Day 167 (already?!?!)

Wow. 167 days? Crazy! The six months since my arrival have flown by! As have these past few weeks. Nothing much has changed since I last wrote- work days have been just as long and the world still has a permanent two foot snow blanket. Generally, with work and trying to get fit and the freezing weather conditions, I haven’t had all that many opportunities to go out into the city and enjoy being here- but when I have, I have definitely taken advantage of them. 

Another view of the Iowa River (beneath a foot of snow and ice...)

The snow outside my apartment was actually deeper than my snow boots....

A few weeks ago I headed to my friend J’s for a wine and cheese and biscuits night, and to meet her flatmates (Who are all super friendly, over 21 and super excited to introduce me into the world of legal partying in IC as soon as my visa isn’t in jeopardy!) We chatted and chilled and it was nice to get a proper post-winter break catch up with J before she headed off to Thailand to meet some friends for a few weeks. We made tonnes of plans- Chicago, my 21st drinks, teasing out some restaurants. All in all definitely the relaxed, girly night I’d been missing. (J is now back from Asia and bought us each a cute little pair of chopsticks- below- and, of course, mine are floral….)

My little chopsticks, thanks J <3

On Friday 31st it was my friend G’s 24th birthday, so I took it upon myself to bake him what turned into the world’s largest cake. I spent an afternoon trying to figure out what sort of English cakes I hadn’t seen in America yet and finally decided on the old classic, Angel Cake. So, with great difficulty (and a lift from my supervisor,) I carted the world’s largest Angel Cake to the lab and fed literally everyone in the UIowa Biophysics department. Everyone said that it tasted yummy- and they’re not usually that nice, so hopefully it was actually good!

My take on an Angel Cake...

As a little lab trip the following saturday we headed to Mount Vernon, about 30 mins north of Iowa City to Cornell College- where the visiting undergrad, A, was studying, to watch his team get narrowly beaten in their penultimate basketball game of the season. To commiserate, we all headed to a local brewery/bar in a nearby (very quaint and cute) town called Solon, where in the presence of my older colleagues I enjoyed a couple of home-brewed ciders and shared some tapas nibbles to pass our lazy saturday. My boss’s little daughter, Baby B, who is only three years old and lots of fun to play with, and I bonded by singing nursery rhymes all afternoon (she was very excited to learn some new english variations!) and taking silly photos of the ‘adults’ while they chatted about boring, grown up science. I.e my work, haha.

mmmmmm Cider!

So cute!

Unbelievably, this past week saw the mid-way point of my time in the lab and, with this milestone came an opportunity for my Associate Professor to evaluate my progress in the lab. I was really, really chuffed with his feedback. Shockingly, I got 5/5 on every evaluation section but one (which he gave me a 4/5) and a truly complimentary paragraph about the work I’ve been doing! Looks like there’s hope for me in research yet!

To celebrate ‘Halfway Through Placement Week’ I held my first ever dinner party in my tiny little apartment! With special thanks to my Mom’s recipe book, I cooked up a beef lasagne and a special Eggplant version for J, who’s a vegetarian, with side salad and homemade garlic bread. It was a lovely, lovely sunday night involving lots of cheese, wine, pastries, gourmet ice cream and a cardboard-box fort erected by myself and Baby B (who also made me the cutest Valentine’s day card and a drawing for my refrigerator!) 

Er, between six adults on a Sunday night?

From my new best friend....

Right, I’m off to watch some more Olympics- since winter sports are literally my favourite thing in the world- and get a good night’s sleep before another manic tRNA-filled day tomorrow! 

(Only 34 days until I come home for my 21st! Yay!)

Love love xxxxxxxxxxxxxx