НАУКА.

Hey all,

I still haven't caught up with blogging, but I will try to go through the next few days quickly to get back on track. 

After arriving back in Moscow Tuesday morning, all I wanted was to sleep and be alone with my bed and Netflix, but alas, I still had a day's work ahead of me. I arrived around 11am and then Peter, myself, and Katya (the other person I've been working with... Her name is Katya, not Natasha oops) all piled into Peter's car to go to a different institute to work. The institute is another one of the MANY scientific labs in this area, however, it beheld an "ultracentrifuge," which our institute was in need of. Peter's wife also works at this other institute, so we got to meet her as well. It was interesting to see another scientific complex here... they look pretty much the same. (Surprise, surprise. #communism). 

Anyways, we set up camp there, ran samples, put samples into buffers, resuspended things, and ultimately, put the mixtures into the ultracentrifuger for 2 hours. During those two hours, Katya, Peter, and I went to a nice Italian lunch restaurant called "Primavera." The interior walls were replaced with windows, and there were nice views of the city. We ordered pizza, and it was soo yummy since it had lettuce, cheese, tomatos, chicken, etc. It was a confused pizza (since it looked like a salad), but a delicious one. 

We talked about movies, books, driving, neurodegeneration, life in general.... I felt so adult-y. They're both very nice and inviting. I was hesitant to go since I was so tired from the weekend and train, but they were persistant in their invitation, and I'm happy I succumbed. 

The rest of the day was filled with other science things. We aliquoted samples, did minor tasks.... The whole point, though, was to recover ribosomes via ultracentrifugation. Eventually, they want to examine fragmented mRNA, but before that, they need to look at ribosomes (which help to build proteins by joining amino acids together in a polypeptide chain). The ribosomes also create the order of the chain by the direction of mRNA. Ultimately, I suppose what all that means is that they are looking at how proteins and DNA are made, which are linked to ideas of stem cells and cancer. It's hard right now to see the big picture since we have done only a VERY small part of it, but I've tried to get as much as possible. Later on, depending on results, they want to conduct reverse transcription and then amplify results with PCR.... But that could be a long ways away. 

The project also is somehow involved with synaptosomes. I will explain the EXTREMELY shortened version of neurons in order to explain synaptosomes. Within a neuron, there is an axon, cell body, and dendrite. Dendrites typically recieve an action potential (electrical impulse) and propogate this impulse to the cell body and down the axon. The signal typically propogates neurotransmitters (chemicals) which then do a whole bunch of other things. However, before an NT is released, it passed down a lot of neurons. Between each neuron is a synapse, where you will find synaptosomes. Synaptosomes can be obtained via fractioning using density gradient centrifugation. Voo-ah-la! 

So anyways, that's some of the project I've been doing, and some of what I've been working on. We ended the day on Tuesday around 8pm, and Peter drove me back to Butlerova Ulitsa and I went home, happy to settle in at last.

The next day, we began a Western Blot. I've done parts of Western's many many times (specifically staining and blocking, and developing films). I've also done a handful of gel electrophoreses. However, I had never done an entire Western from start to finish. Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to this task. Briefly, a western blot is an analytical technique that identifies specific proteins in a sample. Westerns contain techniques including gel electrophoresis, staining and blocking with antibodies, and then the development of the film. It was fun to do the whole thing start to finish. Hm... I think that's all there is to say about that. I'm getting to do a lot so that's nice. Not much on my own yet, but I'm still feeling out the lay of the land and finding out where things are, etc. Also it's weird because our lab has multiple rooms on multiple floor; everything is very spread out. 

Also between the days Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I watched a few movies (in typical steph-in-russia fashion). These included:

1. "Detachment" -- About teachers (specifically a sub) in an impovished district. At times, melodramatic, but overall loved it. Interesting things (and issues) to think about regarding America's public school system. 

2. "Still Alice" -- Woman 50 year old professor at Columbia who developes Alzheimers. Sad but interesting since I've studied neurodegeneration diseases quite a bit.

3. "Electrick Children" -- 15 year old girl who grows up in a Morman community and believes she became pregnant via rock songs on a newfound cassett tape. Pretty weird but intriguing. 

4. "The Imposter" -- (I watched it Friday morning) SOOOOOO GOOD. Everyone needs to watch this movie. Documentary about a man who impersonates a missing boy.... and everyone seemingly believes him.... Chilling. 

And one last shameless plug for a movie I watched with Alec before leaving for Moscow: Oldboy. Definitely one of the craziest movies I have ever seen. I will never forget it. It's about a man who is imprisoned for 15 years and then suddenly released... and that's all I can say. But you need to watch it!!!!! 

