Week 12, Post 2: Harry Potter Part 3

I really enjoyed the part of the book when Harry got the invisibility cloak and found the mirror with his family in it. I liked it because he was so happy to see his family. I can only imagine how that would be, even though he couldn't actually touch them he could see them and that was great. It's almost no comparison, but I know I will be happy to see my family after this semester. I haven't seen them in such a long time it's crazy. I have never been away from my parents for this long. FaceTiming just isn't the same either, it only lasts a little while and you can't go actually do things together. I would relate the mirror a little bit to FaceTime though, only his family didn't exactly say much to him and they couldn't carry on much of a conversation. Plus, since he had never actually seen them in real life, he didn't know what they looked like. I bet in his day he would have loved to FaceTime his parents through the mirror. It was kind of sad when he was told that the mirror only reflected ones happiness. I thought it gave him a little bit of hope seeing that his parents were kind of still alive, or at least visible. I'm starting to wonder, with the wizard world and all, if his parents could actually see him on the other side too or if he was just staring into his thoughts. If only they could carry on a conversation with each other, that would have been good, but also Harry would have never wanted to leave the mirror. There must be some type of immortal world for wizards and witches after they die, because they are so magical and powerful, it would be insane if someone hadn't invented it by now. So instead of dying, they do 'die' but they go to the other side where other people who have died go.  I don't know if you watch the Vampire Diaries or not, but it is about all of that, and when a supernatural character dies, they would go through Bonnie, the anchor to 'the other side' where they would live until they found peace. Once a supernatural found peace, they would leave the horrible 'other side' to fully die. It's crazy because Bonnie could see people from both sides, living and dead, which was kind of cool because she could talk to some of her supernatural friends if they passed through to the other side still. Anyway, I loveeee the Vampire Diaries and I totally suggest you watch it, but if you want to check it out, watch an episode from the middle, those are the best, then start from the bottom if you like it.

Week 12, Additional Post: Experiences with King's College Hospital

One of the experiences I had during my internship was within the first month of being at King’s where I got to participate in a hemoglobinopathy research that Lewis Couchman in the Toxicology Unit. I was trained on how the research would be done and the machinery that would be used to do the research. I was privileged to team up with Lewis and Havisha a lot during the research process, which worked out well because we all worked very well together.  The main goal we were trying to accomplish through this research was to identify hemoglobin variants in patients blood and we did this through the use of a mass spectrometer. Before we could put the samples into the mass spectrometer to be analyzed the blood had to be broken up into peptides and be diluted. Havisha and I worked together preparing the blood samples to be put into the mass spectrometer. We started by punching out spots from patients blood cards and placed the spots into little tubes. We later added water and an enzyme called Trypsin to dilute the blood and break the hemoglobin proteins up into small peptides. After waiting an hour, we extracted the diluted blood and put it into a solvent that would stop the Trypsin from breaking down the protein, then we diluted the blood one last time. Once the final dilution was made, we placed all of the samples into the mass spectrometer so that it could read the masses of each peptide determining if the peptide was a disease causing peptide or not. Lewis taught us how to interpret the results of the graph that the mass spectrometer was putting out.
The second experience I had at King’s was the use of the Sebia Capillary 2 in the Metabolic Lab. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has teamed up with Metabolic Lab at King’s to preform tests that detect heavy alcohol consumption. I worked with the metabolic team to preform these tests, I was trained on how the process of the test works and how to interpret the results the machine puts out. After a person has been caught for drunk driving, they get their license taken away for about a year and aren't able to get it back unless they pass a lab test saying they haven't had an excessive amount of alcohol in the past week or so. The DVLA sends blood samples to the Metabolic Lab at King's to have these tests done. Once the samples reach King's we do a Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) test to detect any heavy alcohol consumption. To do the CDT test we had to put the samples into a centrifuge to separate the contents of the blood in the test tubes. Once the blood was separated into three parts, we poured some of the plasma into a smaller tube before putting the sample in the Sebia Capillary 2. The Sebia Capillary 2 would analyze the blood and give us a graph and a CDT value, which we would then send back to the DVLA. While carrying out these tests, I learned how to change out solutions and interpret the results that the Sebia Capillary 2 was putting out. Running tests and reading results is very helpful, but it is also very helpful to know how to keep up the maintenance of the machines. I was trained how to correct a problem with the Sebia Capillary 2 if an error report came through the computer, halting the tests going through. If a person doesn’t understand the maintenance, the machine is nearly useless until someone comes to fix it, which in the end can cut into a lot of the time the machine could be using to analyze blood and produce results.

Week 12, Post 1: Prague Munchin'

