Day 24

Today was a very productive day for me. I went to the lab this morning and started on extracting the DNA from my cotton samples. We did it as a big group because there were also about fifty corn samples we had to test because Dr. Li didn’t think he had been sold Bt cotton from Monsanto. He asked the graduate students to test all the plants to find out. Everyone helped who is in our lab except Lily, Alex, and Chen because they had their own things to do. It took awhile because each sample has to be carefully ground up while being cooled with liquid nitrogen. Everyone had their own job, and I worked solely on my own samples with the help of Ibraham, so I didn’t mess up the corn samples. We got everything ground up before lunch. Then we all came back after eating, so we could finish it today. I had to add chemicals and centrifuge it many times, but there weren’t many gaps of waiting like there was with Elisa. After I had extracted the DNA, which is a tiny pellet that I dissolved in water, I learned how to make electrophoresis gel. When you inject the gel with the DNA samples and blue dye, it runs through the gel due to an electrical charge attached to it. My ending result ended up being what you are shown in forensic shows. It’s the blue lines of a DNA profile. It was so cool, and I guess I did a really good job for my first time because I injected it correctly with only two of eleven mistakes. I guess that is better than most first timers. The ending result wasn’t very good though because we shut the electrical charge off early, so we could make it to supper. It’s okay though because I will be doing it again sometime this week for more practice. I basically did everything myself since everyone was busy with the corn samples. If I had a question they gladly stopped and answered, but I understood the directions I had copied down pretty well. I am pretty proud of myself for being so self sufficient.
Alex and Lily had already gone to supper by the time I was done, so Baria took me. We went to a different cafeteria that I have been going to. The food there was pretty good, too. Then, Baria invited me back to her room to see it and meet her roommates. She shares a room with five other girls. It was about a half size bigger than standard dorm rooms in the US. The undergraduate students have eight people per room, and it is usually the size of a normal two person dorm room. It is just big enough for four bunk beds and some storage cabinets for clothes. They used their space very well, and it looked much bigger than it was though. She showed me a bunch of her pictures and showed me different things in her room. Her roommates are very nice and speak very good English. They also don’t have a bathroom in their building, so they have to go to a big shower house for bathing and using the bathroom. That would be inconvenient to me. I am glad I have my own bathroom.