Ok done. I will discuss Friday in the next post. That's all for now folks! Xo. 

Последний день в Петербурге

MONDAY.

(PS can I just say that I REALLY should have written these as I was experiencing them because it is incredibly blah and annoying to have to remember details days later.)

Monday was the day of the dissertation of the doctorate. Dr. Balaban was invited to speak at the event (unclear why) and apparently it's a big deal. He explained that in Russia, people are able to get their PhDs, and THEN they are able to get their doctorates. I'm not sure if America is the same way? But apparently doctorates are very rare and it takes a long time to get one. The culmination of the doctorate occurs in an afternoon of defending your dissertation, after which, distinguished scientists vote on whether the candidate is qualified to receive the doctorate. The whole event runs about 3 hours, and is then followed by a reception. 

We arrived around 12:30pm to the Institute of Physiology on V.O. It seemed as if everyone knew Balaban, but he whispered to me that he barely knew 50%. (He speaks at a lot of conferences and is on a lot of committees, but I think he is usually the one presenting not the one listening). It was a funny comment... tough to be a famous scientist. At 1pm, the dissertation began. People gave some speeches about the candidate, and then the candidate herself presented her findings. She had a powerpoint, which I was thankful for since a lot of the graphs/pictures were in English and I was able to read the Russian better than listen to it. It was all very interesting - she was working on Drosophilia (type of fly) and looking at protein expression. The presentation was ~45 minutes long, and it was then followed by questions from the audience. The questions portion took a long time and it seemed as if they were meant to rifle the candidate up (Balaban said this had happened to him at his dissertation 30 years ago as well). 

After an hour of questions, the rest of the time was dedicated to other people speaking about the candidate and other research they've done. Balaban spoke at this time, as did other people. Eventually, everyone left the room so that the scientists could vote. It turned out that the candidate passed, and then everyone gave her flowers and congratulated her. She looked very excited and happy. 

Everyone proceeded to the lobby, where champagne and snacks/desserts were available.  I hung around Balaban, but also talked with other adults, who were interested in what I was doing here and who I was. I kept throwing in the fact that I had lived in St. Petes for 5 months since everyone seemed to love this fact. Elena (the woman from the boat tour), was also there and we chatted a bit. Remember... everything that's happening always is in Russian. 

Overall the research was interesting, and it was fun to talk to new people. Later on, the rest of the family met us there, and together we left to relax and snack in a garden nearby. Eventually, we headed to a place for dinner. A random guy who I did not know came, and the whole thing became very weird. The guy was dressed in a fancy suit, and barely acknowledged anyone but Balaban. I have no idea what they were talking about because they completely ignored the rest of the table (Olga, 2 girls, myself, and Elena). It felt like the women were decoration for the business meeting of the men. I got super pissed off and felt really weird and gross about the whole thing. We could have done something so much more interesting or fun! I don't want to be a statue, staring at food and not saying a word! Business meetings are fine, but don't let other people sit at the table if you're not even going to look at them. UGH.

Misogyny in Russia at its finest. 

Granted, I don't think it was intended to be perceived that way, but it was. Eventually, Katya, Dasha, and I were able to leave and I showed them how to make fortunes (the papers with colors and numbers written on them). The three of us had a grand old time together, laughing, and talking. For one of the colors, I wrote black (черный) but they thought the "ч" was an "м" and we all started laughing.... Ok it doesn't sound that funny, but it was at the time! I have awful handwriting even in other languages. Oh well.

The tw girls are great and we got along really well. Balaban told me a lot about their history while we were walking to the dissertation about how/where they grew up. Apparently, Olga is an anesthesiologist, and the two girls (after basically being abandoned by the father) were raised primarily by a nanny. Now they all live in Moscow, and the father is out of the picture, and they love Balaban. They're both at tough ages (15 is not fun for anyone), but I think they're good girls at heart. Balaban worries that they're too spoiled (which... maybe they are, I don't know) or that they have bad attitudes.... But I think a lot of this is simply their age. They're smart, inquisitive, and lively -- they'll be fine. 

We had an hour to kill before our train back to Moscow, so we briefly stopped in a mall on Vassilevsky Square. There were a lot of American and other western stores. Dasha particularly (older one) was very into shopping and she wanted to try on all these American clothes.... I definitely sense a fascination with American culture in them. They seemed to look up to me not only because I am older, but simply because I'm an American. Of course, the playing field is evened out whenever I open my mouth, but still. Some shirts had English writing on them, and I helped translate for them. They know a little English but are very scared to speak it. I also taught them the word "flip-flop" which they thought was hilarious (it is indeed). 

