Back to the Swing of Things

Our day began with a talk on paper writing and presentation in the Microbiology building. I thought it was a decent talk, but way too long-winded: he took 2 1/2 hours. I guess it was good to hear, but I feel like I knew most of it ahead of time. Oh well. After that was done, Sarah, Dani, and I headed back to work. I had almost nothing to do today, except prepare my plugs for Pulsed-Field again. I cut them up and started their digestion, which will go overnight, and I'll run them out tomorrow. Should be grand. Fingers crossed!

After that was done, I spent the remainder of the day researching Integrons, since I'm starting that segment of the PCR soon. I also wrote a little bit on my paper. It's coming along nicely...I just have to actually sit down and do it. Lunch came and went, and eventually all three of us were finished for the day. We headed home, where I spent the afternoon laying in bed and updating my blog.

Soon enough, Dani and I got together and began planning out weekend trips. This weekend, we're going with Josh to Dublin. Next weekend is the big trip to Brussels. After that, we have a week off to write our paper, so Dani, Josh, Marit and I are going to go to Killarney, in Kerry, for two nights and just finish our papers early. That weekend, we're also going to go to Belfast. Planning all my trips out made me realize how little time I truly have here. It's quite strange. It'll be August next week, and that'll make it two months since I've been in Ireland. Time flies so fast! The night ended with an appearance at our neighbors's "Ghost Party 2". Basically, they'd acquired some sheets from Corrib Village and dressed up as ghosts to throw a party. It was quite amusing. I went to bed soon enough, after giving up on getting my internet to function properly. I can't wait to get back to a steady connection!

Alright, so on to the Galway water situation. Since probably around February, Galway's water supply has been contaminated with a type of fungus called Cryptosporidium. When the outbreak first occurred, lots of students and townsfolk got sick and were hospitalized. Since then, everyone's been warned not to drink/consume the water and nobody's gotten sick. However, we have to either drink bottled water or boil the water before we can use it. It's kinda irritating to brush your teeth with a water bottle, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Hopefully they can sort this out soon - I feel bad for the citizens - but the only thing that can effectively kill the Cryptosporidium is UV light...and installing one of those in their water treatment plant is far too costly. Instead, they're looking for an alternative source for water. I'm sure they'll think of something. Well, gotta go to bed, cheers!