The final countdown

The past couple weeks have been busy, busy, busy--crunch time in the lab. I've pulled a couple 15 hour days with my REU-lab mate (which, of course means having dinner delivered to us in our building, see below).  We completed amplifying DNA and sent it to the Center for Genomics Research and Biocomputing (CGRB) here on OSU's campus for sequencing.

Best thing about staying late? Jimmy John's.

Last weekend, we went out to the coastal town of Waldport.  It's a very cute little town, and although the wind was merciless, we HAD to go to the beach.  We also poked around some of the gift shops and thrift stores.

 

We also drove south to Cape Perpetua, which was a beautifully scenic drive along the coast. There is an area called "Devil's churn", where the cliff rocks recede inland, and the water crashing against the cliff at high tide makes quite a spectacle. Unfortunately, we went between tides, so it wasn't very dramatic. 

On our drive back, we stopped to eat at a Mom & Pop joint called Blue Whale. It was there that I ate the first deep fried meal I've had since leaving WV 9 weeks ago (a fried chicken sandwich).  It was enjoyable (and reminded me of the greasy meals waiting for me back home), but I didn't find myself missing it at all this summer. I've noticed that since living here, I've been eating much more healthy meals (hardly any red meat, no fried foods), and the temptation for eating unhealthy foods doesn't have a large presence here like it does in WV.

Last Sunday, I worked up the courage to do something I've always wanted to do--get a tattoo!

It was inspired by the book my mom used to read to me and my sister when we were young--Guess How Much I Love You. The book is about a little nutbrown hare and a big nutbrown hare going back and forth trying to express how much they love each other. At the end of the story, the little nutbrown hare says, "I love you all the way up to the moon", and falls asleep before the big nutbrown hare replies, "I love you all the way up to the moon...and back."

 

 

 

This past week I've spent dealing with the large (incredibly large) data set that resulted from sequencing DNA found in 105 samples.  I started out trying to analyze the data using a program called QIIME (Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology), but this program only works in Linux. In addition to this speedbump, I ran into several other issues with this program, so I switched to a program that runs on Windows called Mothur.  I've stuck with this program, but it's taken me a while to learn how to code all the commands and get everything working correctly (even if there is a step-by-step tutorial available online), since the dataset is so large (it takes a long time to run each command).

After a longggg week, one of my mentors extended an invitation to myself and the other REU students to go crabbing in Waldport. It was the PERFECT day--sunny but not too hot, and plenty of crabs jumping into our pots.

 The bait that goes into the crab pots is often mink (they are raised in local farms and killed for their fur, which is completely awful). Being raised in WV, of course I was the first one to grab a frozen mink! Daddy didn't raise no yuppy girl, that's for sure.

 Securing the bait to the pot

 Awesome roommate selfie

 Can you feel the excitement in this boat?!

 Pulling up the first pot!

 Being law abiding citizens, we sorted through the crabs to throw back the females and the ones that were too small.

 Baby crab!

 There were lots of seals hanging out on the sand bar. We also saw them poking their heads up in the water around our pots--apparently, they also thing the mink bait is a tasty meal.

Fruits of our labor--8 crabs!  Of course I didn't eat any (don't like seafood), but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

This is probably my last blog post (sad, I know). I will be getting on the Hutshuttle to the airport on Friday night and flying home Saturday morning. From there, I will drive to Huntington on Sunday and starting classes on Monday.