At 11pm, we boarded the train and were off. We got into Moscow around 7am and then I went home, exhausted and in need of a shower. I'm so happy I got to go back to St. Petersburg and that I got to know the family. Katya and Dasha also really want to go to a waterpark here with me, and I think we may be doing that this weekend. Such a great trip! Yayyyyyyyy for travels. 

Солнечный Воскресенье

Hi all, I am going to continue describing my travels in St. Petersburg from where I left off. 

On Sunday, we woke up around 9:30am and went downstairs to the cafe for breakfast. There were blini, meats, cheeses, kefir (gross), veggies, etc. There was even broccolli, which is my favorite vegetable but not eaten often here. After eating, we took the metro to Admiraltiskaya and walked towards the ship that would bring us to Peterhoff. It was strange walking around Admiraltiskaya since everything seemed to be as I left it.... which seems obvious.... but for some reason, was striking. 

Eventually, we reached the dock, and after killing 20 minutes with ice cream (how could anyone say no to ice cream?), boarded the boat. Earlier in the trip, Balaban had mentioned to me that Americans are always easy to spot in Russia because they wear sandles/flip flops, and carry a bottle of water around with them. Lo and behold, while standing in line to buy tickets, I spotted such a girl who looked to be American. She was speaking in English to her friend, so I turned to her and asked if she was American. She was, and apparently goes to Lafayette College. Apparently their school recieved some grant to come, so she were able to visit Petersburg with a class. It was a brief interaction, but it made me happy.

The first half of the day, we walked around the estate and throughout the gardens of Peterhoff. Eventually, the girls started to get hungry, and we decided to go to a cafe for lunch. We didn't know where the nearest one was located, so we needed to ask for directions. There were policemen nearby but no one in the family wanted to ask the police! They kept suggesting that someone elseeeee go up to them, etc. It was interesting to see how Russians react to their police. They were joking around, but you could tell that there were elements of intimidation and fear. Police officers seem to have a very strange roll in this country. I noticed that in St. Petersburg, too. 

Eventually Balaban went up to them and asked about a cafe, while everyone else waited farther away. We made our way to the cafe, ate lunch, and then traipsed back to the grand palace, where our tour began. Because we had 30 minutes to spare, I started playing a game on my phone and soon, both the girls were watching. They showed me their games too. It was a nice chunk of time for the three of us to hang out.

Once the clock struck 3:30, we entered the palace. I had only been inside once before, so I was happy to have the chance to see it again. I still think Catherine's palace is more beautiful (both its interior and its estate), but Peterhoff is lovely too. There were rooms of gold, crown rooms, portrait rooms, bedroom, Asian rooms (that threw me off), and so on. The tour was entirely in Russian (duh), but it was good practice to have such an excursion again with more formal language. And even better, since we were wearing headphones, I could simply take out the device if my ears were tired. 

Afterwards, we ran to the boat to catch the last ride back. We arrived back in Petersburg safe, sound, and tired. Olga and Balaban wanted to see Isaac's Cathedral, so we walked around the area for a bit. I didn't feel like being tour guide even though I passed the cathedral and area every day on my way to school. There were a few new cafes on the street, and a Produkty. I remember Mike said that stores open and close all the time.... and in only the few months that have passed, it was obvious that he was right. We decided to try a new cafe for dinner, which was very St. Petersburg-y and hip. I ordered borcht :)))))))))) YUM. During dinner, someone found a post on VKontakte (Russian Facebook) that said, in Russian, "Learn English or you will stay in Russia forever." That was interesting to me -- that people want to come to America... People are intrigued by American culture (I will talk more about this in the next post) and they want to know more. They don't want to stay in Russia. Interesting comments. 

Anyways, at 9pm, there was supposed to be a concert at Palace Square by the Hermitage. We had some time to kill, and Katya/Dasha really wanted to go to this haunted house/maze thing. Guess who else was dragged into it? Those who know me know that I hate roller coasters, scary movies, haunted houses, etc, but because I didn't want to turn down their offer (I'm not in a position to say no to friendship), I obliged and went with them. The maze was scary but not awful -- our screams definitely made the whole thing that much more scary. To be honest, it probably would have been kind of lame with anyone else. But it was fun laughing and grabbing on to each other and screaming in Russian with the two girls. 

At 9:30, we made our way to the Square. There were not as many people present as there were for the 250th year Hermitage celebration, but there were definitely more than during the Xmax Celebration. It was amazing to see the Winter Palace lit up, and to hear and watch live musical and dance performances. I was happy the Balabans got to see the spectacle, since it really shows off how collective/beautiful the city and its people are.  It was also light outside until 11:00pm and even then, there was still a glow of sunshine. 