The last day Kristen and I were in Prague was very good, food wise. We woke up a little late to grab the hotels breakfast, so we headed out to the town to try and find some breakfast. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find a decent breakfast in Prague, for some reason I don't think they value their breakfasts as much as I do. After a good tram ride, we near a street that had a good amount of restaurants on it. We skimmed the menu of all the restaurants up and down the street trying to decide what we wanted. We found a place that had about 4 breakfast items and decided to go in. After ordering tap water but receiving bottled water, we found out that they don't serve breakfast after 11. Psh. So I skimmed the menu looking for something else I might like but I really didn't find anything. As horrible as it was, we decided to get the check for our waters and go to a restaurant down the street. The restaurant down the street was the jackpot let me tell ya! I ordered a hot tea, and a salmon and shrimp pasta, it was delicious. They also brought out some bread to hold is over until the food came. I love that. The whole meal was just so delicious and very inexpensive, like $9 for a fine dining experience! After breakfast/lunch we walked around for a while until we were about to freeze, then we walked into a nice cafe. I don't know how a person can hit the jackpot twice, but we did. At first the cafe was so crowded we could barely walk, we didn't think we would find a seat but we decided to push our luck and order hoping there would be a table open by the time we were done. The cafe had loads of cakes and pastries, along with teas and coffees. I ordered a tea and some cheesecake, then went to find a place to sit. We found a nice little table in the back room that was very cosy. It was almost better than the front room because people weren't smoking in the back. When the lady came to bring our cakes and tea, I was ready to dig it. I prepared my tea making it just the right color while leaving a little room for milk at the top, then as I waited for it to cool I dug into my cheesecake. It was a delicious cheesecake with some type of whipped cream layer on top. It almost had the taste of key lime pie but very slight. I tried not to eat all my cheesecake before I had my first sip of the tea. After I tried my tea, I noticed there was some honey, so I poured it in my tea trying to expand my tea horizons. To my surprise it wasn't too sweet from the honey, it was almost just enough to make the tea a little more enjoyable. We sat at the cafe for a good hour probably just enjoying the tea, the wifi, and each other's company. Then we headed off to explore more of Prague.

Week 11, Post 2: Harry Potter Part 2.

I thought it was very nice of Harry and Ron to go after Hermione when they heard about the Troll and knew she didn't know. I liked Hermione and I thought it was rude of Ron to say she didn't have friends and nobody liked her. It would be hard to be a first year living without your parents and only knowing one other person. I thought it was good that she was out going and tried to talk to them in the beginning. I really think that the boys saving Hermione from the Troll helped their friendship a lot, especially after them not talking for a really long time. Then when Hermione showed her loyalty by lying to get the boys of out trouble, that was cute. I kind of still think that they will all have their differences, but I also think they will grow together and become great friends. I still think Rowling does a great job at describing things as they happen in the story. Sometimes I will read little parts like the troll knocking the sinks off the wall, and think about the movie. I kind of feel like the movie goes off of book very well, although I haven't seen the movie in a long time, I can kind of remember things as they are said in the book.

I really hope to watch the movie after reading the book to see the differences and see if I like the movie or the book better. I keep thinking that the movie did a good job when displaying the game of Quidditch, I don't know how they did it but it does seem like a pretty hard set to make and difficult to make all the characters fly. That would be nice to see in the Harry Potter Studios, the Quidditch field. I would also like to see how they did everything they did. I feel like a lot of it was animation, but they still had to get all of the players in the air and on a broom stick. It seems very difficult to make the movies because of all the abnormal things that happen, like a three headed dog or a troll. I am interested to see what Harry finds out about the trapdoor and hidden item the dogs were guarding.

For some reasons I think the next encounter they have with the dog/s will not be pleasant. Maybe Hermione will return the favor and come in and save Harry and Ron from being attached by the three headed dog. I feel like Harry and Ron are a little mischievous and will go after anything even if it means flirting with disaster. Maybe that's not how they want it to be, but it seems like they are always getting into some sort of trouble. On the bright side, they seem to have good intentions going down the disastrous path, but nobody gets to see that side, they just see Harry and Ron disobeying the rules. Maybe one day try will learn their lesson and try to stay out of trouble, but then again, the story wouldn't be so interesting with out the good intentional rule breaking.

Week 11, Post 1: Crepes in Germany.

Kristen and I were headed to Prague for Easter weekend and we had a 5 hour layover in Düsseldorf Germany so we got to exploring the city. It really wasn't enough time, we didn't get to see everything but it was great for a pit stop. We were trying to get to the city center via train, but the ticket machine wouldn't take either of our cards. So we went on a search for an ATM, but we didn't want to get out much because we were only there for 3 hours max. Anyway, Kristen pulled out some money so that I wouldn't have to, since I have no use for euros after this. We got on the train and headed to the city. When we got there we just explored, saw a nice church and walked down a main store street, where we got some souvenirs. By the time we left the souvenir shop we were right on time to be headed back to the train station to make it to the airport in time, so we started heading that way. We walked by this market that we just couldn't pass up, and saw a lady making crepes. Of course the crepe lady didn't take card, so Kristen paid for it. I got a cinnamon and sugar crepe while she got something more towards the salty side. While she was getting her crepe my cinnamon and sugar started oozing out of the bottom of my crepe without me knowing, and it went all over the counter. Then I took my elbow and laid it right in the melted sugar and cinnamon, smearing it all over my jacket! Luckily, it was the green/blue water proof one, rather than the gray soft to the touch one. After I noticed my cinnamon sugar pouring out of the bottom of my crepe, it was too late. My elbow had been covered and became very sticky and the wind was chilly making the sugar harden on my sleeve. Then, when I lifted up my elbow to try to rub it off, the wind caught my hair and flung it in to the small pile of liquid sugar that was dripping out of the bottom of my crepe.

Anyway, I didn't have time to care really because we had to make it to the train station immediately if we wanted to take a train to the airport. I used a napkin to wipe off most of the stickiness on my sleeve, but I will most definitely have to wash it when I get back to London.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I've put my elbow in something super sticky while being on this side of the world. I think I smooshed a raised with my elbow unknowingly with in the first couple weeks of being in London.

Soo, to wrap this up, we made it to the train station after a 20 minute walk, but then realized that a train wouldn't be going to the airport for another 50 minutes, so we were forced to take a €30 taxi ride. But we made it to the airport on time, which is always a great stress reliever.