First Day of Internship
First day of my summer internship was interesting. The atmosphere in an industrial laboratory is a LOT more relaxed (and so much prettier!) than academia, which is quite nice. On the other hand, my future laptop --and the training I'm supposed to do on it-- hasn't come in yet so I just bummed around my laboratory and studied GRE vocabulary like the dork that I was. Apparently I have to use a company laptop, which is REALLY cool, but I'm not allowed to share data from that laptop to the one I have at home, which is probably going to end up being a pain later. :/ I'm too used to the university setting where you can just drag data with you anywhere.
Also, I'm sharing an office with an Associate (Master's degree) from Russia. I couldn't help but grin when I met him 'cause his name was Yakov and he had a strong Russian accent, just like the kid (Chekov) from Star Trek. Also, THIS GUY IS AWESOME. (I'm giving him his own tag 'cause I have a feeling we'll have fun/stupid moments throughout this summer.) We just bonded right then and there 'cause we found out that he was born left-handed and was forced to switch over. I guess Russia and China DO share a lot in common. ^^;
The other interns were nice. I only talked to about five or six of them. Most were graduate students, but NONE of us knew what we were going to do with our lives, which was a huge relief for me to hear. XD We had a funny moment in Orientation today after the presentations were done because all 50-60 of the interns just sat in the auditorium and waited to be picked up by our researchers/managers at the allotted time. It felt SO MUCH like we were in middle school waiting to be picked up by Mom and Dad. Joking, someone was all "Oooh, pick me, pick me!" after some of the researchers came, called out their interns name, and took them away.
When Merck said they were restructuring in March/April, they weren't kidding. O.o; Some of the people I met when I first came for my interview are either laid off or shifted to entirely different departments. The hallway I'm in used to be half diabetes research and half obesity research, but now they've moved all the obesity people to another building and another set of diabetes people is moving in. Half of our lab benches are empty or partially empty due to everyone moving around, so apparently I'll get a choice of whereever I want. :p (They jokingly offered me a whole lab to myself because one lab was entirely moved to another building and they just got up and left.)
Oh man. D: The flight from Brazil to France... My heart just cries for those families. Every time ANY flight goes down I get sudden flashbacks of TWA Flight 800. I don't know why I remember that, I barely understood English when I saw that on TV in 1996 but I was young so it terrified the crap out of me nonetheless. I know you have a much higher chance of dying in an auto accident than in a plane crash, but man. ><; 200+ lives lost at once is never easy to swallow.
Also, I'm sharing an office with an Associate (Master's degree) from Russia. I couldn't help but grin when I met him 'cause his name was Yakov and he had a strong Russian accent, just like the kid (Chekov) from Star Trek. Also, THIS GUY IS AWESOME. (I'm giving him his own tag 'cause I have a feeling we'll have fun/stupid moments throughout this summer.) We just bonded right then and there 'cause we found out that he was born left-handed and was forced to switch over. I guess Russia and China DO share a lot in common. ^^;
The other interns were nice. I only talked to about five or six of them. Most were graduate students, but NONE of us knew what we were going to do with our lives, which was a huge relief for me to hear. XD We had a funny moment in Orientation today after the presentations were done because all 50-60 of the interns just sat in the auditorium and waited to be picked up by our researchers/managers at the allotted time. It felt SO MUCH like we were in middle school waiting to be picked up by Mom and Dad. Joking, someone was all "Oooh, pick me, pick me!" after some of the researchers came, called out their interns name, and took them away.
When Merck said they were restructuring in March/April, they weren't kidding. O.o; Some of the people I met when I first came for my interview are either laid off or shifted to entirely different departments. The hallway I'm in used to be half diabetes research and half obesity research, but now they've moved all the obesity people to another building and another set of diabetes people is moving in. Half of our lab benches are empty or partially empty due to everyone moving around, so apparently I'll get a choice of whereever I want. :p (They jokingly offered me a whole lab to myself because one lab was entirely moved to another building and they just got up and left.)
Oh man. D: The flight from Brazil to France... My heart just cries for those families. Every time ANY flight goes down I get sudden flashbacks of TWA Flight 800. I don't know why I remember that, I barely understood English when I saw that on TV in 1996 but I was young so it terrified the crap out of me nonetheless. I know you have a much higher chance of dying in an auto accident than in a plane crash, but man. ><; 200+ lives lost at once is never easy to swallow.