We trekked back to the hotel soon after it ended, happy to be greeted by warm beds and showers. 

Weeeeee fun day Sundays.

Первый День в Петербурге

Hello! I just got back from my weekend trip to St. Petersburg – there’s so much to say and it’s intimidating to think of the many blog posts ahead of me. THEREFORE, I think I’m going to split everything up day by day.

SO. Friday. I brought all of my stuff for the weekend with me to work so that I would be able to go directly to Balaban's house. Around 6pm, we left the lab together and walked the 15 minutes to his housing, stopping at a grocery store along the way. While walking, we saw and went past lanes upon lanes of traffic; Balaban said it would take almost an hour to get home if we were to take a car. Yikes. 

After getting to the house, Olga (wife) immediately thrust a pair of shoes at me, telling me to "take them, take them!" since the pair on my feet were wet. Russians are obsessed with shoes and having the proper footwear. I will never understand this because I live in flip flops 8 months of the year and am always barefoot at home and in the studio (ie 22 of 24 hours per day). She wanted me try on a lot of different pairs, so of course I obliged, and eventually found a pair that I would wear for most of the weekend...lolz. 

Then we ate dinner...chicken, salad, bread.... and Dr. Balaban introduced me to Сало, which is basically raw bacon with black (rye) bread. It sounds gross, I know. But it wasn't bad! Afterwards you're supposed to drink vodka, but because I was one of the kids this weekend, no vodka for meeeeee. We had salted cucumbers instead. Yum. Balaban also made snail for me! Since he's worked with snails in the lab for 40 years, I think he's grown accustomed to having them around the house. Again, they sound gross, but with garlic butter sauce, nothing tastes too awful. The texture was a little strange, but I'm glad I tried both foods. 

The train was supposed to leave at 11:30, so we were to leave the house at 10, which meant I had an hour or so to chill. While we were eating dinner, the girls (he has two daughters - not biologically his - Dasha (15) and Katya (13)) were watching Mean Girls....WITH RUSSIAN DUBBED OVER VOICES. It was hilarious and I wanted to stay and watch but I had to eat dinner. Maybe I can find it online sometime. It would be a good movie to watch in Russian without subtitles since I've seen it so many times in English and the language is easy. Anyways, after dinner, they had finished watching, so I watched the movie "Home," which is an animated film by DreamWorks and it is THE cutest animated film I've seen in a long time (minus "How to Train Your Dragon," of course). Highly recommend. 

The movie ended, and it was time to go to the train. We took a marshrutka (public taxi..kind of) and the metro in order to get to the overnight train. Now I can say I've been on that overnight train between St. Petersburg and Moscow on three different occasions. Each time has been so different and during such different parts of my life. It's nice returning to old places because it lets you examine growth -- I love re-reading books, and re-watching movies, and going to old places years later because I get something new each time. Perspectives are constantly changing, and for me, movies/books/places reflect that in an obvious way.

Anyways. We -- Balaban, Olga, Katya, Dasha, and I -- finally made it to the overnight train. Each of the rooms consist of two sets of bunks, so I was in a room with the rest of the girls, and Balaban was in the room next-door with random people (presumably). The train ride went smoothly and I fell asleep almost as soon as we started moving. Trains are amazing to sleep on since they have both built-in white noise and movement (like a car). In the morning, we received Kasha and muffins (this was unusual.... I think they ordered it) and then we headed out into the city of St. Petersburg.

Almost as soon as we stepped onto the platform, Balaban exclaimed how “we should all follow Stephanie since she knows the city better than any of us.” HEHE! That made me happy. I know more about something in Russia than actual Russians! I guess I did live there for 6 months. Apparently, the girls had only been there once before when they were little, and Balaban had been only a handful of times. 

Of course they wanted to go to Nevsky Prospekt first, so we made our way there and began our stroll. We walked from Площадь Восстания (Ploshad Vostaniya) to Краса на Крови (Church on Spilt Blood), which is almost the entire length of Nevsky Prospekt (ie 3 miles) TWICE. To say I was tired afterwards would be an understatement. We did, however, get a short break when we stopped for food. I had the most delicious blinchki with apple and raspberry syrup. 

Around 1:30pm, we reached our hotel. I was in a room with Katya and Dasha (a king bed for them and a pull out couch for me), and Balaban/Olga were in a separate room down the hall. The hotel was extremely nice and like any other hotel in America. There was drinking water, shampoo and condition, free wifi, free breakfast in the morning, etc. It was a little removed from the center, but overall I think it was a great deal and situation.

