How to kill your E.coli?
Door: Samantha de Bruijn
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Samantha
21 Oktober 2010 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Glasgow
Time for an update again! I’ll start with the school related things.
Our schedule of the last two weeks (4-15 October) consisted of one hour of lecture a day (9-10am of course) and a few hours of laboratory class right after the lecture or in the afternoon. This time it was less about learning how to work with a spectrophotometer, but more of: what is the best way to kill my E.coli bacteria (although the official aim was: “An experiment to isolate and characterize bacterial mutants constitutive for the lac operon”). Not that difficult, but that’s usually the case when growing bacteria cultures. Just put them onto another growth medium, give them 48 hours to grow and see what happened. Next week we will start two weeks of probably spending from 10am to 5pm in the laboratory, playing around with some proteins. It is said to be a quite a difficult course, but we’ll see.
We’re still very surprised about the rules in the laboratories over here. You’re allowed to walk into the laboratory without your lab coat on and you usually don’t even have to wear safety glasses! But then again, it’s a biological experiment and the bacteria are the most ‘dangerous’ things we come across. Another thing is that we have to take our normal coat and bags into the laboratory and put them under the tables. No trouble in case there is a fire and we have to get out of the laboratory in a hurry without tripping over all the bags. No, just in case a bacterium jumps off the table onto your belongings. Right.
Tuesday the 5th I had my first tutorial. Mathilde and Emily (Scottish girl, also my lab partner during the bacteria 'experiment' ) are also in the same tutorial class and we had to discuss enzyme kinetics. Tutorial classes are meant to practice writing essays, improve your presentation skills and to get more confident in solving problems, all within a group of 3-4 follow students. You really need to stay awake, because there is quite a big chance that you may have to answer the next question. Up till now we have had to make 3/6 tutorial problems and we have to hand in an essay in about two weeks time.
That Wednesday Mathilde and I had our first Gaelic class. Although we only learned to say our name and 'how are you', it was really difficult! For example: “How are you?” is “Ciamar a tha thu?” and pronounced as (in Dutch) “Kimmer a-ha-oe?” or “I'm good, thank you” is “Tha mi gu math, tapadh leat”, which you pronounce as “Ha mie goe ma, tapa lacht”. The way Fiona (the teacher) teaches us, is not the ideal way to learn a language for both Mathilde and me. She first keeps repeating a sentence, then we have to say it out loud a few times and after that we finally get to see how it's written. The second lesson was a bit easier though, because by then we already knew a couple of words. Although it is quite difficult, I really enjoy it and I would really like to learn some more. I even ordered some Gaelic children books (The Hunchback of the Notre Dame and some small informative books about the Aztec and the Spanish Armada) to try and read when I get home. It's kind of my end goal to be able to read them.
Wednesday the 6th there was also a 'cheese & wine party' from the International Society, which we attended after the Gaelic lesson (and Leoni after her Frisbee training). It was really nice to hang out with the friends we have made so far. Most of them live in Firhill Court as well, but we met them during the International week. There are a few Dutch girls, some German girls and guys and a girl from Finland. There are also some French people Leoni and Mathilde met during their Aberdeen trip and a girl from Estonia. The friends from Firhill Court had organized an Mexican Evening that Thursday in block C11 (we live in C6 ) with wraps and summer music. It was really, really nice and we had a really good time.
Friday I went to Zumba again after three hours of waiting in the round-room (we were finished by half 2 ). Too bad it was exactly, and I really mean exactly, the same as the week before. The same steps and the songs were even in the same order! I hope it's not going to be like this every week, but in that case there are enough other things to do on a Friday afternoon.
Saturday and Sunday were quite relaxed. On Sunday Mathilde and I walked to the Starbucks to get a 'proper' internet connection and I started on my tutorial essay. Monday was nice too since we had a day off! The Sunday-Monday night was not as we had expected however. At about 4am the fire alarm started. First in the C-complex, but soon enough also in our rooms. We grabbed our jeans and coats and met each other in our hallway. By the time we were near the steps to get outside, people already started coming into the building again. It was, once again, false alarm. The smoke detectors are really sensitive here and when you burn something in the kitchen (with only the window as 'extractor hood' ) and open the door to the hallway, the alarm goes off quite easily. It really smelled like burned toast or something like that, so maybe someone fell asleep while making a meal after getting back from the pub.
