Thursday, July 17, 2014

Mutation Frequency, Gym, and Dinner

The Group Picture
Normal time I wake up is 7:45 so I can get ready to get breakfast and be on my way slowly to class because I get to my building early so I just take my time when I walk. Instead of going to the classroom first we went to the lab. In the lab we counted the bacterial colonies on the Rifampicin plate we were waiting for to be finished. We calculated the bacterial concentration so we can find the mutation frequency using the cfu/mL of the LB plate that was already done and divided the number of bacterial colonies of the Rifampicin plate. Then we lysed one of the mutant colonies from the Rifampicin  plates, put it in the lysis tube, and used a centrafuge. After using the centrafuge we put it in the thermocycler for 15 minutes. From the thermocycler, we lysed the bacteria, and put it back into the centrafuge. We were taking the DNA from the bacteria in this process. Then before lunch we went into the classroom for a lecture about human pathogens, pathogenic bacteria, why they make us sick, and more about bacterial toxins. I learned that there was a hamburger outbreak of gastrointestinal disease in 1982.

At lunch I had salad, fruit, pita bread with humus, and mac-n-cheese. I sat with Alexa, Katherine, Eugenia, and Bella. After we were all finished eating most of us departed from each other. Alexa and Katherine walked halfway back to class with me since their class was on the way to my class. When I got to my class we started in the lab again. This time we took our samples out of the centrafuge and we took the DNA out and out it into another tube. Then we added loading dye to the DNA in order to load it in the gel with a pipette. My group sample didn't work so we used someone else's sample. After class I stayed for 20 minutes and I went back to my dorm and laid down for a bit before I went to the gym with Alexa. My roommate was supposed to come with us but she couldn't come because she wasn't feeling good. As we got to the gym I went to play basketball with some people that were there already and Alexa ran on the treadmill . Their names are Derrick, Eric, and Cam. We played on teams and my team won the first game and then we played another game with more people but I had to be subbed out because I had to get ready for dinner with people from UChicago.



Crème Brulee
At the dinner we met Troy an admissions officer, Peter another admissions officer, Teddy, Eric, Leilani, and Lily. The restaurant we went to is The Capital Grille. Before everyone started talking to each other we introduced ourselves. I sat by Lily and Peter but I mostly talked to Lily for the majority of the time. We both had interesting stories about our siblings. She also shared her interest in music and TV shows.  We also talked about the course I'm taking and what I do in this course. Then we ordered and I got the 

Sirloin w/ Lobster Tails
sirloin with lobster tails and for desert I had Creme Brulee. Out of the three Creme Brulees at three different restaurants and the Creme Brulee from The Capital Grille is bar far the best one. After the dinner we took a group photo like usual and then took cabs back to campus and luckily we got back before curfew.



Dinner with the Alumni

Fixing the streets.
My Breakfast
I woke up this morning at 7:45 AM to a big noise outside in the streets. I check to see what it was and it was construction workers fixing a part of the street close the sidewalk. I tried to ignore the noise but it was too loud for me to sleep, so I just woke up instead and got ready. Then, I went to the Dining Hall to get breakfast. After I finished , I came back to my room and got my stuff and as I think about what  comments my classmates were going to give me about the opposite of me that is my mom.

My Lunch
Tap Man
I got to class and my classmates were already, and then Evan showed us a funny YouTube video about “Baman and Piderman.” It was a really funny video but is about 30 minutes long and we only saw 10 minutes of it. Then, Achy came in and told us why she was late; she has allergies on her eyes and their very itchy. Achy then said to work on our journal. Today, I talked how high school soccer is totally different from a club team. I talked that in a club team I  practice two days a week and on weekends we play, but in high school we practice every day and it don’t matter what’s the weather conditions, if is raining we still have to practice.
Tap Man Again




After, Achy told us to stopped writing and then we started talking about our assignment. First, we started with Cristine; she wrote about her uncle how he has this cycle life go to jail, call his parents promising he will change, freedom and it keeps on repeating. Achy taught us that in the first paragraph you need to make a promise to the reader, meaning to get the reader attention. Then from the top you just keep breaking it down little by little until the end. Then, we started to reviewing Evan essay that is about his best friend not liking hard liquor because all his family are alcoholics and he didn’t wanted to end up like the rest of his family. Then, it was my essay to correct and they gave me some really nice feedback and I like that because I know I’m not perfect and with their opinion I can improve on my writing skills.

After we finished talking about my paper, Achy let us go at 11 AM to go get lunch and be back at 12:30 PM. I was glad that my classmates gave me feedback so I can go back to my essay and revise it to improve it and make it a better story.
I went straight to the Dining Hall and eat, so I can have a bit of time to look back at my essay and correct it. I went back to my class and we kept working on my others classmate essays and giving them feedback. We only stayed one hour in the class, until Achy let us go at 1:30 PM. Achy told us we have three things to do: Finish revising the story of your character POV, the one who we read their essay to correct it and get it done by tomorrow, and tomorrow morning when we finish on our journal to email it to her. I came straight to my room and started working on my story of George POV. I finished it at 4 PM and send it to Achy because it was do before 5 PM. After that, I started working on my essay again and fixing the things that my classmates gave me feedback on my essay, so it can be better. Later on, I got a text message from Alie reminded my cohorts and I to be ready at 5:30 PM for the dinner with the alumni.


My cohorts and I were really happy that finally we get to go out from the campus.  We were responsible to meetAlie at the Omni Hotel and we got a Uber to ourselves. Uber is a transportation network company, by using an app that will connect you with drivers of vehicles that you hire and will transport you anywhere in the city. Yes, you have to pay is not for free. While we were on our way to the hotel, we were talking about how we can’t wait for tomorrow and the weekend to come, so we can go downtown Chicago and explore the city.  We all forgot about school and homework and we were enjoying this little opportunity getting out of campus. When we got to the hotel the girls gave Alie a group hug and I was outside waiting. Alie got a little heart attack because she didn’t saw me in the group. Sorry Alie. Then, we were telling Alie how happy we were being back at the hotel even though it was only for 5 minutes. After we said hi to Alie, we started walking to the restaurant that was four blocks away from theOmni Hotel. On our way to the Capital Grille we were talking about what places we should go visit on the weekend. Alie was giving us options on where we can go and we all said that we don’t care where we go, we just want to see something else than the campus. 
Group Picture


When we got to the Capital Grille, the waiter took us to our table. Two minutes later the alumni came in their name are Teddy, Eric, Leilani, Lili. Then the admission guys came and their name are Troy and peter they are really cool dudes.  Troy did wrestling during his college year, he major in economics and graduated in 2010. He gave us swag bags and inside of them it had a Chicago T-shirts, sun glasses, Banner. It was a really great time at dinner with them they all made us laugh and it was great spending time with all of them.




The View at Night