatologist for my dry skin. (You see, here, under the health insurance, when you first go to a doctor in whichever quarter of the year, you pay 10 euros and after that, you don't have to pay anything, other than for medications, to other doctors you see in the same quarter, so I have to make use of this in the last week of this quarter since I already paid.) Also planning to get my teeth checked by a dentist before the end of March. hee.
Posted by :
Ping
Monday, March 09, 2009
My cells are blue!!! :D
And that is absolutely good news (means at least a part of my experiment worked)!!! :D (Thank you, for all the 'crossing' you all did for me!) I was so elated that I did a little dance around the lab! Hee... And the Prof was really happy to see that under the microscope too. That means I can continue with more experiments. It's so nice to get some (positive) results. Especially since I've repeated this experiment twice before with not-too-heartening results (although each time was slightly better than the next). And it's with some pride that I can say I'd suggested the changes to the protocol after reading a paper doing similar viral transfection. (A bit of self-consolation that I am not so stupid after all. hee.)
Am hoping that later when we look at part II (plasmid transfection) of the experiments which I finished over the weekend, it will also give us some hope for future work.
I have less than a month left in this lab, so hope that the experiments will go on smoothly (and that I don't have to come back every weekend till then)...
Update: The plasmid transfections did not seem to work (i.e. no obvious differences in fluorescence between transfected and control cells). :( But since we are trying out a new protocol, probably it still needs to be refined and there's yet hope... Let's see...
Am hoping that later when we look at part II (plasmid transfection) of the experiments which I finished over the weekend, it will also give us some hope for future work.
I have less than a month left in this lab, so hope that the experiments will go on smoothly (and that I don't have to come back every weekend till then)...
Update: The plasmid transfections did not seem to work (i.e. no obvious differences in fluorescence between transfected and control cells). :( But since we are trying out a new protocol, probably it still needs to be refined and there's yet hope... Let's see...
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Ping
Friday, March 06, 2009
And Winter drops in to remind us that it is still very much present
The Sun was out yesterday morning, then in the afternoon there was some light rain, by evening der Schneeregen (snow rain, i.e. wet snow) started and overnight, it's winter wonderland again and no signs of it stopping yet.
I was too lazy to walk out to the mensa in the snow with my Italian colleagues for lunch, (coincidentally I found out yesterday that one of them who's only here for 2 weeks to do some experiments is doing his PhD in Montpellier and speaks French so I get to practise a little. :D) so sat at my desk and ate the salad and sandwich I prepared this morning. I still like the snow (if it is not grey and muddy) and also enjoy eating with my very warm, outspoken Italian colleagues, but because am incubating the blocking solution for my immunocytochemistry experiment so I didn't want to bother to go and rush back.
I wish I could go home earlier today... For some reason I always feel so tired on Fridays...
I was too lazy to walk out to the mensa in the snow with my Italian colleagues for lunch, (coincidentally I found out yesterday that one of them who's only here for 2 weeks to do some experiments is doing his PhD in Montpellier and speaks French so I get to practise a little. :D) so sat at my desk and ate the salad and sandwich I prepared this morning. I still like the snow (if it is not grey and muddy) and also enjoy eating with my very warm, outspoken Italian colleagues, but because am incubating the blocking solution for my immunocytochemistry experiment so I didn't want to bother to go and rush back.
I wish I could go home earlier today... For some reason I always feel so tired on Fridays...
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Ping
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Before it gets here, it's already gone...
It's really motivating to be part of what would hopefully be a new discovery, seeing small results of my experiments leading to that conclusion but it means that I have to work harder, to finish as many experiments as I can in the short time I have in the lab. And that equates to coming back on Sat to finish the 2nd part of my immunocytochemistry and Sun to stop my transfection... There goes my weekend... Sigh. What to do...? Such is the life of a researcher (read: lab rat).
I can only cross my fingers (and toes. You too please! Eyes too, if u like. :p) for favourable results from the work. Then the Prof will be so pleased (as I said before she's a really nice lady) and my project will look really good! :D
I can only cross my fingers (and toes. You too please! Eyes too, if u like. :p) for favourable results from the work. Then the Prof will be so pleased (as I said before she's a really nice lady) and my project will look really good! :D
Posted by :
Ping