Fire alarms like these happen quite often. I think this was the third or fourth time for us (C-block), but you can hear the fire alarms in the other blocks every now and then as well. Most of the people living in Firhill Court don't even go outside anymore and if you do, people from the reception ask who burned something this time. The fire department isn't usually in a hurry either, if they are called anyway.
It took us quite some time to fall asleep again, so we were glad we could have a sleep-in that Monday.
Thursday 14th I had a meeting with Eveline and Marie-Louise. They both are also IRUN ambassadors staying in Glasgow for one or two semesters. Together we started making the presentation Marie-Louise is going to give during the 'studying abroad fair' (as I mentioned in my 'First week of school'-entry). Unfortunately I had another lecture that afternoon, so Marie-Louise and Eveline finished it.
We wanted to meet in the library, but for some reason I couldn't get in! The student information desk in the library couldn't find the problem, except that my card wasn't registered. The guards at the entrance of the library wouldn't let me in on their card either. I “had to see the Student Service Desk first”. I didn't understand a thing of what was going on. I had used it many times before without any problems. So after my lecture I went to see the Student Service Desk. After waiting for about half an hour it was as simple as clicking a button. Apparently they had blocked all the student cards from students that hadn't paid their tuition fees yet and because I'm an Erasmus student and don't have to pay any fees, something went wrong. Well, at least it has been fixed now. I wonder whether Mathilde and/or Leoni will have the same problem when trying to enter the library, since Eveline and Marie-Louise could get in without any trouble.
That night there was a traditional ceilidh organized by the Gaelic society. Leoni came along with me and we had expected a dancing ceilidh, like the two we had seen so far. It turned out to be an evening without dancing but with people from the society playing instruments or singing Gaelic/Scottish songs. Although it wasn't really what we had expected, most of the performers were nice to listen to (certainly not all!) But we could have done with a bit more Gaelic to English translation, though.
Saturday the 16th my boyfriend (Guy) is coming over for almost a week. Too bad I have quite a busy time-table that week, but I'm really looking forward to seeing him again and showing him around.
Love, Samantha
-------------------------------
Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
Gaelic Department: www.gla.ac.uk/gaelic
Gaelic Class (beginners): http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_175403_en.pdf
Gaelic Class worksheets: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/celtic/gaelictheuniversityofglasgow/agionnsachadhlearningopportunities/
Gaelic Society: http://oiseanach.org/
Our schedule of the last two weeks (4-15 October) consisted of one hour of lecture a day (9-10am of course) and a few hours of laboratory class right after the lecture or in the afternoon. This time it was less about learning how to work with a spectrophotometer, but more of: what is the best way to kill my E.coli bacteria (although the official aim was: “An experiment to isolate and characterize bacterial mutants constitutive for the lac operon”). Not that difficult, but that’s usually the case when growing bacteria cultures. Just put them onto another growth medium, give them 48 hours to grow and see what happened. Next week we will start two weeks of probably spending from 10am to 5pm in the laboratory, playing around with some proteins. It is said to be a quite a difficult course, but we’ll see.
We’re still very surprised about the rules in the laboratories over here. You’re allowed to walk into the laboratory without your lab coat on and you usually don’t even have to wear safety glasses! But then again, it’s a biological experiment and the bacteria are the most ‘dangerous’ things we come across. Another thing is that we have to take our normal coat and bags into the laboratory and put them under the tables. No trouble in case there is a fire and we have to get out of the laboratory in a hurry without tripping over all the bags. No, just in case a bacterium jumps off the table onto your belongings. Right.
Tuesday the 5th I had my first tutorial. Mathilde and Emily (Scottish girl, also my lab partner during the bacteria 'experiment' ) are also in the same tutorial class and we had to discuss enzyme kinetics. Tutorial classes are meant to practice writing essays, improve your presentation skills and to get more confident in solving problems, all within a group of 3-4 follow students. You really need to stay awake, because there is quite a big chance that you may have to answer the next question. Up till now we have had to make 3/6 tutorial problems and we have to hand in an essay in about two weeks time.
That Wednesday Mathilde and I had our first Gaelic class. Although we only learned to say our name and 'how are you', it was really difficult! For example: “How are you?” is “Ciamar a tha thu?” and pronounced as (in Dutch) “Kimmer a-ha-oe?” or “I'm good, thank you” is “Tha mi gu math, tapadh leat”, which you pronounce as “Ha mie goe ma, tapa lacht”. The way Fiona (the teacher) teaches us, is not the ideal way to learn a language for both Mathilde and me. She first keeps repeating a sentence, then we have to say it out loud a few times and after that we finally get to see how it's written. The second lesson was a bit easier though, because by then we already knew a couple of words. Although it is quite difficult, I really enjoy it and I would really like to learn some more. I even ordered some Gaelic children books (The Hunchback of the Notre Dame and some small informative books about the Aztec and the Spanish Armada) to try and read when I get home. It's kind of my end goal to be able to read them.
