I had emailed the professor that I am doing research with about a month ago asking her if she still needed an assistant. I had said that I was considering a neurobiology major and I wanted to experience the life of a research scientist. I guess because of that she wasted no time introducing me to the field: we took a quick tour of her lab and within the first hour I was dissecting rat brains and scanning them with an electron microscope, searching for signs of reaction sites at the synapses between neurons. Maybe she was trying to scare me off. Luckily I'm not squeamish so I managed that task fairly well. Worse was probably being told to read her 50 page research proposal to get all caught up on what's going on. Considering I am a science major, I really don't mind reading this stuff because it's interesting, but my stamina was considerably low yesterday since my baby cousin decided to wake me up by bawling for an hour at 5 AM. I can't remember ever working harder just to hold my eyelids up so that I could pretend to read. Not the best first day on the job.
Thankfully, NYU is conveniently situated right next to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The park is one of my favorite places in the city: there are always street shows, independent musicians and a cappella groups performing, plenty of small food vendors around, and a giant fountain to cool off in. There are also always some eccentric personalities floating around for some engaging conversation. It's definitely a must see downtown! MacDougal and Bleeker streets are both packed with great eateries and interesting shopping sites. The area really made my lunch break worthwhile.
The one down side to interning at a lab for a whole summer is that it requires spending a considerable amount of time inside and it is definitely not the most social setting (I will probably be taking pictures with that electron microscope for at least an hour and a half a day in a dark, refrigerated room. Most likely that microscope is going to be my best friend for the next three months). I really can't wait for Intern Bar to get going. Always something to look forward to on the weekends! It needs to be Friday. Like right now.
-K
Comment by Adil Mahmood on June 5, 2010 at 8:44pm 
Comment by Kathy Ran on June 5, 2010 at 4:20pm 
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