Day 220

Wow, long time, no write, right? The last three weeks have been manic, to say the least. Safe to say, flying transatlantic for a nine day visit is not ideal. However, I have no reasons at all to be complaining- flying is possibly my most favourite activity and my trip home was brilliant! I saw so many of the people I love and spent a good amount of (but by no means enough) time with all of my closest friends and family. And, of course, I finally turned 21! An age that I would probably otherwise dismiss, however being in the USA gave my 21st Birthday a whole new importance. I spent the day at the spa with one of my best friends, the night with my closest friends and family and generally being spoilt- I was definitely one lucky girl! Even my lab-friends from 5000 miles away got in on the act with a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ sung down the phone- so sweet!

 I also managed to do a few of the things I haven’t managed since last summer; see my little brother play football, head down to bath for a sleepover with my beloved ex-flatmate and dinner at one of my fave restaurants, Bills, have a balti at the Indian my family and I have been regularly visiting since I was born, go to the dentist (not so fun… but necessary, nonetheless) and go holiday clothes shopping with my Mom and Little sister (more painful than the dentists but also necessary!) In fact, the only dampener on the whole thing was not being able to hug my globe-trotting bestie to say thank you for her incredibly cute and thoughtful present- still, we’re on the countdown to our reunion! 

View of downtown Chicago flying into O'hare

My friend J picked me up from the airport on Wednesday evening, by which time I’d been awake about twenty hours and was well and truly ready for a sleep! Bright and early Thursday morning I headed in to the lab to be given a beautiful bunch of flowers and a card from my super sweet supervising post-doc. Since we share the same music taste, she is taking me to a gig to celebrate being 21 so that is definitely something to look forward to. On the insistence of my colleagues I took it pretty easy in the lab for that first Jet-lagged few days and on Friday night, J, her flatmate M and I got ready at their's and headed into IC for drinks and dance. I had so much fun!!! We began with very civilised cocktails in a piano bar called Eden, where J bought me a ‘Moscow Mule,’ this ginger flavoured, really refreshing cocktail that tasted like nothing I had ever drank before- yummy, yummy, yummy! After being ladies, we found ourselves in more student-friendly territory, a couple of typical bars, Pints and Summit (where we met up with another of J’s flatmates who had just gotten off her shift there) drinking the much more affordable Jack and Cokes. J introduced me to Fireball, this cinnamon flavoured whisky that’s really popular over-here, which was a pretty weird combo to say the least. I hate, hate, hate cinnamon and love whiskey- but its fair to say the cinnamon won this battle. Yuck. 

My flowers and card on my desk! 

IC was much more similar to home than I’d imagained; same packed-so-full-you-can-barely-breathe bars, same drunk-food stop for pizza on the stumble walk home (and can I just say, this was not just any pizza.  No. I had Guacamole, Pico de gallo and refried bean Pizzq. Mexican-Pizza. Genius!) and same forced drinking of large glass of water before collapsing into bed at J’s, where I crashed for the night. In the morning, her and I (J sadly minus her debit card- the unfortunate casualty of our night downtown) headed to meet our work friend G at the Hummingbird Diner for pancakes and eggs to soothe our battered bodies. I had the choc-chip pancakes with eggs over easy and hash-browns, solidifying by already firm belief that breakfast foods are the only foods truly worth eating. After my week at home and this blowout, the diet well and truly had to start again on Sunday!!!!

I spent the weekend getting re-settled, went grocery shopping, did a bit of cleaning and tested out my metatarsal with a leisurely couple of miles jog in the sun on Sunday afternoon. All nice and relaxing! At work on Wednesday I had a chat with my PI who mentioned, not for the first time, an offer of a pHD in his lab when I finish school in the UK- even saying that he’d spoken to the head of department who had offered to write me an open-ended letter of recommendation to essentially guarantee my acceptance into the grad school by U of Iowa! I feel so flattered and really pleased that I’ve made a good enough impression for my bosses to want to bring me back again but its such a huge, huge decision! As my PI says, its definitely something to think about and he’s been clear that I’m welcome back even if its just my last resort. If nothing else comes of my work here, I know that I’m such a lucky little undergrad to have been magically dropped in this lovely lab and met all of these great people! 

In other lab news, my boss, the lab’s post-doc and grad student, who are all part of the Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics consortium, have invited me to join them in Chicago in the first week of may for the annual conference. This is really exciting, a lab road trip to the Windy City and my first chance to experience downtown Chicago, where we are staying at the Hilton. Bring on May 7th! 

This evening I’ve got plans to head to a trivia night with a group of guys from the lab next door, complete with an en-route pita stop, hopefully followed by meeting up with J and M in town tonight (if I am back in time to make it) for a slightly more casual repeat of last friday’s events. I don’t have long left now and I intend to maximise every moment and opportunity to enjoy being here!

Have a great weekend!

Love love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx