Day 298

Summer time is in full swing and it makes me so happy! 

This week has flown by, as all of them seem to have done lately.  I’ve been looking forward to seeing the film version of The Fault In Our Stars since I even knew there was a film being made. It finally made it to the cinema last week, so a couple of my fellow undergrads  (with fair warning that I would be embarrassingly emotional!) joined me at the movies on Tuesday after work. It was so good! I was really pleased at how true to the novel they kept it and aside from the sad, sad story, we did a little shopping and had a fun afternoon out of the lab. 

On Friday, J and I took an early weekend and left the lab to enjoy the beautiful weather. We got frozen yogurt downtown and walked to the capitol building (left over from when I.C was the State capitol) to enjoy the sunset. After a gossip and plan making session we headed to the artisan market to get dinner and parted ways with plans for the day after. The next morning I went to the gym, ran my errands and got ready for J and her sister, D, to pick me up to go to the pool. We went to the city park, which has a huge swimming pool surrounded by sun beds- it is all hidden away in a cute little forest to ‘lay out’, as J and her sister call it. We spent three or four hours tanning in the blazing sun and then moved downtown to buy fresh fruit smoothies. It was a beautifully relaxing day, and so good to see D again! 

Iowa City Capitol Building 

Sunbathing at City Park Pool

Sunday was equally as chilled. In the afternoon, I had arranged for the lab to meet at Leaf Kitchen cafe for afternoon tea. Me and J met the new Brazilian undergrad and walked to meet my boss, his wife and daughter, my supervisor, L, our friend from the lab opposite ours and G, our lab’s research intern. The afternoon tea wasn’t exactly what I expected (or what any British person would consider Afternoon Tea, for that matter) but it was still really tasty! We had vegetable quiche, grilled vegetable, soft cheese and vinaigrette on bruschetta, strawberry and peach tartlets and scones with jam and cream. Of course this was all served with tea- I tried the honey brush ginger and earl grey- and topped off with chocolate truffles. 

Afternoon Tea!

This week was short and fast! I spent most of Monday to Wednesday preparing my presentation for the lab retreat which we headed out on on Thursday afternoon. As the seven of us- my boss, my supervisor, the two grad students, the lab’s synthetic chemist and the research intern (I was only undergrad asked to attend, which was very flattering)- all piled into the suburban and jumped on the interstate, the heavens well and truly opened! In fact, in the space of the next hour of driving, I received nine flood/tornado/storm warning messages from my cell network. I’m not sure I’ve ever been on the road in weather like it. The rain was so hard we couldn’t see three metres in front of us- which didn’t exactly bode well for the open-air theatre we were on our way to picnic at. My boss had bought tickets for a production of my favourite shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. By the time we reached Spring Green, a little town just outside of Madison, WI where the American Player’s Theatre is, the rain had thankfully turned into a slow drizzle (which, in the 30 degree heat, was actually really refreshing!)

Picnic in the drizzle

My boss, C, bought a cooler full of beautiful picnic food- crusty breads, a selection of cheeses, humous, dips, meats and wines- which we enjoyed under a candlelit woodland pagoda whilst listening to a violinist. Just as we were finishing up and getting ready to follow the woodland walk up to the open air theatre, the torrential rain reappeared. The play was scheduled for 7.30 but was postponed until 8.00 due to the rain, during which time we got brandy-coffees and plastic ponchos and enjoyed the damp heat. Much to my relief, the play wasn’t cancelled due to bad weather and was so, so good! The theatre was full, but we were lucky enough to be on the front row- the actors were literally centimetres away! I’m completely biased, since I love the back-and-forth of Much Ado, but I really think that this experience was one of my favourites from my time in the states, and so good that it was shared with my lovely lab-mates! 

We didn’t leave the theatre until almost Midnight and didn’t reach out hotel in downtown Madison until past 1am. We checked in, S, L and I sharing a room like we did last month in Chicago with the four boys in pairs in the rooms either side of us and promptly crashed. The next morning, we all convened by the lakefront for breakfast and proceeded to one of the University of Madison-Winsconsin’s conference rooms to begin giving our presentations. It took about three hours for us to finish our individual talks and all in all I was pretty pleased with mine since my boss seemed equally happy with it. This is good for me to hear as it means I can get to work writing my placement report and have it ready before I leave in a few weeks time. 

Giving my presentation

After the presentations we headed back to the lake-side for lunch and beers in the sun. A few of us went for a little sightseeing walk around Madison and up to the observatory which overlooks the city- it was so picturesque! That evening we went to an Irish gastropub for food and left around 9.30pm for the drive back to IC which ended up taking about four hours, passed by radio channel-hopping to nineties ballads that we did bad karaoke too and eating potato chips. 

Safe to say I overdressed!

A fox playing in a park in Madison 

Not sure how many of these I’ll have the chance to write before meeting the fan in San Fran- times a-running out! I’ll just be trying to make the most of it before I jump on that plane! 

Thanks for reading!!! 

love love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx