I feel guilty for not posting. Things are moving pretty quickly here and it is hard to have time to think let alone relfect and then write. My supervisor and the honour's student I came here with have left. My husband came in at the begining of August and stayed for three weeks as well. It was amazing getting to share a bit of this experience with him. I think extrordanary experiences are better when shared.
Now I am here in South Africa alone. I am still enjoying myself but it would be nice to have someone to turn and comment to when you see a funny sign or a beautiful bird.
I am feverishly working out the lab portion of my project. It is going well but it seeems like every piece requires fretting, researching, and thinking over. Lab work leaves me feeling drained and insecure. There are so many things I do not understand well. I knew this already but doing lab work for me is an especially humbling experience. I have the uptmost respect for fulltime labratory researchers.
It is a Saturday now and I have come in to make some gels and pour them in my dishes. I had a wonderful walk into the University from the hostel with another guest. He wanted to see the University. We stopped in at a Spring festival and I ate a delisious falafel wrap and bought a braclet made out of saftey pins for 3 rand. I found some old field guides for snakes, and fish and mammals to share with my biologicaly inclined friends when I get back.
Today has been the best day so far since Chris has left and I think it was because I had someone to share it with. Thank you Antony.
Glad you are feeling better. We are enjoying NC. Here is Aunt Gena
ReplyDeleteHi, Molly. We are so glad for the time with family here at Seven Devils. Nice weather. Wild Turkeys. Beautiful wild flowers. Miss you very much. Wishing you all the best. Aunt Gena
Love mom.
In case it wasn't clear, that first post was from your Mom and Aunt Gena using my Google account to post.
ReplyDeleteYour "drained and insecure" feeling when doing lab work is a familiar one to me and probably to most anyone who sets out to innovate in any way. Any time I'm stepping outside my comfort zone, which is a lot of the time, I feel that way. Even though you have done everything right [touched all the bases], as best you can do based on your understanding, you've never done it before and so can't be sure that the results will be what you need. Having been there and done that many times, I can say with some confidence, if you touch all the bases [which you seem to be doing], you'll get there; maybe not the way you expected; and maybe not as soon as you expected; but you'll get there. Keep pushing and keep touching all the bases. Good luck.