An hour later, we headed out for our boat tour of the canals. This was also my third time on such a tour, HOWEVER, never had I ever taken a detour to an island in the Neva to make Шашлык. But before I get to that, I will go over a few other things first. On the boat were: four Balaban’s, myself, the captain, and a woman from the Institute of Physiology. This woman (Elena) is a friend of the Balabans and it seemed apparent that perhaps she was how Balaban himself got invited to speak at the dissertation (I’ll get to the dissertation in a later post). Anyways, we hit it off. When I told her that I lived in Petersburg for five months, her face immediately lit up and she started talked about the city and everything she’s done, etc. It was great. She was super spunky and we bonded over the fact that St. Petersburg is better than Moscow. Petersburgians are very passionate about their city – I was happy to bring that out in our conversation.

The tour was great, though it wasn’t so much of a tour as it was an excuse to hang out and eat and chat (which I’m always fine with). We had cheese, bread, meats, chocolates, veggies, wine, and more. The conversation was lively, albeit exhausting since it was entirely in Russian. It’s hard to keep up with 5 Russians when they’re all excited and talking fast! But I did my best and kept up well enough. They also got to see the sea-sick side of Stephanie, which was hilarious (not for me) as per usual.  It was fun joking around – though of course Olga was very serious and concerned for my wellbeing. I laughed it off.

About halfway through the tour, we stopped at an island to make shishkabobs. The adults had many toasts with their wine (I was not an adult on this trip) while the girls and I entertained ourselves by roasting the Шашлык. At one point, Balaban turned to me and asked, “What’s the difference between animals and humans?” [Stephanie Side Note: Humans ARE animals…..].  I shrugged my shoulders, and he answered, “We are the only species that creates obstacles for ourselves only to figure out how to overcome them.” I thought this was interesting. We could have easily gone to a house to cook a meal, but instead we decided to go to a deserted island with a few coals and sticks for the meat. Why? We rarely go for the easy route in life, I’ve found. Humans are so strange.  

The Shashleek was delicious, and after eating, it started to rain, so we all hurried back to the boat to head home. We finished the day by stopping at a café for desserts and tea. Elena again made comments about how Petersburg is so much more open and welcoming and “European” than Moscow, and we all chit-chatted for another hour or so. Of course, there were times when I had zero idea what anyone was saying, and of course there were times when I wanted to pull my ears out of my head because they were so tired, but overall, the first day was a huge success and I was very proud of myself for being thrust into this new family and living alongside them being Russian Stephanie 24/7. It is not an easy feat, let me tell you.

In the evening, we all returned to the hotel, and I watched the movie “The Age of Adaline” before going to sleep. The family is so welcoming and inclusive. Balaban at one point also put his arm around me and said something along the lines of, “I’m glad you’re finally here,” or something, and they were saying how I was their “adopted daughter”…. It was all very cute and made me feel safe and happy.

At the end of the day, I ended up calling Alec, and I had a slight breakdown. So much had happened! Even just talking in English without having to think about what I was saying felt so strange that night. Living with a host family abroad was NOT comparable to what this weekend was like. When abroad, of course your classes are in Russian, and you’re living with a host-family, and of course everyone on the street speaks Russian…. But at the end of the day, you have ~15 other Americans to fall back on.

That is NOT true here. I felt that this weekend. I woke up speaking in Russian, and went to sleep speaking in Russian. I wish I could adequately convey how exhausting or frustrating it is to have complex thoughts – or even thoughts on a whim! – and not be quick enough to spit them out, or versed enough to describe them in the way you want to.  People get such a distorted version of myself simply because I can’t express myself as well – let alone as eloquently – as I can in English. This is a sad truth, but one I have already come to accept.

Anyways. I digress. That was day one/two. I’ll post the rest soon!

My best to all.

Пятница

Friday, Friday, Friday.

I've been here a week. Woah. I am 1/8 done with my time here. I only have 87.5% Russia time left. I think these 8 weeks are going to go by very quickly. Anyways, here I am, Friday afternoon, 1:59pm. Peter (boss lab guy of Project 1) left for the day today because he had to do....something....for 4 hours (sigh, translations). Natasha and I are still here, as well as one other girl (who's not working on our project, but is still nice and talkative). I edited more of the paper this morning and will probably go back downstairs to finish it up before the weekend. 

I don't think we're doing much today, which I'm fine with, since it's been pretty go go go since I arrived. I should probably find out when we're leaving for the train. Balaban asked me to pack everything for the weekend so that we could just go to his house after work, and from there, head to the train. It's weird that this will be my third time on this Moscow-St Petersburg overnight transport.... I'll have been on it in so many different contexts and during such different parts of my life. 

