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Finally, I have internet again (full-time now) and I can add some of the pictures from the last adventure of my roadtrip/my first full day in Columbia, SC. It's been about four days since I said goodbye to my sister and headed back to the university to meet the rest of my roommates and spend my first night in Rutledge Hall. I have to say that it has been four of the best days of my life.
The day (Sunday) started though with my sister and I getting up and checking out of our ghetto hotel (it was ghetto because of the Spanish lady and front desk lady having detailed discussions about detergent, the lady potting plants in front of the front office, the dryers outside under the stairwell, and the men sitting outside fixing their car in the parking lot). Nevertheless, it was still a nice place to sleep and the people we nice. We took off from there around 12pm and headed downtown to track down Regina, my USC contact. After driving around all confused, we finally found the Horseshoe and Regina in a little cafe and I picked up my room key and a map of USC
(yes, the map would've been more helpful like 1 hour earlier but oh well). Even after exploring here for about four days, I'm still not sure where April and I were...oh well.
We drove over into the Horseshoe to the back of Rutledge Hall, my new home for the next two months, and I met my first roommate, Sarah. Then we took off to explore a little bit. Being the biology student that I am, it only seemed fitting that we take off to....THE ZOO!! It was my first time at a zoo (besides SeaWorld) and it was a great way to get an introduction to the city. Between the sneezing from the allergies, I was pretty much hopping around and skipping about as we rushed from one exhibit to the other. About 1.5 hours later, we had circled pretty much the entire zoo (I stayed away from the Botanical Gardens since my nose probably couldn't handle it). And we got to see tigers, lions, lemurs, gorillas, giraffes, turtles, zebras, monkeys, meerkats, a hippo, ostriches, lots of various species of birds, penguins, alligators, and lots of fish including my personal favorite...a leopard shark!! It was a nice way to
spend the afternoon and sadly, it was soon over and I was waving goodbye to my sister as I returned to the university (yes, I admit that I got lost again but luckily I hit a street that sounded familiar and I eventually found my way).
The past three days have been spent meeting all of the other REU students, bonding with my roomies (who are AWESOME by the way), meeting the sharkman (Joe) and all of his lab cohorts, learning how to navigate through the Russell House (yes, I got lost in a building), going downstairs in the underground library, and learning the ins-and-outs of PCR (polymerase chain reaction -- which finally worked today!!!! 😊 yay me!!). And apparently this weekend, the REU group might get to go to the zoo again so it should be fun!! Now, I am off to bed as I keep high hopes that my PCR ran well over the night before I run it out on an agarose gel tomorrow. One can only hope...
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Lisa Bogert
non-member comment
Hi from Lisa B.
Hi Kari - I'm happy to hear that you are having a great time. It's amazing what a freeway and a little sunshine can do for one's spirit. Hopefully by now you have figured out how to maneuver through the horseshoes. Hang in there and keep us posted. We're finally moved into our new digs. It's not so bad just really off the beaten path. Take care. Lisa B.