I didn’t expect to do much today since I don’t have a concrete plan of action for my time here yet (the meeting on Wednesday will decide this!), but I was very wrong in thinking that. Since people seem to arrive on the late side, I slept in a bit and got to the lab around 10:30 (FYI it takes only 15 minutes to walk to work). Dr. Balaban gave me the labs latest paper to edit, which was interesting since usually an undergrad would NEVER edit a paper. However, since Russians wrote the paper in English, he wanted me to check for grammar and overall sentence construction. It wasn’t exactly the job I signed on for, but hey, I AM an American and I AM here to help. There were almost no grammatical errors, and only a few awkward sentences; overall, it was written particularly eloquently, but I also never would have guessed it was written by a foreigner.
After editing for an hour or so, it was time for tea. I don’t know if I mentioned this earlier, but Russians LOVE their tea. On Monday I think I probably drank 3 cups of tea, and today I think I had 5. When in doubt, it’s time for a tea/small cookie break.
Anyways, this first tea break turned out to be pretty lengthy since I got chatting with Dr. Balaban and another lab person (I forgot his name). Dr. Balaban was on the phone for awhile, and so I had the opportunity to speak with random-guy in Russian
for quite some time. He asked me all sorts of questions, and I told him why I became interested in neuroscience (the book Incognito), and the discussion evolved into the idea of science in general and how new things still are…. It was really cool and good practice for me since he didn’t want to speak any English (which I was fine with!).
Eventually Dr. Balaban got off the phone, and our conversation turned to Google Translate. As someone who has attempted to learn four other languages, I am well versed in the art of Google Translate: short phrases work fine, but as soon as you get
into metaphors or words that have multiple meanings, there is no use in even trying. It was funny to hear Dr. Balaban speak of that also. We alsooooo talked about the KGB. Apparently, the KGB has always been interested in Dr. Balaban and he has
always resisted them – he really doesn’t like them so it seems. It’s weird that the building is located on the same street as my work/apartment, but I guess since the firm is not technically called “KGB” anymore everything is OK. (Ha. Debatable.) Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I feel safe and I’m not actually worried!
After the long tea break, we were able to start on science things. We began by collecting our rats from the animal room. We took two, and brought them to another room, where they were brought to the guillotine. I was surprised that they didn't anesthetize the rats before cutting their heads off, but then again, neither did the lab I worked at last summer. It's always weird and sad to see just the small rat body (they were only a month old) freaking out without the head after decapitation.... sigh. Anyways, from there their brains were removed, and the hippocampi and cortices were preserved in dishes. The brains were added to buffers, and then they began to culture the cells.
After editing for an hour or so, it was time for tea. I don’t know if I mentioned this earlier, but Russians LOVE their tea. On Monday I think I probably drank 3 cups of tea, and today I think I had 5. When in doubt, it’s time for a tea/small cookie break.
Anyways, this first tea break turned out to be pretty lengthy since I got chatting with Dr. Balaban and another lab person (I forgot his name). Dr. Balaban was on the phone for awhile, and so I had the opportunity to speak with random-guy in Russian
for quite some time. He asked me all sorts of questions, and I told him why I became interested in neuroscience (the book Incognito), and the discussion evolved into the idea of science in general and how new things still are…. It was really cool and good practice for me since he didn’t want to speak any English (which I was fine with!).
Eventually Dr. Balaban got off the phone, and our conversation turned to Google Translate. As someone who has attempted to learn four other languages, I am well versed in the art of Google Translate: short phrases work fine, but as soon as you get
into metaphors or words that have multiple meanings, there is no use in even trying. It was funny to hear Dr. Balaban speak of that also. We alsooooo talked about the KGB. Apparently, the KGB has always been interested in Dr. Balaban and he has
always resisted them – he really doesn’t like them so it seems. It’s weird that the building is located on the same street as my work/apartment, but I guess since the firm is not technically called “KGB” anymore everything is OK. (Ha. Debatable.) Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I feel safe and I’m not actually worried!
After the long tea break, we were able to start on science things. We began by collecting our rats from the animal room. We took two, and brought them to another room, where they were brought to the guillotine. I was surprised that they didn't anesthetize the rats before cutting their heads off, but then again, neither did the lab I worked at last summer. It's always weird and sad to see just the small rat body (they were only a month old) freaking out without the head after decapitation.... sigh. Anyways, from there their brains were removed, and the hippocampi and cortices were preserved in dishes. The brains were added to buffers, and then they began to culture the cells.
During the processes of culturing and immunohistochemistry (what followed cell culturing), I felt incredibly greatful that I was able to work in a neuroscience lab last year IN ENGLISH. Because I had done all these procedures before (and by myself), it didn't seem so scary or intimidating since I knew what to expect and all the equiptment was familiar. Here they even use the same companies for pipetts and reagents and other chemicals.... almost all of the labels were in English and it was obvious that they didn't get their supplies from Russia. I was surprised by this.
Since we started the project so late (around 2pm maybe), we ended up staying there til after 9pm. 11 hours of Russian lab talk is exhausting (especially since I haven't been able to get to sleep before 3am), but I was really happy I stayed the whole time since I was able to participate and talk to the two people I was working with (Peter and Natasha). They're both VERY nice, and towards the end when they could tell I was getting tired, they spoke a bit in English to me. I would have felt so lost if I hadn't worked with Dr. Crocker last summer.... I can't emphasize how happy I am that I have experience.
The night ended by applying antibodies and sticking the mixtures in the -70C fridge for overnight. I think Wednesday will be a short day (hopefully), but Thursday we may be beginning the experiment again so it might be long... we shall see.
One last thing I'd like to say about Russian science words..... when in doubt, if you don't know the word in Russian, say it in English with a Russian accent and 80% of the time, you'll be right. I thought translating words like "resuspend" or "antigen" or "pellet" would require a lot of effort on my part to learn vocabulary, but I was soooooo wrong. To resuspend = ресуспендировать (resuspend-irovat); centrifuge = центрифуга (centrifug-a); antibody = анти боды (anti body). It's so easy! Learning all those words made my day because they all sound so funny in Russian, and that's also when it hit me that I am basicalllllllly living the dream in combining two of my three worlds (ie neuroscience and russian). Now all I need is to find some dance studios and I will be set for life.
The one borderline issue with doing science here is that these people will never actually know me like native English speakers do. When you are conversing in another language, even if you are somewhat proficient, you're never going to be as quick or clever or funny as you are in your native language. This is just an unfortunate reality. Of course, friendships can be made, but they will be different. I suppose it's important to realize this, but not dwell. I am here for two months to live, explore, learn, and take whatever I am able to get out of it. This is doable. Also, I think my language skills are going to improve a lot BECAUSE there are no other native English-speakers here. At Smolny (St. Petersburg abroad), we were surrounded by Russians and we lived with Russian families, but when push came to shove, we always had ~15 other American students to fall back on. That cushion doesn't exist here; moreover, I don't think I need it. Like Crocker's lab, studying abroad was the perfect first step to living in Russia.... but nowwwwwwww....... I don't know, I feel like everything I've ever done is just coming together perfectly.
Hehe. What is life.
That's all for now, folks. More to come later. Sorry these posts are so lengthy; because it's my first week there is a lot to say! Love to all.
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