Hopefully I can get a bit of reading done on it, since I'm sure I'll be up (per usual) until 2am. Tomorrow I am going to be very tired, but hey, maybe the lack of sleep will help me finally adjust to Moscow time. This was very short, but today is slow. I'm sure my next entry will be long since I'll have a lot to say about the family, Petersburg, seeing things, the train, etc. Hopefully I can do a post in the middle of the weekend..... we shall see. Have a lovely Friday to all!

xo. 

Москва: Нью-Йорк из России

Hey all,

Yesterday (Wednesday), I finally made it to Aшан. Since I had stayed 11 hours the day before at the lab and knew we wouldn't be starting anything til 2pm on Wednesday, I made an executive choice to sleep later and go grocery shopping (it was necessary, trust me). There aren't many Aшан's in Petersburg, but I had heard that they were large and like a Costco, so I asked some people where the best one was located, and that morning, hopped on the metro to Leninsky Prospekt. I was also able to buy a metro card at that time -- the card I bought was for 60 rides at 1400 rubles, which roughly turns out to be 23 rubles per ride, which is ~50 cents. Not bad.

The store was 4 metro stops away in a(nother) mall/cinema/etc complex. It was easy to find, and as soon as I entered, I found myself greeted by a million people and signs saying "скидка" (sales). I had a list with a few items, but of course as soon as I started walking around, I found other things that I had forgotten were here.... there is so much deliciousness! I got a few dinner items, russian gummies, eggs, grechka, chocolate (the kind Roza used to give me!) and more. Unfortunately, I didn't have very long to stay since I had to be back at 2pm for the meeting (or so I thought). I hurried back to my apartment, dropped the groceries off, changed my shoes, and then headed out again. 

When I got to the lab, I realized that they had said 16:00, not 14:00... oops. So, I had tea and talked with people. The discussion evolved into a conversation about books and movies and they asked me what kind of movies I had seen in Russian. In that moment, I was VERY happy that I had just finished two semesters of Soviet and Russian film classes, respectively. I had a lot of say, and they knew and loved most of the movies I had listed. They especially loved ирония судьбы ("Irony of Fate"), which my professor had told us that Russians watch every New Years (and the two lab people said that too!). They also said that they love Breaking Bad and Friends. We all bonded over Friends, it was great. Then one of them said that she didn't understand why it was so bad for friends to have sex, and that she didn't understand why anyone would want to do it with a stranger. I replied that friends who have sex are usually worried that their friendship will disspate. It was an interesting comment -- reflective of the closed Russian mindset towards strangers. She does have a point though.... Americans are weird.  

At 4pm, everyone went downstairs to one of the many large offices to talk about what to do with me. It was very intimidating to have ~15 scientists talk in Russian about you... I didn't say much except for a few words about my background. Since I'm here for only 8 weeks, if I followed only one project, there might not be enough to do or learn. Therefore, I'll have two main projects (two different people) and then maybe bop around depending on if these projects obtain significant results. If there are significant results and if they are ready to publish, then I'll be authored! But if not, then I won't. Either way I think it works out -- to be a coauthor would just be an added bonus. It might be possible since the lab is supposed to turn out 20 papers per year..... you'd think one might be happening in the two months I'm here. We shall see. 

After the meeting, I went back upstairs to the group I've been working with and made some buffers for the experiment today. It was quick and the calculations had already been done so I just had to follow the protocol. 

Earlier in the week, I had contacted a girl from Conn who does Russian with me and who was here studying abroad this semester. We decided to get Georgian food and catch up. It was sooo nice seeing her -- not only because I hadn't seen her in 12 months (we went abroad different semesters) -- but because she was a lovely American piece of home. We chatted about the department, Russia, our experiences abroad, school, life in general... it was all so nice and the food was delicious. We stayed about 2.5 hours, and then left to go our separate ways. She's going back home on Friday.... my oh my how the time goes by... soon we'll all be back for our last year of school....

I got home around 10 and jumped in the shower (per usual), ate some sour Russian gummies, Skyped with Alec, watched Grey's, and went to sleeeeeeep. What a lovely day.

The next morning (this morning), I made eggs! I got to the lab, edited more of that paper, and then we started round 2 of experiments. After decapitating rats (this time under anesthesia), we put their hyppocampi and cortices in buffers, obtained a pellet, centrifuged and resuspended the pellet, and started immunochemistry with blocking and staining. Unfortunately I had to leave around 6pm (experiments were not done at that point) in order to go with Dr. Balaban to register my visa. 