Wednesday the 6th there was also a 'cheese & wine party' from the International Society, which we attended after the Gaelic lesson (and Leoni after her Frisbee training). It was really nice to hang out with the friends we have made so far. Most of them live in Firhill Court as well, but we met them during the International week. There are a few Dutch girls, some German girls and guys and a girl from Finland. There are also some French people Leoni and Mathilde met during their Aberdeen trip and a girl from Estonia. The friends from Firhill Court had organized an Mexican Evening that Thursday in block C11 (we live in C6 ) with wraps and summer music. It was really, really nice and we had a really good time.
Friday I went to Zumba again after three hours of waiting in the round-room (we were finished by half 2 ). Too bad it was exactly, and I really mean exactly, the same as the week before. The same steps and the songs were even in the same order! I hope it's not going to be like this every week, but in that case there are enough other things to do on a Friday afternoon.
Saturday and Sunday were quite relaxed. On Sunday Mathilde and I walked to the Starbucks to get a 'proper' internet connection and I started on my tutorial essay. Monday was nice too since we had a day off! The Sunday-Monday night was not as we had expected however. At about 4am the fire alarm started. First in the C-complex, but soon enough also in our rooms. We grabbed our jeans and coats and met each other in our hallway. By the time we were near the steps to get outside, people already started coming into the building again. It was, once again, false alarm. The smoke detectors are really sensitive here and when you burn something in the kitchen (with only the window as 'extractor hood' ) and open the door to the hallway, the alarm goes off quite easily. It really smelled like burned toast or something like that, so maybe someone fell asleep while making a meal after getting back from the pub.
Fire alarms like these happen quite often. I think this was the third or fourth time for us (C-block), but you can hear the fire alarms in the other blocks every now and then as well. Most of the people living in Firhill Court don't even go outside anymore and if you do, people from the reception ask who burned something this time. The fire department isn't usually in a hurry either, if they are called anyway.
It took us quite some time to fall asleep again, so we were glad we could have a sleep-in that Monday.
Thursday 14th I had a meeting with Eveline and Marie-Louise. They both are also IRUN ambassadors staying in Glasgow for one or two semesters. Together we started making the presentation Marie-Louise is going to give during the 'studying abroad fair' (as I mentioned in my 'First week of school'-entry). Unfortunately I had another lecture that afternoon, so Marie-Louise and Eveline finished it.
We wanted to meet in the library, but for some reason I couldn't get in! The student information desk in the library couldn't find the problem, except that my card wasn't registered. The guards at the entrance of the library wouldn't let me in on their card either. I “had to see the Student Service Desk first”. I didn't understand a thing of what was going on. I had used it many times before without any problems. So after my lecture I went to see the Student Service Desk. After waiting for about half an hour it was as simple as clicking a button. Apparently they had blocked all the student cards from students that hadn't paid their tuition fees yet and because I'm an Erasmus student and don't have to pay any fees, something went wrong. Well, at least it has been fixed now. I wonder whether Mathilde and/or Leoni will have the same problem when trying to enter the library, since Eveline and Marie-Louise could get in without any trouble.
That night there was a traditional ceilidh organized by the Gaelic society. Leoni came along with me and we had expected a dancing ceilidh, like the two we had seen so far. It turned out to be an evening without dancing but with people from the society playing instruments or singing Gaelic/Scottish songs. Although it wasn't really what we had expected, most of the performers were nice to listen to (certainly not all!) But we could have done with a bit more Gaelic to English translation, though.
Saturday the 16th my boyfriend (Guy) is coming over for almost a week. Too bad I have quite a busy time-table that week, but I'm really looking forward to seeing him again and showing him around.
Love, Samantha
-------------------------------
Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
Gaelic Department: www.gla.ac.uk/gaelic
Gaelic Class (beginners): http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_175403_en.pdf
Gaelic Class worksheets: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/celtic/gaelictheuniversityofglasgow/agionnsachadhlearningopportunities/
Gaelic Society: http://oiseanach.org/
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
