The Beginning of CRISPR

To bring an end to our second week of class, we wrapped up our lab on lake water and began a new lab dealing with CRISPR technology. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, or CRISPR, is a genome editing technology based on the defense system of bacteria. Today, we did not get very far with the lab due to the two hour incubation time required before plating our serial dilutions. During the wait, Crystal and I worked on our lab report together and as soon as the time was up we plated our sample and were allowed to leave. 

Dr. Fineschi introducing us to CRISPR

After class, I headed to dinner with Maria and her housemate, Selina. We remembered today there would actually be dinner provided by the program so we decided to stop by East Commons to get some. This week the university had brought in Mexican food which in my opinion was really good, it was a great break from the same food I eat every day. 

Shortly after heading back to my dorm after dinner, I got a text from Maria asking if anyone wanted to go to Target with her. I decided to go because I needed a few things and I could use some time outside of the dorms. I met up with her and Selina on the second floor and we began walking to Target.

At Target once again

On the way, Maria and I got to know Selina better. I learned she is originally from China but has been studying in the UK for the past three years causing her to have a British accent, which Maria and I found quite intriguing. It was quite fun talking about the differences between American and British English and practicing copying each other’s accents. Because of our interesting discussion, the walk to Target went by extremely fast. 

We spent some time in the store shopping before heading back towards the dorms. On the walk back, it actually began raining but thankfully it stopped not long after it began so we made it to the dorms without getting completely soaked. 

A rainy day in Chicago

The rest of my night was spent in my dorm reviewing some of the material we learned today in class. This is also what most of my weekend will consist of in order to finish my lab report and lab notebook. I also plan to get together with Linnea and Anna to further discuss our project that is due at the end of next week. Although I have plenty of work to do, I also hope to catch up on some sleep and to get to explore more of the city in this last weekend we will spend in Chicago.