Maybe this is obvious to some, but Moscow is huge. 12 million people live here and the city is spread out. I live on the edge, and it takes forever to get anywhere. It took almost 5 times as long to GET to the visa place than it did to actually obtain the thing. Sigh. Some Americans would say Moscow is the NYC of Russia and that Petersburg is Boston. I've always enjoyed Boston. 

Anyways, after getting the visa (which took all of 10 mins), we headed back onto the metro. I got off at Leninsky Prospekt in order to stop at Aшан to get ingredients for muffins. One of the lab people had made delicious lemon bread, and it inspired me to bake lemon poppyseed muffins. I found all the ingredients necessary minus baking powder/baking soda. I asked 2349230 people and they all pointed me in different directions, and even after 20 minutes of looking, all I could find were little packets of порошок для выпечки (still don't know if that's baking soda or baking powder.... there may not be a difference here). 

I got home around 9:30, and after 3.5 hours of walking and traveling and grocery shopping, was too tired to do anything more than eat food. Soooooo muffins will have to wait until after I return from St. Petersburg (WEEEEE!). 

I'll do a short post about Friday, and then I'll be off to my favorite city in the world! Until then.

Ресуспендировать

HI FRANDS.

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. 

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. 

Работа и так далее

Hey all,

Sunday was my first full day in Moscow, and I spent a lot of it sleeping and getting over jetlag. My room doesn’t get very dark, so I woke up at 6:30am. Seeing that it was much too much of an ungodly hour to be awake, I shifted positions and fell asleep. I didn’t wake up again until 1:30pm. Oops.

I was very thirsty and hungry, so I drank a gallon of water and ate my yogurts while watching Greys and waking up. Around 3pm, I decided to venture out. I walked around my neighborhood and got a feel for the area. There are some Produktys (mini-markets), and some larger grocery stores… nothing major, but I was able to get some dinner and breakfast supplies. There are also a few banks, office buildings, and some haunted buildings (you’ll see what I mean when I post pictures).

Other than exploring the immediate area, first on my list was getting rubles. Luckily I knew from St. Petersburg what banks to use and how to work them so that was a non-issue. Next, I decided to take the long-way to the larger grocery store… I ended up walking in a huge square, but I found the place eventually – it’s in a huge mall/cinema/etc area/complex. Across the way was the old KGB building sooooo apparently I’m living next to the KGB? Lawlz. I got food for the night and the next day, but decided to wait to make a huge run until I could find a Лента or Ашан (bigger stores kind of like a Costco). The grocery store was mostly fine, though I forgot that Russians call everything “meat,” and not by its individual name, so I had to ask someone if what I was holding was indeed chicken. (It was). There was also a weird machine/computer device to deal with fruits and veggies, which I figured out with the help from a few random people.

Making dinner was my next challenge, but overall went well. I made пелмины (pelmini ie dumplings..kinda) and chicken and cut up some cucumbers and tomatoes, and tah-dah! First dinner: success.

I keep telling myself I should get started on watching movies, but unfortunately I started watching Grey's Anatomy before I left for break, and ever since, I've been hooked. I even got Alec and Kristin to start watching (hehe). I will, however, make a shameless plug for the movie "Beginners," which I watched recently -- it completely rocked my world AND it's on Netflix so there is no excuse for not watching it.

In other news, guess who's going to St. Petersburg this weekend...... ME! Dr. Balaban is defending his dissertation at a huge conference on Monday, so we (the family and I) are going Friday night (on the overnight train) to spend the weekend. I'm so excited to return. I don't know how much free time I'll have, and of course I don't want to excuse myself from whatever the family invites me to do, but it would be nice to see Smolny people and to visit Roza (host mother from last semster)... we shall see. 

Anyways, about my first day at work. Dr. Balaban told me to come in around 10am (how leisurely), which I did, albeit with some effort since I couldn't find the right "side stree" (ie allyway) to turn onto, but eventually I made it. I met Dr. Balaban and after giving me my pass to get into the institute, he showed me his office (also mine-ish). The office is quite historical, since it once belonged to Pavlov. (You know, Pavlov's dog). Isn't that insane? I was sitting at the desk of one of the greatest and innovative psychologists of all time! After such an introduction, we sat for a few minutes and then went off to tour the place and meet people.

The lab is not at all what I was picturing. First of all, it is much more applicable to say "institute," since it is set up as one large building with six floors all in individual small rooms/door in halls. It kind of reminds me of a dorm...but a science/Moscow version. Of course, the ceilings are tall and the floors are hardwood in a typical beautiful Russian way. We went around and met many people, but it was hard to keep everyone straight because the labs are not divided so obviously. The lab I'm technically working in (cellular neurobiology of learning) works alongside all other labs, and they all share hallways and rooms. It's difficult to distinguish one lab from the other, though Dr. Balaban told me that I can find our lab rooms by the presence of a picture of a snail outside the door (teehee). Everyone seems really nice and welcoming, and most of the people in our lab are in their late 20s or early 30s.... They seem so old but they're really not. To hear they have PhDs or that they are married shouldn't be surprising because that will probably be me in 10 years. Woah.

