TGIF!

Today was an excellent day. I succesfully woke up early and took the early bus to start an experiment before the seminar this morning, although that meant having Pop Tarts for breakfast again with a mug of hot chocolate. The seminar was very good,definitely one of the best ones I've seen. The student was a 1st year PhD and he just had a natural ability to speak in public. He spoke very loudly and clearly, and I thought his project was very interesting. I just want to kill it like he did when my turn comes. I just have to gain more confidence on the matter. Afterwards I finished my experiment, which sadly didn't turn out so well, and then at 12 there was the journal club. Free pizza was served and the room was filled with students either eager to eat the pizza or excited to hear about new frontiers in science. Probably more the former. Mr. Sears from our lab was the first one up, and I only really understood half of his presentation. He is Anglophone and he was struggling quite a bit for his words, so I hope that doesn't happen to me when I am presenting. Sure, I am a bilingual Francophone, but I have been learning my science in English the past 5 years, so we're pretty much on the same page I think. He was still a good presenter though. The other presentation was on vault particles and that was quite interesting, albeit I have trouble grasping the scientific importance of this particle, as many others seemed to.

Following this morning of presentations, I mostly did some reading and started preparing the lab meeting for next Monday. In the afternoon I got an email from my supervisor concerning an institutional bursary for new students, and he wanted me to apply. I'll give it a shot but I'm afraid my grades from last year won't cut it. The only thing that might help me is my considerable research experience. It would be so good on so many levels if I got this bursary. Maybe, just maybe... I was feeling exhausted after this whole week of experiments and late nights, so I was extremely excited for the weekend to come. I finally left the lab at 4 and headed back home. When I got home at around 4:30, my cat was on my bed just chillin', so I just layed down on my bed a bit to relax. I woke up very well rested... 4 hours later. Oops. By the time I realized what happened it was a bit past 9, so I had a late supper and listened to some music. When I checked my emails I saw that I had one from a girl who found my USB key downtown and wanted to give it back to me! I was ecstatic! I looked for it the whole week and was pretty sure I wouldn't see it again. I can't believe someone went through all the effort of finding my name somewhere through my USB key to give it back to me. She definitely GMH. I had planned to continue reading the textbook chapter this evening, but I am so zoned out from my "nap" that I think I'll just go back to sleep.

Ah que ça fait du bien d'écrire en anglais! Ça me vient tellement plus naturellement!

Valérie