2nd assignment - Dublin City University (DCU)

Lighthouse at Howth - a beautiful and peaceful fishery town near Dublin.

A tower at Power House garden near a town called Bray.

So, first week is done and I start getting into my daily routine. The first three days were pretty hectic. There was a day that I had to go to Tesco (like Wal-Mart) three times because oop, I forgot to buy toilet paper, and then oop, I forgot the creme for my coffee. Actually I couldn't find either light creme or half and half creme. So I have had milk with my coffee for that last week and it's good. The first three days here, I was kinda tired, probably because of the jet lag. I went to city centre with a group of new friends in a bus and fell asleep. Some time along the way, the bus stopped abruptly and I bang my head onto the seat before me (yay, so embarrassing). The second day, our program coordinators organized a dinning out, I had exactly 1 and a half glasses of wine and I was so tipsy that I eventually slept in the restaurant for about 15 mins. My third day in Dublin is my first day at work. I was given a big book to read while waiting for my experiment, and I could barely opened my eyes to look at the book. Finaly, my mentor told me I can go home 1 hour early. 

A view of a  street of Dublin from second floor of a double-decked bus.

WORKING

Project: To develop an antibody to cardiac Troponin T protein - the first step to design a chip for diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (I'm being too technical now).

Location: Applied biochem lab at DCU (10 mins from where I live). DCU is a medium-sized university in Ireland, about 12 thousands students with a slight focus on science and performing art. It is quite quiet in the summer since there is no summer school. 

People: The lab itself is very similar to any lab at York except it is a larger group of students ad researchers. There are about 30 people, very nice and friendly, that I am still trying to remember all of their names. 

I work closely with a PhD student and she is a such nice and understanding person. 

LIVING:

I live in an apartment with 3 others. It is 10 min from where I work. We share a kitchen and a living room, but have our own bathroom...YES. 500 Euro a month. 

Everything here is expensive (to Canadian standard). We have Dollar store, they have 2 Euro store here. I bought a USB (cheapest one) for 40 E 

To be continued...