Anyways, continuing on. After touring around, it was time for the election. I think I mentioned that the institute was having elections for the new Director (?), and Monday was a day of speeches and voting. I use these words lightly since what proceeded could hardly be counted as a "vote" other than in the most formal/technical sense. At noon, everyone in the institute gathered into the auditorium. A lady said a few words about what was going to happen, and then a young man (the opposition to Dr. Balaban) went to the podium to make a speech. Of course, all the proceedings occurred in Russian, so keep in mind that I don't have 100% of the story. The young man talked a lot about wanting to bring in new young people and that they were important for generating new ideas and for getting grants. He talked about money somewhat, but his main focus seemed to be innovation. This much was obvious even before hearing the speeches since the vote was between a new young inexperienced man, and an older man (Dr. B) who had already been Director for some time and who was backed by Putin himself. Dr. Balaban was also dressed in a suit, while the younger gentleman was in casual dress. In other words, there was an obvious underdog and it seemed apparent that everyone would vote not for someone new, but for the popular choice.

After both candidates spoke, there was an open forum in which anyone in the room was able to speak their opinion about the two gentlemen. In this phase, no one said anything revolutionary, and I was surprised that opinions were allowed to be spoken.... Doesn't that completely sway the audience??? Let the candidates speak, and then let the voters choose for themselves.... why open the floor up to public opinion? Do Americans do that in their voting systems? I have no idea - the whole thing was very weird. Blah politics. 

After the speeches, people left so that votes could be counted. When we returned to the auditorium, it was announced that Balaban had won with 215 votes, while the other guy had only 24. The results were not surprising, but it was interesting to see how Russians deal with elections and this sort of "democracy." It's obvious (and co-workers said this to me), that the vote was simply a formality in order to "keep order." Everyone knew Balaban would win -- there was no competition! Why are people trying to implement democracy when no one believes in it or wants to actually attempt it? I believe these ideas and questions are applicable to much more than just this institute; I see it as a metonymy of Russian government.... trying to conduct elections, but not actually letting voters have a choice...we saw all these same symptoms in the votes regarding Crimea as well! 

People have a choice. But DO they have a choice?

End rant. Afterwards, some people invited me to go to lunch with them. We went to a Stolvaya not far from the Institute, and I had grechka, which is a buckwheat grain kind of like brown rice but so much yummier and healthier. We spoke both in English and in Russian... at that point my brain was getting pretty tired of constant Russian so I was happy for the English interlude. The three others were so appalled that grechka can't easily be found in America. I told them I had never even heard of it before I went abroad to St. Petersburg. Какой кашмар!! People in the lab also invited me to dinner and drinks sometime, which was so nice and made me feel welcome. The people in Crocker's lab never did that... And we were all speaking the same language! (Dr. Crocker was the person I interned with last summer). 

The last hour or so back at the Institute, I wasn't really doing anything, so I decided to start on a to-do/to-see list in Moscow. There is so much here! I'm glad I've already seen some of the more touristy/obvious sights, since there will be no shortage in my 8 weeks here. Around 4pm, I left and decided to go to Red Square. Of course I've been before, but for some reason, I felt I needed its baseline. It took about 30 minutes to get to the center, and unfortunately it cost 50 rubles one way. In Petersburg, the rate was 28 rubles (I think it rose as of Jan 2015), but still. What a difference. I think I need to buy a pass with a lot of rides on it because there is a considerable discount if you do this. 

Anyways, when I finally got to Red Square, I had a smile on my face and immediately was reminded of the past times I've been there. I remember going with Smolny people last year with Alec and Susan and taking pictures as a group..... I was also there as an 11th grader with 2 teachers and 8 other students from my high school. Who would have thought that I would return to this place so many times? Who would have thought that this place -- or rather, what it stands for -- would become so important in my life? I never imagined at 16 that I'd be able to return not once, but twice, merely five years later. So, feeling all that, I walked around, watched people, basked in my tourist-ness, took selfies with the cathedral, and walked through ГУМ (famous shopping center). 

I wanted to go to an Ашан, but at that point, I was very tired from walking and tourist-ing and having my first day at work, so I decided my trip to the grocery store could wait. With that, I headed home, took a bath, made pelmini, and relaxed. Day 1 at work: complete.