Party Preparation

Today was full of excitement. With a bit of our shopping done already, we were itching to finish it all and party! Work went pretty well, just the typical PCRs and gels. Jean also continued to show me bits of the Pulsed-Field procedure. I think I'm supposed to start it next week sometime, so that should be exciting. I almost forgot! I took some pictures of our lab the other
day, so I'll include some of them in the next couple posts.

This is the Molecular Biology Room - PCR and Pulsed-Field

And this is the Dark Room - where we run gels!

Lunch went well enough with Dani and Sarah - we walked to the Subway near the hospital. Dani and I each got footlong subs, and then saved half for dinner. Definitely have to do that again. Mine was chicken tikka - which is a type of Indian chicken. They're really big on Indian food here; curry's everywhere, and they even eat it on chips (fries)! I have a feeling it stems from the time that Britain controlled India, having all the spices shipped back that were readily available to the Irish. I'm not complaining, though. :)

Once we got off work, Dani and I gathered a group of people together to head to the Galway Shopping Centre for groceries for the party. Bryan, Chris, Josh, and Ruth joined us for our walk across the bridge. During our few hour shopping adventure, we made it to Dunnes, Aldi, a toy shop, and Tesco, and happened to get everything on our list. It was a fun time, really. We had to get a cab back home, since we had so many groceries. You should've seen the pile of food in our living room! But then again, we're planning on having a huge get-together for the Fourth, so we'll probably eat it all. Should be a great time.

Speaking of grocery stores, I don't think I've mentioned that bags cost money here. It's an effort to cut down on litter - they charge 15c each! (Actually, I think it's gone up to 22c by now). It seems like a good idea...but it'd never fly in the States! Another interesting thing is that it's a 1 Euro deposit to get a shopping cart; like, you put the coin in and it releases the cart, then when you return it the coin comes out. I don't think that would go over well back home, but I think both would be good ideas.

The rest of the evening I just spent hanging around the house being lazy. It's nice, though. I'm really enjoying my vacation. Fred, my boss from back home, invited me to Portugal with him the other day for the weekend, so I've been frantically searching for flights. I don't think it'll work out, though - too pricey for one weekend. We'll see.

Cheers!